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  Published: February 2020, Penguin Genre: fiction Themes: modern society, relationships, community My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤ The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley is another book I was given for Mother's Day (the family know I enjoy reading!).  My son chose it for me because it was billed as 'uplifting', and that is certainly something we can all do with during the lockdown. The story is about an elderly artist called Julian, who finds himself bored and lonely after a lifetime of being the center of attention.  In an effort to give himself something to do, and also find a way of engaging with people again, he starts the Authenticity Project.  He has come to the conclusion that everyone goes to great lengths to hide their true selves from the outside world, and if they could start by being honest with themselves about who they really are, then they could have more meaningful lives and better relationships with others. Julian takes an ordinary school notebook and ...

  Published: November 2014, Penguin Genre: fiction Themes: family, world war two, childhood, relationships My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤ I was given Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans as one of my Mother's Day gifts, and as I have already finished it, you may guess that I found it a good read. Lissa Evans has created characters that are both believable and unusual and the storyline twists and turns in unexpected ways right up to the last page.  The story centres on ten year old Noel, who was orphaned before the start of the war, and, having no other family, is sent to live with his godmother Mattie in Hampstead Heath.   Mattie is an academic single woman who holds a doctorate, and Noel is a precocious child who has difficulty making friends of his own age, but the two bond together happily until Mattie's mind begins to unravel when dementia takes hold.  Her decline is captured with gentle humour, but also with real sensitivity, and Noel has to cope with doing more and mo...

  Published: November 2020, Crown Publishing Group Genre: Non-fiction Themes: biography, American politics My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤❤ I was given a copy of A Promised Land by Barack Obama for Christmas and finally finished it a few days ago.  It's a big book, with 700 pages of tightly packed text, so I couldn't easily read it in bed and had to work through a few pages at a time when I was sitting downstairs. I asked to have this book as I am a big fan of both Barack and Michelle Obama, and I already have other books they have written on our bookshelf.  I first became interested in Obama during his presidential campaign in 2007, when I read an extended article in the Sunday Times describing his aspirations, and how he was reaching out to ordinary people who had never voted before.  I was immediately struck by his caring attitude towards forgotten sections of the population and the way he conveyed his ideas without ever talking down to people. When he was el...