2020 Wrap up!

What a year it's been! Thank you all so much for visiting my blog and for supporting me as I started to write. I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing my thoughts about books and other things in the literary world and I hope that you have enjoyed reading them! Literature can help get us through the toughest times in our lives, acting as a refuge in which we can escape into a fictional world and forget about the atrocities that are going on around us which is why I love it so much! When everything else seems as if it isn't going to plan, you can always rely on your favourite book to bring your mood back up, and that's the beauty of the wonderful art of the written word!

So this year, I've read 21 books and while I've (mostly) loved them all, I have to say that my three favourites were: 'The Last Tudor', 'Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine', and 'The Kite Runner'. All three captured my imagination and kept me turning and turning the pages, desperate to reach the end and discover the rest of the story, but equally desperate for the book not to finish! Philippa Gregory, Gail Honeyman, and Khaled Hosseini are all fantastic novelists who write in an enthralling way, each providing a unique perception of the societies they write about.

'The Last Tudor' focuses on the Grey sisters living under Mary I and Elizabeth I, suffering imprisonment, separation from their families, and a form of mental torture due to the threat they pose to the monarchy. I love the Tudors, so reading a book set at this time gives me even more of an insight into their lives and the dangers they posed, further cementing my love of historical fiction!

I have written many times about 'Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine' and it truly is an incredible novel due to the way she ingeniously describes the life of a social misfit, haunted by her troubled childhood. Honeyman's writing style makes the novel a fascinating enigma; the reader is constantly aware that all is not as it seems, yet it is impossible to place your finger on it until the very end. The novel tackles themes such as loneliness, isolation, and love whilst providing an insight into the life of someone battling mental health illness, marking this as a must-read!

Khaled Hosseini's 'The Kite Runner' is a tragic yet beautiful story of familial love and connections, of betrayal and loss, of battling guilt and grief. It is a cultural experience, showing the reader what it was like to live as a young boy in Afghanistan under the Soviets and the Taliban. Although there are fleeting moments of happiness, the novel is a devastating one, certainly able to make the tears flow, which is why it is such a page-turning read!

If you have any books that you would recommend, please email me - sophielmdenny@gmail.com - as I would love to get your ideas too! Also, if there is anything in particular that you would like to see on my blog, please let me know as it would be incredible if I could expand my blog, and your input will help me do that!

Anyway, I hope that you all have a Happy New Year and hopefully at some time next year we'll be able to return to a sense of normality!