Blame My Shelf

The Party by Elizabeth Day The Party surrounds scholarship and bullied pupil Martin, who befriends the magnetising aristocratic Adonis Ben. Their lives intertwine, from school to University and there is something Martin witnesses there that changes both of their lives, and forces them closer. Years later we are then witness to their reunion intermittently between vignettes from Martin’s perspective of the past. Ben’s party becomes the catalyst for decade long resentments and palpable tension, between Ben and Martin, but also Lucy, Martin’s wife, towards both Martin and Ben. When champagne flutes are given, looks are passed, betrayals are made, and thinly guised grievances rear their heads. Horrors that lay in Martin’s childhood are juxtaposed with Ben’s summer’s spent swimming in the lake on his estate. I flipped through the pages ferociously, where Martin’s obsession with Ben results in him presenting himself as a substitute to the family for their dead son, and the claustrophobic...

A story told in reverse, you meet Emily and Robbie, the dreamy, fateful couple that any good romance novelist would dream of. We quickly realise that, whilst they are fated to be together, there is a secret of some form which both drives them apart and binds them throughout the novel. At the inception, in the present day, they live in their idyllic coastal home, content and happy with their respective seafaring and obstetrician careers and two sons. We work backwards, and see a story of infertility and infidelity, alongside battles fought with alcoholism in Maine, Florida and Cambridge.   Importantly, as a reader, you do not have to wait for the final reveal that occurs in the last few pages, as everything is not as it seems. Cohen has displayed dexterity in this technique, where it seems as though the facts have been presented, but quickly, Cohen leads you to scratch the surface beyond this. Quickly, the characters endear themselves to you, and I tore through this book due...

Today, two fantastic non-fictions, a genre I previously would seldom reach for, however these writers have me changing my mind. Moranthology by Caitlin Moran ….everyone should remember that this is the very same reasoning that led more than 60 per cent of the female population to get Alexa Chung-style fringes last year – fringes that we all regret now, don’t we, ladies? This was Caitlin Moran’s first foray into column collation, and I can’t believe I left it this late to read it. I had already read How to be a Woman and Moranifesto, and therefore knew I would like this one. Moran covers everything, from growing up poor and inventing the cheese lollipop to critically analysing the sexiness of Benedict Cumberbatch. The charming quality to this book is that it does widen your mind – Moran does not shy away from complex social and political issues, however this is countered with humour pieces on why her new nickname should be puffin, thereby softening the approach and making ...

Perhaps this is more suggestive of my lack of research into a book before I have added it to my basket and frantically searching for my card details, but I was unaware that Derren Brown of Happy, was the Derren Brown of magician-TV-fame. However, you quickly realise that his psychological experiments and magic hiding behind clever psychology, it becomes natural that Brown would wish to interlink the fields of psychology and philosophy and delve into the depths of what happiness is, and how and whether we might find it. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that his “celebrity status” did not subtract from the reading of the book. It became clear that Happy, is a fantastic book that happened to be written by a celebrity, rather than a celebrity who has sat down to write a book. Brown writes eloquently with a clear style, and has written an interesting book with an interesting style and concept. This has to be applauded aside from Derren Brown of TV fame. Brown runs through th...