Only Ever Yours - Louise O'Neill

I rated this book 6/10

frieda and isabel have been best friends their whole lives.

Now, aged sixteen and in their final year at the School, they expect to be selected as companions - wives to wealthy and powerful men. The alternative - life as a concubine - is too horrible to contemplate.

But as the intensity of the final year takes hold, the pressure to remain perfect becomes almost unbearable. isabel starts to self-destruct, putting her beauty - her only asset - in peril.

A re-worked YA Handmaid's Tale.

Surprisingly relevant. The comparisons that I could make between O'Neill's creation and our own world are shockingly close.

'Only Ever Yours' turns a magnifying glass onto a world in which celebrity magazines draw rings around a woman who has a touch of cellulite. It satirises the waxing regimes, the plastic surgery, hair dye, laser treatments, weight loss pills, marriage traditions, fashion trends and reality shows that women find themselves sucked into. It turns a mirror on a world in which women are constantly asked "So when are you having children?" as soon as they reach their twenties.

The book also touches briefly on the idea that young men are not supposed to discuss emotions, thoughts or feelings with other people.

Dramatic, bleak and quick to read - "Only Ever Yours" is YA dystopia; a re-worked 'Handmaid's Tale' that throws up feminist issues with no holds barred.

Available at Waterstones.com

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay - Elena Ferrante

I rated this book 10/10

Elena and Lila, the two girls whom readers first met in My Brilliant Friend, have become women. Both women are pushing against the walls of a prison that would have seem them living a life of mystery, ignorance and submission. They are afloat on the great sea of opportunities that opened up during the nineteen-seventies. Yet they are still very much bound to see each other by a strong, unbreakable bond.

"Each of us narrates our life as it suits us." - Lila Cerullo

I am completely entranced by The Neapolitan Novels. This, the third book in the series is as absorbing as the two before it. Elena and Lila are in their mid twenties to early thirties and are struggling with their individual families and dilemmas. Elena still holds Lila on a pedestal and she still finds herself drawn to her best friend despite their many bitter disagreements.

The books are meant to be read in order. Elena and Lila often refer back to events that occurred in books one and two - reminding the reader that they have been along for the journey right from the very beginning.

It is difficult to describe the brutal honesty with which Ferrante pens Elena's thoughts and feelings - the fact that a lot of people don't like the characters to me feels like Ferrante has done her job well. They're not meant to be liked; they're meant to be human. I would love to read these novels through the eyes of Lila to compare how they view their experiences.

This is the only series I have ever read that I will really miss once I finish the fourth and final book. 

Sacred Country - Rose Tremain

I rated this book 8/10...

"I have a secret to tell you, dear, and this is it: I am not Mary. That is a mistake. I am not a girl. I'm a boy." Mary's fight to become Martin, her claustrophobic small town, and her troubled family make up the core of this remarkable and intimate, emotional yet unsentimental novel. 

'Sacred Country' is a wonderful read about gender identification in the 50s-70s, and sexuality. It doesn't go as deeply into the emotions that Martin feels as I would like, but there is definitely a real sense of anguish and despair throughout the novel, as his family (particularly his father) reject his transition from Mary to Martin.

The characters are all very well written, mostly hopeless and self absorbed in their small country farm village. Despite this, you do feel for them and want life to improve for them. There is the odd unexpected event here and there - one of which I didn't feel was believable for the character, but I won't spoil the story.

I was absorbed by this book and ploughed my way through it. Not ordinarily an author I would pick up but I was hooked by the blurb and I'm glad I did. Well worth reading, and would be perfect for those that like a bit more depth to their summer paperbacks.

We should all be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

I rated this book 8/10

Argued in the same observant, witty and clever prose that has made Adichie a best-selling novelist, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman today – and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.

I am a feminist. I think that everybody who believes in equal rights and equal respect for women and people all over the world should not be ashamed to call themselves a feminist. Adiche certainly isn't ashamed to identify as feminist in this quick and easy short taken from a TED talk she presented. It was interesting to find out a little more about the inequalities present in her own country.

I am Malala - Malala Yousafzai

I rated this book 10/10

I Am Malala is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.

I Am Malala will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to inspire change in the world. 

I have rated this book with top marks, as it has taught me so much about Pakistan and the conflict that the country has faced and continues to do battle with. It also taught me a lot about the Muslim community in Pakistan, and squashed some of the myths that fly back and forth between the people that do not know any better.

Malala herself comes across as young, arrogant, strong willed and opinionated. Her morals and values are completely justified and positive, as she consistently articulates the importance of education for BOTH boys and girls clearly. She not only fights for the rights of women in her own country, but for the equality of people all over the world. A really fascinating young lady who has been greatly influenced by her father of whom she thinks very highly of.

Some critics seem to think that Malala is all talk and no action. This is simply not true, and even if it was, I think it would be almost irrelevant. Somebody with this kind of passion needed to stand up and shout about what was happening, bring the issue onto the bookshelves of ordinary people all over the world - and Malala did it. Ironically, the fact that she was shot in the face by the Taliban only served to give her a higher platform to stand on and oppose them from.

Malala's charity funding helps small communities to build the foundations for schooling and education for uneducated children. She invests her own money into that as well as campaigning for others to do the same. Visit www.malala.org to learn more.

Malala deserved the Nobel peace prize. I know that everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but I truly believe that this book should be read by all.