Books I Am Looking Forward To Reading: Part Three
As we reach the middle of October, there have and still are some fantastic book releases to come. Here are a few of the ones I am looking forward to reading…
The first book is Bridget Jones Baby: The Diaries. Now, I have to admit, I was not the biggest fan of Mad About The Boy. There were elements about it that were fine but I didn’t like what happened to Mark Darcy. From what I can gather, this book which was released on 11th October, is more along the story line of the recently released movie (which I am still yet to see.)
Bridget is finally pregnant in this latest novel. It is full of cheesy potatoes, outlandish advice from drunk singletons and smug mothers, scans and childbirth questions. Plus… who’s the father? (Bridget Jones Baby: The Diaries was released on 11th October by Jonathan Cape.)
Lyrebird is the new novel that is due for release by Cecelia Ahern. I love her novels and this one sounds like it is going to be great. In the deep of the woods, a young woman lives alone. She processes an extraordinary 
talent – a gift that has earned her the nickname, Lyrebird.
When Solomon finds Laura’s (great character name. I know, I am a little biased) solitary existence, her life is turned upside down. She’s pulled from her peaceful home to the chaos of Dublin. Solomon is sure the world will embrace Laura but will she feel free to spread her wings or will she feel trapped?
This is due for release by HarperCollins on 3rd November 2016.
The next book I am looking forward to reading is We Were On A Break by Lindsey Kelk (Harper, 6th October.) I now have Ross from Friends in my head screaming “we were on a break.” It makes me want to binge watch Friends.
Liv and Adam have found themselves on opposite sides of a life they had mapped out. What should have been a proposal has now turned into a break. Friends and family think they are crazy. Liv throws herself into her work (she finds animals so much simpler than humans) and Adam tries to get himself out of the hole he has dug himself. The short break gets longer. Can and do they want to find their way back to one another?
by 
Book Review: Learning To Fly by Jane Lambert
Forty-year-old air stewardess Emily Forsyth has everything a woman could wish for: a glamorous, jet-set lifestyle, a designer wardrobe and a dishy pilot of a husband-in-waiting to match. But when he leaves her to ‘find himself’ (forgetting to mention the bit about ‘…a younger girlfriend’), Emily’s perfect world comes crashing down.
Catapulted into a mid-life crisis, she is forced to take stock and make some major changes. She ditches her job and enrols on a drama course in pursuit of her childhood dream, positive that, in no time at all, she’ll be sexily sporting a stethoscope on ‘Holby City’, and her ex will rue the day he dumped her. Wrong! Her chosen path proves to be an obstacle course littered with rejection and financial insecurity.
If she is to survive, she must learn to be happy with less, and develop a selective memory to cope with more than her fair share of humiliating auditions. She tells herself her big break is just around the corner. But is it too late to be chasing dreams?
Learning to Fly is a wonderful debut novel about it never being too late to give yourself a second chance and having faith in yourself.
Quitting her job as a flight attendant, Emily decides to take a leap and fulfil her life long ambitions to be an actress. Things are not always easy for Emily as she tries to navigate the world of agents, other actors and auditions.
Jane Lambert has created a delightful, relatable main character in Emily. There were moments that had me laughing out loud or wanting to turn the page as I wanted to know what happened next. Sometimes, it was both at the same time.
There is a lot of love, warmth and humour in this novel.
It all felt very realistic when it comes to the ups and downs of a life in acting. One minute you’re on top of the world and the next, you’re spending many days in pajamas waiting for the phone to ring.
by Book Release/Extract: Making It Up As I Go Along by Marian Keyes
Making It Up As I Go Along (Notes By A Small Woman) by Marian Keyes has its paperback release today (released by Penguin) and is available in most UK bookshops and online.
Welcome to the magnificent Making It Up as I Go Along – aka the World According to Marian Keyes™ – A bold and brilliant collection of Marian’s hilarious and often heartfelt observations on modern life, love and everything in between.
From a guide to breaking up with your hairdresser to entering the fifties-zone, the joys of her nail varnish museum to singing her way through insomnia, Marian will have you laughing with delight and gasping with recognition throughout – because at the end of the day, each and every one of us is clearly making it up as we go along.
I have reviewed the book below but first, thanks to Marian and Penguin, I am able to share an extract from Making It Up As I Go Along with you. Enjoy….
Writers I Love
May I tell you about what turned out to be one of the happiest days of my entire life? I may? Tanken yew! Well! You know Sali Hughes, the brilliant journalist who writes for the Guardian on a Saturday and the Pool on a Wednesday? And has her own website, salihughesbeauty.com, where she does great videos called ‘In the Bathroom’, where she visits the bathrooms of famous and/or interesting people and discusses their beauty products and skincare and whatnot? Well, I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time because while she really loves all things beauty, she’s entirely honest and reliable and informative. She knows everything.
We first came into contact when I twittered asking people what I should do about the little broken capillaries on my face and everyone told me to email Sali – and she emailed me back immediately, giving me a variety of options and telling me the upsides and downsides of each. And after that we stayed in touch, and even though we hadn’t met in real life I loved her already because she has great sweetness and gentleness coupled with razor-sharp intelligence.
