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I’ve already mentioned that I want to read more over the course of the year, so obviously I’m looking forward to finding and reading some great new books to read in 2020 and sharing them with you.
20 Books to Read in 2020
How To Break Up With Fast Fashion by Lauren Bravo
Fast fashion is the ultimate toxic relationship. It’s bad news for the planet, our brains and our bank balances. We can’t go on like this; our shopping habits need an overhaul.
Journalist Lauren Bravo loves clothes more than anything, but she’s called time on her affair with fast fashion in search of a slower, saner way of dressing. In this book, she’ll help you do the same.
How To Break Up With Fast Fashion will help you to change your mindset, fall back in love with your wardrobe and embrace more sustainable ways of shopping – from the clothes swap to the charity shop. Full of refreshing honesty and realistic advice, Lauren will inspire you to repair, recycle and give your unloved items a new lease of life without sacrificing your style.
The 24-Hour Café by Libby Page
Welcome to the café that never sleeps. Day and night, Stella’s Café opens its doors to the lonely and the lost, the morning people and the night owls. It’s a place where everyone is always welcome, where life can wait at the door.
Meet Hannah and Mona: best friends, waitresses, dreamers. They love working at Stella’s – the different people they meet, the small kindnesses exchanged. But is it time to step outside and make their own way in life?
Come inside and spend twenty-four hours at Stella’s Café, where one day might just be enough to change your life . . .
Followers By Megan Angelo
Out in January
2051. Marlow and her mother, Floss, have been handpicked to live their lives on camera, in the closed community of Constellation.
Unlike her mother, who adores the spotlight, Marlow hates having her every move judged by a national audience.
But she isn’t brave enough to escape until she discovers a shattering secret about her birth.
Now she must unravel the truth around her own history in a terrifying race against time…
The Better Liar by Tanen Jones
Out in February
Estranged for a decade, sisters Leslie and Robin must reunite if they are to claim the fortune their father left them. Leslie desperately needs that money, but when she arrives at her sister’s apartment, she finds her body instead. Leslie needs another plan. Without Robin, she won’t see a penny.
Mary, an aspiring actress, spends her nights slinging beers at a seedy restaurant. She’d do anything to start her life over. When Leslie offers her a huge sum of money and the chance to be someone else – to be Robin – she takes it.
But Robin’s life isn’t as straightforward as Mary thought it would be. And Leslie seems to have secrets and a past of her own . . .
A Place For Everything by Judith Flanders
One we’ve learned it as children few of us think much of the alphabet and its familiar sing-song order. And yet the order if the alphabet, that simple knowledge that we take for granted, plays a major role in our adult lives.
From the school register to the telephone book, from dictionaries and encyclopaedias to library shelves, our lives are ordered from A to Z. Long before Google searches, this magical system of organisation gave us the ability to sift through centuries of thought, knowledge and literature, allowing us to sort, to file, and to find the information we have, and to locate the information we need.
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Out in March
Vanessa Wye was fifteen-years-old when she first had sex with her English teacher.
She is now thirty-two and in the storm of allegations against powerful men in 2017, the teacher, Jacob Strane, has just been accused of sexual abuse by another former student.
Vanessa is horrified by this news, because she is quite certain that the relationship she had with Strane wasn’t abuse. It was love. She’s sure of that.
Forced to rethink her past, to revisit everything that happened, Vanessa has to redefine the great love story of her life – her great sexual awakening – as rape. Now she must deal with the possibility that she might be a victim, and just one of many.
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
Out in April
Ava, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, spends her days teaching English to rich children.
Julian is a banker. A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than ‘I like you a great deal’.
Enter Edith, a lawyer. Refreshingly enthusiastic and unapologetically earnest, Edith takes Ava to the theatre when Julian leaves Hong Kong for work. Quickly, she becomes something Ava looks forward to.
And then Julian writes to tell Ava he is coming back to Hong Kong… Should Ava return to the easy compatibility of her life with Julian or take a leap into the unknown with Edith?
