Tag: books

  • Blockage

    Writers block is real. Sitting staring at a blank screen for hours, intermittently staring out of the window watching the World pass without me in it. Trying to put down thoughts in an organised way isn’t easy.

    But, more difficult is editing. I self–publish and I enjoy the writing part when I am not blocked. The editing is beyond tedious. The first pass isn’t too bad, but by the tenth you don’t find the funny bits funny nor the sad bits sad and all of the drama is no longer dramatic.

    Why did I choose to bloody write?

    For anyone interested in reading badly written, sweary (very sweary) books about my life then there are two out on kindle and another coming as soon as I can get my arse into gear and finish editing it.

    check out:

    FOOD by Tracey Devlin

    The Fat Girl’s guide to trekking by Tracey Devlin

  • My favourite books

    I keep a running list of those books that I enjoyed for numerous reasons. Different genres but books I would like my daughter to read too.

    There are many but these are a few

    City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert. Loved this book for pulling me into a time gone by, into the lives therein. It was colourful and full of love and laughter, sadness. I laughed and I cried and I cheered. Great read

    City of Thieves by David Benioff A wonderful book. So well written. About two Russian soldiers tasked with a seemingly impossible task to retrieve eggs. Sounds odd. It is a story of friendship and struggles and love. An absolute must read

    All the broken places by John Boyne I love almost anything by Boyne but this sequel to The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas is incredible. A story of how people move forward, of redemption, of loss and of love. I adored this book

    Love in the time of cholera by Gabriel Marquez probably one of my favourite books of all time. I confess I read this only because it is central to the theme in one of my favourite films ‘Serendipity’ and it intrigued me. It is a wonderful love story, set against an horrific backdrop of disease. Beautifully written, poignant, sad, lots of tears but so uplifting too.

    Finally One day everyone will have always been against this by Omar El Akkad this book makes you look at how little you do as an individual to write wrongs. It shows that even small rebellions add up to a movement that can affect change. In a world where we watch Genocide play out every night live on our televisions and we shake our heads and say ‘this is appalling’ but then get on with eating our dinner or going out with friends, it holds a mirror up and asks why we do nothing. Why we accept these things, why we have become so desensitised to such horrific images of dead babies. This book should be read by everyone.