non-fiction Archives - The Quick and the Read

Blog Tour: ‘Strong Female Character’ by Fern Brady

I’m delighted to take part in the blog tour for the paperback of Fern Brady’s brilliant memoir, ‘Strong Female Character’.

Thanks to Random Things Tours and Octopus Books for inviting me on to the tour and for my copy of the book for review. As always, opinions are entirely my own.

From the Publisher:

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘I tore through this hilarious, smart, sad, revealing book’ – Bob Odenkirk
‘Funny, sharp and has incredible clarity’ – Jon Ronson
‘An absolute riot. I’m literally going to read it again once I’ve finished, and I’m a miserable bastard…it’s a belter’ – FRANKIE BOYLE
‘A set text for all of us in 2023’ – DEBORAH FRANCES-WHITE

A summary of my book:

I’m diagnosed with autism 20 years after telling a doctor I had it.
My terrible Catholic childhood: I hate my parents etc.
My friendship with an elderly man who runs the corner shop and is definitely not trying to groom me. I get groomed.
Homelessness.
Stripping.
More stripping but with more nervous breakdowns.
I hate everyone at uni and live with a psycho etc.
REDACTED as too spicy.
After everyone tells me I don’t look autistic, I try to cure my autism and get addicted to Xanax.
REDACTED as too embarrassing.

‘Fern’s book, like everything she does, is awesome. Incredibly funny, and so
unapologetically frank that I feel genuinely sorry for her lawyers.’ – PHIL WANG

‘Of course it’s funny – it’s Fern Brady – but this book is also deeply moving and
eye-opening’ – ADAM KAY

‘It made me laugh out loud and broke my heart and made me weep…I hope
absolutely everyone reads this, and it makes them kinder and more curious
about the way we all live’ – DAISY BUCHANAN

‘Glorious. Frank but nuanced, a memoir that doesn’t sacrifice voice or selfawareness. And it has brilliant things to say about being autistic and being
funny’ – ELLE MCNICOLL

‘Strong Female Character is a testament to the importance of self-knowledge.’ – Rachael Healy, The Guardian

‘Fern is a brilliant, beautiful writer with a unique voice and even more unique
story. Astute, honest and very, very funny.’ – LOU SANDERS

‘So funny and brilliant’ – HOLLY SMALE

‘Witty, dry, and gimlet-eyed, Strong Female Character is a necessary
corrective. Brady offers a compelling, messy, highly resonant portrait of what
masked Autism feels like.’ – Devon Price, author of Unmasking Autism

My Review:

I was so glad I was invited onto the blog tour for this book – I’d picked it up a few times in bookshops and weighed up whether it would be too sad, too challenging, too harrowing for me. I know Fern Brady is a comedian, but still…

Blog Tour: ‘Bright Stars of Black British History’ by J.T. Williams

Thanks to Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this beautiful book for review – as always, opinions are entirely my own.

From the Publisher:

A dazzlingly illustrated collection presenting the extraordinary life stories of fourteen bright stars from Black British history, from Tudor England to modern Britain.

Brought to life through hand-painted illustrations by award-winning illustrator Angela Vives, this important and timely book from author and educator J. T. Williams brings the lives of fourteen shining stars from Black British History into the spotlight, celebrating their remarkable achievements and contributions to the arts, medicine,
politics, sport and beyond.

Featuring a constellation of iconic individuals – including storytelling freedom fighter Mary Prince, football star and World War I soldier Walter Tull, and Notting Hill Carnival founder Claudia Jones – ‘Bright Stars of Black British History’ shines a light on the courage, resilience and talent of remarkable individuals who have left a lasting mark on our collective history.

My Review:

Book Review: ‘The Darcy Myth’ by Rachel Feder

Happy publication day to this funny, thought-provoking, non-fiction book!

I am a ‘Pride and Prejudice’ fan. Not a super-fan, or a Janeite or an Austen obsessive, but I can enjoy the novel. I’ll never love ‘Mansfield Park’ (hideous A Level flashbacks) and I was the wrong generation to appreciate Colin Firth in THAT shirt (yes, I totally get it now…) but I totally respect the way that Jane Austen quietly wrote novels that are still part of the collective consciousness over 200 years after her death.

So I came to this book with purely an interest in a feminist reading of Mr Darcy by someone who really knows ‘Pride and Prejudice’ inside out – and has had the headspace to ponder on it at length as part of her career in academia. Rachel Feder is an associate professor in English at the University of Denver and really knows her stuff.

Book Review: ‘Etta Lemon: The Woman Who Saved The Birds’ by Tessa Boase

I’ll admit that I came to this book for perhaps strange reasons – I’d heard that it was originally published as ‘Mrs Pankhurst’s Purple Feather: Fashion, Fury and Feminism’ and that sounded right up my street. I didn’t know who Etta Lemon was, but I settled in for a good read about suffragettes and their fancy outfits.

It was kind of half what I expected, but all fascinating!

Non-Fiction Audiobook Recommendations

Regular visitors to my blog know that I’m an insomniac with an audiobook habit! Here’s some of the best I’ve listened to recently…

Fantastic Non-Fiction

I read a lot of non-fiction – probably something that makes me a bit different from a lot of book bloggers who (quite rightly) focus on the wealth of glorious fiction out there. I love fiction, read fiction and spent my academic life on (classic, modern and feminist) fiction.

But I have insomnia and a night-time non-fiction audiobook habit!

With this in mind, I thought I’d update on some of the brilliant non-fiction books that I’ve listened to or read recently.

Ten books I should have shouted about before now!

I’ve hit a bit of a reading slump. It happens to the best of us – a run of good books but not peppered with the absolutely great ones. The ones you put down all other books for, ignore your phone and your family…yeah, those.

To find my inspiration, I had a look back at the books I’ve read this year and noticed that 10/73 had got my top mark of 5 stars on Goodreads. Now seems like a good time to revisit the top ten…in no particular order.

Turns out I really like crime fiction!

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Blog Tour: ‘Shape of a Boy’ by Kate Wickers

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘Shape of a Boy: My Family and Other Adventures’ by Kate Wickers.

Thanks to Claire Maxwell for inviting me onto the tour and for my copy of the book for review – as always, opinions are entirely my own.

Book Review: ‘The Slow Road to Tehran’ by Rebecca Lowe

This is absolutely the best type of travel writing – engaging, humorous, vibrant and packed with historical and cultural detail. Many thanks to Rachel Quin for bringing this book to my attention and for sending me a review copy – opinions, as always, are entirely my own.

March 2022 Wrap-Up and April TBR

Better late than never!

March was a busy month for me…unfortunately, mainly in the work sense with an enforced Covid break in the middle. I read 9 books this month, putting me at 30/120 on my Goodreads target for the year.