Get Booked – Reviews, How Life’s Events Shape Who We Are

Hello, I'm Hazel Butterfield, and welcome to today's Get Booked radio show here in Covent Garden, supporting women's emotional well-being and opening discussions and offering support. Throughout today's show, I'm going to be telling you about the books that I've been reading, Some just uplift you, some of them open your mind, and some just share other people's stories. I've got a huge collection for you today, and the title of today's review show is How Life's Events Shape Who We Become. I've been on quite a roller coaster ride getting through these books, and it's been incredible. I hope you're going to enjoy these books as much as I've enjoyed them. And remember, you can go on to my website at hazelbutterfield.com, have a look at the book reviews and there's some really nice and easy links on there for you. We're going to be putting them up on the website too. Make sure you follow the Instagram page @getbookedwrs and me on Twitter @nuttybutty. And, uh, right, so kicking us off today, we have quite an interesting book. It is called The Vegetarian by Han Kang. This book was brought to my attention by one of the staff in my local Waterstones. We love a good browse in there, me and the kids. We are, we're always lining up what we want. We have a very long list. We're, we're a big reading family, do not get me wrong. They do like a little bit of PlayStation and I do like the soaps, but we read a lot. It's all about, it's all about you know, variety and balancing it out. So, I often go into bookshops and I ask for their recommendations and they very rarely fail to impress. There's a lot of people that choose to work in bookshops because they have a love of books and they're expected to read quite a lot of books as well so that they can, you know, be that extra edge. It's so easy for people to just order online and they're trying to make sure that you get people into these shops, these independents, and also some of the bigger companies as well. Anyway, so, The Vegetarian, it's had some incredible and quite mixed reviews out there. It's nothing short of an intriguing piece of translated literature that is not for the faint-hearted. It's gruesome, twisted, and hey, one of my favourites, and written in such a calm way that will make you anxious just trying to comprehend it. It was, it was one of those 4-dayers. I do read my books quite quickly. Set in modern-day Korea, yet with an antiquated values and traditions kind of vibe, split into just 3 chapters. So, I know some of you out there are not a fan of just going and going and going. You like your short chapters. If that is something you're going to struggle with, you might not be able to do The Vegetarian. And each one of these 3 chapters is from the viewpoint of the 3 main characters. There's the husband, the brother-in-law, and the vegetarian. It was complex, it was taxing, and it was at times hard to fully digest what was going on, but I was transfixed all the same. It might, it might take me a while to fully understand it. It's one of those books that you could probably read again and again and realize something different throughout it. I wonder if they're ever actually going to make it into a film. In fact, I'm sure it probably is out in Korea somewhere. It's based on trauma, repercussions of such, and perceptions of insanity. But insanity cannot always be explained or attributed. The scary notion that the more you try to understand it, the more you can relate to it, or the more it scares you. It's well written, it's interesting, it's unique, it's culturally deep. It is— I loved it, I loved it. Go and check it out. The Vegetarian by Han Kang. Now, This next book is completely, completely a step away from that. It is called, now this book, I'll warn you, is such a psychological kind of twisty journey. It has actually been optioned for a film. I do believe Reese Witherspoon is gonna be in it. It's coming out in 2019, so hey, yeah, it's, I think they've not released the actual release date yet. But when it does come out, after reading the book, I will be watching this film, especially if Reese Witherspoon's involved. But it is called The Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll. It's such an incredible journey. I found it haunting. It's— you start— I didn't know anything about the book before I started it, which is sometimes just the best way. Somebody recommended it to me and I just went in, so it's a bit of a It was a different kind of journey because I didn't know what to expect. And "The Luckiest Girl Alive" relates to a girl that experienced a series of horrific events during high school and survived a mass school shooting and has since turned her life around and become a particular character deemed as hard-hitting and uncomfortable and I mean, most reviews you will see of this book, you will hear people saying that they just didn't like her and they didn't warm to her and that they had to stop the book. Stick with it. There's a reason why she is like that. It's just— but what— it's the things that she has to go through, and I don't want to ruin the story for you, but she's very successful up in the city, but she comes back as part of a documentary on the atrocities that happened where she was brought up and the involved, and she gets more than what she bargained for. The clever twists in this book will just mess with your head, but in a very kind of— in the kind of way that you