Behavioural Sociologist and Mass Communication Scholar. ILM-certified coach. Environmentalist. Ecofeminist. Vegetarian. Animal Lover. Former Journalist. PR Academic and Convert. Young scholar mentor. Championing research-led teaching. Empowering disempowered and always advocating.
Author: Elizabeth von Arnim I knew I loved the 1920s fashion, the amazing flapper, bob, and heavy makeup. I often think that if time travel were ever invented, I would want to go to 1920s Chicago and find speakeasies and see American women wearing flappers, heavy makeup, and short hair for the first time, and…
Author: Amanda James Imagine getting a flyer to visit the Midnight Bookshop, which you first must find by looking for it at midnight, and only then can you also visit during the daytime. Imagine that the bookshop has magical powers. Then imagine that these flyers were distributed to people visiting food banks due to the…
Author: Carrie Anne Noble The Mermaid’s Sister is a story of two girls adopted by a good fairy who raised them. One washed ashore wearing shells around her head, and the other one was brought by a stork. Now, they are both teenagers. Maren is transforming into a mermaid. This brings a whole set of…
Author: Anne Tyler Back When We Were Grownups is a psychological novel exploring the inner world of the main character, Rebecca Davitch. Rebecca married Joe Davitch, an owner of a family business organizing parties, and she met him when she attended her friend’s engagement party. Joe was divorced with three little girls, whilst Rebecca was…
Author: Emilia Hart Weyward is a story of three women, one living in the 1960s, one in the 1940s, and one in the present day. The women are all related and going through similar issues, just at different times and social circumstances. I loved this social aspect, as well as the focus of the book…
Author: Judy Leigh A Grand Old Time is another book by Judy Leigh, a UK author writing about senior people and their lives, which is so unusual and so, so, so beautiful. I absolutely love the messages Leigh sends with her stories. Life is not over until it’s over, and we can always change things…
Author: Judy Leigh The Old Girls’ Network is a book by Judy Leigh, the UK’s leading author about second chances and never being too late to change our lives. I previously read The Vintage Village Bake Off, The Golden Gals French Adventure, and The Golden Oldies’ Book Club. In this book, we meet Barbara, a…
Author: Barbara Davis The Echo of Old Books is a wonderful story of love, betrayal, and history. We meet a bookshop owner who can feel the emotions of people who owned books before her, and who then goes on a quest to read two unpublished books written by two lovers to one another. These two…
Author: Stephanie Butland The Second Chance Book Club is a new book by Stephanie Butland, one of my favourite authors. I read it as soon as it was published, but as workload and other shambles would have it, I am only writing a blog now. In this book, Stephanie Butland does what she does best:…
Author: Helen Phifer The Vanishing Bookstore is a book I wanted to read but at the same time, I didn’t so I could savor it. Therefore, I spread it for a week because I just had to, and I felt sorry when I finished it. The Vanishing Bookstore is a book telling the story of…
Author: Bella Osborne The Girls is a book by Bella Osborne, an author of The Library: A Novel (see my blog here). The Girls is a story of four women: one famous actress, now single and three times divorced; a divorced former solicitor; a widowed secretary, and a carer who never married. The four women…
Author: Daniella Brodsky Princess of Park Avenue is the second book in a series by Daniella Brodsky. The first one was the Diary of a Working Class Girl (read here). I am reading these books as part of my research into fashion and find them very valuable because characters in the book live fashion in…
Author: Barbara O’Neal When We Believed in Mermaids is a story of two sisters. I purchased the book because I thought it would have something to do with fantasy, which I felt like reading, but I was wrong and found myself in a surprise, reading about a search for a lost sister. The book is…
Author: Sara Nisha Adams The Reading List is the first and most absolutely beautiful book by British author Sara Nisha Adams. The book was one of those Amazon algorithm recommendations, and once again, the algorithm did not betray me because I absolutely loved this book. The Reading List centres on books, their transformative and healing…
Author: Judy Leigh The Vintage Village Bake Off is a novel by Judy Leigh, an author of the Golden Oldies’ Book Club and The Golden Gals’ French Adventure, two of the books I read before (out of many she wrote, which are on my reading list). As with the previous two books, I also enjoyed…
Author: Margaret Atwood The Blind Assassin is a very interesting book written mainly from the perspective of Iris Chase, later Griffin, who narrates her life. However, the book also has elements of social history, which were cleverly written, thus, there are various fictional newspaper articles, obituaries, etc. I thought this was very interesting because while…
Author: Judy Leigh The Golden Gals’ French Adventure is another story by Judy Leigh. I previously read her The Golden Oldies’ Book Club and enjoyed it. I also enjoyed this book because, once again, Judy Leigh sends a message of anti-ageism and shows that it is never too late to change your life and make…
Author: Janis Wildy The English Bookshop is a story of an American woman from Seattle who had a British father who left her and her mum when she was a little girl. Her mother remarried an American guy who became her dad. After her stepdad’s death, she left college and started to run his family…
Author: Judy Leigh The Golden Oldies’ Book Club is a lovely story of friendships among women based in Somerset, England. The story revolves around Jeannie Sharrock, an owner of a cider farm, and Aurora, her school friend who works in the farm shop. We also meet other neighbours and friends such as Ruth who moved…
Author: Patric Gagne Sociopath: A Memoir is a book by Patric (Patricia) Gagne, allegedly a diagnosed sociopath who wrote a memoir about her struggle of being a sociopath and trying to find a place in society that appreciates empathy, emotions and being like everyone else. While reading, I kept thinking of a book I read…
Author: Amanda James The Garden of Memories is a beautiful homage to friendships, communities and nature. The book is about the power of a garden and plants in bringing people together, forming friendships and being able to open up about themselves and their life stories even when they have just met. I could never properly…