Get Booked – Politics, Bees, Wine O Clock & Being Completely Fine

Welcome to today's Get Booked here at Women's Radio Station. It's been an excellent few months on this show, meeting some incredible authors— Jan McPeek, Christine Clayfield, Amanda Robson, Teal Swan, etc. Et cetera. It's been an incredible, incredible journey, and we've chatted about some unbelievable books and spread the book love, author love, and today is no different. I have a fab selection for you to cuddle up with over the festive season and to buy as last-minute gifts and potentially nurse a hangover with. Ahem. You know you will. And today's show is called politics, bees, wine o'clock, and being completely fine. Ha! You can find all my book recommendations and links on my website, hazelbutterfield.com, Twitter @nuttybutty, and Instagram on getbooked_wrs, making it all nice and easy for you. The variety of books in my latest review instalment is probably the most varied it's ever been. It is, uh, suggestions, curiosity, presence, and a welcomed travel buddy. Um, I like books that take you on a journey and yet still leave you guessing. Books that make you giggle ridiculously, and those that remind you just how clever and creative some of the incredible authors out there are to be able to write a unique and thrilling read. However, Fire and Fury, not so much. We'll be coming to that later on in today's show. First up on my list, we have Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I've had this on my list for some time, and while I was at the library with the little ones, I came across the audio version, which tied in quite nicely with my trip up north to see the family. Whenever I say up north, I've got to go back into my northern accent. Basically, from London, it's about 3 to 4 hours in a car each way, assuming I do not get hit with holiday traffic, which pretty much covers all the way there and back. It is absolutely perfect. I think it was about 7 or 8 hours long, the audiobook. And I think it's a different experience, an audiobook. The intonation, accents, and speed are kind of thrust upon you. And it's not a bad or a worse thing. It's just different. And Eleanor Oliphant is based in Scotland. So I quite like it. I love the Scottish accent as well. I had no real idea what the book was really about other than what the title would infer. And that's definitely a really good way to go sometimes. You really just don't know what to expect. There's nothing worse when someone tells you, how a story's gonna go. You kind of want it to come from left field and just go, "Oh wow, that's an interesting little route that I went down." Many reviews have said that it was excellent, which is sometimes enough. I just wanna know a book is good. Trust me though, afterwards you will have all sorts of questions about, "Huh? What actually happened? We don't get it." What's, what's, what's gonna happen now? What really was she talking about? And what is— I don't want to say what's wrong with Ellen Royal Olyphant— what is, what is her deal? Um, and if you go up onto my website hazelbutterfield.com, go and check out the book reviews, uh, for today's show. You— there is a link on there. And if you cannot— if you don't go onto the website, just type in, uh, popmatters.com Gail Honeyman Finding Threads of Humor Even in the Darkest Places. And there's an excellent blogger there who's gone and asked all the questions that you're going to be having whirring around in your brain. Trust me when you read it, and those of you that have already read it will know what's just exactly what I mean. It's brilliant, it's brilliant. Just remember, with all these books that I talked to you about, by all means, please do get in touch on Instagram @getbookedwrs, or you can get in touch with me via my website as well and Twitter @NuttyButty, and let me know what your thoughts are of the book as well. I'd like, I like just having good old conversations about books. I love them. And I do love a book that gets you thinking and challenges your perceptions and knowledge of mental illness and puts your brain to work. Do not underestimate people. Do not make the obvious assumption and appreciate simplicity has its place. And this book is just absolutely beautiful. I hope it gives you exactly what it gave me. Please do give it a whirl. And remember, if Christmas is challenging you financially, not only can you get a free sample on Kindle before you commit, we are very fortunate to have libraries. They are an excellent service that we must use before they decide it's no longer required and cuts take over. And do you know what? Rather than the whole nature of people just sending vouchers for Christmas, when people next ask you what you want, Tell them a book. Do you know how easy it is just for someone to buy it on Amazon and get it sent directly to you? It's simple, it's easy. Maybe set up a little bit of a book club or a book swap. It's great. Spreading the love, my lovelies. And next up we have— now, I don't always just talk about the books I love. I kind of want to make sure that you're aware of everything that I read because You know, you've got to give everything a whirl, and sometimes it doesn't float your boat. And the next one that kind of fits that category is Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff. A lot