would expect Reese Witherspoon to be wanting to be involved. It's got that Liane Moriarty vibe about it. It took me days, like 2 days, to read this, and the only reason I put the book down sometimes was to get my head around the psychological elements, the resonance of her life and why she needs to be who she is now, to no longer be a victim, a power struggle of who we are, who we should be and who we need to be. This is what we do here. We, we like to support and help to understand emotional wellbeing. And this is one of those books that, although it's not real life, It so could be, and it's so relevant, especially with the increase on what is happening in American schools and why it's happening. And it's just trying to understand the psychology around why people do that. There's never an excuse, but there's an understanding. I think if you've watched 13 Reasons Why, It is very, very similar to that. So, it's not for the faint-hearted. It is definitely— it's gonna mess with you a little bit, but if you like books like that, The Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll is definitely for you. I mean, have you ever been driven by a need to prove people wrong or maybe just prove something to yourself? Then there's that careful approach to the other side of these increasingly Increasing atrocities in US schools. You need to read this. It's not to understand these horrific people and what they do, it's to understand the repercussion of our actions, bullying, and how people get away with things and how it does have a knock-on effect. It is a story, but it is so incredibly important in modern-day culture and just to kind of educate people and our kids about the repercussions of their actions and to help understand that if somebody is a particular way, it's not because they like being that way, which might be quite negative. It's because of how they've learned to survive. And it's about being less judgmental and more understanding. It's absolutely incredible. I do urge you to please read this book before you go and see the movie. It's got a little bit of a Gone Girl vibe about it. It as well. And it's, you've got a while, you've got a while, and if you're like me, you're going to be finishing it in no time anyway. I remember when I first read this and I told some of my friends about it, they all went and got it because it just, it just hit me. Do you know when a book haunts you and you kind of sit there going, "I need somebody else to read this so I can speak to them about it." It's just, it was incredible, absolutely incredible. I do like to vary things a little bit every now now and again just to kind of make sure, because I love reading books about mental wellbeing and I love reading books that help us learn about people more, but sometimes you just need to rein it back in again. And we're going to talk a little bit about some of the books by David Walliams as well, because do you know what? He does cover psychological elements. They're kids' books, but they're talking about being orphaned or being bullied or wanting you know, transgender parents not being the best that they can be. Let's be honest, I do have a little bit of a crush on David Walliams. Basically, he's a book writer, dog lover, and has an inappropriate humour. Do you know what? I am all in. I keep on tweeting him and saying, you know, honey, I know you're single, but he just doesn't really listen to me. So if you're listening, because I know he is a big listener of Get Booked, he's a huge fan, Honey, get in touch. What were you saying that I can't use this show for dating purposes? No, I can, I can, I can. They're brilliant, they're absolutely brilliant. I love every single book by David Walliams. And if you want to sometimes just rein it in when you feel like your head's gone a little bit, woo-hoo, anything by David Walliams is just gonna kind of Ctrl+Alt+Delete your brain to get you back around again. Now I just wanna remind you here at Get Booked, if you have any book reviews that you wanna tell us about, please do send us in. In a nice little 1-minute clip, or you can just record it on your phone, and we will make sure that we will play out here at Get Booked. We are going to be here for the full hour. This is the— we're just coming up to the end of our first section. We're going to go over to a couple of ads, and I will be back very shortly. Stick with us, I'll be back in a minute. Welcome to Women's Radio Station. I'm Sarah Louise Ryan, and welcome to Love Lessons Live on Women's Radio Station. Hello. And welcome to Future Classic Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte, on Women's Radio Station. Hello and welcome to Julie May Is Listening. 