I’m Jo Johnson, by day I work as a clinical psychologist and by night I write psychological suspense. I chose this title because I love belonging to my book group. Over the last twenty years we’ve read the good, the bad, and the ugly. But, the novels that have kept us chatting are the fast-paced novels that have touched our minds, hearts, and souls. The books that made us cry and laugh in equal measure. The books that introduced us to characters so real we spoke of them like friends. I love books that have changed me into a better person for having read them.
The book is set in the early eighties against the backdrop of the Handsworth riots and the royal wedding.
Nine-year-old Leon narrates his own story which makes it more heart-wrenching as he doesn’t really know what’s going on. When it’s obvious his mum can’t parent her boys, Leon and Jake are taken into care.
They go to a foster carer called Maureen who is desperate to keep the brothers together. But, baby Jake is a more attractive adoption prospect. He’s small but more importantly he’s white, whereas Leon’s father is black. So, Jake is taken by a ‘nice’ family to live a ‘nice’ life whilst Leon is abandoned within the care system.
The story could be just another book following a child into the care system but My Name is Leon is so much more than that because of Leon. Leon is young, Leon is joyful, Leon has hope.
For many reasons, this book will stay in my mind and heart for a long time.
“Taut, emotionally intense, and wholly believable, this beautiful and uplifting debut” (Kirkus Reviews) about a young black boy’s quest to reunite with his beloved white half-brother after they are separated in foster care is a sparkling novel perfect for fans of The Language of Flowers.
Leon loves chocolate bars, Saturday morning cartoons, and his beautiful, golden-haired baby brother. When Jake is born, Leon pokes his head in the crib and says, “I’m your brother. Big brother. My. Name. Is. Leon. I am eight and three quarters. I am a boy.” Jake will play with no one but Leon, and Leon…
Eleanor Oliphant is a socially awkward, spiky misfit, an interesting mixture of naïve and worldly wise. She tells us of her comforting but rather odd routines. We see how alcohol is her only friend. He numbs her pain and enables her to function at work.
When we meet Eleanor, she's infatuated with a singer she's never met. As the plot deepens, we come to understand Eleanor Oliphant is not completely fine.
There are some emotionally heavy themes but the author manages to keep the narrative light and witty. Eleanor is a rich and complex character positioned perfectly to tell her story. The book is uplifting and inspiring with an ending that was not unexpected but sufficiently powerful to shock.
The Joy is in the depth of character. It’s a story of love and friendship against the odds.
"Beautifully written and incredibly funny, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is about the importance of friendship and human connection. I fell in love with Eleanor, an eccentric and regimented loner whose life beautifully unfolds after a chance encounter with a stranger; I think you will fall in love, too!" -Reese Witherspoon
No one's ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of…
When I started this book, I wasn’t sure if I’d like it. It was a bit slower than I enjoy and I knew it had been translated which often puts me off.
We first meet a grumpy horror of a man who no one would enjoy being friends with. But gradually you come to understand this poor soul has lost the love of his life and the way he behaves is spilling out from his deep inner despair. No one can help him and he wants to join his beloved wife in death.
But gradually, with the help of his neighbours and the reconnection of old friends, he finds a purpose, and from the ashes, a hero emerges whilst we all stand back and applaud.
A beautifully written book that you won’t be able to put down once you get to know this man called Ove.
'A JOY FROM START TO FINISH' - Gavin Extence, author of THE UNIVERSE VERSUS ALEX WOODS
There is something about Ove.
At first sight, he is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots - neighbours who can't reverse a trailer properly, joggers, shop assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup d'etat that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents' Association. He will persist in making his daily inspection rounds of the local streets.
Still Alice could be about me, or you which is why it is such an emotional read. Alice is not the frumpy old lady who comes to mind when people speak of dementia. She is fifty and at the height of her career as a lecturer.
Alice tells her own story. You don’t just read, you feel what she feels. The confusion when she first forgets, the hurt and despair when she’s diagnosed, to the sadness of losing her children’s names.
The narrative mirrors her diminishing cognitive capacity – at first, she has the precision of a Psychology Professor but gradually her sentences lose content and places become vague.
It is one of the most accurate but sensitive portrayals of the descending trajectory of dementia. A book that will make you laugh and cry but reconnect you with what and who is important.
A moving story of a woman with early onset Alzheimer's disease, now a major Academy Award-winning film starring Julianne Moore and Kristen Stewart.
Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At fifty, she's a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a renowned expert in linguistics, with a successful husband and three grown children. When she begins to grow forgetful and disoriented, she dismisses it for as long as she can until a tragic diagnosis changes her life - and her relationship with her family and the world around her - for ever.
Despite being a few years old, this continues to be my favourite novel of the decade. I even loved the film.
Will Trainer has everything. Wealthy, clever, successful, and handsome. The world is his oyster until it isn’t! In a heartbeat he goes from the bloke everyone admires to the one everyone pities.
Paralysed from the neck down, Will’s life is over and he’s drowning in self-loathing. However, much money his parents throw at the problem, it’s not going away. He’s trapped in a wheelchair forever. Several nurses leave after days because their patient is so vile.
Then, comes glorious, joyful Lou. From a working-class family, she’s without expectation or privilege but so clever and perceptive. It’s easy to see where the story is going but you can’t help falling in love alongside Lou and Will. There’s no hope but you’ll long for a miracle. And that ending, I have not read anything that competes with the impact of the final pages since... expect to ugly cry!
THE MAJOR FILM AND THE NEW YORK TIMES NO.1 BESTSELLING NOVEL THAT IS LOVED AROUND THE WORLD, ME BEFORE YOU . . .
Will needed Lou as much as she needed him, but will her love be enough to save his life?
Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun teashop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.
What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps…
Surviving Her is a fast-paced domestic suspense written by a psychologist.
Broken by the death of her sister, Keziah is swept off her feet by Claus, a wealthy psychologist. She marries in haste. But her husband’s idiosyncrasies and his locked room are hard to ignore. Meanwhile, nine-year-old Nicky is trying desperately to hold his small world together after his father walks out. He wants to be ‘the man of the house’ but he can’t keep his mum safe from her bad choices. When Kezia ends up in the hospital, her world collides with Nicky’s. The secrets he shares propel Kezia to the scene of two mysterious deaths, both of them linked to her husband…
I grew up a fan of an evening news segment called “On the Road with Charles Kuralt.” Kuralt spotlighted upbeat, affirmative, sometimes nostalgic stories of people and places he discovered as he traveled across the American landscape. The charming stories he told were only part of the appeal; the freedom and adventure of being on the open road ignited a spark that continues to smolder. Some of my fondest memories from childhood are our annual family road trips, and I still jump at the chance to drive across the country.
Head West in 1865 with two life-long friends looking for adventure and who want to see the wilderness before it disappears. One is a wanderer; the other seeks a home he lost. The people they meet on their journey reflect the diverse events of this time period–settlers, adventure seekers, scientific expeditions, and Indigenous peoples–all of whom shape their lives in significant ways.
This is a story of friendship that casts a different look on a time period which often focuses only on wagon trains or gunslingers.
After four years of adventure in the frontier, Win Avery returns to his hometown on the edge of the prairie and tracks down his childhood friend, Jeb Dawson. Jeb has just lost his parents, and, in his efforts to console him, Win convinces his friend to travel west with him―to see the frontier before it is settled, while it is still unspoiled wilderness.
They embark on a free-spirited adventure, but their journey sidetracks when they befriend Meg Jameson, an accomplished horsewoman, lost on the Nebraska prairie. Traveling together through the Rocky Mountain foothills, they run into Gray Wolf, an Arapaho…
