(Char) Emily Writes

At the beginning of May, I fell into a huge depression hole and turned to reading for comfort. As I was spending all of my time laying on the sofa, not sleeping and avoiding university work, I had a lot of time to read. So, I zoomed through two amazing books.    As the month progressed, I started to feel better and found that I had a pile the size of the largest mountain of work to do, so reading and writing had to take a back seat, unfortunately. With the rate that I was going at the start of the month, with me reading a book in two to three days, I thought I would have loads to share with you for this book club. However, I do have four books that I can't wait to talk about.    Thrill Seeking: The Book Club   In a review I wrote a few weeks ago , I talked about how much I loved this book. And it seems very fitting for the title of this post.  The Book Club had me hooked from the very first page. All the characters were excellently written, especially Alic...

Today I thought I would share with you what I'm currently reading. I can never just read one book at a time, I usually have multiple on the go. Usually, I have a fiction book to read for pleasure and a non-fiction book for studying. I like to learn things beyond my current knowledge. For example, last year I was reading How Parliament Works by Robert Rogers, which explains the basics of how the English parliament works.    At the moment, I am reading three very different books: a romance, a classic and non-fiction. All three of them are fantastic for different reasons, and I'm excited to share them with you. So, let's get on with it, shall we? Keeping the introduction short and sweet today.    The Romance: Meet Me in London   The first book I am currently reading is Meet Me in London by Georgia Toffolo. This is the book I am reading for pleasure. I love a good romance novel, but I used to be ashamed to say that. However, there's nothing like getting lost in a be...

Let's cast our minds back to the end of March, when I said I was going to take part in Camp NaNoWriMo. How did it go? Did I even complete it? Am I any closer to finishing my novel? Not well, no I didn't and definitely not. I thought this was finally the kick up the backside I needed to get a good 40,000 words done on my novel. But that all just went out the window. Every time I tried to write, my brain just shut off. It's as if I smacked into a mental brick wall, squishing my nose in the process. I imagine I look like one of those cartoon characters with their faces squashed against a window. Back in my undergraduate degree, my scriptwriting lecturer asked us what photo represented us as writers, I chose a sad looking dog. I would like to change it now to the cartoon. So, have I written anything since March? Yes, a whole 200 words. I know what you're thinking: woah, calm down, Char. You don't want to overwork yourself. But that's just it, in some ways I am overw...

"Will my life be miraculously free from pain, despair, grief, heartbreak, hardship, loneliness, depression? No. "But do I want to live? "Yes. Yes. "A thousand times, yes." Such a beautiful ending to an equally beautiful story, The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is one that belongs on everyone's bookshelf. With an interesting concept surrounding what happens to us when we're in between life and death, this was one book I couldn't put down. Sadness seeps out the pages as Nora decides to die, however she then gets transported to the Midnight Library where she finds she can live out her many possible lives. It was so much fun experiencing these different lives, each one was interesting, amazing and devastating in their own way. Seeing how her lives differed due to the choices she made was intriguing. Eventually, she comes to the realisation that her own life is the one she wants to live. But can she get back to it? Haig cleverly raises awareness around c...

Pure excitement. That's what I felt when I first ordered The Book Club by C. J. Cooper. But was I disappointed? Short answer: most definitely not. This novel is both gripping and intense matched with the calm but unsettling atmosphere of a small village. Everyone knows everyone's business... or so they believe. Everyone is hiding a secret. One of them is murder. The use of the small village setting fits perfectly with this novel. You generally think that nothing could go wrong in a small village, but quite often these are the perfect settings for thrillers. The author has created a sense of claustrophobia, a feeling you can understand even better if you've lived in a small village. You feel like there's no escape, as if you're shut off from the rest of the world. I suppose that's how Alice, the antagonist, wanted Lucy, the protagonist, to feel. Being in a small village also made it easier for Alice to get up in everyone's business and find out all their secr...