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elouisedouglas
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
This book takes the reality that God can speak to us in any place, and puts it into action.
Each chapter is written from a different location – a Costa coffee, a pub, on the sofa watching Eastenders, and uses that situation to put a particular verse from the Bible into context.
Each chapter starts with a little introduction – always Sister Elizabeth talking to you and her little doggy. Then we dig into a Bible verse before she bids us farewell until the next time we meet.
I think a fun experiment would have been to read each chapter in the actual location that it’s written for, but sadly I didn’t have that luxury – instead I read it a chapter each night before bed. It was a great book to be split into chunks and read that way instead of all-through.
I love the informal style combined with the knowledge put into each of the mini Bible studies – I learnt a lot but it was also fun and enjoyable. I’d definitely recommend this book!
I have been wanting to read this book for years, having heard so much about it, it’s such an iconic book in baseball history.
Unfortunately, the first part of the book is filled with casual racism and extremely creepy behaviour towards women that would definitely get you arrested nowadays.
If I was reading the book, I may well have been able to get past it as a historical thing, but I was listening to the audio book narrated by the author and to hear him laughing as he talks about the way they used to spy on women who thought they were safe in their own hotel rooms just freaked me out, I couldn’t bear it.
So I’m DNF’ing this book for now, and if I come back to it later it’ll definitely be in printed form.
Unfortunately, the first part of the book is filled with casual racism and extremely creepy behaviour towards women that would definitely get you arrested nowadays.
If I was reading the book, I may well have been able to get past it as a historical thing, but I was listening to the audio book narrated by the author and to hear him laughing as he talks about the way they used to spy on women who thought they were safe in their own hotel rooms just freaked me out, I couldn’t bear it.
So I’m DNF’ing this book for now, and if I come back to it later it’ll definitely be in printed form.
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So Annie’s life is not going too well. She arrives at her own wedding to be told that her husband-to-be is not there. And he hasn’t even had the bravery to tell her himself, he’s texted the wedding planner and disappeared.
Understandably, Annie falls apart a bit. But when she signs up for a local gym to get herself back together, she bumps into an old friend Paddy and he seems to really make her smile again.
Annie’s ex-future-in-laws are just as disgusted with Alexander’s behaviour as Annie is, and they insist that Annie goes on her honeymoon anyway. On a spur of the moment impulse, she decides to take Paddy with her. Completely no-strings-attached, just two friends enjoying a holiday together. They even come up with a code word for when they want to spend time alone without hurting each other’s feelings.
But it turns out that the holiday was slightly fancier than Annie expected. From the business class flights, to the personal drivers, to the amazing suites – it’s basically everything you need to help you fall in love.
And as much as Annie and Paddy want to deny it, they’re falling in love. Of course the path of true love never did run smooth and they run into some hurdles along the way!
I just loved seeing their relationship grow, and all in the beautiful Australian back-drop with all the fanciness provided by Annie’s almost in-laws.
I won’t say anymore because I don’t want to give away any big spoilers, but I will say that I really loved this book. The last book I read by this author (The Love Square), I just didn’t get along with too well, but this one was much more my cup of tea, and I have another by the same author lined up on my TBR shelf too.
emotional
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’m sure we can all agree that characters agreeing to switch lives is quite a common occurence in romance – not just in books but films too – like one of my favourites, The Holiday.
But I can honestly say this was not like all the rest. I’ve definitely never read a book where one of the swappers was 79 years old, and I’ve definitely never read a book with a 79 year old like Eileen!
Leena’s life is kinda crumbling around her. Her sister died and she’s not coping very well (understatement) and she’s just fluffed up a very important meeting at work. When her boss insists that she take 2 months of paid leave to get herself right, she’s not sure what she’s going to do.
Her grandma Eileen is also not having a good time. Her husband has left her for their dance teacher of all people, and she’s lonely. The only problem is there are only a handful of men in the village where she lives, and after drawing up a detailed pros + cons list of all the men, she realises she might be out of luck.
So Leena needs a break and Eileen needs a bigger pool to fish in so to speak. Perfect. Leena goes to live in her grandma’s house in the small Yorkshire village, and Eileen heads down to the big smoke to live in Leena’s Shoreditch flat.
