This year I have set myself the same goal as last year – to read 25 books!

Got a good xmas haul this year so should keep me going for at least a few months!

I was feeling a little underwhelmed by my goal as 25 books doesn’t seem like a lot (I used to be able to read up to 40 books a year before I had kids!) – however my daughter has pointed out that if I include all of the story books I read to my youngest daughter every night at bedtime I am probably reading around 1000 books a year, so that certainly made me feel better!

Book 1: Menopausing, by Davina McCall

Category: None

This was a very illuminating read. I think all women (and all men for that matter) should be better educated about the menopause. It affects 51% of the population, without exception, and can start earlier than you would think (the average age for menopause is around 55, but women can enter peri-menopause up to 10 years earlier, and 1 in 100 women will go into early menopause (under 45).

Very few GPs have had any training AT ALL on menopause as it is not currently compulsory on the GP curriculum (and our mostly male government has justy voted NO to making this part of standard GP training). Reading story after story of miserable women being put on anti-depressants instead of HRT is frightening. The symptoms are wide-ranging and can be debilitating – the number of women who have lost their jobs due to untreated menopause is in the tens of thousands in the UK alone. Somerthing like 1 in 10 women have had to leave the workforce due to untreated menopause symptoms. What a colossal economic waste!

There is also a massive misconception that menopause is a transitional “phase” that women pass through and come out the other side of, but in fact peri-menopause is the beginning of a decline in oestrogen levels that becomes a chronic hormone imbalance for the rest of your life. HRT is the best treatment but you will be on it for the rest of your life. And yes women have to continue paying prescription charges for what is essentially a chronic illness.

Book 2: Wilful Creatures, by Aimee Bender

Category: A book you bought secondhand

This was a nice quick set of rather odd short stories.

Peculiar and strange but enjoyable. Not the greatest short stories I’ve ever read, but not the worst either. Makes me want to re-read The Most Beautiful Book in the World as THAT was a WONDERFUL set of short stories….

Book 3: The Storyteller, by Dave Grohl

Category: A book by a first time author

This was ok. I loved learning about Dave Grohl’s young life and his years with Nirvana as well as how the Foo Fighters came into being. However it was VERY American, with an awful lot of gushing about the universe guiding us and gushing about other famous people and how amazing they are.

It did make me want to go and listen again to Nirvana and Foo Fighter’s greatest hits, but I am also mostly convinced now that Dave Grohl might be a borderline alcoholic. I know he’s a rock star so booze is par for the course, but some of the stories are a bit cringey in terms of how he relates to alcohol.

Book 4: The Mermaid of Black Conch, by Monique Roffey

Category: A book about mythical creatures

This was a really good book – interesting and totally different. I loved the use of language and patois and the shift between voices in the narrative, as well as the fairy-tale style story arc. lt was wonderful and magical and not like anything else – great!

Book 5: Nightbitch, Rachel Yoder

Category: A book about a family

This was a completely surreal book about motherhood and the patriarchy and giving up parts of your identity to become a mother, and a woman who thinks she is turning into a dog. It is feral and visceral, and powerful and weird. I really enjoyed it.

Book 6: The girl in the flammable skirt, by Aimee Bender

Category: A book with the word “girl” in the title

This was ok – I usually love a short story and I loved this author’s novel The Particular sadness of lemon cake, but this one was a bit blah, didn’t particularly grab me. Wouldn’t read it again.

Book 7: Exiles, by Jane Harper

Category: A book published in Spring 2023

This was another classic from Jane Harper. I love her books. I can never guess who did it no matter how hard I try and I always love the twists. It was excellent.

Book 8: The most beautiful book in the world, by Eric-Emmanuel Schmidt

Category: A book you think your best friend would like

I re-read this one as I needed something short to read before we went on holiday and didn’t want to start anything big or heavy. I loved it the first time but less so on a re-read. They are good short stories but I’m not convinced they held up over a second reading. Perhaps it’s because I knew how they would end.

Book 9: Lessons in chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus

Category: A book becoming a TV series or a movie in 2023

This was EXCELLENT – easily my favourite book this year and I’ve read several really great books so far. It’s funny and clever and sad and poignant and feminist and everyone should read it before the tv series comes out!

Book 10: Leonard and Hungry Paul, by Ronan Hession

Category: A book recommended by a friend

This was also excellent although it was completely different to the last book!

