Happy World Book Night!

 

Wishing all readers a very happy World Book Night 2021 - here's hoping you all find something new to read and love, it isn't often that you are actually encouraged to drop everything and read but today is for book worms everywhere!

Me?

I'll be dipping into the book specially put together for WBN21 which is free to download as either an eBook or an audio book! 

A seriously entertaining collection of feelgood stories guaranteed to put the smile back on your face written especially by ten bestselling novelists:
 
Jenny Éclair
Mark Watson
Veronica Henry
Eva Verde
Richard Madeley
Katie Fforde
Dorothy Koomson
Vaseem Khan
Helen Lederer
Rachel Hore

From a hilarious race against time to a moment of unexpected eavesdropping, from righting wrongs in rural India to finding joy in unlikely places, these stories are all rich in wit and humour, guaranteed to lift your spirits and warm your heart.

Stories to Make you Smile is a co-commission between The Reading Agency and Specsavers as part of World Book Night 2021.

World Book Night 2021: Thoughts

 

Reading Challenge Complete

Thanks to the third Covid-19 lockdown I have had more time for reading that I anticipated when I started my challenge, I thought that I would be hard pushed to finish the 21 books before the event, especially with other reading projects & non challenge books were taken into consideration.

However the lockdown meant more time at home, and the libraries being closed for a couple of months limited my access to new books a little (although I'm not quite sure that Mr Norfolkbookworm or our postman would agree!).

Reading books for a challenge like this is always interesting and a good way to be taken firmly out of my comfort zone, and this year was full of surprises - who'd have guessed that a book about football and a footballer would have been so interesting to a non-footie fan?

The choice of books overall was interesting. I did get frustrated that the teen appeal novels were both North American in setting - we have some great YA authors here, and in my opinion we should be supporting them more.

I liked the number of non fiction books on the list, and how many books featured short chapters or stories. 

I also liked how varied they were in exploring so many social aspects of life in the UK. I am guessing that the books were mostly picked in advance of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the  resurgence of the #MeToo but so many of the books tied into these themes that I felt I really gained an insight into these issues, but in a very natural way.

I found it interesting that there were some 'harder' books on the list - Shakespeare & Austen are not the easiest of authors to read, and so promoting audio books is great even if they aren't for me - one day I'll grow out of falling asleep as soon as someone reads to me - the bath, book, bed routine has stuck fast!

 A couple of the other books were also quite literary and this is a good reminder that World Book Night is about fostering a love of books - even good readers can get out of the habit and a free book is a good way to kickstart this again.

While on a personal level I was happy that there were no crime novels on the list, I find this a little odd - crime as a genre is incredibly popular in libraries and on the television after all.

Anyway these rambling thoughts are all things that have occurred to me as I've completed the challenge and they really aren't very profound at all!  

In the main I have enjoyed the variety of books and hope that many people discover a new favourite, or have the right book pressed in to their hand at just the right time.

World Book Night 2021: Book Twenty-one

 

To Sir With Love by E R Braithwaite (Vintage Books)

Own eBook

I took quite a gamble leaving this book for my last. I'd read it before many years ago and it is a novel that left a big impression, and even a good twenty years on I could still recall lines from the book. Would a reread tarnish my memories, should I just stick to my 'book shadow' thoughts?

In this case I am really pleased that rereading the book was a pleasure, it was still the incredible book that I remembered. I had forgotten many details but as I read through the book it was a little bit like meeting up with an old friend after many years. I definitely had remembered the big themes.

Although the book is now over 60 years old I was struck by how little has actually changed in the world in so many ways. It is also interesting to think that this book is a contemporary to the setting for the Call the Midwife books, in so many ways the books complement each other and create a window back to the London East End of the 1950s

What Braithwaite has to say about education, racism, gang culture and London is still horribly accurate and in many ways A Dutiful Boy, which is also a World Book Night book this year, is the same story just about more recent times.

I am glad that I left this until last, and I am glad that my challenge did give me the opportunity to reread the book and fall in love with it all over again. 

World Book Night 2021: Book Twenty

 

Reasons to be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe (Penguin)

Own eBook

I have to confess that this is the one title from the 21 books that I had to abandon. I read 20% of it but no more.

I hadn't connected with the characters at all and the dentist setting, including quite graphic details of dental procedures, was just too much for me in light of my own traumatic experiences in the dentist chair.

I think that perhaps if I had liked any of the characters, or had found it at all amusing I might have coped with the setting but it wasn't for me. 

