reading list

Hellooo! Bit of a book nerd post today... It's still raining and wet and i'm still bored and horribly depressed at being back home in Leicester without a job or friends living in a reasonable distance to this stupid village. I've been reading quite a lot due to circumstance recently. I don't normally read much, but i'm actually really enjoying getting back into it. It kicked off again when I found myself in Leeds for the final 2 weeks on my own, then I carried it on whilst on holiday sitting around on sun loungers or on the beach all day and now i'm back home and at a bit of a loose end again so theres been plenty of time to read here too. Here's what i've been reading...

The Time of my Life - Cecelia Ahern

I mentioned I was reading this in a previous post. I actually really enjoyed it! As I already mentioned, P.S I love you is one of my favourite books, the film was so so disappointing to watch after I read the book. It took a while to get into The Time of my Life. I normally like a pretty realistic novel where you can actually imagine what's happening to the people and Ahern takes a bit of a metaphor quite far in this book as the main character actually meets her "Life" as a man who she then has to work with towards making him better - through making her actual life better. It sounds strange but I actually got really into the quirky work colleague characters and her past relationship. I really like the way Ahern builds characters and makes you really get into it. Fully recommend it, as long as you work past the initial weird metaphor situation.

Summer with my Sister - Lucy Diamond

This is the first of two books I bought for reading on my holiday. I accidentally ended up reading most of this up in Leeds before I went so I only had a few last pages to read by the pool but it enjoyed it. It's a more realistic novel about two estranged sisters brought together through the loss of a job. It covers the whole difference between a fast paced and cold lifestyle in a city to the friendly lifestyle of living in a countryside village. I didn't find I cared as much about the characters as I did with an Ahern novel, but I still really wanted to find out how it would all tie together. Without giving too much away, it had a really unusual and sad family secret that brought them together.

Rosie Hopkin's Sweet Shop of Dreams - Jenny Colgan

This was my main holiday read and if i'm really honest, throughout probably the first 2 thirds of the book I was reading it out of having to, rather than wanting to as i'd already read my other book. It's set in a Derbyshire village which are near Leicestershire and I felt the whole thing went a bit overboard with over romanticising life in a rural village and was all a bit ridiculous. But then I did get into how it would all pan out and whether Rosie would stay in the village and take on the sweet shop permanently or whether she'd go back to her London lifestyle (accidental similar theme going on in my holiday reads.) The best part of the novel was the links back to her Great Aunt's romance during the war in the 1940's, which were more suited to Colgan's over imagination I think rather than modern day village life. This last passage in the book though was really good:

"People think love should be popping candy; always surprising and exciting and fresh to the mouth. Or like dark chocolate; mysterious and adult and bitter. Or the tough candy shell of a Minstrel, waiting to be cracked; the friable crumbling burst of a honeycombe; spiky as peanut brittle; as painful as a shard shard of toffee.

I feel like love is caramel. Sweet and fragrant; always welcome. It is the gentle golden colour of a settling harvest sun, the warmth of a squeezed embrace; the easy melting of two souls into one and a taste that lingers even when everything else has melted away. Once tasted, it is never forgotten." - Jenny Colgan

Fifty Shades of Grey - E L James

Now I have finally given in to the big book hype going on at the moment. I borrowed this off Hicks (soz name and shame!) after she read it on holiday. I've only read the first few chapters and so far its not too racy at all, although i've heard it gets a lot worse. I first heard about it from my mum and then I felt embarrassed going to buy it after she was gossiping about it, saying its meant to be really graphic, but I can't not join the hype, I want to know what all the fuss is about. I think she thought I was a bit mental for telling her I was reading it last night, awkward... Haha, i'll let you know how it goes!

So thats my little fiction update. Sorry, full on nerd post today. If any blog readers have any recommendations for my next read, give me a shout!

Lots of fictional love,

Becca xx