I’ve now been a mum for seven weeks, and one thing I didn’t necessarily expect was quite how much reading I’d manage to get through. Turns out, when you’re awake at all hours of the night feeding a baby, you can get through a surprising number of books.
Although I will say, my tolerance for a mediocre book is currently at an all-time low. If I’m reading something at 2am that needs to be interesting enough to stop me falling asleep whilst feeding my baby, it really does need to be GOOD.
Anyway, I’ve read five books since giving birth, and one or two of them have genuinely made it onto my list of favourite books of all time, which is quite a strong hit rate, really.
I’m also a bit of a snob when it comes to choosing books, and I have a fairly strict Goodreads rule that I generally won’t read anything with less than four stars. There are just too many books in the world to be wasting time on ones people don’t rate!
So, here are my five most recent reads, including the ones I’d recommend to absolutely everyone and one that I really wanted to love, but just didn’t.
The Names by Florence Knapp
Genre: literary fiction, contemporary drama
I was actually first recommended The Names when I was about ten weeks pregnant. I was on a work trip with my manager, who was reading it at the time, and she told me it was completely different from what she’d expected and that I should give it a go.
Naturally, I looked it up on Goodreads, saw that it didn’t meet my very strict four-star requirement, and decided against it.
Anyway, my sister read it last week and recommended it to me again, so I finally picked it up a few days ago and absolutely wolfed it down.
The concept is SO interesting, and I thought it was incredibly gripping. It almost reads like a thriller in the way it pulls you in and makes you want to keep going, which I wasn’t expecting at all.
I will say that it is quite a depressing book. But I also think that if it had been any less bleak, it might have veered into that slightly fable-like territory where a book feels as though it’s trying to teach you a big life lesson. A bit The Alchemist-esque, which I know lots of people love, but personally isn’t really what I’m looking for when I read fiction.
So, whilst I wouldn’t necessarily call it an uplifting read, I thought it was incredibly clever, and I completely understand why it’s had so much hype.
Definitely one I’d recommend, particularly if you like a book with an unusual concept that makes you think.
Whistler by Ann Patchett
Genre: literary fiction
I feel slightly bad about this one.
As I mentioned, I keep a list of all the books I read throughout the year and put a little star next to my favourites. Unfortunately, Whistler has not received a star.
And I’m actually quite sad about it because, when I first started reading it, I really thought I was going to love it.
The writing itself is beautiful, and in some ways, I think it’s better written than other books I’ve enjoyed much more. But I just found the whole thing quite frustrating.
The pace was slow, the plot was slow, and I kept finding myself wanting something more to happen. I don’t know whether this was partly because I was reading it in the middle of the night, and therefore had even less patience than usual, but I just couldn’t quite get into it.
Which is annoying because I do really appreciate good writing, and I feel slightly guilty criticising a book that’s clearly very well written simply because I wanted the plot to move a bit faster.
But ultimately, I read fiction to be entertained, and I spent a lot of this book thinking, ‘Okay, but can we get to something interesting now?’
So not my favourite, unfortunately. But we can’t love everything, and it would be a slightly suspicious book review if I gave every single one five stars.
In Memoriam by Alice Winn
Genre: historical fiction
I’m going to start with a very big statement, because this is now 100% one of my favourite books of all time. I would comfortably put it in my top ten, which is saying something.
It’s set during World War I and starts at a British private boarding school, so it has a bit of a The History Boys feel to it. At its heart, it’s a love story, but really not a traditional one.
The writing is absolutely beautiful. It’s one of those books where you just completely lose yourself in the world, and I genuinely had no idea where the story was going to go. I couldn’t predict the scale of it, how much time it would cover, or what was going to happen next, which is something I really love in a book.
It is also completely heart-wrenching. Perhaps not the most sensible choice of reading material when you’re seven weeks postpartum and already quite emotional, but here we are.
If you read Broken Country after I went on and on about it earlier this year, and you loved that, then I would HIGHLY recommend picking this one up. Both are beautifully written, unpredictable and absolutely devastating in the best way.
The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
Genre: historical fiction
Another one that has gone straight into my top three books of the year. I’ve had a very good run with historical fiction recently.
My biggest recommendation for this book is actually not to look up the premise. I know that sounds like quite an unhelpful book review, but I really think going into it knowing as little as possible makes it so much better.
What I will tell you is that it’s set in Mississippi in the 1930s, in the aftermath of the Great Depression. And that’s all you’re getting from me!
The character development is some of the best I’ve read in a very long time. There are several different voices throughout the book, including a child narrator, and I thought the way each character was written was absolutely impeccable. They all felt so distinct and believable, which is quite a difficult thing to get right.
It’s written by Kathryn Stockett, who also wrote The Help, so if you loved that, or you’re a fan of Kristin Hannah or Kate Quinn, I think you’ll absolutely love this.
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe
Genre: non-fiction
Quite a big change of pace from the historical fiction, but I feel like I’ve seen approximately half of London reading this book over the last few months.
Before I went off work, I kept seeing people reading it on the tube, on trains, everywhere. And I was quite apprehensive because, if I’m being completely honest, I don’t really read much non-fiction. I tend to listen to it as an audiobook, because when I sit down to read, I usually want to get completely lost in a fictional world.
But I kept hearing such good things that I eventually gave in, and I’m SO glad I did.
It’s written as investigative journalism, so it’s incredibly factual, but it is also so gripping. In fact, I think it’s probably even more gripping because you know that everything you’re reading actually happened.
As someone who lives in London, I also found it particularly interesting, recognising some of the places and the types of people it was talking about. It’s harrowing, fascinating and, at times, incredibly frustrating.
The best way I can describe it is that it reads like a really good true crime documentary. You know when you start watching one episode of something, and suddenly it’s three hours later because you absolutely HAVE to know what happens next? It has that same feeling.
It’s also made me reconsider my slightly unfair dismissal of non-fiction books, because I’ve since been recommended Say Nothing and Red Notice, both of which have gone straight onto my reading list.
Although I do like to switch up genres between books, so I won’t be going on a non-fiction marathon just yet.
So there we have it, five books in seven weeks of motherhood, which I think is quite a respectable effort considering everything else that’s been going on.
I’ve just picked up James by Percival Everett, which will officially be my 20th book of the year. I’m very excited about it, and I’ve heard such good things that I’m hoping it lives up to expectations.
I do think there’s something quite nice about having a book to look forward to during the night feeds. Obviously I’d rather be asleep at 3am, but if I’m going to be awake, I might as well be reading something brilliant.
As always, I’m taking recommendations, so PLEASE let me know what I should add to my list. Particularly if you’ve read any of these and have something similar you think I’d love.
And if you haven’t already, I’ve linked my giant recommendations library below, which has all my book, TV, film and podcast recommendations in one place. It’s free to access; you just need to be subscribed and logged into Substack.
All you need to do to get access to the spreadsheet is subscribe for free below, and the link will appear in this article!
Happy reading, and have a lovely week!