I think I am in a minority here as many do find Stibbe's writing amusing but this one just had to be put down.

World Book Night 2021: Book Eighteen

 

Emma by Jane Austen (Penguin)

Own eBook

I came late to reading books by Jane Austen (and in fact only read Pride and Prejudice after the reimagining treatment it got in Longbourn!) but I have enjoyed them. I did think that Emma was going to be my nemesis however!

I found it very hard going, and none of the characters particularly likeable, but on researching the book I discovered that perhaps this was the point... Austen herself is supposed to have said "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like" 

I am pleased that I stuck with it, and although it took me a long time to get to the end I came away in the end feeling that I had enjoyed the story, just not as much as some of her others. 

It must be said that for a while as I was reading the book all I could think of  was what Mr Woodehouse would have made of the pandemic. He doesn't like socialising that much, is a fan of plain food and enjoys boardgames so lockdown/shielding/social isolation would have been fine for him - especially if he could have had his elder daughter & her family home in the countryside rather than London. However I'm not sure that as a valetudinarian he'd have been in the best mental health for the last year...

Once my mind stopped taking off on these flights of fancy I'm pleased to have read Emma. I realise that as a WBN book this will be in audio form but as I have a bad habit of still falling asleep pretty much instantly to being read to I stuck to the print form for this one. I might even now look out a film or TV adaptation...

World Book Night 2021: Book Seventeen

 The Anxiety Survival Guide by Bridie Gallagher, Sue Knowles, Phoebe McEwen and illustrated by Emmeline Pidgen (Jessica Kingsley Publishers)

Library book

As Norfolk's Libraries start to reopen with a limited service I thought that I really should get round to this book - I borrowed just after Lockdown 2 finished after all!

This book isn't aimed at me at all, it is for young people just leaving school and about to start uni or their new careers. That being said I found it full of interesting facts and case studies and I really liked that there was a real 50/50 split on the number of stories from men and women. It felt very inclusive and friendly to read, so much so that you don't realise how much good advice you are absorbing.

For me there were two big downsides. I loathed the font it was presented in - this to me felt like it was almost dumbing the book down to a tween/early teen level.  The other big downside for me was the title - this is a book that should be handed to every school/college/uni leaver as a positive book and not something that only people who admit they're struggling turn to. It is a guide to coping with life in general not just for people who confess to feeling anxious, more should be made of the sub-title!

I hope that the people who've applied to give this out on World Book Night will hand it to everyone and that it helps to break down more walls that see people trying to carry on regardless,

World Book Night 2021: Book Sixteen

 

The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (Quercus publishing)

eProof

I had the chance to read this in advance format a few months before it was first published and after reading it I couldn't wait to be able to share it with other readers - in fact along with one of the other people who got an advance copy I think we tried pressing copies in to all of our colleagues' hands.

I started this thinking it was going to be another book about a woman breaking up with a long term partner and struggling to make life work in a dream job based in London.

In some ways this is what the book is about, but it turns in to so much more. Rents are expensive in London for those on a low wage so Tiffy and Leon (two strangers) have to share a flat. So far so normal...however it is a one bedroomed flat so they have to share a bed. Luckily Leon works nights and Tiffy in the daytime so they essentially flat share with an invisible person.

Through notes we learn how the two become friends and all about their back stories and this is where things get interesting as there are some incredibly powerful plot strands here and some very serious topics are covered. Unlike We Are All Made of Molecules however these are integral to the plot rather than the devices the story is hung on and (far more importantly) they are handled sensitively and realistically.

I've become a real fan of Beth O'Leary and am eagerly awaiting her third novel to come out. Don't dismiss this book as a story for Millennials or as a mindless romcom - give it a whirl...

World Book Night 2021: Book Thirteen

 

Up in the Attic by Pam Ayres (Ebury)

Own book

I've been dipping in and out of this book for a couple of weeks  and this is how I normally approach poetry books not a reflection on the quality or the ability of this volume to capture my interest.

As is to be expected not every poem in the book is to my taste but certainly enough were to mean that I did read them all and laugh mightily at some of them.

I think my favourite was the series about long haul travel - I recognised every stage of that cycle and it was a way to remember that the pandemic and not being able to travel does have some plus sides!

The one thing I couldn't quite capture with this was Ayres' own voice - she has a great accent and her work does sound best (to my ears at least) when she is reading them and I'd have loved this even more as an audio book.