of you might have heard about this one. Hmm, Donald Trump, yay! Do not get me wrong, I wasn't sure I even wanted to read this as the contents were undoubtedly going to infuriate me, but curiosity got the better of me, and I had a free book to take on audiobook, and I thought, I'm not gonna— I don't want to spend any money enduring this, but if it's for free, and it also gave me an excuse to get out there and walk the dog and go for runs and, you know, just listen to it as I went along, and I'll be honest, there were times I realised I'd done a couple of K and completely not listened because sometimes your brain just wanders. And definitely with this, with this book, I'm really torn as to what I really think as parts of this book were, how do I put this politely, brain-numbingly boring. The book, yes, it is a little snippet of delirious laughter. The book, although it had sections of interest and occasional snippets of interesting behaviour, in its majority it was political gobbledygook, official term, or fake news, you may call it. I'd be surprised if Trump himself has read it considering his supposed attention span for detail. The family The plot elements and methodology around his spats were vaguely entertaining, or maybe intriguing is a better word. The rhetoric was very kind of personal vendetta-esque, but that's politics for you, isn't it? Everyone's got an agenda, everyone's got an opinion, everyone's got something to say. Not all of it's interesting and a lot of it is made up or politically fuelled. I feel I learnt nothing new other than a slight insight into the kind of recalcitrant, narcissistic mind of Trump, his followers, and you know what, his greatest enemies too. I chose to, you know, consume this book via Audible so that it would be less taxing. It was definitely the right move, even though I did say that I kind of zoned out a bit. At least I didn't have to put in as much effort because I was just listening rather than having to endure the actual words. Actually having to read the words may have sent me blind. Don't worry, I like many of the other books I'm going to tell you about throughout the rest of today's show. But there are some excellent YouTube videos that are out there in response to this book, such as Hillary Clinton mocks Trump in Fire and Fury Grammys skit. Just Google it, whether you like it or not. I think it will make you giggle, and likewise, I have put a link up there on my blog. If you actually go onto my Instagram, I'm gonna put up all the links on there as well, like GetBooked WRS. And yeah, Fire and Fury, not so good, and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, absolutely excellent. They are completely, completely different, but Yeah, and just remember as well, if you have any books that you've read and you want to send in a kind of minute review, you can send it through to Women's Radio Station and we'll get them played up on our show. And we are coming up after the break, we're going to be talking about Little Miss Wine O'Clock and Bees by Laline Paul. And it's, yeah, I'm looking forward to these because both of these I've thought of were absolutely excellent, one to kind of snuggle up to and another one that's perfect for little stocking fillers. And I want you to go and check out my Bookstagram porn @getbookedwrs and give me a follow. I want to know that you're there, want to know that you're listening. Right, coming up after the break is the second half of today's Get Booked. Welcome to Women's Radio Station, the voice of women worldwide. This is Women's Radio Station. You're listening to Avril Price with Kitchen Sink Spirituality. It's Anna Kennedy talking all things autism, and my guest today is Karen. Welcome to Future Classical Woman Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte, on Women's Radio Station. Women's Radio Station, we want to hear from you. I listen to Women's Radio Station. 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Every little will help. We are now back for the second half of today's Women's Radio Station Christmas special of Get Booked. I'm Hazel Butterfield. We have been discussing Fire and Fury and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. Next up is more— a more lighter read and yet so incredibly topical. Little Miss Wine O'Clock by Lily Magnus. This was a present given to me, well, presented to me a few espresso martinis and a bottle of fizz into the evening. Optimum presentation time. If you do decide that you love this book after I've told you about it, please do make sure that you present it once you've well lubricated your recipient. It was absolutely brilliant. It does look about, looks just like the Mr. Men books. It is incredible. I read the whole thing there and then. And it's just stupidly funny. We basically all sat there around the table just reading every single page. Brilliantly funny. What a great gift idea. Steal the idea as your own and note that this is not associated to Roger Hargreaves in any way, shape, or form. It's a cheap and cheerful and great stocking filler and kind of a last-minute purchase, or, or I quite like a good old toilet read. Not that I like to, you know, sit there with a magazine and whatnot, but I like it. Do you know when you just leave really good books in the toilet for people to just have little snippets of