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Mhairi McFarlane – Don’t You Forget About Me
New year, new me? Nope. In typical Louise fashion, I spent new year’s day sick on the sofa instead of at my brother in law’s new years party. The only consolation? This delightful book which completely transported me away from my living room and into Georgina’s world. Georgina doesn’t seem to be having the best
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She Reads Truth – Advent 2019: A Thrill of Hope
“A Thrill of Hope, the weary world rejoices”. O Holy Night – one of my favourite Christmas hymns. And I’ve sure been feeling weary these last few months. This for me was the perfect reading plan for Advent – getting ready to celebrate Christmas in the best way possible – by reading the Bible. I
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Dave Walker – How to Avoid the Peace
I’ve been a fan of Dave Walker’s cartoons in the Church Times for quite a while now, and last year when I saw this book was coming out, I absolutely had to buy it for my husband, who is a reluctanct peace hand-shaker at best. He loved it straight away, and I ‘ve been slowly
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Charlie Mackesy – The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse
Utterly captivating, I can 100% see why this book won the Waterstones book of the year prize. As the author says in the introduction, you could pick this book up and open it at any page at random and it would still work, but reading it through as a story totally worked for me too.
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Jeff Lucas – Lucas Out Loud
I picked this book up in the second hand book basket at my Church after flipping through it randomly and reading a page about the perils of radio-microphones as a vicar/speaker. It made me laugh out loud, so I decided I might as well read the whole thing. Presented as a series of short articles
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Krish Kandiah – Faitheism
“When we are not afraid to talk about our beliefs, our conversations are richer as a result.” So is the basis for this thought-provoking book by Krish Kandiah. Each chapter presents two opposing viewpoints of Christianity vs Atheism for example “Christians are boring / Atheists are fun”. Each one is split into four sections: Collision,
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Ewa Jozefkowicz – Girl 38
At the start of this book, we’re introduced to Kat, a young girl who loves nothing more than to draw her comic books. Her parents work long hours and she’s often alone, and she’s feeling out of touch with her childhood best friend Gem, who is becoming more and more like a tyrant than a
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Kevin Murphy & Laurence O’Keefe – Heathers: The Musical
I went to see Heathers last year when it was in the west end – mainly because one of my favourite actresses (Carrie Hope Fletcher) was in it, but it turned out to be one of the best musicals I’ve seen – and completely not what I expected. While I was there, I picked up
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Ele Fountain – Boy 87
Oh. Em. Gee. This book was filed in the children’s book section of my library app, so I didn’t quite expect what was coming. Not an easy read, for sure, but definitely one that was worth reading. I started this when I got into bed at 10.30pm on boxing day and basically stayed awake til
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Matt Haig – Reasons to Stay Alive
Wow. All I can say is that I wish I’d read this book way before now. I’ve been struggling with my mental health this year and if I’d read this book in January/February, I may have had a much easier time of it. Part an autobiography of Matt Haig’s own experiences. and part advice on
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Julie Murphy – Dumplin’
Before I read this, I’d watched it on Netflix, not realising it was based on a book. I thought the Netflix show was great, the cast was fantastic and the story was captivating. I’m happy (but not surprised) to say the book was even better – I read it in one sitting! Willowdean Dickson is
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Sophie Kinsella – I Owe You One
Fixie Farr has a reputation for always needing to fix things. Whether it’s just something out of place in her family shop, or something much bigger, she just can’t help herself. But most of the time, she ends up just causing more trouble by trying to make everything perfect. When she saves a stranger’s laptop
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She Reads Truth – I Am: Statements of Our Savior
Another fabulous reading plan from She Reads Truth. This is one of their shorter ones at only 14 days, and takes us through the things that Jesus tells us that he is. Beautifully laid out and giving space to just breathe in the Bible verses contained within, I found this to be one of my
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Michelle Elman – Am I Ugly?
I’ve been following Michelle on Instagram for quite a while (if you’re not following her, check her out, her feed is brill), and when I saw her book was reduced on Kindle, I had to buy it. I love what Michelle has to say about body positivity and looking after your own mental health, and
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Claire McGowan – What You Did
Not my usual kind of book, but I got this one for free through the Amazon First Reads program and it kept me going through a long couple of train journeys to London and back. I say not my usual kind of book, I’ve read crime/thrillers before and I usually do find them quite enjoyable,
Louise Douglas
(I've got no) Shelf Control…
Louise Douglas 