Hello strangers! I’ve been so caught up with planning for my theatre tour (not so subtle plug, sorry) that I’ve totally neglected book reviews despite having read some utter delights recently. Today though, that changes!

Every year I do my literary round up and every year it sparks off lovely conversations - whether that be with fellow fans of similar books or those that use this list as a jumping off point for their next read. If you’re in the latter camp I’ve included some categorisation/genre information for each book which might make finding what you’re looking for a bit easier.

AJ Pearce’s Dear Mrs Bird was one of my favourite reads of 2019. The tone is wonderfully WW2-era British jolly hockey sticks, it takes a fun look behind the scenes of an agony aunt page at a fictional women’s magazine before shifting delicately into a darker, sadder reality of war.

For a couple of years now I’ve heard people gushing over Sally Rooney novels, obsessing over the BBC adaptation of Normal People, and getting into tit-for-tat arguments over whether her books deserve the celebrity status they’ve been afforded. Whatever people believe, they tend to have pretty strong feelings on Rooney’s writing.

I usually can’t wait to put together my reading wrap ups at the end of each month but for the last few months, around May onwards, I’ve had an absolutely terrible few months reading wise.

Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss is not a book that has arrived quietly. Although Mason herself says she wrote it pretty much in secret, it has been received with enthusiasm from reviewers and fellow authors to the extent that, despite a self-imposed book buying ban and a general dislike for heavier, more expensive hardbacks, I was desperate to read it.

As soon as I read the blurb for My Dark Vanessa I knew it was my kind of book and I was 100% correct. Slipping between present day (well 2017) and various points in the past, the novel explores the relationship between Vanessa and English teacher Jacob Strane which begins when she's his 15-year-old student.

Although there’s no need to play favourites, in my January reading wrap up I popped this multi-generational family saga in the number one spot and I have to admit it’s still standing strong two months on.

If I were writing in the before times the blog would be chock a block with theatre trips or stand-up comedy nights.

Right. It may have felt like it lasted forever but January is finally over! It has been…okay!

Ooooh this book! I’m going to be so careful how I review this because I really loved launching into this novel with a fairly limited idea of what to expect within the pages.

It wasn’t until Stephen King published his non-fiction work On Writing that it occurred to me to read some of his fiction.

Everything I read in 2020!

2020 has brought a lot of novelty to peoples’ lives, both good and bad. So far I’ve tried writing a novel, starting (and frequently rejecting) new exercise regimes, making short videos of my dog just trying to live her life and have created projects with sub-par results in both embroidery and knitting.

It must be almost impossible for anyone with even a passing interest in books not to be aware of Candice Carty-William’s Queenie. When it came out back in March 2019 it appeared in the windows of Waterstones in an eye catching display, the cover art printed in four different colours: pink, blue, minty green and orange. I, like many other book obsessives loved it, and had no idea which one to buy.

OK, first up, I have to admit that I’m probably the ideal reader for this novel.

Ever since reading Araminta Hall’s previous novel Our Kind of Cruelty, which I thought was a perfect psychological thriller, I’ve been eagerly awaiting her next offering. Here it is, Imperfect Women, a novel told from the viewpoints of its three protaganists: Eleanor, Mary and Nancy, our imperfect women.

I hate to admit it but I’m a sucker for all the cutesy merch that’s generally created nowadays around a movement. Whether it’s feminism, veganism or literature I’m constantly having to stop myself from being wooed into buying some tokenistic symbol that apparently represents my belief system.

It doesn’t matter how many books I buy for myself (and believe me it’s a lot), someone else gifting you a novel will often be the push you need to try something new.

Released during lockdown, Exciting Times was a book whose cover I kept seeing but it wasn’t really on my radar and I knew nothing whatsoever about it. I finally read it when a friend listed it as one of their top reads and I spent the first few chapters trying to work out if I loved it or was deeply irritated. In the end the love won out.