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We empower those living in rural areas with media that transforms how they access, own, and share information. To find out more and be part of this movement, come check out our website at mediamattersforwomen.org. Women's radio station can give a voice to your brand. With a wide range of sponsorship opportunities, including individual programs, we can tailor your experience to you. For more information on how you can sponsor a show, go to womensradiostation.com. Women, the possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different. Welcome back to our next section of Get Booked here at our studio in Covent Garden. As part of our aim to support women's emotional well-being, this next book that I want to discuss with you is an absolute dream. I— we did actually— we were very lucky to have the author of this book in on one of our previous shows. And I'll just— there's, there's a little bit more that I want to tell you about this. It is called Mummy Jojo Uncut by Jojo Fraser. If you want, you can go on to our website and check all our previous shows to listen to the interview in full, full of some incredible tips on just how to get that mojo injection, or a Jojo injection as she calls it. It is a great manual on how to not just get by, but embrace who we are and what makes us tick. Keep us happy. Accept that stuff happens. Things are happening to us all the time. And she offers a manual and a toolkit on just how to deal and process what happens to us. Find out what gives you your mojo, how to get your mojo back, and let Jojo's positivity seep through. This book gives you a chance and the toolkit to rationalise, accept, and let go of guilt, overthinking— the dreaded overthinking. I do actually have a blog on hazelbutterfield.com on overthinking because that is something that I just do way too much. And just a true example of caring is sharing. This book is just about just accepting who we are, and sometimes we make mistakes, and parenting is hard, and having friends, and sometimes making sure that we say the right things at the right time and do the right things, and we get tired and we make mistakes, and it's just all about acceptance and stop pretending that our Facebook and Instagram lives are real life. That means it's just everything all the time. She has done actually an excellent blog on why am I not getting Facebook likes? Please go read it, it's absolutely excellent. Now, as part of me explaining to you a little bit about this book, Mummy Jojo Uncut, there is a chapter I want to read to you. It is, it is, the first 2 chapters actually made me cry a little bit, and Jojo's like, I think that happens to most people. It's kind of breaking you down and bringing you back up again. But this third chapter resonated with me so much. I'm gonna read it to you just exactly how she's written it, and hopefully it will help you and mean something to you too. It is called "Back Off, Perfect Mum." And do you know what? It's not just for mums, it's for everybody out there that sometimes feels, "Oh, I've done this wrong. Oh, I've said the wrong thing. Am I doing what I'm supposed to do?" Who tells you what you're supposed to do. You know, just stop obsessing about other people's opinions because quite frankly, not everybody's opinion matters and they're not relevant to you. But this is a letter that JoJo wrote to herself back in February 2015. I hope you're gonna love this. So, "Dear JoJo, what has happened to you? Since you had Charlie, you've got seriously lazy. Are you okay?" I never see you bake scones and craft like some of your friends do. The closest Bonnie gets to crafting these days is when you go to Pizza Express and they give her those crayons and hats. Stop moaning about the pizza slices and get on with it. That's the way it is now. Restaurants think it's cool to make people cut their own pizza. It's genius. You need to throw yourself into the mummy lifestyle with open arms. The beautiful, the fun, exhausting, and ugly. Keep calm and carry on. People do not need to hear it. Stop airing your dirty laundry across the internet, will you please? It's embarrassing. People aren't interested in your attempt to leave the house with young kids or thoughts on cooking dinner with Charlie pulling and screaming at your feet. You need to try and keep up the pace. Last week you were in your PJs till 11 AM. What a disgrace. I don't give a if it was raining and you were shattered from Charlie being up most of the night teething. Nor do I care if Bonnie jumped on your head at 6 AM just as you fell back to sleep. You need a routine, okay? Leaving the house with kids is only stressful because you lazed around too long staring at your cold cups of tea. Your timekeeping is slipping too. That's always been your strength. Oh, and I saw you get desperate last week when you were trying to fasten Charlie into the car seat. You left him in a dirty nappy. This is just cruel and weird. I don't care if you were going to miss an appointment. Your kids need more fresh air. Get them out to the park. Pack some healthy snacks whilst you're at it. You're failing these kids as you sit watching Peter Rabbit eating chocolate hobnobs. Last week I heard you on the phone telling your hubs you didn't want to breastfeed Charlie in a Baltic play park. That is not on. The kids need to come first. You need to work on your feeding skills though. It You're not graceful. I'm convinced the kids think you're boring. You need to make them laugh more. It is the medicine of life. Just be funny. Put your phone down now and do the animal impressions again. Bark like a dog. They like it when you do that. And don't get me started on your screen addiction. You need to chill out on social media and those work emails. You should be on the floor playing with the kids. 