Recommendations – October 2020

This show is available on Amazon Prime. At the time of writing the first season costs £3.99 but it is so worth it. Honestly, this is one of the best things I have ever seen.

It’s a show based around the lives of a group of thirty-somethings; the blurb says they’re “dealing with the ups and downs of life” and the first seven episodes are very much this.. And then, something happens in the eighth episode that comes completely out of the blue, changing everything and overshadowing the rest of the season and the two seasons that follow.

The show won several awards when it was first broadcast in 2005 and it’s easy to see why. I can’t imagine a show like this ever being made again; there’s so much detail and thought put into the characters and their lives. I absolutely adored this show – even if the shock of episode 8 had me crying for days.

If you don’t have Prime yet, you can get a 30-day free trial here

Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington

You may have heard of the 2002 movie Rabbit Proof Fence starring Kenneth Branagh; this is the book the story came from. It’s the story of three Aboriginal girls who were removed from their mothers in 1931 and taken to a “mission” to be educated by the British – as was the policy for many years. The girls escaped and walked 1500 miles home, using the rabbit-proof fence that runs across the country to help guide them.

Doris Pilkington is the daughter of one of the girls who completed the walk, and her book has much more detail and insight than you see in the film. It’s a brilliant read.

You can read my review of this book here

My Audible subscription has been all but taken over by S – but I don’t mind as it keeps her interested in books. I’ve never managed to read The Hobbit (or any Tolkien book) all th eway through, but S thoroughly enjoyed listening to this.

If you’ve not yet joined Audible, click below to get 50% off for three months…

I bought a weighted blanket a few months ago, when I was going through a particularly anxious period. I don’t know how, but honestly it has transformed my sleep.

I do still wake in the night, and I do sometimes have sleepless nights – but the quality of my sleep has improved to no end. I wake up in the morning feeling so much better, like I’ve had a proper rest.

I think I bought this book because I just kept seeing it everywhere. It took me a little while to get into it, but once I did I was hooked and could not put it down. It’s about a young girl named Kya, and is a sort of coming of age story, but it’s also the story of a potential murder and a love letter to the marsh lands of the North Carolina coast.

It’s hard to believe this is Delia Owens’ first novel – but easy to believe that she has previously co-written three bestselling non-fiction books about her life as a wildlife scientist. The way she writes about nature is so beautiful and detailed that in itself is a love story.

The Blood Never Dried: a people’s history of the British Empire by John Newsinger

I’ve been reading this book for quite a while – it’s fairly heavy going, but also very compelling. There are so many things in this book that are not really common knowledge or taught to children when they learn about the wonderful British Empire, I really don’t know where to start with it.

Each chapter deals with a key episode in the history of the Empire – from the British involvement in the Chinese opium trade to India’s fight for independence to the end of the slave trade. I’ve found it a fascinating read.