It was very gentle and mild, funny and sad, but a lovely reflection on people, the characters were carefully thought out and likeable, if rather odd, and I really enjoyed it.

I still don’t know why he’s called Hungry Paul, or why there is a fish on the cover though!

Book 11: Decider, by Dick Francis

Category: A book you read more than 10 years ago

This was a bit of a cheat – I fancied something quick and easy and this was one of my grandmother’s reader’s digest condensed books so it was very short and easy to read in a day or two. Just what I needed! Still a good book – plenty of drama and easy to skim. I first read it when I was a teenager after my grandmother donated a large pile of reader’s digest condensed books for my happy consumption!

I have actually read 2 other books in this condensed book (The Sugar Pavillion and Point of Impact) so have counted these as 1 book!

Book 12: I feel bad about my neck, and other stories, by Nora Ephron

Category: A book about divorce

This was a gift from my sister, short and sweet, not totally about divorce but it mentions divorce a lot so I’ve categorised it accordingly.

I felt a bit mixed about some of it – some anecdotes were funny and light-hearted, but there was a lot of focus on body-shaming and I wasn’t totally comfortable with some of it but I think she was a woman of a certain age who had quite fixed views about her body and her shame about her body.

Book 13: How to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk, by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

Category: A book published the year you were born

Technically this is a slight lie as this was first published in 1980 and I was born in 1981 but it’s close enough so I’m sticking it in that category.

It’s a little dated in some of the examples but most of the content is pretty sound and fits with a lot of the therapuetic parenting guidance out there. Nothing new or groundbreaking but pretty solid stuff.

Book 14: Apples never fall, by Liane Moriarty

Category:A book about an athlete/sport

This was great. I love her books, they rarely disappoint and this was a good and gripping whodunnit type mystery. It happened to center on a tennis family so fits the category nicely and I happened to have taken it to read on the way to Wimbledon so here I am reading the last few pages on Henman Hill…

Book 15: Fleishman is in trouble

Category: A book that’s on a celebrity book club list

I’m not sure if this is actually on a book club list but it had many celebrity endorsements on the cover so I’ve shoved it here. It was recommended by someone so I got it out of the library. It was a little heavy going, and didn’t quite go where I was expecting it to. Mostly about a marriage falling apart, and then about other marriages falling apart and on marriage in general and the role of women in a patriarchal society etc. Good but a fairly heavy book.

Book 16: The Great Behaviour Breakdown, by Bryan Post

Category: None

As you can probably tell there is a theme to some of these books! Not much new in this one but we just keep going over old ground time and time again to hope it helps.

Book 17: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O’Farrell

Category: None

This was great – I love Maggie O’Farrell and this was just as good as her others.

Book 18: A man called Ove

Category: A book where the main character’s name is in the title

This was WONDERFUL – my second favourite book this year! Can’t wait to see the movie!

Book 19: The Marriage Portrait, by Maggie O’Farrell

Category: A historical-fiction book

This was ok – I usually love anything by Maggie O’Farrell but this one didn’t keep me interested. I’m not much of a historical fiction fan so perhaps that’s why (though I loved Hamnet).

Book 20: How to kill your family, by Bella Mackie

Category: None

This one was ok – a bit gruesome in places and the main character was not terribly likeable. A few parts of it annoyed me as there were some small plot holes or things unexplained, and I guessed part of the twist at the end. Meh.

Book 21: I want to die but I want to eat Ttoekkbokki, by Baek SeHee

Category: The shortest book (by pages) on your “to-be-read” list

I bought this one as I love the title and it spoke to me, though frankly the book itself wasn’t great.

Book 22: When women were dragons, by Kelly Barnhill

Category: A book about a forbidden romance

I loved this book! It was really interesting and different and excellent. i bought it as it reminded me of a dear friend who recently passed away, and it seemed like a book she would have liked After reading it I can confirm she would have loved it. It’s a really wonderful, powerful book and I loved it.

Book 23: Days like these, by Brian Bilston

Category: None

This is a lovely collection of poems, one for every day of the year, and a nice book to dip in and out of all year.

Book 24: The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman

Category: None

This was a fun crime novel, nice and easy to read, plenty of twists and turns.

Book 25: She and her cat, by Makoto Shinkai

Category: A book with a pet character

This was rather lovely and short enough that I could JUST squeeze it in before new year and complete my reading challenge for 2023! Phew! Challenge achieved! On to the next one shortly!