We’re breaking down the good and the bad of everything that we read in December 2020 – this is a shorter but powerful collection of reads, including a back list and two hyped-up 2020 reads.
1. Nora Ephron, Heartburn
A back-list book that came highly recommended from Dolly Alderton and Nigella Lawson, to name just two. This is a short read, but boy does it pack a punch in its pages. Telling the story of Rachel who finds out that her husband is unfaithful whilst she is pregnant with their second child, it is a heart-wrenching indictment of the state of Ephron’s own marriage and the widely publicised divorce from her husband Carl Bernstein and is largely a thinly-veiled autobiography. Ephron is razor-sharp in her prose throughout, in this stunning, whip-smart revenge enacted through her flawless writing. Interspersed with recipes (Rachel is a food writer), these provide the perfect backdrop within which to place this jewel a novel. This is a rite of passage kind of novel for anyone who has ever had their heart broken, or for anyone who has simply lived the human experience.
Get a copy of Heartburn here.
2. Barack Obama, The Promised Land
Making the New York Times list of books for 2020, this lengthy and thoughtful memoir from the former president of the United States – Barack Obama – lifts the curtain behind the American political system, revealing the inner workings of his own presidency, including his own shortcomings, his path to office, the complications in his own marriage and ultimately his successes and failures. Obama writes with a humility that is staggering and revealing, enabling him to show the human side, rather than the man behind those flawless speeches.
Promised Land is the first half of the memoir that will be followed by a second volume in due course, and while lengthy it is thoughtful and a word is not wasted. It is a sheer force of nature in a memoir.
Get a copy of The Promised Land here.
There are not many books that you can read and re-read but Glennon Doyle’s 2020 memoir is one. Untamed is a foundation-shaking memoir that will have you re-thinking your own life, thoughts and principles very differently. Doyle writes about her decision to leave her husband for her now-wife and live her life as an ‘Untamed’ woman without the constraints of societal pressure. It is a game-changing work that will have you re-evaluating yourself and the world around you.
Get a copy of Untamed here.
