Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

"Out on the pond the water is absolutely still. A fish jumps and, in its wake, leaves a trail of concentric circles. I watch them bleed out and around the edges until they are reabsorbed, as if nothing ever happened." 🌊🐟 March's read for #kindlecrushchallenge was The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller, another book that's been missing in the depths of my Kindle for a few years! 📚 I enjoyed this book the more I read it. It's definitely a slow-burner, flicking between twenty-four hours in the present day and back in Elle's childhood. ⏳ It's a great work of literary fiction where Miranda leaves the reader wondering what on earth it is that they've just digested. 🤔 It wasn't until I was probably a quarter of the way in that I settled into the rhythm of the story and began to enjoy it, if indeed you can enjoy a book with so many disturbing triggers! 😬 The ending has been left to the reader's imagination - I think - at least that's the w...

“It’s strange to think that this little black bean will grow up to be a big plant and that plant will have its own seeds to make another plant and another seed and this will go on, over and over again, for years...” My Name is Leon was recommended to me by my cousin, and it’s set in and around Birmingham — my hometown — which immediately drew me in 🏙️. I listened to the audiobook via Libby, narrated by a true Black Country lad, Lenny Henry, while pottering about 🎧. For those who don’t know, Lenny Henry is a comedian, so I went in expecting something light-hearted… but it’s far from that! While there are moments of humour, the story is often upsetting and deeply moving 💔 — powerful and eye-opening, set against the backdrop of the Birmingham riots in the early 1980s. I loved Leon’s story ❤️. I adored Tufty, his allotment friend 🌱 (who I’m guessing Lenny Henry plays in the TV adaptation), and I really admired Maureen as his foster carer through much of the book. It’s the kind of story...