Posts

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Top Five Books of 2022

In no particular oder, here are my top five reads from this past year, books that have stayed with me and I know will do for some time. I have three fiction here, one non-fiction and a travelogue. I'm not normally into anything vaguely…
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A Year Of Reading Outside My Ethnicity - Results + Reflections

Towards the end of 2020, I decided to spend the following year reading outside my ethnic group. If you'd like to see my original blog post and the intention I set, click here. The vast majority of books published globally are written by authors…
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An Icelandic Flood of Books

It was only a couple of years ago that I first heard about Iceland's Christmas tradition of Jólabókaflóð, roughly translated to 'Christmas Book Flood.' On Christmas Eve each year, Icelanders cosy up in front of the fire, drink…
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May I touch your hair?

I recently read a book by Aja Barber called Consumed which caused me to take a long, hard look at the clothes I wear, their provenance, and how the clothing industry is helping to fuel the climate crisis. I've really never been into fashion…

July - September reading Authors of Colour

Looking back at my reads from April - June, it appears I read a whole lot more then than the July - September months. I'm not entirely sure why; I would have thought I'd had more time for reading over the summer holidays. Perhaps it was because…

How books behind bars are changing lives

Lockdown takes on an entirely different meaning for those behind bars. Reliant upon family members and friends visiting, as well as services such as the gym or library, over the past months of the pandemic these vital lifelines have all but…
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My 5 favourite books from the first half of 2018

'Someone reading a book is a sign of order in the world.' Mary Ruefle Over the past six months as I have been travelling round India, I have been reading and reading and reading. Not that this is any different from normal, but what has been…
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Why I still read aloud to my children

Its been 1.5 years since I wrote my last blog about reading aloud to children, even older children. My kids are now 11,9 & 7 and I thought I’d give an update on what we’re doing now. Well, I’m still reading to my three most nights…
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#FeministFebruary - A shout out from India

Virginia Woolf As February draws to a close, I am sneaking in with a quick blog post to celebrate #FeministFebruary as I only discovered its existence the other day. Coincidentally, I am reading Virginia Woolf's book A Room of One's Own (1929) at…
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Part 3 of my Self-Publishing Journey: The other side of the tunnel

In my previous blog charting part 2 of my self-publishing journey, I confessed that I had fallen out of love with my novel in quite a big way and that I was struggling significantly to move forwards with it. Well...I am pleased to say that…