As a World Book Night introduction to poetry I think it is a brilliant choice and I'm not sure that I will be passing my copy on to family as I initially thought.

World Book Night 2021: Book Eleven

 

Ask A Footballer by James Milner (Quercus)

Own copy (eBook)

I'll confess I nearly put this book off until last from the 2021 WBN list. I had no idea who James Milner was, and I've only watched one football match from start to finish in my entire life. I expected to skim this read and then struggle to write a review.

How wrong I was, and it was a needed lesson about not judging books before you've read them!

It didn't matter that I had no clue who Milner was, or what the rules of football are - in this book Milner answers questions that fans have asked him about life as a footballer and he (for the most part) answers them fully and honestly.

We get to see life on and off the pitch, as well as how fast sport science has changed the thinking on being a top level athlete. From chips and parties post match in 2002 through to tailored menus, superfood smoothies and early bedtimes in 2019 every aspect life seems to have changed

There were questions I glossed over, I don't know anything about football so the techincal questions on matches, positions and results I'll confess to skim reading but the rest was fascinating and really opened my mind to see past the 'celebrity' players to the hard graft that they put in. 

Don't get me wrong I do still think that they are overpaid and over represented in the media but Milner, through this book, and Rashford, through his charity campaigning, have made me think in a more rounded and less biased way about some aspects of the Premier League.

World Book Night 2021: Book Ten

 

A Dutiful Boy by Mohsin Zaidi (Square Peg - a Penguin Random House imprint)

Own copy (eBook)

I saw reviews for this pre-publication and it instantly went on to my 'I want to read this' list and so I am very glad that it has been picked as a World Book Night title as it means I got to it quicker!

This was never going to be an easy read, coming out memoirs rarely are and when the addition of a strong faith is also part of the equation then the book becomes even more layered. This book also added in the pressure of living in an area with many social and economic and so from all these issues I was expecting a heavy read.

I won't lie, at times this book did make for a hard read but it was also full of surprises and joy too. The start of the book, where Mohsin is taking his boyfriend home to meet the family was cleverly stopped at a key point so you aren't sure for the rest of the book what family reaction will be at this occasion and left me with my heart in mouth as I read the rest of the book.

No spoilers as you need to see the story unfold in real (life) time but this book was brilliant and taught me a lot about what life in the UK must be like as an outsider, as well as if you are an outsider in your own family.

World Book Night 2021: Book Nine

 

Good Food for Bad Days by Jack Monroe (Pan Macmillan)

Library eBook

Recipe books are possibly one of the most personal type of book to review - you are either going to love the recipes or you aren't (or they don't work when you try to make them).

I very much liked the idea of a book full of comfort food, that is still quite healthy but for me there weren't any recipes that leapt out as wanting to try.

Unlike some of Monroe's other books not all of these recipes use natural store cupboard ingredients, nor are they all budget dishes, but as cook books are often so expensive that being gifted one of these really could change someone's life.

World Book Night 2021: Book Eight

 

The Pocket Book of Happiness from Trigger Publishing

Own copy

When I ordered myself a copy of this book I wasn't sure what type of book was going to arrive, and I'm afraid that when I opened the parcel and saw what it was my heart sank.

Working in book retail for over a decade has left me with a slight aversion to this type of book - the pocket gift book. They used to clutter the till point and people would  read them in store (often breaking the spine) but not buy them. The very first Black Books episode parodies the genre wonderfully.

There was nothing wrong with this book at all, and it is fun to open it at random just to get a 'quote for the day' but, ironically, it just wasn't a book that made me happy.

Buying an independently published book from an independent bookshop however did make me happy!

World Book Night 2021: Book Six

 

Taking Up Space by Chelsea Kwayke & Ore Ogunbiyi (Random House)

eBook

This made a great next read after I Will Not Be Erased even though this came about accidentally.

It is another collection of essays and memories by women and non-binary people of colour but this time all about their experiences at university.

It is more academic than the other books I've read so far for World Book Night but was still highly readable. Again there were aspects of the experiences recounted in the book that I recognised, simply from being female and having gone to university but this was truly eye opening.

After a summer reading and learning more about racism in the UK as the Black Lives Matters campaigns grew I was none the less horrified at just how much institutionalised racism exists, and also just how easy it is to put everyone into the BAME category and assume everyone wants the same things.