every now and again? That sounds disgusting, isn't it? Well, well, you don't have to come round. It's fine. Little Miss Wine O'Clock by Lily Magnus. Other ones in the range include Little Miss Surviving Motherhood, Mr. Grumpy Nails Fatherhood. You see where I'm going with this, don't you? Little Miss Shy Goes online dating, and Mr. Happy and the Office Lady. Little Miss Looky is getting married, I like that. And this is probably my favourite one. This is one that I definitely want to, actually, you know what, I want to get hold of all of them, but Mr. Greedy gets clean to get lean. In the break, I did actually finish my coffee, so I am slightly getting my caffeine rush now, so bear with me. I do like those. Lily Magners, go and check them out on Instagram. And as I said before, all the links are up on hazelbutterfield.com. As I mentioned earlier, today's show is called Politics, Bees, Wine O'Clock, and Being Completely Fine. If you just type that into your web browser, it will come up and all the links are on there because I just like to make things incredibly easy for you. And remember that you can catch up on all of your favourite or missed Get Booked shows here at Women's Radio Station. Just type in— go onto the website and just go onto /getbooked or check us out on SoundCloud. Listen, share, get involved, support us and read away. We are here for you. And, and remember to send in your 1-minute book review clips. Record it clearly on your phone and you can send it to us at Women's Radio Station. I do, I absolutely love reading. I love talking to you about books. I love getting all these incredible authors in, of which we've got some brilliant ones lined up for 2019. I can't believe we're in 2019 so quickly. But keep your suggestions. Maybe you know an author or somebody who's got a debut novel out and you want to give them a little bit of promo. Get in touch with me and I'd love to help. And so finally, We have my final book of today's show. It's Bees by Laline Paul. This was recommended to me based on the books I normally love by a friend, and it was seemingly an odd suggestion, but the more I read, the more sucked in I got. This story was a beautiful depiction of Leadership, being a leader and forming your own path in a marginalised society, being a protagonist and refusing to conform to hierarchical norms and questioning your position in society. How relevant! And I like the way so many struggles and issues in modern-day society were tackled in such a beautiful metaphorical way that sometimes you thought the book was just about the life of a bee, and it is so not. Basically, born into the lower class of society, Flora 717, oh, imagine being assigned a number to your name, is a sanitation bee only fit to clean her orchard hive, living to accept, obey, and serve, and she is prepared to sacrifice everything for her beloved holy mother, the queen, the queen bee, obviously. But Flora is not like other bees. Despite her ugliness, as she is told, she has talents that are not typical of her kin. Imagine that. While mutant bees are usually instantly destroyed, Flora is removed from sanitation duty and is allowed to feed the newborns, which is considered an honor before becoming a forager. Collecting pollen on the wing, she also finds her way into the queen's inner sanctum where she discovers secrets, both sublime and ominous, but enemies are everywhere. We all know that. We all have our challenges, and there's— the more we try, the more challenges we face. The fearsome fertility police, haha, to the High Priestesses who jealously guard the hive mind. And when Flora breaks the most sacred law of all, her instinct to serve is overshadowed by an even deeper desire and fierce love that will lead to the unthinkable. It's just the way that this book is put to us is incredible. I do believe Lillian Paul has a new book that's out called The Ice, and she lives down south somewhere. I need to get in touch with her and get her in for 2019. I want to talk to her about how she put together The Bees, and then I want to read The Ice, and I know I'm going to love it. There's not a chance I'm not, and I really want to get her in She's got such an exceptional, creative, and intricate mind. It may even— one of the things about this book, some of the things she came out with, I mean, she's just so incredibly intelligent. I should have probably read it on a Kindle to be able to decipher the meaning of so much of what she had to say. One of the beauties of reading on a Kindle is the quick tap and the explanation feature. I know that so many book lovers out there think it's some form of blasphemy for me to suggest Kindle. But you know what? There are so many good reasons to get involved with Kindle as well. It means that you can sometimes read more, you can check out a book, you can get a sample before you actually commit to a book. And if there's a word you don't understand, I'm happy to stick my hand up. I don't know every single word out there. If only I did, and maybe I could go on 9 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. That's the name of it. But yeah, yeah. If you don't know a word on a Kindle, you tap it, highlight it, and the meaning comes up. It's absolutely brilliant and I love it. And her vocabulary, Lillian Paul, is just incredible. But there were times when