• The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett- SO SO SO good! Lives up to the hype. Similarly to Life After Life, it has an unusual concept (three different ways life could have gone depending on what happened one afternoon between the two main characters. Imagine Sliding Doors). You find yourself really caring about the characters and, if you’re anything like me, you have a favourite version. It’s largely about how love changes over the years, how life can look so different depending on the decisions you make and, actually, how the “right” decision doesn’t always exist. I highly recommend it.

• How to Be Here by Rob Bell- I actually listened to this book *scandalous* and there’s nothing like hearing Rob Bell read his own book to you. Since Rob Bell writes the way he speaks, I actually really enjoyed it. Similarly to Judah Smith, I think you’ll either love or hate Rob Bell. It’s not a very “Christian” book in the way you might expect it to be, there aren’t many Bible references and he sometimes uses “the universe” where I would use God… however, if you go in knowing this and not expecting a “Christian” book then it’s a good one. Especially for those who are job hunting/not enjoying their jobs/not knowing their place in the world.

• A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson- A “companion piece” to Life After Life, where the protagonist is the brother of the protagonist in L after L. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as L after L, and it is based a lot more on the war. However, still a very well written book and enriches the reading of L and L. The guy who sold me this said it doesn’t matter which book you read first, but read Life after Life first!

• The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by Sun-mi Hwang- If I’m honest, I just read this one to bump up my book count… It’s a very short, sweet story about a mother’s love and an ambitious woman (hen). It’s quite absorbing so if you’re not much of a reader, I would recommend it.

• The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild- When I got this from Waterstones (other book shops are available), it said it was the most “surprising” book I would read this year. We’ll see about that, but yes this was quite surprising. I think I would have got a lot more out of this book if I had an understanding of and appreciation for the art world, but still I really enjoyed it. The title is quite misleading as I really wouldn’t call the book a love story. It’s quite genre-defying to be honest. It has elements of a “whodunnit”, comedy, history, culture… It’s a great book, with plenty of twists and turns, delightful characters and a love storyline so realistic it’s like an antidote to the typical boy-meets-girl story.  I recommend it.

SO we’re all caught up! I’m going to try and dedicate a blog post to each book and write them as soon as I’ve finished them so I can give a fair reflection of each.

I hope you’ve found these posts interesting/helpful! Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Ciao!

xxx