A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Rating: B

This was exactly the cosy thriller I needed to spend time with in October. The story centres around Pip who decides to look into the closed case of schoolgirl Andie Bell. The novel is cleverly plotted with twists and turns, so that it is only until the bitter end that all is revealed.

It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover

Rating: B-

Colleen Hoover’s sequel to her phenomenally successful novel It Ends With Us tells the love story between Lily and Atlas. The book is no literary sensation but it was everything I needed it to be as the winter months draw in.

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune

Rating: A-

For anyone who’s a fan of the TV show – The Summer I Turned Pretty – this novel embodies all the emotions that that series brought up. A delight of a novel, the story centres around Percy’s return to the coastal town where she grew up, where she reunites with the love of her life – Sam. It’s heartwarming, tender and joyful.

dear dolly by Dolly Alderton

Rating: A

Dolly Alderton’s collection of her Sunday Times columns feels like a warm hug from a big sister, though there are no big revelations in her advice, what Alderton brings is love, tenderness and charm delivered with a steady wit and humour throughout.

The Christie Affair by Nina De Gramont

Rating: A-

This is a fictional account of the real Agatha Christie disappearance on Friday 3 December 1926 at around 9:30 p.m. The novel is told from the perspective of Nan O’Dea, the mistress of Agatha’s husband, Archie. It is an immensely creative, fascinating and shocking account of what she imagines could have happened on those days that Christie was missing.

Something Wilder by Christina Lauren

Rating: B-

The Bounty Hunter meets a Hallmark movie in this novel from Christina Lauren. Though by no means the smartest of their novels, this is still an immensely quick and readable novel.

The Devil You Know by Dr Gwen Adshead

Rating: A+

An absolutely fascinating examination of Dr Adshead’s therapy sessions with various figures in the criminal system – from serial killers to mothers on the brink of losing their children. What this novel will give you is an empathy for the human side of these figures that are the topic of so much vitriol and it is fascinating.

The post Everything We Read in October 2022 appeared first on off the record.

Dolly Alderton has announced that her best-selling memoir ‘Everything I Know About Love’ is set to become a TV show. The journalist will adapt the memoir for a television drama for the BBC. In the award-winning book, Alderton frankly explored her relationships – love, friendship and parental – and what it meant to be growing up as a millennial – with her group of female friends providing support and humour as she navigated her life and love life. The series will follow two close female friends as they enter their first flat-share in London and navigate early adulthood.

Sharing on the BBC Press Office, the TV series is described as:

“Adapted by award-winning journalist Dolly Alderton from her own wildly funny, occasionally heart-breaking, internationally bestselling memoir of the same name, Everything I Know About Love, gives an unflinching account of surviving your 20s.

Maggie and Birdy, besties since school, finally land in London to live it large, when the unexpected happens – dependable Birdy gets a steady boyfriend. A generous, funny, warm-hearted and uplifting Sex & The City for Millennials which covers bad dates and squalid flat-shares, heartaches and humiliations, and, most importantly, unbreakable female friendships.

Dolly Alderton says: “Everything I Know About Love is a semi-fictionalised adaptation of my memoir of the same name. It’s a messy, boisterous, joyful, romantic comedy about two best female friends from childhood and what happens when they move in to their first London house share and the first phase of adulthood. I cannot stress enough how thrilled I am that it is being made by Working Title and the BBC.”

Everything I Know About Love is executive produced by Jo McClellan for the BBC, Dolly Alderton, and Surian Fletcher-Jones, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner for Working Title Television, which is part of NBCUniversal International Studios, a division of Universal Studio Group.“

The post Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton to Become A TV Show appeared first on off the record.

1. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

I know there has been a wide debate on this one in the Bookstagram community, but I LOVED and was so captivated by this read as a novel in its own right. The story revolves around Lydia, when her whole family is decimated by a drug cartel, she escapes with her son to make her way to America. My heart was in my mouth as she made the treacherous journey up to ‘El Norte.’ Cummins really fleshes out Lydia’s psyche and the story in granular detail and it’s a real page-turner.

Rating: A+

2. Ghosts by Dolly Alderton

Wildly popular writer Dolly Alderton’s first novel is worth the wait, this is Bridget Jones for the millennial generation, with more thoughtfully fleshed out characters and deeper insights into the internal psyche of the characters. Centred around Nina, a single woman in her thirties, this is more than just a book about love and dating but one around the broader spectrum of relationships and emotions that we all experience, a stunning debut.

Rating: A

3. Verity by Colleen Hoover

Recommended by The Bad on Paper podcast, this is an indulgently juicy thriller, the true definition of a page-turner replete with twists and turns that you won’t see coming. Verity is a sublimely creepy romantic thriller and you’ll be thinking about it for weeks to come once you finish the final page.

Rating: A-

4. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

A cult classic that blurs literary genre boundaries, this was the most curiously difficult read on my list. A collection of short stories there were some real gems in here but they were marred by some weirder stories that – to be frank – I didn’t see the point of.

Rating: B

5. The Mothers by Brit Bennett

Having adored her 2020 release, The Vanishing Half, I was excited to delve into Bennett’s first novel The Mothers. Truthfully, I wasn’t as blown away by this release as I was The Vanishing Half but this is still a juicy read delving into the intricacies of a love triangle.

Rating: A-

6. Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

Nominated for The Booker Prize this year, Burnt Sugar dives into the intricacies of a relationship between a mother and a daughter, devastatingly honest and raw, the writing is caustically sharp and honest.

Rating: A-

7. You Had Me At Hola by Alexis Daria

As far as juicy romances go, this is a good one, the literary equivalent of a PSL, indulgent, a tad basic but we love it anyway. Set on the set of a telenovela, the novel details the romance between the show’s two main characters on and off screen, but is refreshingly honest about relationships.

Rating: B+

8. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Brutally honest and to the point, Whitehead doesn’t waste a word in his sharp prose that tells the story about the Nickel detention centre, this is an eye-opening look into racism at play – leaving you empty and disbelieving at the inherent and harsh brutality that is the common experience for so many.

Rating: A

9. Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed

Feeling like a mother’s embrace, this collection of Agony Aunt letters that Strayed wrote under the pseudonym ‘Sugar’ is raw, honest and real doled out with love and is a stunning and unique read.

Rating: A

10. The Guest List by Lucy Foley

Foley’s ‘The Hunting Party’ was a stunning debut thriller and her follow-up ‘The Guest List’ is no less surprising and clever. Narrating a murder at a wedding party in remote Ireland, the novel twists and turns such that you are unable to predict either the victim or the murderer till the final pages.

Rating: A-

11. Little White Lies by Philippa East

This was an interesting read but not a page-turner, telling the aftermath of a discovered child’s return home, having been abducted for seven years. It’s an interesting dive into the after-effects of a scenario that seems unfathomably difficult but the characters are insufficiently fleshed out to make this a stellar read.

Rating: C+

12. Intimations by Zadie Smith

Our first COVID-19 reads are approaching and Zadie Smith’s intimations is a collection of essays and reflections on 2020, this is one you’ll come back to time and again – quote to anyone at length. Smith’s magic is in her ability to capture both the individual and the collective psyche shrewdly but not patronisingly.

Rating: A+

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