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Some People Are Worth Melting For
I bought this Frozen cross stitch pattern from Etsy – it’s part of a set of 13 Disney Princesses all in the same style. Unfortunately I can’t link to the pattern as both the item and the shop are no longer listed on Etsy.
This was a really fun one to stitch – I’ve made it as a birthday present for my sister and I added the quote myself to make it a bit more personal. I followed the colours listed in the pattern but I think if I did this again I’d choose a more silvery colour for Elsa’s hair or a different colour Aida as it all blends together a bit…
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Let There Be Light
This pattern came from She Reads Truth in their Advent 2021 book. It’s stitched in a 12″ hoop and although I thought it’d be fairly quick since the pattern is quite sparse, it took ages because there was so much counting!
I chose different colours than the pattern suggested based on what I had in my stash but I’d definitely choose a darker colour for the outer design if I did it again.
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Leigh Bardugo – Crooked Kingdom
Unfortunately, like the first book in this Duology, this book was a book of two halves for me. I started reading it in September, and have only just finished reading it now in December.
The first half felt soooooo slow for me and I just wasn’t feeling any compulsion to keep reading, but I wanted to finish this year without a big list of half-finished books so I forced myself to pick this back up, and somewhere just after half way I became thoroughly gripped and read the rest in two days.
After the ending of the last book (which was completely unexpected), I was so happy to be back with Kaz and his gang, recovering from their successful mission but reeling from their lack of money. And so starts a new scheme to get the money they were promised.
What I did love in this book is that we learn more of the back-stories of each of the characters and I felt like I was growing to love each of them by the time the book drew to a close. Even Kaz, the supposed meanest of the lot became someone I was rooting for to get the happiness I thought he deserved (despite all his scheming and killing).
The book was full of twists and turns and unlike other books in this genre, I wasn’t able to predict anything that was going to happen, and towards the end that meant I had my heart in my mouth a few times as things seemed to be unravelling. But of course, Kaz is always a few plans ahead of everyone else.
Having read the Shadow and Bone trilogy and now this duology, I hope I get to read the King of Scars duology soon. Although I’ve found these last two books slow to get going I’ve really enjoyed them once I’ve persisted, so I think I just need to persist more in future!
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Matt Haig – A Boy Called Christmas
An audio-book narrated by Stephen Fry? Glorious!
Matt Haig takes on this story of a young boy called Nikolas who finds himself on a wild adventure with his mouse friend Mika for a companion, and ends up blossoming into someone quite familiar.
We start the book as Nikolas’ father leaves him to go on a quest to find the Elves. He leaves Nikolas with his mean and spiteful aunt who makes Nikolas sleep outside, and serves him a quite unthinkably mean meal.
So Nikolas decides to head off to find his father, and on his adventure he will find that his father isn’t what he was looking for at all. A story full of magic and a young boy who truly believes in it, after all “An impossibility is just a possibility you don’t understand yet”.
Although it was quite clear where the book would end up, it was a truly magical tale, excellently narrated so it felt like you were on the journey with Nikolas. Full of excitement, peril and pure magic, I thought it was great.
Only a 4 hour listen, so I imagine it would be quite a short read – and I’d love to read it as I imagine it has some beautiful illustrations. It’s just a shame I don’t have Sky so I can’t watch the movie adaptation!
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Giovanna Fletcher – Walking on Sunshine
Disclaimer: I was given this book before publication in exchange for a review from NetGalley.
I also don’t need to add a disclaimer for this, but it’s probably worth mentioning that Giovanna is one of my favourite authors so I was pretty convinced that I was going to love this book before I read it.
I had no idea what to expect except for the title, but the book was heart warming in a way I didn’t expect.
At the start of the book, we’re introduced to three friends: Mike, Zaza and Vicky. They’re all still reeling from the death of Mike’s wife Pia. Obviously Mike is struggling the most, but they were a very close knit group.
Vicky is married with two young children, but ‘burnt out’ is a definite understatement of what she is feeling. As well as completely overwhelmed by looking after the children, she is also feeling unloved and undersupported by her husband.
And then we have Zaza, who is recently engaged and should be happier than ever, but seems to be pushing her fiancé away and doesn’t know if she can be happy as a wife.
But it seems like just when things are reaching breaking point for all three, Pia sense helps in the form of a list of things they need to do to move on from her passing. The list takes them on a trek to Peru where they will all find that they are stronger than they think and need each other more than they know.