'Why give your work so much priority over your kids? You should really just quit and adjust your lifestyle accordingly. I bet they think you love your career more than them. What a shame for those beautiful kids, they're such a blessing. As for drinking on the plane when you were away on your family holiday, other mums were judging you for saying, "Make mine a double." I don't care if Charlie had just thrown up all over you, nor do I care about the fact that you are a nervous flyer. You are a mum now, and that means you need to start acting like it. Bye-bye booze buzz and hello healthy lifestyle. On holiday, you put Bonnie into kids' club most days and laid about and read a book. What decent mum reads two whole books on holiday? What decent wife does either? If you had to abandon your child, the very least you could have done was service your husband as Charlie napped. Bonnie's friends have a social life that Katie Price would be envious of. Get more playdates in the diary whilst you're at it. You are slipping on that one big style since you had Charlie. As for their nutrition, stop dishing out pesto pasta yet again from the jar. How lazy have you got? You've changed. Homemade salmon fish fingers would be a nice start with a homemade kale pesto. The kids need to learn about table manners. Stop allowing Charlie to throw peas at your face. It's time you brought up important topics such as world peace and kids in Africa at the dinner table. They need to learn how fortunate they are. You see where I'm going with this. It's also— I'm also rather shocked that you go to the gym 2 or 3 nights a week after your poor husband's been working all day long. You expect him to be left to cope with the bedtime routine? You are a housewife. "Start taking that role seriously. Stop with the content creation. I don't care if it's a passion. I don't care if it keeps you awake at night with excitement. Stop being so ridiculous. You are a dreamer. Less dreaming, more cleaning, more ironing, cooking, and hoovering. I'm telling you now, if you don't listen to me, then this marriage won't last. Regards, The Perfect Mum." How much of that chapter resonates with you? How many times do we have that internal voice saying to us, "You're not doing this right. You're not getting the right balance. You're not doing this. You're not doing that." Do you know what? Everybody is different. Everybody has different requirements. Everybody's children are different, but I'm pretty certain most families need both parents to be happy. They need to have a good balance. They need to feel as if they're living their best life and doing what they need. Do you know what? They may be that woman that goes to the gym 5 times a week and you're thinking, 'When does she get time to look after her kids?' Do you know what? You don't know if she's got depression and the only thing that keeps it in check is making sure that she gets the endorphins she gets from exercise to just keep her on an even keel. You don't know, you know, what dietary requirements she has or what's happening in the home or just how much she does need work or doesn't need work to function. We need to be less judgmental. We need to find what works for us. And do you know what? People that judge you are people that just do not matter. And half the time, people judge people because they've got a problem with themselves and they're trying to deflect. So this book, it's excellent on just kind of rationalising and processing, and it's got a little bit of a good vibe and just, it's funny as well. I found it entertaining. Mummy Jojo Uncut: Time for a Mojo Injection by Jojo Fraser. Absolutely loved it. It is funny. There's a little bit of swearing in there, which is, you know, one of my prerequisites for a book I'm going to read. If there's no swear words, I just don't know how I'm going to get on board, but it's brilliant. But the whole idea of the perfect mum, the amount of times people have judged me because they're like, "Well, you go out for dinner too much with your kids." I like going out for dinner with my kids. I'd rather go out for dinner with my kids than pay for having the babysitter. It means that we can go out and do other things at other times. I enjoy spending time with my children., but also, you know, they go to their dad's every 2 or 3 weeks, and so I get to go out as well. It's all about balance. You don't understand someone's own situation, and I bet there are no— there's nobody out there that has an identical situation. Read this book. It's brilliant. It's funny, and you can go and check out her website at mummyjojo.com. She also does a podcast as well, and she drags her husband in on it as well, which is absolutely brilliant. And you know what? She shows the whole marriage, warts and all. It's great. And also remember, you can go back and listen to my full Get Booked show with Mummy Jojo. And we are just about to come up to the halfway point here at Get Booked. Remember, if you've read a book that you think it really got to you, it really struck a chord with you, and it helped you through something, please do get in touch with us here, and you can do the Contact Us section on the website, and send me over a book recommendation, or maybe you want to come in and chat to me. That'd be great. I love, I love chatting to people who love books too. Right, I'm going to be back very shortly. 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, Community, education, we aim to show the individuality of every woman everywhere, providing opportunities and a platform for your voice. 