Nina is Not OK – Shappi Khorsandi

I think Nina is Not OK is a brilliant book about a difficult subject.

17 year old Nina is an A-level student who, like many young people, likes a drink even although she is under age. The problem is the next day she can’t always remember exactly what happened the night before.

Then one night when she is very, very drunk she is ejected from a club and separated from her friends and her phone because of her very inappropriate behaviour. She remembers the guy she was being inappropriate with coming out with his friend and they took her down to an alley. The next thing she remembers is ‘Alex’ and his friend putting her in a taxi then going back into the club. The taxi driver gets her home but there is a huge gap in her memory.

The next day she learns that one of her friends ‘got off with’ Alex after he went back into the club.

Following this incident things got so much worse for Nina and it becomes clear that Nina has issues that she is unable to fix by herself. She often says she’s fine when she’s definitely not okay; she has been dumped by her boyfriend who had gone abroad for a year and had met someone else; she misses her dad who was an alcoholic and died at a young age; Nina drinks far too much. Her relationship with her Mum is a bit strained.

My heart sank every time Nina got herself into a bad situation again and again and she got on a downward spiral. The voice inside my head was saying, “No. Please no. Don’t do it! Please, not again, walk away!” Her poor mother and stepfather.

What was so good was that even when she got completely out of control and at rock bottom, I didn’t feel the need to judge her harshly. She did some awful things but she always came across as basically a good person and we do get to see some of that better side.

My emotions were all over the place. Things were looking up when she went into rehab; then the relapse; Jamie the ex-boyfriend appearing again; and then the horrendous shaming when a photo of her appeared on social media. media. My heart sank for Nina. I kept hoping for a good ending but Shappi kept me ‘strung out’ right until the end.

I actually had some sympathy for all the characters in the book, apart from Alex and his friend.

The book is extremely well written and the dialogue believable. It deals with issues of alcoholism, rape culture, slut shaming and victim blaming.  I felt as if I was living through every mother’s (indeed every parent’s) nightmare.  While it might not be to everyone’s taste because of the subject matter (there is sexual content and a quite a lot of swearing) it is still one of my favourite books this year.  I would recommend it for anyone from young adults to older readers (it reminded me how difficult it can be for teenagers nowadays).

Shappi has written a powerful story which is entertaining and very readable. A great debut novel.

The book is available in the UK from 28 July 2016.

Website:   www.shappi.co.uk

Twitter:     @ShappiKhorsandi

Truly Madly Guilty – Liane Moriarty

Description

Despite their differences, Erika and Clementine have been best friends since they were children. So when Erika needs help, Clementine should be the obvious person to turn to. Or so you’d think. For Clementine, as a mother of a two desperately trying to practise for the audition of a lifetime, the last thing she needs is Erika asking for something, again. But the barbecue should be the perfect way to forget their problems for a while. Especially when their hosts, Vid and Tiffany, are only too happy to distract them. Which is how it all spirals out of control…

 

My friend has been telling me for ages I should read Liane Moriarty’s books. She is a fan and has read them all. Truly Madly Guilty is the first Liane Moriarty I have read.

I enjoyed it a lot. The storytelling is very, very good. As I read, I felt I really got to know the characters although it is a slow reveal. We are fed little bits of information all the way through the book.

At the heart of this novel is something that happened at a barbeque attended by three couples; childless Erika and Oliver, Clementine and Sam (two young daughters), Vid and Tiffany (one daughter) and a dog. Apparently something huge. We have to stay with the story in order to find out what actually happened at the barbeque and the consequences for each of the characters. I found the format quite intriguing. The story starts some time after the barbeque but returns to the day of the barbeque frequently, at different times of the day and telling the story from each couples’ perspective.

The book begins with ‘Erika’ attending a talk given by ‘Clementine’ in a suburban library. The talk is about the incident at the barbeque. The opening chapter gives us snippets of the talk and Erika’s contradictory thoughts on what Clementine is saying. I immediately got the feeling that they knew each other well but something had happened and Erika was kind of sneaking in to listen to Clementine’s talk. After a couple of chapters I really felt I was getting a handle on the characters but no …. I soon realised there was so much more to be revealed as the book progressed. The story goes back and forward in time, always anchored to the day of the barbeque.

There is real depth to the characters, and their various relationships with their spouses, the children, parents, colleagues, is woven into the fabric of the story very naturally and not contrived.

When I was looking briefly at the story again, just before writing this review, I realised there were little bits of information in the story that hadn’t really registered with me at the time but made sense once I got to the end. I think this is a book I will want to re-read at some point.

I’m not sure if this is typical of the author’s style since this is the first time I have read one of her books but I can now add Liane Moriarty’s name to my list of authors that I want to read more of.

I found it a very enjoyable, entertaining and satisfying novel.

Available in the UK from 28 July 2016.

Author’s website:   lianemoriarty.com.au

Glyn Macey’s World of Acrylics: How to Paint Sea, Sky, Land and Life

 

One of my hobbies is painting, especially using acrylics.  I probably started using them about 6 or 7 years ago when I started going to art classes.  If you make a mistake they are very forgiving – you can usually just paint right over the mistake.

I have quite a collection of ‘How to’ art books. I don’t always try to copy the paintings in them.  Most of them I just like to look at and tell myself I will try out some of the examples at some future date.

I was delighted when I learned I had won a copy of  Glyn Macey’s World of Acrylics from the publisher Search Press.  I had seen a preview of the cover a few weeks before it went on sale and I knew straight away I would want this book, even if I had to drop heavy hints to my family and wait for Christmas.

The cover is striking. I love the deep, intense blues of the sea and sky and the contrasting colours of the buildings and walls.

Inside, there is an explosion of vibrant colour.   The colours are so exciting: cadmium reds and yellows, purples, intense blues. Whether or not you actually try any of the suggestions, it’s an amazing book to look at. There are four main sections: sea; sky; woodland and wilderness; and finally life which adds urban landscapes.

Each section starts with some finished examples and there is a lot of very useful information in each section covering topics such as useful equipment, techniques, colour, texture, mark making etc.

It is an inspiring book. Although each section has a example broken down into stages, it is not a step by step guide to an exact copy. You are encouraged to do your own thing.  For instance the example in “the Sea” in broken down into 6 stages:  Preparation and capturing the scene (including a list of suggested materials);  Laying out the colours;  Shaping; Shadows and light;  Details;  Finishing touches.  At the end of some stages there are suggestions of further things you could do but it seems designed to make you think and explore the possibilities, bring out your creativity.

It’s a visually exciting book for all artists and budding artists.

Author website:  www.glynmacey.co.uk (showing some examples and a taster tutorial)

Search Press sample here