I have written before about how much I love ToddlerCalm, so I thought it was about time I wrote a review. I have a real problem with parenting experts; I dislike people who expound the correct way of doing things, who tell you what you should be doing. I don’t take Read more…
For my 16th birthday, I was given a copy of Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger. It was an amazing book which I loved, but one of those books that makes you feel like you must be terribly uncultured, perhaps a bit dim. I read it with a notebook beside me, Read more…
I was really pleased to be chosen by Mumsnet Book Club to review The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes. When it arrived in the post, and I realised how big it was, my heart sank a little. I’d just finished reading a massive brick of a book that had Read more…
I’ve been interested in the concept of giving up sugar for years… ten years, to be precise. I know that I have a real issue with the amount of sugar in my diet; I know I need to do something about that, sooner rather than later. I follow Sarah Wilson on Read more…
Last week we were house sitting for a friend on the other side of town. Realising I couldn’t possibly bring all of S’s toys across town with us for a week, I decided instead to stop at a book shop on our way and treat S to a new book. Read more…
I’m sure most of you will remember a vague outline of the story of Jaycee Dugard. She was kidnapped one morning aged eleven on her way to school, and nothing was ever heard of her… until 18 years later, when she reappeared, the mother of two daughters. She had been Read more…
I bought The Wrong Knickers at BritMums Live last month. To be honest, I bought it solely because I’d seen Bryony Gordon speaking, and had liked what she had to say. I had no clue what it was about. As it turns out, the book is pretty much as if she Read more…
I was sent a copy of The Judas Scar as part of the BritMums Book Club. Luckily enough, it arrived the day before I left for Brit Mums Live so I took it with me to read on the train. Imagine my joy then, when I got to the venue Read more…
Note I read this book when it was originally released as The Class Ceiling in 2013. Since then it has been re-released, first as The School Gate Survival Guide and is now called The Not So Perfect Mum. This book is a fun, easy read about school gate politics and Read more…
Last weekend, S and I were happily wandering around town, minding our own business, when a lady walking past handed us a flyer and told me there was a Story Time starting at Waterstones in half an hour. We went along to see what it was all about… imagine our Read more…
Harvey Karp, MD is an American paediatrician, probably better known in the States for his Happiest Baby on the Block book, first published in 2002. In 2004, Happiest Toddler on the Block followed. I’ve not read Happiest Baby on the Block; I discovered Karp when S began to enter the dreaded “terrible Read more…
I was very fortunate to be sent a copy of The Skeleton Cupboard to review for Mumsnet Book Club. This book is strange… It’s not fiction, but it’s not fact either. It’s written in the first person, as the story of Byron’s training as a clinical psychologist. Each chapter tells Read more…
The BBC produces a show called Meet The Author; I think it airs on their news channel, but I watch it through On Demand from time to time. What usually happens is that I start watching, get bored by what the presenter and author are discussing, and switch it off. One Read more…
I was sent a copy of The Hive by Gill Hornby by Mumsnet for review. It’s about the joys of playground politics at a fictional primary school in the Home Counties. The novel is written from several different perspectives, all of whom are women whose children go to the school. Read more…
I was sent a copy of Above All Things by Tanis Rideout as part of Brit Mums’ Book Club. It’s the story of the 1924 British attempt to climb Mount Everest, and is written from three different perspectives: Andrew Irvine, George Mallory, and Mallory’s wife, Ruth. I have to be Read more…
Bad Mother by Ayelet Waldman is subtitled A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace. It’s a collection of essays about Waldman’s experience of motherhood. More than that though, it’s a collection of essays that make you feel so much better about your own Bad Mother credentials. Read more…