I just had to just assume the meaning and other times I actually stopped and I had to Google it. Other search engines are available. A quick tap and explanation feature. Absolutely love it. The knowledge and introspective nature. Of the narrative was just incredible, all from the perspective of a bee. Seriously, it's all— it's a bee telling you this whole story, and it's just incredible. I was ridiculously impressed, and I cannot wait to get stuck into her next book. Watch this space. Next year, I'm going to get her in the studio, just you wait and see. And the books that I've also saved for my time off throughout Christmas, there's quite a few that I've I'm hoping for quite a few. Do you know what? The good thing about books is that when winter sinks in and it starts to rain, you can just sit there guilt-free and read for hours and go, "I don't care that the weather is rubbish. I've got this book I've been dying to sink my teeth into." And the ones I've got on my list are What's Left Unsaid by Deborah Stone and The Missing Activist by Louise Birthing. Dons. This is a political thriller, no less. I'm going to try and get her in the studio. I've already been chatting to her. So that's something definitely to look forward to in 2019. Basically, The Missing Activist, a political thriller about the women, female jihadis, and some of the things that go on in politics that we kind of know goes on, but we also kind of don't want to know sometimes as well. And it is a thriller, and I think it's just going to be incredible, and it was written very recently as well. So, I think it's going to be quite topical and relevant. And also, I do like my humorous books as well. When I do, if you ever read my book blogs, I tend to do 4 at a time and I like to have something a little bit more serious, something funny, something completely, you know, different. There's got to be 4 different ones and I try to make sure that I do at least one on Kindle or one on Audible or something like that. And just to really give myself a bit of variety. And the next one that a lot of my friends have read, and some of my friends actually, I think they know the author, is This Is Going to Hurt: Diaries of a Junior Doctor. Cannot wait. So those are the 3 I'm going to be doing. Please send in your recommendations too. I cannot wait. And thank you for joining me on today's show. It's what we do here at Women's Radio Station, getting our voice out there. And my show specifically Get Booked, all things book-related— news, reviews, interviews, and everything and anything keeping you booked up. I'm Hazel Butterfield, and you have been listening to Get Booked for Women's Radio Station. Catch me here every day of the week at 5, and previous shows on womensradiostation.com/shows/getbooked. I hope you're all having a fabulous New Year. Women's Radio Station is a fresh new broadcasting platform driven by love and passion, connecting women around the world in a global network. Is all about diversity from opinions, career, ethnicity, education. We aim to show the individuality of every woman everywhere, providing opportunities and a platform for your voice. Women, the possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different. I'm Tamina Zaman, founder of Empower and Enrich. When it comes to money, do you clam up or get confused? Do you wish you could save more money, or are you hoping you have enough for retirement? You are not alone. Many women want to be smarter with their cash but just don't know where to start. At empowerandenrich.org, you will find a host of options to help you take charge of your finances and learn how to put your money to work for you in an easy, affordable way. Get in touch with me at empowerandenrich.org and let's change your future together. Hi, I'm Lara Heems, founder and designer of Lara Heems Jewelry. I make luxurious jewelry at affordable prices using silver, semi-precious stones, and high-quality AAA cubic zirconia. It's elegant, Elegant, stunning, stylish, and long-lasting. Who needs diamonds? Find us at House of Fraser stores or Ella Boutique Knightsbridge. If not, visit us at www.laraheems.com. Make a statement and sparkle this season. Do you need mediation? We are The A Project Charity. We provide conflict resolution and community engagement services. Our services include community mediation mediation for neighbour disputes, family mediation for separating couples, special education needs for parents, carers, and their children and young adults, as well as workplace mediation and restorative services. To find out more, head to womensradiostation.com or thea-project.co.uk. Let me tell you about German Street Theatre. This is a secret theatre in the heart of the West and once found, never forgotten. This is where careers ignite, where playwrights take risks, where great actors perform just feet away from the audience. This is where magic happens. We would love you to join our mailing list or become a sponsor or just buy a ticket to one of our shows. The website is www.germinestreettheatre.co.uk. Women's Radio Station is a not-for-profit community interest company. Supporting women is our passion. We're currently welcoming donations to help towards our running costs to keep this important initiative alive. To donate, simply head to our website. Every little will help.