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So stay tuned. womensradiostation.com, here for you. Welcome back. We are halfway through our Get Booked show today here at our station in Covent Garden. It's a lovely day out there. Depends on what day you're listening, but yes. We have been chatting so far about my variety of reviews for today's show. So far we have been discussing The Vegetarian by Han Kang, The Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll, got to say one of my, it's up there probably in the top 10, The Mummy JoJo Uncut, but uncut, not uncooked, that'd be just ridiculous, by JoJo Fraser. Have the feeling that my double espresso it's kicking in. And also, just as a quick reminder, you can listen in whenever you want on our Women's Radio Station SoundCloud. Some of my previous shows, there have been Lindsay Porter's Whirlpool's Yoga and the Balance of Life, an excellent book on just what life can offer us and how to enrich yourselves and just the journey that we take. There was also, we did an excellent show with Jan McPeak, the author of Transference, the dystopian novel. And Eugenia Melian, one of our first interviews here for Get Booked, with her novel Wild Child. And she explores the world of the fashion industry and all the goings-on back in the '80s and '90s, which have kind of formed a lot of the way people are, the way the industry has had to evolve because of how complicated it was back those days, and it was most definitely not regulated. And there are various other review shows. There's Guilt and Obsession. No Fourth River by Christine Clofield, an absolute heartbreaking novel on her story of abuse. And when I got to meet Christine Clofield, it was just the most enriching experience. The positivity that woman has just, and the way she turned her life around by just going, "I'm not going to be a victim anymore." Please go and check out that show. It's fantastic. It's a nice half-hour show, nice and easy to get through. And Teal Swan, The Anatomy of Loneliness. Loneliness is quite an epidemic at the moment. Did you know that in England we actually have a minister for loneliness because it is becoming that much of an issue. Go and check out that show and work through the anatomy of loneliness. A bit like a Bible, it's one of those ones that you stop and start and kind of, a little bit like coursework. It's brilliant. We were absolutely entranced by her. She's quite an incredible lady. We also have Frogs, Boys, Obsession and Parsnips. Surely a show called that just makes you wanna read it. Go and check it out. You can go onto Women's Radio stations SoundCloud, and, or you can go on to hazelbutterfield.com and just press SoundCloud and it'll take you through to all of the shows, nice and easy there for you. Obviously here at Get Booked, we like to support and help women's emotional well-being. If you've read a book and you want to get in touch, please do get in touch with me at presenters@womensradiostation.com, and maybe you want to send in a 1-minute clip on a book that you've read and how it affected you and tell us just a little bit more about it, or maybe you just want to, you want to come in and chat to me here on Get Booked. That'd be incredible. I do like to get people in on the studio, mainly because I just like a good old chinwag. And if we're talking about books and blogs and writing, then that's just the double whammy. So incredibly happy with that. You can just record your, your clip on 1-minute clip on your phone, send it through, and we'll make sure that we pop it into the show. Be incredible. And also, as these shows go out, I'll make sure that all the links are up on Twitter and Instagram. You name it, we'll shove it up everywhere. Just, just the way we are. So we were also talking about Mummy Jojo Uncut, and now We are on to our next book. This lady got in touch with me because she knows the kind of books that— she follows me on social media and she thought it was the kind of book that I would really get on board with. And I was quite excited to read it. It is called A Place Called Grace by Alison Rand. A very, very interesting lady. A sort of— this book is a sort of antithesis to Eat, Pray, Love. Lonely Planet's guide to Rome regarding Italian men, dating, and just getting by, trying to do what we want to do, trying to experience new things. And yet she does it while trying to learn Italian. And the difference, the cultural differences that she went through and kind of how hard it is to emotionally and mentally come to terms with such a different culture and such a different way of life. And that excels Self is an experience, which Eat, Pray, Love was about, but it's about making mistakes, self-discovery, and finding meaning to life that relates to the self, not to other people. Everybody's story, everybody's journey is different. There was a very interesting, bizarre likeness to Netflix's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I don't know if you've seen that one. That is just an incredible series. If you haven't started it, you need to. It's, that again is not for the faint-hearted. These, it's a bit like a musical Malay, but it is about periods and dating and there's a little bit of swearing and a little bit of inappropriate humour, as I have previously stated throughout today's show and all my other ones. Anything inappropriate, I'm on board. That is what I like. But yes, she did originally just go on a little trip to Rome and kind of fell for somebody and decided, "I'm gonna go back, see how it works." Funnily enough, you won't be surprised to hear that didn't go anywhere, but sometimes it's the tiniest and ridiculous of excuses that kind of shape our path that it doesn't, it doesn't really have anything, it's just kind of a little bit of a ignition