If you've got a good book you'll never feel alone
How childhood reads and charity shop finds can shape your world
With the sun (mostly) shining in the UK and summer holidays in full swing elsewhere in the world, I thought I’d share a roundup of book recommendations, including beloved favourites and new delights. Reading has always been more than a pastime for me; it's a source of joy and connection. A book is a comforting friend, always there when I need it.
Amazingly, I learned to read at the age of three, almost four. My mum, before she retired, was a teacher, and she gave me this incredible gift so very young when we lived on a Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona. She is definitely my inspiration for reading – I’ve never known her not to be reading at least one book, she devours them in all sorts of genres.
Mum teaching me to read very early on
When we moved to the UK when I was four, and I began making trips back and forth to California to see my dad during the holidays, being able to read made those long flights fun. It was a time when I could indulge in reading endlessly, something I couldn’t always do at home. I was one of those kids who borrowed the maximum books from the library and read them with a torch under the covers when it was way past lights out.
Books: a powerful bond with friends and family
Books also strengthened my bond with my dad. Each summer, I was allowed to go to an amazing bookshop and pick some out. I always searched for the biggest and longest books or books in a series. I’ll never forget the year I discovered Laura Ingalls Wilder’s "Little House on the Prairie" books; I was hooked. I didn’t really know many people my age in California initially, but I didn’t really need to, as I had Laura and her siblings and all her adventures.
It quickly became known that I was an avid reader in our family, and another source of amazing books was my beloved Aunt Sue, who sadly died way too many years ago. As I got older, she’d let me loose on her bookshelves, and today me and my cousins are ‘friends’ on GoodReads and get great recommendations from each other. This shared love of books keeps our connection alive and is full of great memories.
Creative ways to afford books
It saddens me that books are now pretty pricey if you’re on a strict budget like I currently am. However, with patience, there are ways to find affordable books. There are great online sites I use like eBay or World of Books, I often listen to the newest books because I have an audiobook account and you get one brand new book a month. However, charity shops are still utter goldmines for all sorts of books. In certain (posher) towns and cities, you’ll find the latest books almost immediately because a lot of people who love to read don’t keep a lot of books anymore. Charity shop buys are so rewarding, and I completely agree with that old maxim, “You can't judge a book by its cover." I have found so many gems with dodgy-looking covers.
Publishing marketing departments seem to go through phases of what, in particular, will appeal to women, and this to my memory was especially in the 90s – wow did they get that wrong with the whole chick lit tropes which, incidentally, is a phrase that I wish could be removed from our vocabulary.
Incredible authors like Adele Parks, Lisa Jewell, and even the queen of all books in my lifetime, Marian Keyes, were initially ‘labelled’ in this way. I can sort of imagine why the decisions in the boardrooms of the publishing houses were made, the narrative style seems to be light and chatty, so of course, the cover needs to reflect this.
I wish the phrase ‘chick lit’ could be removed from our vocabulary
But that was not the beauty of these books; they draw you in with the characterisation, but then without noticing it, the themes often covered difficult, dark, and extremely relatable subjects. So, my top tip if you’re a new charity shop book buyer, please read at least the first few pages of a book, and you’ll get a much better idea of its style than the cover.
A recent epiphany shared by my lovely friend, Kate Tilson, who is a fabulously practical life coach, is that life is too short to finish a book you don’t enjoy. Yes, dear readers, you are allowed to stop reading a book if you aren’t into it. That doesn’t make you a bad person or mean it is a bad book; you just don’t click. I can’t tell you how freeing that concept is to me.
“Life is too short to finish a book you don’t enjoy.”
This brings me back to the belief that books are like friends. We spend a lot of alone time with a book, be it in print, online, or an audiobook, and given that most of us juggle the free time we have to make time to read, it had better give you all that good friends do. Make you feel so seen you relax, laugh out loud, and/or even teach you something that you wouldn’t have known if you’d just stayed in your own bubble. So choose wisely or give yourself a break and don’t feel like you’ve got to go on a metaphorical week-long holiday with a friend when you two are really best at waving hello across the street.
Below are my top three recommendations of new books I want to read, books I have recently read, and my all-time favourites. But before I take you to these, I read this quote in a moving and heart-wrenching essay in "Unmapped Storylands" by Elif Shafak right here on Substack.
“How many books can you take with you when you know you are leaving your home for good? How many books can you afford to carry in your suitcase when you are exiled from your home country?”
Perhaps this quote, more than anything, supports my conviction that books can be as precious as friends because, like good friends, they remind you of home.
Three books I have read recently:
"The Rachel Incident" by Caroline O'Donoghue – This is my favourite of all of Caroline’s books. I heard that the idea came from a note that the author wrote about her best friend on her phone as an idea for a book. Next thing you know she’s written a corker of a story that makes you laugh, keeps you guessing, and makes you want to ring your best friend straight away.
"This is Fine" by Poorna Bell – Poorna’s second fictional book is a beautifully and thoughtfully crafted page-turner. It’s not only about the relationship between sisters and nieces (a theme I am very fond of), what you’ll give up for love including yourself but oh my goodness, the food. The food. I’ll leave it at that. But please read.
"Tom Lake" by Ann Patchett – Oh, and another book about mothers and daughters and sisters – am I being too predictable? Nothing can ever be predictable in a book by Ann Patchett, and this doesn’t disappoint even though (spoiler alert) it’s set during lockdowns during the pandemic. Fortunately, this only serves as a narrative device as to why the story within the story is being told.
Three books I read every year:
"The Island of Missing Trees" by Elif Shafak - It’s magical realism, it’s a love story, and it’s also real, and some of it is very hard to stomach without tearing up. The words are so poetic I had to ration myself to a chapter a day, which is most unlike me.
"I Capture the Castle" by Dodie Smith – If you haven’t read this and you love books about grand old, crumbling houses, bohemian families with all sorts of characters you wish you’d met at the best party ever, this one’s for you.
"Rebecca" by Daphne Du Maurier – This classic intertwines suspense and romance, and is centered around the haunting presence of Rebecca in the lives of her husband and his new wife. So atmospheric and intricate you’ll be guessing right up until the last page.
Three books I’m lining up to read – all out this summer
"Versions of a Girl" by Catherine Gray – I’m intrigued because I know that the main protagonist is a teenager, Fern, whose life splits into two parallel versions, each path exploring the consequences of her choices. The fact that this teen’s lives are either in the UK or California means I have more than one personal reason for wanting to read this.
"The Lion Women of Tehran" by Marjan Kamali – Again, my fascination with friendship drew me to this book and how two people can be in the same place but live such different lives, but this story set over three decades shows how much social class and cultural changes can affect lives.
"Pity Party" by Daisy Buchanan – I adore Daisy’s writing and wit. This time she weaves a novel that looks at the themes of love, loss, and grief. I’m so sure that these will be delivered with her usual depth and charm that I have included below dates where you can go and see her and buy the book in person.
If you enjoyed my book recs, please let me know in the comments and/or notes, because I’ll be doing more. I would really welcome yours back…
This post was my first one taking part in the the 24 Essays Club devised by the lovely
over at . If you fancy a writing challenge find out how easy it is to join and it’s free!
Absolutely agree… books for joy and to enter worlds you never could in real life. Great recommendations thank you
Beautifully written! This once-upon-a-time book worm has sadly gone down the Netflix worm hole of late, however reading this has inspired me to go have a rummage in my local charity shop and pick up a book.