Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

"Don't wish your days away." How Charlie Sheen is still alive is a mystery to many 🤯. The torture that he's put his body through is mind-blowing. Yet here he is, still here and ready to tell his story. When I saw his memoir was out as an audiobook 🎧, I reserved it from Libby (there was a long wait ⏳), and settled down to listen to the man himself tell me about how in fact, he was still alive! Charlie Sheen has been in the background of my life forever I think, but I really started to notice him when he was in Two and a Half Men, a sitcom that I loved 📺. But he starts his book way before that point. The book was really sobering (pardon the pun), 🍸🚫 and I found it incredibly interesting. Charlie doesn't pull any punches, he knows he was a total a**h**e, he knows he has no right to still be with us and he doesn't blame anyone but himself. As he finally approaches sobriety, he tells us about it with positivity and hope, and as he writes, he's eight years ...

“Some of the nicest people I know are decomposing as we speak. I’ve always liked graveyards. I like reading the headstones.” Billy Connolly is a legend and one of my favourite comedians of all time, so when I saw this audiobook, I grabbed it and devoured it with both ears. Billy’s stories never age. However many times you’ve heard them, his observational wit remains second to none. As he narrates — as eloquently as anyone can in a Glasgow accent — his ramblings in that unmistakable, inimitable style, I felt as though I was travelling alongside him. Every road, every adventure, every wonderfully odd character he encounters — you’re right there with him. He had me in stitches in every chapter. This is the sort of book that makes you laugh regardless of the mood you’re in. On days when life felt heavy, Billy could always lighten it. He is a gentleman and a scholar, and he will remain a Scottish icon long after he’s gone. Realistically, that time may not be too far away — and that makes th...

"Are you certain of the diagnosis? Is there any chance you might be wrong?" 📖 A unique and in-depth read, this book explores the trauma the Plourde family face when they receive the devastating news that their son’s leukaemia has returned. 💔 If You Knew… is an incredibly emotional story that will tug at your heartstrings every step of the way. 😢 We live through each moment of Gabriel’s treatment plan as he prepares for a bone marrow transplant. 🏥 ✨ Alongside the true-life elements of the story is a fictional take on how someone might change their life if they knew what the future held. ⏳ Do you carry on as normal, knowing what lies ahead will be traumatic, or do you try to change your path before anything bad can happen? 🤔 📚 This isn’t the type of fiction I would usually choose to read — I tend to avoid authors like Jodi Picoult because I often find the stories too sad — but I really enjoyed this one. ❤️ The time-traveller aspect is woven in nicely and adds an interesti...

“I couldn’t, I won’t take this second chance from you. … Just go! Be happy!” It's been a while since I listened to Nineteen Steps by Millie Bobby Brown, but I'm finally catching up with my reviews. This was one we chose for one of my Instagram book clubs and, as always, I went into it completely blind. I had no idea what it was about, or that it was based on true events, but I'm oh so glad I listened to it. It was so, so good.  I adore historical fiction, set in and around World War II. Nellie Morris was so lovely, as our protagonist, but she had to deal with so much, as the bombs rained down around her. My emotions ranged from happy to sad, to happy again and then to devastated as the love with her American airman looks so idyllic and positive, until the world caves in around them both.  There are hundreds of thousands of stories which could be told about people's experiences during WWII. I'm so pleased that Millie Bobby Brown decided to tell the world about this o...

'The South West is like a Christmas stocking – all the nuts end up at the bottom .' It's thanks to Sarah, @emeraldreader that I reserved myself an audiobook version of this on Libby and dived right in, as soon as it became available. If it weren't for Sarah, I wouldn't have known this book existed! Sue is probably most famously known as the other half of Mel and Sue, from The Great British Bake-Off. But I was interested in listening to how she got to where she did and the obstacles which she overcame on her journey. Sue is a very funny, hugely popular comedian, born in London at the tail-end of the 1960s. I adored this audiobook from beginning to end. Sue We used to go to the Gower on holiday, every, single, year and Sue talks about beaches that I visited all the time. I loved it! Sue is hilarious, with an incredibly witty, yet dry sense of humour which I guarantee will have you laughing out loud. Although there may be a moment (Pickle) when you might shed a tear. ...