I thought the book was absolutely fabulous. Rather than a stereotypical romance, it instead chooses to focus on the life-restoring power of friendship and the strength that we all have within.
I found myself immediately drawn to Vicky’s character and I felt so much like I could be a member of their friendship group. I loved the connection they all had, but mainly the fact that their relationship felt real. There were harsh words and raw arguments to provide balance to the journey that they were on.
The book was beautifully written and full of so much emotion. It was also full of a depth of knowledge from the CoppaFeel treks that Fletcher has led in real life, I truly felt like I was along with them for the journey.
This may be my favourite Fletcher book so far, which is saying something given how much I loved Billy and Me. A truly heart warming tale about the power of true friendship to redeem us from the hardest of times.
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Anita Rani – The Right Sort of Girl
I’ve come to the realisation that my favourite kind of audio books are auto-biographies, particularly when they’re read by the author. I don’t know what drew me to this one, I think it was partly because Anita is from Bradford, and partly the picture on the front cover where she looks so joyous.
Coming myself from Pudsey (between Bradford and Leeds), I felt on the same page as Anita as she described her local area as she grew up, and when she referred to Harrogate as the posh part of Yorkshire, I knew she was my kind of person. My opinion could have changed when she described how people she knew would pretend to be from Leeds and ‘how bad does Bradford have to be if you’re going to pretend you’re from Leeds. How rude! I’ll let her off though because this book was marvellous.
If you’re expecting an easy read, then this book will surprise you. Anita describes growing up in a Punjabi family in Yorkshire – too brown for the people outside her home but too white for those inside it. She describes the tough times she had growing up as a girl and an outsider. She also delves into her family history and we find out about how her family came to the UK and the struggles that they had along the way. She also talks more recently about how she started her career and how she made it to Countryfile, where I know her from best.
Anita talks with absolute sincerity and warmth about the childhood that shaped her and how it made her become who she is now. Speaking with depth and insight about not being the right sort of girl and talking to her younger self about the lessons she wishes she could have taught herself, the book was a real page-turner (metaphorically), and having it narrated by the author herself was just the icing on top of the cake.
If you like biographies with a little more than just a life story, then this is one for you.
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Maisie Hill – Period Power
Oh how I wanted to love this book.
The first section of the book was great, a detailed look at the female body and reproductive system and menstruation. It felt like all the information I needed (and didn’t get) when I was 13, and although it’s almost 20 years too late, it was great to learn more about my own body (even though it’s surprising that at 32 I didn’t know them already).
However, after the first part of the book, I very quickly lost interest and found myself rolling my eyes a lot. I did start making notes of the things that made me inwardly groan, but I soon realised I was writing a lot.
The author divides the menstrual cycle into four seasons, and when she started saying things like “your spring is where you can get a sense of the spaces where you can grow. Can you feel the potential within you in the spaces between your joints, the spaces between your thoughts?”, I knew this may not be the book for me. Like once a month I’m supposed to think about the potential in the spaces between my joints – what the heck does that even mean?!
And when talking about period pain, which is something that affects me, she said “Don’t take painkillers as it blocks your experience and stops you accessing a liminal space”. I mean, come on, really? I don’t think period cramps are taking me to a liminal space, and to suggest that taking painkillers is a bad thing is just urgh.
So your mileage may vary, but this book just unfortunately wasn’t for me. I did stick it out to the end, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. I also had it in audio format rather than a physical book, which meant it felt quite repetitive towards the end when she was listing common conditions and treatments for them which I’d probably have been able to more easily skim-read in book format.
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Camille Fournier – The Manager’s Path
I was recently promoted to team lead (yay me!) and I was recommended this book by a couple of people to learn more about being a leader in tech.
It was such a useful book to read – it starts off talking about mentoring, then progressing to team lead and continues all the way up to what it calls the big leagues, e.g. CTO.
I read it all the way to the end even though two thirds of the book were definitely above my pay-grade, and I’m glad I did as it contained so much useful information.
I’ve never been a people leader before, so I found the early parts of the book so valuable before I started meeting with my new lines in terms of information on starting off catchups on the right foot, preparing for a new management relationship, and building trust. There was even a section on managing a former peer which was just what I needed.
