Kathryn's Inbox

Booker Prize nominated author Patricia Lockwood had a very unusual childhood. So much so that she has written an impressive, darkly comic memoir about what it was really like to grow up in a household where her father was a gun-toting, guitar playing Roman Catholic priest. Children of Catholic priests are few and far between in the United States where Lockwood grew up--in fact her father who was already married with children when he converted to Catholicism due to a special, and still very new at the time, exception by the Catholic church that allowed Anglican priests or in Lockwood's case, Lutheran ministers, to become priests on conversion. Provided, of course, that the entire family passed a number of tests. Anyway, Lockwood was inspired to write the memoir when she and her husband returned to the family home after being away for twelve years. As is characteristic of Patricia Lockwood's writing style, Priestdaddy is written in short paragraphs and snippets that often feel d...

Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield are back in their fourth Sweet Valley Twins graphic novel. This time around the twins are divided when a mysterious new girl arrives at Sweet Valley Middle School. Nora Mercandy is quiet, slightly depressed and has a goth look about her. If that alone doesn't make her enough of a target in Sweet Valley, the world's capital of pointless and excessive schoolyard bullying, the fact that she is living in the old Mercandy house which is supposedly haunted and everyone thinks her grandparents are creepy certainly is.  This one was an interesting addition to the series. As is often the case in Sweet Valley, centres around Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield, highlighting the differences between the twins. While Elizabeth takes the time to get to know Nora, and finds her to be a sweet kid who is grieving for her mother and has little support from her ailing grandparents, Jessica is more focused on outward appearances and the opinions of her snooty friends--...

Acclaimed comedian Bill Bailey takes us well behind the scenes and into his other life as an animal lover in his memoir My Animals and Other Animals. (The title, of course, being a play on My Family and Other Animals. ) The stories are many, and mostly self-contained, telling the stories of beloved family pets (or should that be family members,) and various amusing encounters with animals as he travels across the globe. This book is a lot of fun. It is also fairly short and given the size of the font and spacing I'm a little surprised that publisher Hachette decided to print it as a trade paperback. The other unfortunate part of the book is that it isn't terribly memorable. I remember many of the stories made me laugh, but I actually remember very little of them. Still, it was a great way to spend an afternoon and one that I would recommend as a fun book to read between more serious reads or if you are in need of cheering up. Recommended. 

What if, the most famous man on the planet and one of your heroes was also the worst kind of human being? That is the reality experienced by Rose, the twenty-something protagonist of Gold Rush by Olivia Petter. Chance and circumstance leads Rose to strike up a friendship with rock star Milo Jax, but things take a strange turn after he invites her to his home. Rose can remember a night of drinking and flirtation, but her body is telling her a very different story... Olivia Petter tells a convincing story of what happens when women and their bodies are treated as commodities. Rose's confusion over the events of that evening, denial and a search for evidence then answers, and questions of self-worth are entirely convincing. It is also a story of celebrity culture and how some celebrities are able to use their fame in the most vile way possible--and how that same fame allows them to get away with it. The story isn't easy reading, and nor is it meant to be. Olivia Petter creates a s...

Okay. Just as the title suggests, I did not actually ask for this book. (Well, technically I did. I went to my local bookshop and asked if they had a copy.) Anyway, the fact that I didn't ask for this to be published doesn't mean that I find it any less funny. In this book, Jimmy & Nath from the radio show of the same name share a curated selection of jokes from listeners and various celebrities. And well ... they made me laugh, which is all the book had to do now that I stop and think about it. In all seriousness, this was a fun read, with some great jokes and illustrations, and I found myself picking it up on a few occasions when I was having a bad day. I was a bit hesitant to write a review for a couple of personal reasons, but then I figured stuff it. The book is a lot of fun and it gave me a few laughs and I would like to think that it might make other people laugh as well. Recommended. 

DK Yingst's debut Little Sister graphic novel adaption, Karen's Grandmother's (and ninth in the series overall) is a winner. This time around, we see Karen participating in a programme at school where the kids 'adopt' a grandparent at the local nursing home. Karen is very excited at the prospect. Thanks to her status as a 'two-two' this means she will now have five grandmothers overall--two biological grandmothers, two step grandmother and now an adopted grandmother. She thinks it might even be a record. The only flaw in this plan is that her little house bestie Nancy Dawes isn't sharing in her excitement. Nancy doesn't have a grandmother, she is afraid of old people and she most defiantly does not wish to take part in the programme. Karen needs a way to show Nancy that old people are pretty cool, but what happens when she sets Nancy and one of her grandmothers up as pen pals, and Granny from Nebraska starts taking more of an interest in Nancy and li...

In April 2024 beloved author Sophie Kinsella, whose bestsellers include The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic (titled Confessions of Shopaholic in the USA) and Can You Keep a Secret revealed that she had been diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer and had been receiving treatment since 2022. What Does It Feel Like is a semi-autobiographical account of her experiences--of making it as an author, getting onto the bestseller lists, seeing a book made into a movie and then finding herself in hospital, unable to remember the past few months and being given a very scary diagnosis.  Evie, the protagonist in What Does It Feel Like is not Sophie Kinsella, but their experiences are very similar. Broken into small chapters we experience Evie's highs and lows, her success, her diagnosis, treatment and, ultimately, a sense of hope. I found myself reaching for the tissues on a few occasions while I became fully invested in Evie's journey. The ending is not a fa...

  I'm thirty. I'm five years too old to lie to myself and call it honour.  This quote, spoken by The Great Gatsby narrator Nick Carraway to his former love interest Jordan Baker sums up F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel of self-delusion perfectly. It is a hot summer in the midst of the roaring twenties when Nick Carraway takes up a residence in a small town just outside of New York. He soon becomes intrigued by his new neighbour, Jay Gatsby whose reputation for hosting the perfect party has stretched far and wide. No one knows exactly how Gatsby got his money, but people flock far and wide to his residence for a good time. A friendship between Gatsby and Nick develops, though it soon becomes increasingly clear that Gatsby wants a friendship with Nick so that he can access Nick's glamorous cousin Daisy, who also just happens to be married to the very wealthy brute Tom Buchanan. What follows is a story of utter self-delusion, selfishness and the perils of trying to rec...

Powerful. Tense. Thought provoking. These are the words that instantly come to mind when I think about Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell. Set in Ireland in 2018, Nesting tells the story of Ciara, who, when she discovers that she is pregnant with her third child knows that she must leave her controlling husband Ryan for good. What follows is a roller coaster ride as Ciara tries to make a new life for herself and her children, whilst battling a husband who uses every form of psychological control to keep his hold over her, inadequate government support and her family are all in the United Kingdom. As the seasons pass, so too do the hardships and the level of control that Ryan has over her, leaving her to wonder if she can ever really break free... If you have ever witnessed someone trapped in an abusive relationship and wondered why don't they just leave, then I strongly suggest reading this book. The hardships Ciara faces while trying to protect herself and her children from a husba...