REVIEW: The Guilty Feminist by Deborah Francis-White

Like with any new thing that emerged anytime after 2010, I wasn’t immediately taken with podcasts. In fact, I think it’s only in the last month or so, or if I’ve being honest, the last few days, that I’ve become a podcast convert. Naturally that means I have been gorging obsessively on The High Low and The Guilt Feminist.

BOOKISH FINDS:

I’ve been on a teeny book buying spree this month, which I probably shouldn’t have. To be fair they have been spontaneous, spur of the moment purchases so I don’t think I can be entirely to blame. Surprisingly, I’ve picked up quite a lot of non-fiction books. It’s a bit unusual for me but I’m trying to read more outside my comfort zone, and I’ve been surprised how much I’ve enjoyed the books I have read recently.

REVIEWS: I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell

Never has the past been more present that in Maggie O’Farrell’s captivating memoir I Am, I Am, I Am. Time can erase the sense of immediacy, but from the opening I was engrossed, more than that. I felt a jolt of fear, I was apprehensive, and for a brief second I forgot that I was reading a memoir. Surely that first encounter with death was more at home in a thriller, or the opening of a dark crime novel, surely that sort of thing didn’t happen in real life. It’s not a spoiler to say that O’Farrell survives the ordeal, and the next and the next, but for that fraction of a second I wondered whether she would.

BOOKISH FINDS: The Charity Shelf

One of the things I love about my internship is that I’m constantly surrounded by books. There are shelves everywhere I look, and on those shelves are stories that I would really love to read. The other thing is that I’m surrounded by people who love books and are generous with them too. We have a charity shelf in the lobby of the building where people leave books once they’ve finished them for other people to enjoy. It’s a great system, and I’ve picked up some books I’ve wanted to read in for a while:

• Lion by Saroo Brierley
• What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell

READING LISTS: 10 Non-Fiction Books To Read

Fiction has always been my forte. I like being pulled out of the world and into another, but the truth is non-ficion can do that too. There are hundreds of topics on which I know nothing about, countries I’ve never visited, experiences I’ve never had, and all those discoveries can be found in non-fiction too. I recently read Jenny Lawson’s Furiously Happy and Amy Poehler’s Yes Please and they pulled me across the Atlantic, I was tucked up under the blankets with Lawson, joining in her racoon rodeo and on the set of SNL with Poehler. Non-fiction can tell you a story, and tell you more about yourself. So, inspired by reading these two fantastic books I’ve picked out 10 more non-fiction books that I would like to read.