Book-Mad-Mum

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman My rating: 5 of 5 stars Wow! This book rocked me to the core! I got it as a Christmas present, and have been itching to read it since. I’m a member of an online book club, and everyone there was absolutely raving about it and they weren’t wrong! Eleanor Oliphant is quirky (think Roy Cropper from Coronation Street). She lives alone, dresses in a dowdy fashion, has worked in the same job in a finance office for all of her life, and she has no social skills. She is one of life’s loners, and every Friday evening, on her way home from work, she buys enough vodka to see her through the weekend until Monday morning comes along. One day a set of events changes Eleanor, and the way she looks at life, and puts her on a different path. To begin with, I wasn’t sure about her! I struggled with the first 40 pages and didn’t actually like Eleanor as a character. I took her brashness personally until I realised th...

Anna: One Love, Two Stories by Amanda Prowse My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have read loads of Amanda Prowse’s books now and would call myself a massive fan of her writing. I always joke that I think she has my house bugged with hidden cameras because I can relate to her books in some way or another, and that has happened yet again in this book. Anna lives with her Mum and older brother Joe in Honor Oak Park, South London, and although the family are poor, Anna and her mum are happy, older sibling Joe struggles with life and his drug addiction. Anna simply idolises Joe, and one afternoon she plans her wedding to him, lining up her cuddly toys as wedding guests, and with a pillowcase on her head to act as a veil, she proudly tells her mum that they will have two children Fifi and Fox. But after one row too many for Joe’s liking, he leaves and Anna is left with her mum. When Anna was nine and at school one day, she was taken to the Headteachers office where...

Letters to My Daughters: A mother's love always lights the way home by Emma Hannigan My rating: 5 of 5 stars I purchased this book when I heard the terrible news that Emma's long fought battle with cancer was coming to an end, and I was in the middle of another book when I heard the news that she had passed away, and so I put that book  down, and started this as a tribute to a wonderful, young courageous woman. Letters To My Daughters tells the story of Martha and Jim and their daughters Beatrice, Jeannie and Rose. Martha, a midwife, and Jim who ran his own interior design business in Dublin, retire to Connemara for a quieter life. The girls were bought up by Nanny May as Martha's job as a busy community midwife was very important to her, often more important than her own children. During  their childhood, Nanny May became an integral part of the girl's lives, giving cuddles and showering them with love when they fell over and grazed knees, to prepar...

The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell My rating: 5 of 5 stars Shaun Bythell owns a second-hand bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland. The shop is one of the largest second-hand book shops, and they also hold an annual book festival which is the highlight of Wigtown’s calendar! In his book, Shaun gives us a written commentary on what its like to own and run a bookshop, and if like me, you thought that meant engaging with people similar to yourself, and reading loads of books, then think again!! One of the most surprising thing I learnt whilst reading this book was that Shaun says that he reads fewer books now than he ever did before he owned the shop. We are introduced to some lovely characters who I felt a great deal of fondness for. Eccentric, ski suit wearing employee Nicky who delves in the Morrisons skips for treats for “Foodie Friday”, and Sandy the tattooed pagan who trades carved walking sticks in exchange for books on Celtic Mythology. At first ...

Well, if you're reading this perhaps you've now developed cabin fever? I always said to my other half that I could quite happily live in a log cabin in a forest  in the middle of nowhere as long as I had  himself, our dog, my son, (notice the dog came ahead of the teenage son in the list - that's teenagers for you!) my Kindle, wifi,  and an endless supply of coffee and perhaps wine?! Well, this week that dream has been tested to the limits and I can now safely say that the first thing I'd do to keep warm is burn that bloody log cabin down!!!  I 've only been out of the house once all week, and that was yesterday to accompany the other half to a doctors appointment, and it was so bloomin' cold that I proclaimed that I'm not going out again until it's spring!! So it could be some time!!  I've got rubbish piling up in the kitchen, as even going out to the bins involves putting on thermals, three jumpers, two pairs of socks, hat, scarf, coat, gloves...