to send you on a different route. Sometimes we just need to spice things up a little bit, and this is what A Place Called Grace is all about. A really major decision to uproot and start again elsewhere, loosely masked on chasing after a potential man. When does that ever turn out properly? When does it ever turn out well? Has it ever turned out well for you? No, no, no. Men or women, come on, we're very open about that. Then you throw in a mix of a semblance of Reese Witherspoon's grieving journey in her film Wild, where she is just exploring and experiencing to try and figure out who she is. Sometimes we don't have that opportunity to just go and explore and And it's a great shame. The amount of travelling I have done on my own, a lot of my friends used to think I was absolutely bonkers because I'd just go, "Right, I'm going to Brunei for a couple of weeks." "Cool, who are you going with?" "I'm going on my own." "Don't you get bored?" "No, if you go on your own, people speak to you and you get to see things more. If you're with somebody else, you're constantly chatting with them and doing entertaining things with them and you can miss what's going on around you. Sometimes just sit there." and stare, and you can't just get away with that as much when you're travelling with other people. I've been to New York on my own. That could be a few shows in itself. I've been to Australia on my own. I've been to many, many different places actually in the States, and sometimes I'll just happily go to Spain on my own. I just, I do like my own space. Don't get me wrong, I have quite a hectic social life anyway, so sometimes just I need some time on my own. This is why I like books as well, because you can just kind of escape on your own. It's like a solo journey into somebody else's life. That is the beauty of books, no matter what kind of book you want to read. But yes, finding yourself in Alison Rann's story, A Place Called Grace, is it's about finding yourself, overcoming personal challenges, braving a very different dating world and altering the art of how to deal with Italian plumbers and electricians. If you are considering going to live in Rome, then just read this just to try and figure out how they handle basic DIY. It is, it's like a manual on just how to deal with the Italians and And at one point she was kind of half talking in Italian and I still kind of got it. Do you know when people, it was a bit like in Eugenia Melian's book as well, "Wild Childs," where she was speaking in Spanish and French, but kind of said afterwards, just to give you the vibe of what was going on, but said afterwards what the meaning was. And I kind of came, I like books where you come away from it thinking that you've learned something. And A Place Called Grace definitely was that. And I don't know much Italian, but at the end of it I was like, "I so understand what she's saying." But sometimes it's there even in the intonation of the way that people write. That is the beauty of a great writer. Again, you can go on to hazelbutterfield.com, see my book blogs, and all the links are up on there to go and get hold of this book or how to follow these people, their websites, their Instagram. And it's nice just to get involved with what people have to say. And we, I do want actually, there's some other books that I'd be interested in hearing about, not just the manuals on life, but books that got you thinking. They can be, it can be fiction, it can be anything. Please do get in touch. You can either drop me a message at presenters@womensradiostation.com, or you can tweet me @NuttyButty. I love my book blogging and book fans there on Twitter, so please do connect with me. Wow, we are racing through today's show. I still have more— there's so many more books I want to talk about. There's The Unmumsy Mum, there's The Lady in the Van, and there is For Richer, For Poorer, a Jessica Daniels novel. That in itself is a bit of a psychological journey. Absolutely love it. I did manage to have a little bit of a chat with the author of that as well, Kerry Wilkinson, so stick with us. We're just going to pop over to the ads and we will be back very shortly. Stick with us. Welcome to Women's Radio Station. I'm Sarah Louise Ryan and welcome to Love Lessons Live on Women's Radio Station. Hello and welcome to Future Classic Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte, on Women's Radio Station. Hello and welcome to Julie May Is Listening. Hi, this is Anna Kennedy and we're at Women's Radio Station. Supporting women's well-being, and we're talking all things autism. Women, the possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different. Hi, I'm Falguni Desai of Action Coach. Are you a business owner with more than 5 employees? Do you want to grow your business? I'm a London-based business coach who helps small and medium-sized businesses to grow and make a profit. I will help you identify the strengths and strengths and weaknesses in your business and then work with you to improve it using a structured framework. To find out more, contact me on 07721 654640 and book your 1-hour complimentary 1-to-1 coaching session. Thank you. Hi, I'm Tracy Whedon of Brownhill Insurance Group. We are an award-winning family-run insurance broker covering a wide range of insurance products ranging from commercial lines to personal household, high net worth, and fine art. You can contact us on 0208 658 4334 or visit our website www.brownhillgroup.co.uk for