Also, she gives airtime to all kinds of brands, they don’t have to be big names and expensive, so she’s in nobody’s pocket, so I know that what she writes in her columns is genuinely impartial. Also, she’s wonderful for giving exposure to new and emerging brands, which thrills me because I am a divil for ‘New and Exciting’.
And now she’s after writing a book, called Pretty Honest, and it is the ABSOLUTE BEAUTY BIBLE – it covers everything from the very basics, such as identifying your skin type, to how to manage your beauty when you’re going through something awful like cancer, and she demystifies the ‘anti-ageing’ industry, separating out cod science from things that do actually work. (As well as acknowledging that there’s nothing wrong with looking your age – basically she gives you every option.)
Every woman should have this book. Because beauty stuff is a passionate hobby of mine, I thought I knew a bit, but compared to Sali I know nothing and I’ve already consulted the book many times.
So anyway, there I am, living in Dublin and, you know, living a quiet life, seeing my mammy and the Redzers and the Praguers and going for walks with Himself and Posh Kate and Posh Malcolm – when Sali sends me this invitation to a lunch. A foncy lunch – being thrown for her by Bobbi Brown – yes! The make-up brand Bobbi Brown! And I was invited!
There were only twenty people invited and I was one of them – and when I saw the list of the other invitees, didn’t I nearly get sick! They were all writers or journalists that I hold in HUGE regard: India Knight, Jojo Moyes, Sam Baker, Polly Samson, Miranda Sawyer, Hadley Freeman, Lucy Mangan, Maria McErlane, Georgia Garrett, Julia Raeside, Jo Elvin, Camilla Long, Sophie Heawood, Bryony Gordon and Sarah Morgan. Also invited were three amazing women from the Estée Lauder group: Jay Squier, Cheryl Joannides and Anna Bartle.
My immediate impulse was that I couldn’t possibly go, that I didn’t belong, that I wouldn’t fit in, and then I thought, ‘Feck it! I want to go. I’m GOING!’
And this was huge for me because I’ve been mad in the head (MITH) for so long that I’ve had to keep my life very small and safe because it was all that I could cope with. But I realized I was ready to go into a daunting, intimidating situation and try to hold my own.
And off I went. And I really hope you don’t think I’m being a boasty-boaster, I just wanted to let you know that if you’ve suffered from the MITH-ness yourself and you think you’ll always feel terrible, it may not be the case for ever.
I ‘jetted’ in from Dublin – normally, when I travel by air, I simply fly, but because this was so glamorous I ‘jetted’ – and the lunch was upstairs in the private room in Balthazar and I had to scuttle past the welcoming committee to go to the Ladies to do last-minute checks on myself, only to discover that – horrors! – I’d somehow managed to leave Dublin without my comb!
by Review: Collection of Harry Potter Colouring Books
I am Laura, and I am a Potter Head. I will never grow tired of these amazing stories. When I received these wonderful colouring books in the post for review, I was beyond excited. I love an adult colouring book. It’s an activity I’ve liked all my life and find relaxing (and can be for a lot of people especially if you have anxiety or have trouble relaxing.) I have found that people either do love them or hate them but I find colouring books can be really good for wellbeing and mental health.
I received the full size version of The Magical places edition, the compact edition of the Harry Potter colouring book as well as postcard editions. It was hard to decide which one to try first.
The illustrations in these books are beautiful and really capture the greatness of this incredible world. The details within them are great and a wide range of characters and places are represented.
I decided to try the Hogwarts crest first in the postcard edition. What is good about these is that you don’t have to have a good knowledge of the colours. You can choose how you want it to look or simply (as I did) look up an example and copy the colours.
by Review: The Christmas Promise by Sue Moorcroft
Avon, December 2016
I am now a Master Milliner…well, perhaps not, but I know a whole lot more about hat creation than I ever did before. They go on your head. Correct?
Here I am, fresh from having survived the new Sue Moorcroft novel, The Christmas Promise. Don’t get worried, by survived, I mean that Sue’s stories are always emotional roller-coasters, she’s that good.
Lucky enough to obtain an advance copy of this novel, I settled down to immerse myself, knowing that my attention would never be allowed to wander, no chance of skipping even a word here and I wasn’t disappointed.
All wrapped up in a snowy cover, don’t be fooled. Sue is a master of emotions and here, you’re going to be pulled left, right and centre before the conclusion; actually, afterwards too however, you’ll need to read the book for that little Easter egg.
Ava is to a degree, damaged emotionally, as are all good characters and we follow her in a journey of trust, who to trust, how much to trust them, learning to trust herself even. She dislikes Christmas due to her parents attitude to it when she was growing up and now finds herself caught up as the victim of Revenge Porn. Riding to her rescue is Sam. Ah, to have his qualities would be wonderful…I digress. Stumbling into each other, attraction is mutual but Sam is just as traumatised as Ava in his own way and so we watch them bond over his mother’s cancer struggle, Ava’s feelings of perceived guilt over those pictures, getting close but neither feeling able to make that final step that will enable them to become the couple we know they should be.
by Book Club
