Monthly Book Stack Review July

From authors I’ve grown along side to authors who have encouraged me to grow, this was a beautiful month of books for me.

Here are 5 of my favourites from July.

She is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick

We often say you can’t know an other’s life until you walk in their shoes, but what about seeing through their eyes, or if they have a disability… experiencing the world through their framework whatever that may be.

A book about coincidences and syncronities. About family and relationships and about how we all experience the world around us. We follow a 16 year old girl on her search to find her missing father, and in doing so we experience her version of the world, one where she cannot see. The character enables us to think about how much of our lives and daily tasks we take completely for granted, and perhaps how we treat others less priviledged that we are. It is a fast read and very enjoyable, as well as being hugely thought provoking in many different ways. One that I’d like to read along side my teens and see what it brought up.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Where to start with this book other than, buy it! It is one I will reread numerous times over the years. I love philosophy and I have wasted countless hours pondering the choices that have taken my life on the path I have travelled, and there is no more fascinating question for me than what about the paths I didn’t take?

We live in a time in which there are more opportunities and possibilitities than ever before. The world seems smaller, more immediate and at times utterly overwhelming. The pressure to know what ‘your thing’ is and then find success and financial stability doing it, is extreme, and not at all helpful.

In this book Matt Haig takes us to a moment of death and the idea that in that moment there could be the space to try out those other lives. Would they be better, or worse, would you be happier, more fulfilled, richer, wilder, with different people, in different families? And what of the regrets from the original life, how could they guide you?

I think we all have questions like these, and this book explores them in an easy to read, enjoyable way which at the end leaves you with nothing but hope and perhaps a little more peace than you started.

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic

By Leigh Bardugo

You may have heard of Shadow and Bone, a series on Netflix. Leigh Bardugo created that amazing world and her talents are clear to see in this collection of short stories.

Some tales are her own versions of well-loved fairy tales in which a perception shift casts all the characters in a completely different light, others are of her own imagining. Focusing on the warnings embedded within stories told around the fire to our young for generations, Leigh brings worlds to life while managing to courage the reader to see the world in new ways.

This is definitely for the older child and adults of the house, and one that I’m sure will be read and reread, and passed along the line.

Later By Stephen King

There is a reason King has been so loved for so long, the man seriously knows how to write. He is fast paced, easy to read and he draws you in on the opening sentence, keeping your attention the whole way through. This was a day read and so satisfying. On the horror side as usual but not so dark that you wouldn’t enjoy it if that wasn’t your thing.  

We follow a young boy who has a special gift, one that not only frightens those around him but could be manipulated to unlock secrets no one else can access. Later gives us the benefit of hindsight but it’s our choice in the moment that shape the future.

She of The Sea by Lucy H Pearce

Lucy Pearce is in the business of writing books that take the reader on a journey that they return from transformed in some way. Her latest book is an exploration into all that the sea means to us, it’s connection to the feminine, from the myths and stories of mermaids and selkies, to the freedivers of Japan and cold-water swimming. It is magical.

I am one of 30 contributors to this journey. I share my connection to the Irish sea and what that body of water meant to me in my childhood and still does. It is a book that will return you to the joy of childhood moments chasing the waves, to the cleansing and healing we can experience as adults held safely in its waters.