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  So. Booksta:  Patrick Freyne?  Never heard of him, so why would I want to read a collection of essays about his life? Me: It's very well written.  Funny even. Booksta: Maybe if I'd heard of him..... Me: He would be a great man to have sitting next to you on a long haul flight.  A wealth of amusing anecdotes about his childhood and mis-spent youth in a band. Booksta: In a band? Does he know Bono? Me: Probably not, but he mentions him once.  I bet he has a lovely speaking voice.  He comes from Cork you know.  Same place as Graham Norton. Booksta:  Oh, I've heard of Graham Norton.  Does Patrick know Graham? Me:  No.  Booksta:  You're not really selling this. Me: I know, but I liked it and now I like Patrick.  Sometimes it's just nice to spend some time with someone who tells a good tale.  I think that talent comes in the DNA if you're from Cork.  It's the home of the Blarney Stone after all. Booksta: Does he ...

  It's true what they say about improving with age.  By the time we get to the Third Age, we've been round the block a few times and we get to know where to pick our fights.  This is how it is with Olive Kitteridge.  The one-time obstructive, argumentative woman gradually settles down into someone who simply speaks her mind and has the courage to confront anyone's elephant in any room she might find it in.  We first meet Olive in Elizabeth Strout's earlier novel, Olive Kitteridge, and this book picks up the threads and continues to follow Olive with her friends and family as she grumbles her way into old age.  The writing is superb in both novels and knowing how much Olive rubbed everyone up the wrong way in the first book, I was pleasantly surprised at how much empathy I felt for her in this one. As I have entered the foothills of old age myself, there were several moments in the book where I had to stop and think about my own life spanning backwards and f...

  Name five things you would expect to be included in a story co-written by Dolly Parton. Score one point for any of the following: country music, guitars, pretty girls, handsome men, shiny things. Am I now going to pick holes in a book written by Dolly?  Absolutely not.  I love Dolly, and I can't have a word said against her.  So, moving on.... Right now I am a little distracted from Bookstagram as I have been caught up in all the political discussion surrounding the selection of our new Prime Minister.  I have to confess I have a great fascination for politics, so I have been glued to my Twitter feed, and I have spent a lot of time reading opinion pieces written by political journalists.  However, as with chocolate biscuits, there comes a point in the day when I realise it is possible to have too much of a good thing, and need to turn to something a little more wholesome to settle my stomach. That's how I came to select Dolly's book for this week....

The Lincoln Highway burnt my Sunday lasagna.  It kept me awake at night and then called out to me to pick it up again at 05.30, when even the sparrows were still rubbing the sleep from their eyes, because this is a heck of a story.   It's a big book at 576 pages but I don't think I have ever read that much book in such a short space of time.  As you know, I'm a slow reader.  The voice in my head reads at the same speed as me reading a book out loud, and I would never want to skim-read a book as good as this because there is much joy to be found in the use of the language.  Having binge read my way through almost all of it, I then slowed down even more as I didn't want it to end, and I saved the final two chapters until my husband was safely out of the house to ensure I could read the conclusion without interruption.  It's that kind of book. It's an all-American story, but mercifully without the baseball.  Set in the early 1950s, it's a t...

  Hmmmm. Still thinking.... How do I feel about this?  A little cheated perhaps?  Well yes.  This is not a novella, it is a piece of writing to be used as an experiment and it turned out that I, the reader, was the subject of the experiment. Let me explain.  In 1980 Toni Morrison wrote this very short story about two eight year old girls who have been placed in the same room of a girls' shelter.  The reader is told that one of the girls is white and the other black, but it is never made clear which is which. You have to make your own mind up and that is the point of the experiment.  What criteria are you going to apply in order to make your decision?  What if the stereotypes flip back and forth from one girl to the other?  What if the whole process starts to make you feel a bit itchy? Zadie Smith wrote the introduction and I had to stop reading it after a few pages because she was analysing chunks of the text and telling me what to think...

At the end of this book Colleen Hoover has inserted a Note from the Author giving context to the story that has just come to a close.  Towards the end of her note she writes:  'In the past, I've always said I write for entertainment purposes only.  I don't write to educate, persuade or inform.  This book is different.  This was not entertainment for me.  It was the most grueling thing I have ever written.' This book draws on personal experience of a frightening and all to common reality for many people.  It is written carefully to show how families arrive at the point where certain things that go on behind closed doors are covered or excused out of shame, or even love.  If you have ever wondered how intelligent people arrive at a point where they continue to stay when they really should go, then this will help explain how the truth can be hiding in plain sight.  We all believe what we want to believe about those we truly love.  

Gripping.  Yes, that's the word I want for Magpie.  The other night, when I started this book, I thought I would give it half an hour and then go to sleep, but the book had other ideas.  There are twists in the story that you don't see coming and every time you think - Oh, now I see where this is going! - well just don't get too comfortable around that thought.  That's all I'm saying. This is a very modern book, both in style and content, and examines some of the issues associated with fertility and pregnancy.  Nature doesn't always go along with our reproductive plans so sometimes people seek outside help to make a baby and bring it safely through to birth.  This is such a complex subject that Elizabeth Day could have written the whole novel based on that journey alone, but why stop there when so many extra layers can be added on top? This would be a good one to take on your summer holidays as it will be enough to distract you when you are sitting on ...