 Eye-opening, heartbreaking and insightful. Thanks to #classiclitbookclub I am revisiting many of the books I read as a child or in my teenage years and The Diary of a Young Girl is one of them. I'm unsure whether I read it at school or on my own but I was fascinated and heartbroken, then and now. Fascinated that such a young girl - Anne was just thirteen when he family went into hiding in the 'annexe' - wrote her diaries in such an adult and eloquent way, and despite the hardships surrounding her, she wrote with wit and humour, often making the best of an absolutely horrendous situation. She had a sarcasm about her that made me giggle as I was listening to the amazing narration of Helena Bonham Carter, who brought Anne's personality to life as she retold Anne's writings.  Of course we all know the ending, which was devastatingly heartbreaking, as Anne was eventually captured and sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where, at just fifteen years of age, she m...

Jeremy Clarkson - he’s a bit like Marmite. you either love him or hate him, I don’t think there’s really any middle ground. I love him. Yes, he’s a pompous ass some of the time, but he’s funny, he has an amazingly sarcastic sense of humour, he’s politically incorrect a lot, and I mean a lot, of the time but he’s done alright for himself so something must be working!  If you’re unfamiliar with Clarkson, he’s a petrolhead first and foremost and you’ll best know him for Top Gear and more recently The Grand Tour, but he’s got a sideline too. A farm in the heart of the Cotswolds in the middle of England. A farm called Diddly Squat. In this audiobook, Jeremy tells of his first year on the farm to go alongside the TV show on Amazon Prime.  Full of crop failures, too much sunshine, too much rain, vindictive sheep and a massive, massive tractor that wouldn’t fit in the tractor shed. This book is a delight to listen to and will have you laughing out loud. If you don’t like Jeremy, then ...

I think I’ve been living under a rock or something. I had no idea, absolutely none at all, as to why Prince Harry’s book was called Spare, or indeed what a ‘Spare’ was. For those of you who are unclear (and I’m presuming it’s not many of you), Prince Harry was/is the spare. William - the heir - Harry - the spare. It’s as simple (and as callous) as that! I know memoirs are one-sided and yes, we’re only hearing one person’s point of view, reasoning and opinions, but you have to go with what you are listening to or reading at the time, right? Throughout his book, I often felt saddened at the things Harry was telling me but a lot of the time, to be honest, I wanted to tell him to stop moaning so much - and he moans a lot, particularly about William and Kate but then to be fair, if what he says is true, then they often had complaints about Meghan so he was only standing up for her! In all honesty, and as other reviewers have stated, maybe Harry’s story would have been more balanced if he’...

I wasn’t really what I’d call a Spice Girls fan, not like some people were. I was probably a bit too old at twenty-something when they were at the height of their fame, but I enjoyed some of their music and, well; they are more or less the same age as me so of course I’m nosey and interested in how lives pan out. Melanie Chisholm - Mel C - Sporty Spice, one of five girls who responded to an advertisement in the paper to form what was to become one of the most famous girl groups of all time. Listening to Melanie narrate her own story was at times fun, at other times a hard listen, but amazingly entertaining and interesting. She is open and honest about the good and bad times. The difficult times she had with her fellow band members but also, and what stood out for me, was the amount of fun and friendship that was evident for much of the time. Throughout the book, Melanie’s fighting spirit shone through, and I’m so glad she decided to share her story. I would recommend the audiobook to a...

I have just closed this book, and a shiver went right through me, as it did throughout the time I was reading it. We all know about Auschwitz and many of you will have read fiction books based on actual events throughout this time, indeed one of my favourite genres is historical fiction. However, I have never been as moved and affected as when reading The Stable Boy of Auschwitz. ‘A heartbreaking true story of courage and survival’, as stated on the cover; honestly, this is an understatement. Henry (Heinz) Oster was just eleven years old when the Second World War began and this book is his memoir as he revisits those heart-wrenching and traumatic years of his childhood. The first three chapters are primarily about the history of the Jewish people and how Adolf Hitler came to be in power. The next fifty-four are an account of Henry’s horrific story, how he coped and how he endured and survived the Holocaust. Told from a very personal viewpoint, The Stable Boy of Auschwitz is just one m...

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thank you to NetGalley, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and Pantheon Books for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings by Helen Jukes. I chose this book to read and review as I am fascinated by all bees, but in particular in learning more about the workings of a honeybee hive. Written as a memoir, Helen Jukes takes us through a year of her life in which she expresses an interest in bees, is gifted a swarm and then learns as much as she can before she collects them for her own hive. This book was extremely educational and informative and I enjoyed learning as much about the history of bees as Helen did, although I’m sure she only scratched the surface in what she shared with her reader. Although predominantly about the author’s beekeeping, we learn a little of her life, her work and her friends at the same time and occasionally, I forgot I was reading a non-fiction book as I was transported into the bee world. The book is well-written and th...