niamhreviews's reviews
582 reviews

That was...intense. Loved it- but there was something that just didn't give it five stars for me. Perhaps it was the overall ambiguity of the novel, everything really important happened in the last 20 or so pages. Ah, well. Still a brilliant book.

More like 4.5.

This is a deeply disturbing book that's full of truthfulness and at moments, beautifully poetic lines. It centres around Plum, an overweight woman who has spent her life dedicated to following diets and weight watching programmes in order to lose a drastic amount of weight. Society has forced its way into her brain and told her that the way she looks is wrong and sinful and therefore, must be hidden from view.

But, as she is slowly brought out of her shell and coaxed into acceptance of her body, she finds herself involved in a national scandal that involves every single one of her newfound compatriots.

I think this was a very timely moment for me to read this novel; not only have I consistently struggled with my own weight and body image, but I'm also in the process of working on a script with similar themes to this; the idea of society controlling the body, our relationships with food, particularly as women.

It's a timely, occasionally incredibly funny, and raw novel that I would recommend any woman who's ever tried a fad diet in her life to read.

I had a similar feeling of nostalgia reading this book as I did with her other memoir, 'Make 'Em Laugh'. This one is written with the same wit, humour and wonderful voice that made Debbie Reynolds such a beloved star in the first place. I would highly recommend the audiobook, as it's voiced by the star herself, and makes the words come alive from the page. She handles everything from the beginnings of her career at MGM and going from Miss Burbank to working to Gene Kelly, to her attempts at creating a museum for her huge collection of Hollywood memorabilia. Moreover, you get to hear her impressions of everyone from Betty White to Barbara Streisand.

Obviously, you read it posthumously as we sadly lost Debbie in 2016, but you feel like you're carrying a little part of her when you read this book. It's a funny, witty look at her career and her life, the dedication she has to her children and her work, and it's a wonderful book that will make your heart just soar.

You could have taken the plot of this novel right out of the pages of the British tabloids, especially a few years ago. Seeing as our current PM wasn't a member of the Bullingdon club, there's less of a controversy surrounding her, but in previous years, such a scandal could have been relatively normal in British society. I need to put a huge content warning on this book for sexual assault and rape, because it's discussed in quite graphic detail throughout.

This was definitely an interesting read, and for anyone who loves court-dramas or mysteries about society will love this novel. Though it does tend to go on in the feelings department for a really long time, and on occasion presented some really awful accents- I listened to the audiobook and the Northern Irish accent of one of the lawyers was one of the worst I've ever heard- it's one of those addictive reads that you want to keep picking up, just so you know what happens next. I really enjoyed this novel and I'll definitely keep reading Sarah Vaughn's books.

Something about this book was just deliciously bonkers. It feels a little bit dated in places - the first publication was in 1988 - but 'Home Cooking' contains all the love of food that modern day food writers put into their own words. These are little vignettes - amuse-bouches if you will - of essays about food, intertwining them with recipes. They bear more resemblance to the modern day blog posts of foodies. Nevertheless, they are joyful, often dry, essays that made me giggle as I turned the pages. It's not hard to see why Laurie Colwin is seen as such a pinnacle of food writing. I'll be ordering her second collection of food essays soon.

I was very kindly given an e-ARC of the audiobook by Headline Audio and Netgalley.

Oof. Okay. Time for a mildly unpopular opinion.

I thought this book was fine. Just fine. I have my issues with it and I have things that I really liked about it, and it kind of averaged out as being...okay. I've read worse, I've read better.

THE GOOD THINGS: This is, genuinely, a whole new take on the fake dating trope set within a British university. The characters - especially the female ones - were written with such clear love and care that no one ever felt like they were missing a dimension. There's a clear voice running through it - and you can tell how much the author loves the genre because this is a real love letter to it. There were moments I really enjoyed and was hooked by, wanting to hear what was going to happen next for these characters. Also, the audiobook narrator was EXCELLENT - the moments where Kiki is doing her radio show were performed sensationally and genuinely made me feel like I was listening to a podcast. The production on the audiobook too is fantastic, so great job to those guys.

THE LESS GOOD THINGS: This book is too long. SO LONG. And it takes far too long for anything to happen. I actually put this book down a few weeks ago because the writing was too tangent-el for my brain - every other sentence had a lead on to a different sentence that told us a bunch of expositional stuff or gave us a metaphor. Which, sometimes, is very useful. But not every other line. For this kind of genre especially, there was so much space where nothing happened. Where we were getting repeats, rather than an advancement of the plot. Part of me thinks this would have worked way better as a TV show than a novel just because of the ensemble cast, the development of the relationship - I never felt it translated well to fiction. I'm learning I much prefer books with action. Spend too long talking about feelings and stuff that doesn't relate - I'm gone.

'Honey and Spice' gets off to a good start, but by the middle, it begins to lose its focus. For me, the development didn't come quickly enough and when it did, it felt unsatisfying. But, don't let that put you off reading it - it's just my preference. There's enough warmth and love and humour for anyone to enjoy it, especially the audiobook.

'Honey and Spice' will be released on July 5th.

Ironically for the title of the book, I really wish more time had been spent on the cooking element.

'Dinner for One' is a memoir about Dacres experience with a whirlwind relationship and subsequent marriage to a Frenchman, leading her to move to Paris and experience a significant culture clash there. When the marriage falls apart, the city helps her to heal - and improve her French.

It's hard to review a memoir because this is somebody's life. But, my main gripe is that the title of the book is a tad misleading. 3/4 of it is not about cooking at all - there are occasional caveats about eating and her obsession with l'aperitif - but about the (admittedly) bad decisions she made in her relationship. There were moments where she said things I couldn't be sure were jokes or if they were serious. In fact, there were moments where I thought 'I can see red flags all over the damn place, you two should not be together.'

The part of the book I loved - the other quarter - were those explorations of food and cooking in the city. Visiting the various shops, discovering the devotion to which the French treat the culinary arts. But it was all over so quickly. Because the book hadn't been about the healing process. It had just laid out the whole story - and then spent a few chapters talking about what came after. I wanted more of that part, more of the stories, more of the food! If it had been marketed as a book about relationships, it would've made far more sense. Not a bad book, but missold.