The Truth About Melody Browne - Lisa Jewell

51%

15.01.25

This was better than Ralph's Party but it was still poorly written (can't an item of clothing be described without naming its brand?) with a lot of unquestioned assumptions about what makes a family. Lots of babies, apparently, which, well, yeah, taken literally, it is. Oddly for a novel of this type, found family, while valuable, came much further down the value chain than blood relations, even if those relations failed you. 

Ralph's Party - Lisa Jewell

46%

14.09.24

The 1990s seems like yesterday but this book has aged like a fax machine. Was it really so toxic then - both literally (so much smoking!) and metaphorically (so much unremarked sexism, sizism, racism)? It's also interesting to note that popular books were badly written with two-dimensional characters even then.

I Found You - Lisa Jewell

 56%

26.09.21

Well-written nonsense.