Usually when I’m reading a book from multiple perspectives, I have one that is clearly my favourite. But I genuinely loved both Leena and Eileen. Seeing Leena heal from her hurt and get to grips with (very) small town life was just so lovely. And seeing Eileen come to life in the world of online dating was both charming and hilarious – I mean you don’t expect to read about a 79 year old getting her first ‘unsolicited’ pic on a dating site!
Heartwarming and giving all the fuzzy feels, while still having drama and excitement, I read this book in a single day – a hairdressers appointment and a football game to ignore definitely gives lots of time for reading!
I loved the previous O’Leary book I read too (The Flatshare) so I can’t wait for more!
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I found this book fab – short and succint but packed full of knowledge. The last year has been long and complex, but the author talks with wisdom about how to navigate times of change in our lives, while keeping our focus on God.
Each short chapter in the book starts with a personal story from the author, then weaves in a story from the Bible which explains the point – perfectly blending the personal and the biblical to really bring both sides to life and make the point perfectly. Each chapter then ends with a prayer.
“Our hearts change in ways that we cannot control, and the most significant changes can happen in the quietest of moments”.
The author talks about personal change in terms of calling with a clear sense of experience and passion. She says “Pay attention to your sparks. It can be easy to dismiss and bury your dreams, to smother them with practical decisions and procedures”. This hit home. Don’t decide not to pursue your passion for practical reasons, or with the idea of sacrifice/suffering. Your sparks are your passions and you should pursue them.
Another part that particularly spoke to me after the last year was this:
“When we have run out of prayers and courage and words, God meets us in the silence.”
When this book is released, I really want to grab a physical copy because I think reading it again in tangible form rather than on my phone will be like reading it new all over again. I’ve already gone out and bought a couple of other books in the ‘More > ‘ series in the hopes they’re as good as this one.
I’ve had this book for ages and it’s been in my suitcase on at least 3 holidays, but I never actually got around to reading it. I guess I was a bit scared that it would be a bit too childish.
But after reading, I don’t think I had much to worry about. I mean, obviously it’s a book aimed at teenage girls, but it wasn’t as dumbed down as I thought it would be, and I found myself caught up in the story much more than I thought I would.
As the title says, the book is about a girl who considers herself ‘the duff’ of her group – the designated ugly fat friend. That is, she does after a boy rather kindly points it out to her. Bianca hates this guy with a passion, but as you can probably guess, she ends up falling for him.
But the book wasn’t all wishy-washy love, it also tackled some more difficult subjects like her parent’s divorce and her father’s alcoholism. This was a saving grace for the book as it stopped it being too girly and childish. Even the evolving love story between Bianca and Wesley had a lot of substance to it, not just a girl mooning over the hottest boy in school.
I had a couple of favourite quotes from the book, mostly coming after Bianca realises that although she considers herself to be ‘the duff’, her two best friends also consider themselves as ‘the duff’ of the group. It’s so true that as women, we seem to focus on our own flaws and see the best in other people, putting ourselves down and making ourselves feel inferior for no reason.
“Calling Vikki a slut or a whore was just like calling somebody the Duff. It was insulting and hurtful, and it was one of those titles that just fed off the inner fear every girl must have from time to time. Slut, bitch, prude, tease, ditz. They were all the same. Every girl felt like one of these sexist labels described her at some point.”
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
About halfway through reading this book, I wrote this note:
“I cannot relate to this, through privilege, but it is raw and honest and powerful.”
I’ve not read a book that has moved me like this for a long time. I was right, I cannot relate to this book at all, my life has been so privileged that I have never even had to contemplate the things that Coates writes about.
But that is wrong. Why should I not have to know about these things that are ingrained in life for so many people. I may never have to experience them myself, but if I don’t know about them, how can I help to make sure no-one else has to experience them either?
The book is written as a letter to the author’s 15 year old son. It’s a heartbreaking letter taking us on a journey through the author’s life, through the awakenings he had about the history of race in America.
“You know now, if you didn’t before, that the police departments of your country have been endowed with the authority to destroy your body. “
I don’t really want to write much more, because my words don’t matter, the words of this book matter much more. It won’t be an easy read, you won’t feel comfortable (quite the opposite), but if you come from a life of privilege, it’s important. Don’t try to make excuses about the things you read, just listen.
