Not giving an introduction to this post because, who do I think I am?! Let’s dive right in.
TLSIR’ = ‘Too Long, Should I Read?’
📖 The Book You Want Everyone You Love* To Read *(and maybe a few you don’t) by Phillipa Perry
💫💫💫💫 TLSIR; Yes
I started the beginning of the month with the plan to Sort My Life Out™. I started using my Google Calendar for day-to-day organisation & lifemin management. Decided to work out consistently. Created a Notion board for blog ideas and tidied my office desk. At the end of this (very busy) day, reading a fantasy just wasn’t the vibe so I picked up the only self-help book on my shelf – The Book You Want Everyone You Love* To Read. This had been lent to me by a friend who I’d never shared book recs with so didn’t 100% know what I was getting into. Also, as someone who very rarely reads self-help books, I didn’t have a benchmark for what makes them ‘helpful’. After reading this book, I am assuming it constitutes three things:
- Any nugget of information staying with you longer than 48 hours after reading
- Talking about the book with a friend or partner and hearing them say “Wow, that’s spot on”
- Crying at any point during reading
All three of these happened to me during and post-reading. The nugget was “Resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Me and my Taurus-grudge-holding-ass was like woahhhh, you’ve read me there babe. There’s also a lot in the book (probably the entire gist summed up) about turning ‘you’ statements into ‘I’ statements during communication. The aim is to not only take responsibility and accountability, but also try and get others to understand your POV. So instead of ‘You’re frustrating me’ the statement turns into ‘I feel frustrated when you do this because…’. I’ve been actioning this a lot lately in my romantic and work relationships. I don’t know if it’s helping them progress, but I feel better for doing so as I feel like I’m speaking my truth.
Regarding the whole crying thing… There’s a section about father-daughter relationships where Perry gives a recommendation to a father on how to start to salvage his relationship with his estranged daughter. It’s very similar to the relationship I currently have with my father and reading what I dream of happening felt both cathartic and heart-breaking at the same time.
📖 Love In Colour by Bolu Babalola
💫💫💫💫💫TLSIR; Yes
As I mentioned in my July TBR 2024, I am not a short story gal but if anyone was going to turn me into one it’s likely to be Babalola. Well, turns out I know myself preeeeetty well! I read this book over a number of days because reading the stories back-to-back just didn’t feel like the way they were intended to be consumed. I wanted a story to sit with me before I hastily devoured another. Babalola writes love, lust and adoration so, so well. I felt so enraptured in each of the characters that the only negative I can give was that I didn’t get to find out what happens after their happily ever after. And each does have a happily ever after. Don’t get me wrong, I love a will-they-won’t-they, stay-up-all-night, can’t-think-because-I-need-to-know kinda read, but there was also some intensely comforting about picking up this book and knowing that no matter what, both me and the characters I was about to meet were going to be safe. As an aside, all the stories (bar one with a bisexual woman) focus on heterosexual romantic relationships. I have zero issue with this as it’s likely this book was written so well because the author wrote from a place of understanding and experience. However, if you’re looking for queer or platonic love, this one isn’t for you.
Fave stories: Scheherazade, Attem, Orin
📖 Not In Love by Ali Hazelwood
💫💫💫💫💫TLSIR; Yes
Sigh, Ali Hazelwood just knows how to do it and does it well. Not In Love absolutely hit the spot for me. I liked each character (even those I wasn’t supposed to), I loved that the female character was always unapologetically herself, loved that the boy fell first, and loved the spicy sex scenes. And let me tell you… the smut in this book is a level UP from her previous books. So much so that there’s a not at the beginning to pre-warn you. Will I remember every facet of this storyline by the end of the year? No, I expect I won’t. Will it continue to be a good time when I next pick it up? Yes. Will I recommend it to all my friends? Abso-fucking-lutely.
📖 The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
💫💫💫💫💫TLSIR; Yes
I won’t harp on too much about this book as I written about it in more depth in my The Ministry of Time Book Review. This book follows 19th century Naval Commander who is taken from the brink of depth and dropped into a 21st century that has time-travel tech. There are five of these ‘expats’ and each is assigned a ‘bridge’ – a person who helps them acclimitaise to our time. In slow-burn style, Gore’s bridge falls for him whilst uncovering plots and conspiracies woven into her government department. Interwoven with discourse on gender, race and societal-evolution, The Ministry of Time was an absolute joy, and capped off a fantastic month of reading.
Until next time, bookworms.
