Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

“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...

'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. ...

Immerse yourself in the most gorgeous gardens in the world.  This is such a gorgeous book, full of beautiful pictures from amazing gardens, all over the world. I'd love to visit even just a fraction of these. We love a road trip, so maybe now I will need to persuade my husband that a garden needs to be incorporated into each vacation! The book also includes lots of ideas for you to travel and enjoy outdoor spaces. A great coffee table book that will definitely give your guests something to talk about! Thank you to Sabrina Dax and Lonely Plant for the gifted copy of The Joy of Exploring Gardens. About the Book Discover 60 of the world's most spectacular gardens plus 120 travel ideas to ignite a love of outdoor spaces. Featuring the history of every botanical gem, beautiful photography and trip planning tips, this uplifting book explores the restorative effects of flora and fauna, and the joy to be experienced from each of the inspiring gardens inside it. Walk spellbinding nature...

 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...

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...

Some of you will know that Las Vegas is my happy place, so when I saw that James Patterson had collaborated with Mark Seal to tell stories from a wide variety of people, I knew I just had to read it myself. Although in this case I actually grabbed myself a copy from Libby, settled down with my husband for a 6-hour drive and we both drifted off to the lights and fascination that is Las Vegas.  Many of the stories we already knew, but many we didn’t. From the Elvis impersonator who officiates at weddings, to the millions of dollars spent on Cirque du Soleil shows, each story took us emotionally back to the neon city in the middle of the desert while physically we were driving along the dreary winter lanes of the UK. A ton of research from both James and Mark has gone into this delightful insight into the sights and sounds of Las Vegas. I was particularly fascinated by the young man who unknowingly hit a jackpot as the machine failed and the Nevada Gaming Commission had just a few wee...

I’m not a massive Britney Spears fan. In fact, I can’t say I’m a fan at all, but I was intrigued to listen to her story after hearing so much about it from other readers. I was also a little curious as to why she had cancelled her Las Vegas residency so quickly when it was evident she had a huge amount of fans out there. Honestly, it was heartbreaking that someone who was so talented and wanted to live the dream they had had as a little girl could be squashed flat and controlled so heartlessly by her family, but predominantly by her father.  Her conservatorship battle in court goes to show that hopefully, in the majority of cases, right will win and evil will be punished. Yes, Britney is a little bat-shit crazy, but no one deserves to be treated like that. I’m pleased she got the right outcome in the end. Britney opens the audiobook by stating that she cannot bear to read her story herself without getting upset which is the reason Michelle Williams narrates it. Although her voice d...

In one of my Instagram book clubs, we decided that January would be non-fiction month, and Dawn French’s The T**t Files was the overwhelming winner when we all voted. As soon as I discovered this was the choice, I thought what could be better than Dawn reading the book herself, in her own inimitable style.  I found the book on Audible and settled down, just after Christmas, to begin listening. What a hilarious journey Dawn takes you on throughout the book as she travels through her illustrious career, sharing with the listener, the mistakes she’s made, the misunderstandings she’s encountered and basically, how she has made a champion t**t of herself (her words - not mine)! I laughed out loud; I shared stories with my husband and I snorted into my tea as I was listening to Dawn’s ramblings. I resonated with so many of her stories, telling her that yes, I too had almost ridden a horse upside down! (Well, it was actually a fat pony - but same difference)! The T**t Files is a perfect e...

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...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thank you to NetGalley, Thread Books and Bookouture Audio for the opportunity to listen to, and review an ARC of In my Mother's Footsteps, written by Mona Hajjar Halaby and narrated by Lameece Issaq. Halaby's mother had to leave her home in Palestine in 1948 during the Arab-Israeli war, firstly living in Egypt and then in Geneva, Switzerland.  Halaby herself then met her husband-to-be in Geneva and they moved to California where they made their life.  As their children left home and were leading their own lives, Mona jumped at an opportunity to spend a year in Ramallah, Palestine, teaching Conflict Resolution in a local school.  Throughout her time there, Mona kept a journal of her day-to-day life, her integration with the children and her travels through her mother's homeland, visiting places that her mother was telling her about in her regular letters to her daughter.  As the months go on, Mona's mother and father make the long journey from Geneva to visit he...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I bought ‘This is Going to Hurt’ during lockdown 1.0 in 2020 but I’ve only just got around to reading it (the dilemma of having too many books to choose from)!  Having worked in the NHS for 25 years as a Receptionist/Secretary and Personal Assistant, I thought it would be interesting to see what Adam Kay went through as a junior doctor.   Adam Kay wrote snatched entries into his secret diaries whenever he had a chance, ‘after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends.  Beginning when he got his first post as a House Officer through to when he quit medicine as a Senior Registrar.  Throughout his stories, he holds nothing back, being totally honest about what he thinks of the NHS, his colleagues and his patients.  For anyone who thinks a doctor has things easy and gets paid a lot, and for anyone who doesn’t work in the NHS (and those who do) - read this book - I think you will be surprised. I loved the honesty Adam brings to his diaries and I’m gues...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. In Septemb er 2021 we have a 5-week road trip booked in America, flying to Atlanta, Georgia and travelling South, then West, then North a bit and finally East, back to Atlanta!  Whether this will happen in September 2021 remains to be seen as currently (June 2021) we still aren’t allowed to travel there from the UK.   Never mind, we will get there eventually, I tell myself!  If you are reading this and there is also a post on this blog for the trip, then we made it at some point!  In the meantime I thought I would get myself in the mood, so we watched BBC1’s ‘Stephen Fry in America’ and I decided to listen to the audiobook too. In his own inimitable style, with wry humour and enthusiasm, Stephen tells us of his journey across the 50 (or 51 - I’m still not sure) states of the United States of America in an English, black taxi cab, collecting fridge magnets as he goes!   Stephen meets and talks to fascinating people, views wondrous landscapes and ...

⭐⭐⭐⭐  Thank you to NetGalley and Ad Lib Publishers for the opportunity to review 'Off-Road with Clarkson, Hammond & May' before its publication date.  Now I've always loved watching 'the boys' on TV. When I still lived at home, it became a Sunday night ritual to all sit down together to watch Top Gear, and this continued when I moved out. I thankfully found a husband who was also into the boys' antics, and we continued my tradition of Sunday night viewing, so when I was given this opportunity to read all about their escapades on tour, I jumped at the chance. Phillipa Sage, the author, became a piece of the furniture when Clarkson, Hammond & May were on tour, I can't remember what her official title was but she held everything together, dealing with Jeremy's diva moments (and yes, there were many), whilst organising hotels, restaurants and seemingly every little thing related to the tours. Phillipa reflects on her memories of the years she was wit...