The book is written in such a lyrical style with such passion and conviction that you will find yourself absorbed like I was, by the distant tales made personal within these pages.
emotional
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read this book as an audio-book, and unfortunately I think my experience of it may have been clouded by the fact that I just didn’t get on with the narrator. Her voice really grated on me for some reason and it made listening to the book feel like a real drag. That doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t like the narrator though, she just wasn’t my cup of tea (even listening at 1.5x speed to try and improve things).
I’m sorry to say that I also found the book itself pretty frustrating at times. The main characters were just not likeable people in my opinion, so I didn’t have that willingness to see them end up together that I think is almost universally necessary when reading a romance.
Many times I just wanted to scream at them to get their heads out of their asses and just talk to each other. And I know that the main characters not talking to each other and getting the situation completely wrong is a common trope, but because I didn’t like the characters, it became very annoying very quickly.
The other thing that I didn’t particularly get on with was how quickly the characters seemed to go from sitting and talking to a completely x-rated scene. Perhaps if I’d been reading and not listening, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but to be suddenly dropped into a very adult scene when just walking around the park was extremely off-putting! I think perhaps I need to just steer clear of romance books on audio because it makes me cringe so badly.
The thing that initially drew me into the book was the baseball on the cover. As a huge baseball fan, I thought the idea of a baseball themed romance was a big draw, but the only real baseball mention was right at the start, when the main character complained about how annoying it was to be taken to a baseball game. Granted, the baseball game turned into the most cringey proposal ever, but she was complaining and ungrateful well before that and I wanted to slap her because I would love a date at a baseball game!
Looking at other reviews of this book, I seem to be in the minority as it seems to get mostly good reviews, so perhaps although this wasn’t my cup of tea, it may be yours. I just prefer my romance books to have characters who actually want to be together, and are not actively fighting the relationship the entire way through.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Death of parent
challenging
informative
medium-paced
I’m not going to lie, I put this book off for a while because my kindle told me it was a 5 1/2 hour read. That shouldn’t have put me off because I really thought it looked like an interesting book, and it turns out I was mistaken anyway! The book finished at 66% through and the rest of the book was taken up by references from all the research that the author had cited.
This book takes us into the hidden world of algorithms. We’ve all heard of them and they sound great, futuristic and fancy. But as this book proves, algorithms are not perfect, nowhere near it. And it’s way too easy to imbue your algorithm with either your own or historical biases that make the algorithm inherently flawed and never fit for purpose.
Fry gives many examples of how algorithms have been used, from seemingly innocuous reasons like playing chess against grandmasters, and learning how to play jeopardy, to more serious applications like cancer diagnosis and deciding whether prisoners should get bail. We are taken behind the scenes to see how these algorithms came about, and what the problems can be when the algorithms are not considered carefully.
And our relationship with algorithms is interesting too – Fry talks about the fact that we have a tendency to over-trust things that we don’t understand, until we realise that it can make a mistake. And as soon as we know that an algorithm can make a mistake, we will then revert back to our own knowledge, even if our own knowledge is more flawed than the algorithm. So intriguing.
I was completely hooked from page one of this book, I read it all in one sitting as the writing style was so friendly that even though some of the topics covered were complex, I never felt confused about what I was reading.
For anyone confused about what an algorithm even is, or for those who are concerned about the increasing prevalence of them in our society, I’d definitely recommend this book. It’s a few years old now, but I think the points raised are just as relevant (perhaps even more so) as when they were written.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I’ve been looking forward to this book since it was announced and it did not disappoint.
As much as I love She Reads Truth studies that are in familiar areas, I am always more excited to be spending time in a book of the Bible that isn’t so familiar to me – and this was a two-in-one! I’ve read a bit of Colossians before, but I can’t remember ever opening Philemon, which is silly since it’s such a short book it doesn’t even have chapters!
The book, as always, was beautiful, full of little details which just really help with getting to grips with what the study is about. It also included a ‘readers edition’ of Colossians and Philemon that are presented as they would have originally been written, a letter. No chapter or verse numbers, just a letter. It’s much easier to read the whole thing through presented that way.
I loved the three prompts at the end of each daily reading: Summarise the reading in a couple of sentences, How does the reading convict and encourage you, How does it clarify your understanding of the gospel?
I find these prompts really helpful as they encourage me to spend time thinking very specifically about what I’ve just read, rather than making generic notes and moving on. I hope more studies have these types of questions going forward.