Each chapter contained a Good Manager/Bad Manager scenario where two styles were compared to each other and that was great for thinking about my past experience and my future plans.
If I had a criticism of the book, my only one really would be that certain parts were quite ‘american’ so didn’t seem to apply to me personally, but that wasn’t really a huge problem. As with any book like this, I think it’s all about picking and choosing the advice that will help you and ignoring the things that won’t.
My book is literally covered with sticky notes of things I want to remember/come back to in future, and I can see that this book will be a guide for years to come in my career. I will definitely get more out of the later chapters by coming back to read them when I reach those stages in my career.
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John Mark Comer – God Has a Name
I bought this book from the bookstall at a recent New Wine women’s day. The cover immediately stood out to me, and then when I read the blurb it felt like it was talking directly to me.
“Many of us ache for relationship with God, yet feel distant and disconnected from him. As if he’s more of an idea we believe in our head than a person we relate to. But God has a name: Yahweh”.
It stuck a chord with how I’ve been feeling for a while so it was an immediate purchase. I then proceeded to read the whole book in one go on the train from London to Leeds. The writing style was so natural that it was almost like having a conversation and I felt myself utterly absorbed in the book, barely aware that I was even turning pages.
The book takes a line by line approach of looking at Exodus 34: 6-8
“And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped.”
It looks at how knowing that God has a name leads you to a deeper understanding of who He is – trustworthy and unchanging. He looks at what makes God (capital G) different from the other gods in the Bible and other religions. Because of this, it would be a great introduction for new Christians – it’s not patronising in any way but truly eye opening.
I found the book enlightening and extremely personal, like it was written directly for me. Quotes like “Here’s the truth that cuts across the universe: we become like what we worship” and “Here’s the problem, we usually end up with a God who looks an awful lot like us”.
As I said before, I loved the tone of this book, it was very accessible and complex points are explained in a way that makes them understandable. Whether you’re a Christian or not, this book isn’t dry or complicated, it’s human and relatable.
This isn’t the first book I’ve read by Comer, and it definitely won’t be my last, I just love his style.
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Milly Johnson – I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day
When this book came out in hardback last year, I waited eagerly but patiently for the paperback release (to complete my collection of Milly’s paperbacks). And what a perfect time of year to read it. Not only is it the perfect Christmas book, but I also happened to read most of it over the weekend where we ended up in a temporary winter wonderland with 3 days of snow (and as the plot of this book played out in real life at the Tan Hill pub).
I don’t think I could ever not love a book by Milly – she writes the most beautiful romantic fiction filled with real characters who you can actually relate to (not just blonde leggy 20-somethings from London/New York as seem to be most romance characters).
And the characters in this book might just be my favourite yet. Six characters are all driving close to Christmas when a freak snowstorm seems them stranded in a village pub together to wait for the snow to retreat and the roads to be driveable. There’s no-one else in the pub (and seemingly not in the village either), but the pub is fully stocked with all the food and drink they could need to get them through a Christmas together.
So together in the pub we have Bridge and Luke – soon to be ex-husband-and-wife. They were supposed to be meeting to sign their divorce papers and being stuck together seems like their idea of a nightmare, especially for Bridge who can’t stand the sight of Luke and the fact he seems to have moved on from their marriage.
We also have Jack and Mary. Jack owns a factory that produces scones and he is on the way to an important business meeting with his assistant Mary. Mary has been in love with Jack for four years and this could be a great opportunity for her – but Jack doesn’t seem to notice her as a woman, just as the person who sorts his diary. And he can’t seem to disconnect from work for even two minutes.
And finally we have Charlie and Robin. They were on their way to Scotland for a snow-filled holiday with all the trimmings. Being stuck in a village pub hardly seems like a good substitute, but it seems like it might be all they ever needed, no matter what they are going through.
And over the time that they’re stuck in the pub together, we see each of the characters growing and changing – in ways we might expect, but also with some very unexpected twists.
Often when reading a book with a series of characters, it’s very easy to have a couple of characters that you don’t get on with, but I found all six to be intriguing and flawed, but beautiful in their own ways.
I won’t give away any spoilers, but I truly feel like this was a magical book, filled with the heart and soul of Christmas – a perfect read for this time of year. I was lost in the book for a weekend and it was just what I needed – thanks Milly for yet another fabulous read!
Louise Douglas
(I've got no) Shelf Control…
Louise Douglas 