It Sounded Better in My Head by Nina Kenwood
When her parents announce their impending separation, Natalie can’t understand why no one is fighting or at least mildly upset. And now that Zach and Lucy, her two best friends, have fallen in love, she’s feeling slightly miffed and decidedly awkward.
Where does she fit in now? And what has happened to the version of her life that played out like a TV show—with just the right amount of banter, pining and meaningful looks?
Nothing is going according to plan.
But then an unexpected romance comes along and shakes things up even further.
The Wrong Move by Jennifer Savin
When Jessie moves into a flatshare at Maver Place, she’s finally found a decent place to live.
And when she’s befriended by fellow tenants Lauren and Sofie, she’s got great flatmates to share it with.
You think she’s safe. You think she can trust these people.
You’re wrong.
When you flatshare, how well do you really know the people that you’re living with?
If It Bleeds by Stephen King
News people have a saying: ‘If it bleeds, it leads’. And a bomb at Albert Macready Middle School is guaranteed to lead any bulletin.
Holly Gibney of the Finders Keepers detective agency is working on the case of a missing dog – and on her own need to be more assertive – when she sees the footage on TV. But when she tunes in again, to the late-night report, she realises there is something not quite right about the correspondent who was first on the scene.
So begins ‘If It Bleeds’, a stand-alone sequel to the No. 1 bestselling THE OUTSIDER featuring the incomparable Holly on her first solo case – and also the riveting title story in Stephen King’s brilliant new collection.
The French Art of Not Trying Too Hard by Ollivier Pourriol
Out in June
Whether it’s the Protestant work ethic, or the capitalist need for productivity, most of us in the English-speaking world believe that in order to achieve anything worthwhile, we must first expend huge amounts of effort.
In fact, just the opposite is true. In The French Art of Not Trying Too Hard, Ollivier Pourriol shows how the best results in life, love, work, art and even sports come not from working harder, but from letting go. This is not a new idea in France: since Montaigne, philosophers have suggested that a certain je ne sais quoi is the key to a more creative, fulfilling and productive existence. We can see it in their laissez faire parenting, their chic style, their haute cuisine and enviable home cooking – the French barely seem to be trying, yet the results are world famous.
The Little Book of Humanism by Andrew Copson
We all want to lead a happy life. Traditionally, when in need of guidance, comfort or inspiration, many people turn to religion. But there has been another way to learn how to live well – the humanist way – and in today’s more secular world, it is more relevant than ever.
In The Little Book of Humanism, Alice Roberts and Andrew Copson share over two thousand years of humanist wisdom through an uplifting collection of stories, quotes and meditations on how to live an ethical and fulfilling life, grounded in reason and humanity.
With universal insights and beautiful original illustrations, The Little Book of Humanism is a perfect introduction to and a timeless anthology of humanist thought from some of history and today’s greatest thinkers.
Olive by Emma Gannon
Independent.
Adrift.
Anxious.
Loyal.
Kind.
Knows her own mind.
It’s ok that she’s still figuring it all out, navigating her world without a compass. But life comes with expectations, there are choices to be made, boxes to tick and – sometimes – stereotypes to fulfil. And when her best friends’ lives start to branch away towards marriage and motherhood, leaving the path they’ve always followed together, Olive starts to question her choices – because life according to Olive looks a little bit different.
How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right by Pandora Sykes
Out in July
Modern life is full of choices. We’re told that happiness lies within and we can be whoever we want to be. But with endless possibility comes a feeling of restlessness; like we’re somehow failing to live our best life. What does doing it right even look like? And why do so many women feel like they’re getting it wrong?
From faster-than-fast fashion to millennial burnout, the explosion of wellness to the rise of cancel culture, Pandora Sykes interrogates the stories we’ve been sold and the ones we tell ourselves. Wide-ranging, thoughtful and witty, How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right? explores the anxieties and myths that consume our lives and the tools we use to muddle through.
