It has been a LONG ol' time since I've shared anything book related on here but it turns out having two children will impact how much time you have to read after all. In the midst of nappies, teething and nap times I completely lost all desire to read, anything I did pick up didn't capture my attention enough and I found myself needlessly scrolling to just escape real life instead.
I finished 2022 having read 26 books which is personally my lowest read year for a long time but I have a new outlook for this year, I have a pretty impressive TBR pile and I'm determined to find my reading groove again this year.
With Christmas and my birthday right on top of one another, I came away with a new pile of books to read so I'm gonna give a quick rundown of what I'll be reading over the next few weeks.
84 Charing Cross Road by Helena Hanff
First published in 1970, this book brings together twenty years of correspondence between Helene Hanff, a freelance writer living in New York City, and a used-book dealer in London. Through the years, though never meeting and separated both geographically and culturally, they share a winsome, sentimental friendship based on their common love for books. Their relationship, captured so acutely in these letters, is one that will grab your heart and not let go.
Let It Rain Coffee by Angie Cruz
My second book by Angie Cruz, this is written with humour, passion, and intensity as she reveals the proud members of the Colón family and the dreams, love, and heartbreak that bind them to their past and the future. Esperanza risked her life fleeing the Dominican Republic for the glittering dream she saw on television, but years later she is still stuck in a cramped tenement with her husband, Santo, and their two children, Bobby and Dallas. She works as a home aide and, at night, hides unopened bills from the credit card company where Santo won't find them when he returns from driving his livery cab.
Let It Rain Coffee is a sweeping novel about love, loss, family, and the elusive nature of memory and desire.
Home Front by Kristin Hannah
In this powerhouse of a novel, Kristin Hannah explores the intimate landscape of a troubled marriage with this provocative and timely portrait of a husband and wife, in love and at war. As a mother, it agonizes Jolene to leave her family, but as a soldier, she has always understood the true meaning of duty. In her letters home, she paints a rose-coloured version of her life on the front lines, shielding her family from the truth. But war will change Jolene in ways that none of them could have foreseen.
At the height of the Holocaust twenty-five young inmates of the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, mainly Jewish women and girls were selected to design, cut, and sew beautiful fashions for elite Nazi women in a dedicated salon. It was work that they hoped would spare them from the gas chambers. A powerful chronicle of the women who used their sewing skills to survive the Holocaust, stitching beautiful clothes at an extraordinary fashion workshop created within one of the most notorious WWII death camps.
Parenting Hell by Josh Widdicombe & Rob Beckett
The madness, absurdity, and utter chaos of being a parent from comedians Rob Beckett & Josh Widdicombe, hosts of the No.1 smash hit podcast. If you know the podcast then you can pretty much guess what this book entails. I've already read it and absolutely adored it!
Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola
Sharp-tongued (and secretly soft-hearted) Kiki Banjo has just made a huge mistake. As an expert in relationship evasion and the host of the popular student radio show Brown Sugar, she’s made it her mission to make sure the women of the African-Caribbean Society at Whitewell University do not fall into the mess of 'situationships', players, and heartbreak. But when the Queen of the Unbothered kisses Malakai Korede, the guy she just publicly denounced as 'The Wastemen of Whitewell,' in front of every Blackwellian on campus, she finds her show on the brink.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. But like science, life is unpredictable. This is when a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. I'm reading this at the moment and really enjoying it - can't wait to share my thoughts!
What are you reading at the moment?