Not an easy read in either style or subject but if you've enjoyed novels like Girl, Woman, Other or The Vanishing Half or Why I am no longer talking to white people about race by Reni Eddo-Lodge then I definitely recommend this.

World Book Night 2021: Book Five

 "I will not be erased" Edited by gal-dem (Walker Books)

Borrowed from the library eBook catalogue

A book that I really doesn't see me as the target reader but one that I loved never the less.

This is another essay collection but this time written by women and non binary authors of colour. Most start with the authors writing to their younger selves about an incident from their childhood.

The essays cover all types of topics, some are universal to many of our adolescent memories and others are far more specific to being non-white in our society. Some are funny, some shocking and some incredibly moving but there wasn't one that I wanted to skip over which is pretty incredible.

I really don't think that I've come across a book that I think should be handed to every high school student - regardless of gender or colour - for a long time.

The message of the book really is that it will get better, you are perfect as you are and no, your school days really aren't necessarily the best time of your life.

World Book Night 2021: Book Four

 

Faking Friends by Jane Fallon (Penguin)

Borrowed from the library eBook catologue

The colder weather and lockdown rules are helping me to power through my personal World Book Night challenge and my 4th read was a more traditional novel.

This was a read that would definitely sit quite happily under the chick-lit banner but this is to do it a little bit of a disservice. While the characters are just fit into the end of Gen X age wise much of the plot revolves around problems experienced by Millennials which could mean a wide appeal or a book that falls through the cracks.

For me the plot was fun and definitely a new take on the revenge comedy and for once a book where the peripheral cast was as well written as the main protagonists. That's not to say I liked them all, even the ones I was supposed to, but I did believe in them completely.

The book felt a little overlong, the start was fast paced and a real page turner and then the final third returned to this style so I am glad that I didn't abandon the book. The middle however felt a little too slow and explain-y (for want of a better word), it gave lots of back story but for me I found it dull and not really necessary to the main story.

Unless I am reading for review purposes this is the sort of book I usually treat myself to when I am on holiday and I think that if I'd been on a sun lounger somewhere warm I might feel more warmly towards this one but in the depths of a miserable winter it didn't quite give me the escapism I wanted.

World Book Night 2021: Book Three

 

Common People ed. Kit de Waal (Unbound)

Borrowed from the library's eBook collection

Another genre of books I've been increasingly keen to see in promotions such as World Book Night / Quick Reads is one that includes anthologies of short stories or essays. A book that you can dip in and out of, a genre that leaves you feeling accomplished as you can read a whole story easily or in limited time.

I enjoyed a lot of the pieces in this book, but like most anthologies not every entry was for more but by the end well over three quarters of the entries appealed which is a pretty good hit rate.

I'm still not 100% sure if the entries are autobiographical, observations or short stories but this didn't matter as they are all well written and 'lived' as I read them. I'm not sure I'd have found this book with out WBN21 and my challenge but I am very glad that I did.

World Book Night 2021:Book Two

 

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (Penguin)

Borrowed from the library eBook collection

This was a fun teen read that is all about acceptance and coming to terms with who you are. There are some great one liners in the book and without being didactic or pushy Albertalli makes a lot of good points about equality.

It was a quick read but I am wondering how memorable it is (the library catalogue reminded me that I'd borrowed and read the book in 2017 - pre brain haemorrhage) but I couldn't remember a thing about it).

My other minor gripe is that it is American - I know that there are some great British writers out there covering similar topics and I'd love for them to have been highlighted by WBN. It also means that some of the issues and themes of the book have less links to the UK and thus their message can be diluted or dismissed more easily (but incorrectly) as being 'not something that would happen here.'

Oh dear - I'm only two books in to this challenge and both books have been disappointing in one way or another!

World Book Night 2021: Book One

 

The Kindness Method by Shahroo Izadi (Pan Macmillan)

Borrowed from the library

I'm not saying I am a sucker for marketing but it did seem right to start this challenge with a book that would fit into the traditional "New Year, New You' book promotions.

I have to say that this one really wasn't for me, I do occasionally borrow books like this from the library looking for hints or tips on how to make alterations in my life (and usually forget them pretty much instantly) but in this book I didn't find anything that resonated with me at all. Possibly because it is a book you need to work through slowly and annotate as you go and that isn't something you can do in a library book!

As I've long been vocal in saying that schemes like World Book Night and Quick Reads need more non-fiction options I do feel bad in finding this one so disappointing but not every book can be for everyone so on to the next book...