A History of Britain in 12 Maps (New History of Britain) by Philip Parker
With the uncertainty of Brexit looming, Britain as we know it is on the brink of defining change. With current borders being disputed and, with them, identities challenged, this book will provide a brilliant insight into how our country’s borders have always been, and always will be, in a state of change.
From the Celtic period when ‘Britain’ was just a patchwork of tribal kingdoms; to the height of the empire a century ago, when the whole of Ireland, India, Australia, much of Africa, Asia and the Americas were marked as British; through to the present-day when Britain’s shape and extent is once more in question, these maps dramatically chart the political and cultural evolution of the nation.
By focusing on these maps Philip Parker reveals how Britain came to be the way it is today, and how the past is a guide to where we might go from here.
The Tube Mapper Project by Luke Agbaimoni
Out in August
The Underground is the backbone of the city of London, a part of our identity. It’s a network of shared experiences and visual memories. The Tube Mapper project deliberately captures moments of subconscious recognition and overlooked interests, showcasing images that can be seen near or at every Underground, Overground and DLR station in London.
Photographer Luke Agbaimoni gave up city-scape night photography after the birth of his first child, but creating Tube Mapper allowed him to continue being creative, fitting photography around his new lifestyle, and adding stations on his daily commute.
His memorable photographs include themes of symmetry, reflections, tunnels and escalators, waiting and lines of light, and reveals the London every commuter knows in a unique, vibrant and arresting style.
The Art of Creativity: 7 Powerful Habits to Unlock Your Full Potential by Susie Pearl
What do most highly creative people have in common? What are the habits they cultivate? What is ‘the flow’ and how do you get into it?
THE ART OF CREATIVITY is a practical guide to help you unlock your creative potential and find fulfilment and happiness in the process.
After 20 years working with some of the most creative people on the planet, writer and business coach Susie Pearl has unearthed the habits of highly creative people and takes you on a journey to unlock your own inner stream of creativity.
Over the course of this easy-to-follow guide, you will learn to take risks with your inner artist, ignore critics, release blocks and get into daily creative habits in order to build better projects, ideas and artistic collaborations, and unearth creative solutions and innovations.
Britain’s 100 Best Railway Stations by Simon Jenkins
It is the scene for our hopeful beginnings and our intended ends, and the timeless experiences of coming and going, meeting, greeting and parting. It is an institution with its own rituals and priests, and a long-neglected aspect of Britain’s architecture. And yet so little do we look at the railway station.
Simon Jenkins has travelled the length and breadth of Great Britain, from Waterloo to Wemyss Bay, Betws-y-Coed to Beverley, to select his hundred best railway stations. Blending his usual insight and authority with his personal reflections and experiences – including his founding the Railway Heritage Trust – the foremost expert on our national heritage deftly reveals the history, geography, design and significance of each of these glories.
Ghosts by Dolly Alderton
32-year-old Nina Dean is a successful food writer with a loyal online following, but a life that is falling apart. When she uses dating apps for the first time, she becomes a victim of ghosting, and by the most beguiling of men.
Her beloved dad is vanishing in slow motion into dementia, and she’s starting to think about ageing and the gendered double-standard of the biological clock. On top of this she has to deal with her mother’s desire for a mid-life makeover and the fact that all her friends seem to be slipping away from her . . .
World Travel: An Irreverent Guide by Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. His travels took him from the hidden pockets of his hometown of New York to a tribal longhouse in Borneo, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, Paris, and Shanghai to Tanzania’s utter beauty and the stunning desert solitude of Oman’s Empty Quarter–and many places beyond.
In World Travel, a life of experience is collected into an entertaining, practical, fun and frank travel guide that gives readers an introduction to some of his favorite places–in his own words. Featuring essential advice on how to get there, what to eat, where to stay and, in some cases, what to avoid, World Travel provides essential context that will help readers further appreciate the reasons why Bourdain found a place enchanting and memorable.
What books are you looking forward to reading in 2020?
Let me know in the comments.
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