your free, no-obligation quotation. At Brown Hills, we've got you covered. Hi, I'm Carolyn Van Beers. Please join me for a brand new show here on Women's Radio Station. It's Mother's Hour. If like me, you're a mum juggling far too many balls and dropping most of them, this is definitely the show for you. We'll examine the highs and lows of motherhood and make sure you laugh out loud as we take on this challenging role together. With spoonfuls of advice, incredible stories, it will be a refreshing, honest, and funny look at being a mum. Hi, I'm Valentina Barbacci, and I'm the executive director of Media Matters for Women. We're a registered charity operating in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and we produce and share podcasts via Bluetooth on mobile phones, focusing specifically on women and girls excluded from information due to extreme poverty. We empower those living in rural areas with media that transforms how they access, own, and share information. To find out more and be part of this movement, come check out our website at MediaMattersForWomen.org. Women's Radio Station can give a voice to your brand with a wide range of sponsorship opportunities, including individual programs. We can tailor your experience to you. For more information on how you can sponsor a show, go to womensradiostation.com. Women, the possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different. Hello, welcome back to our final section of today's Get Booked show here at our radio station in London's Covent Garden. We have been talking about such a variety of different books throughout today's show, and I hope you find one or a couple or all of them that you want to get involved with. I do love reading. That's why I have a book completely— a book, a show completely devoted to talking about books. I've got a feeling I might have a book in me as well. I think I'm going to start writing a book. It's going to be interesting. Yeah, yeah. So, one of my favourite books, some of you might know that I am a northerner at heart. I I spent the first 19 years of my life in Uddersfield. You can tell a proper northerner because they don't use the H's because it just doesn't work. So I like books that kind of bring in the kind of southern and northern elements together. And the next book that I want to talk about for Richard for Pura, a Jessica Daniels novel, it's book number 10 by the author Kerri Wilkinson. Now, I've read all of them and I was very lucky to manage to pin him down in his retreat in Canada to chat to me about his Jessica Daniels novels. He is one of these guys that tried to self-publish. Nobody wanted to publish his books and then he sold quite a few million and funnily enough publishers were falling over him. He's written about, what, 30 books, something like that? It's not bad. It's not bad. I'm going to try for one. We'll see how that goes. So, the author Kerry Daniels that gave me my longest standing relationship so far, as my ex-husband will agree. Sometimes you come across a book that you just, you just fall into. It envelops you and it leaves you wanting more. Luckily, Kerry Wilkinson's book series, the Jessica Daniel novels, has so far given me 12, 12, and there's more to come. Phew! I do love my books, and regular readers of my book blogs and listeners to this show, Get Booked, will know that I like to mix it up a little bit. It is about entertainment, but it's about escape, it's about resetting the brain, it's just about experiencing something. But there's always those books books from a series that you, you read the second it is released because you have missed the characters. They feel like family. The Jessica Daniels books are that for me, and I'm not the only one. She is a great combination of stubborn and endearing. She doesn't suffer fools gladly, no-nonsense taker. Hmm, I'm starting to see why I might like her. She's flawed yet intuitive, and all in all, a good old Northern lass. And yet she's actually written by a man. Kerry Wilkinson is a man. I tracked him down and this is the Q&A we had. So I asked him, "How did you conceive the idea of the Jessica Daniels series?" And he's like, "I don't think I particularly conceived the idea of a series or perhaps even Jessica herself. That all came over time as I started writing. I remember being in Robin Hood's Bay in 2011 in a car listening to Ricky Gervais on the radio and It dawned on me that at 40, nobody knew who he was, and then by 50, he was the biggest comedian in the world. More than that, along with Steve Merchant, he made it happen. Nobody was going to write and cast him as David Brent, so he did it himself. It is the same thing Daisy and Charlie Cooper have done with This Country, and more recently, Simon Pegg and his friends with Spaced. And Kerry had not long since turned 30 back then and figured that if he was ever going to do something creative with his life,— it had to come from that, so he did it. Then I asked him, what do you enjoy about being an author? Setting your own hours is a big thing. I'm with him on that one. If I want to get up early and get a bunch of work done, then have time to, in the afternoon, to do something else, I can. Life becomes a lot easier when you're not forced to have rigid routines. Oh, we should all become an author. I then asked him, what is the 'Best book you've read recently?' Annabelle Versus the Internet by Annabelle Porte. On its surface, it's a book about a woman completing a bunch of nonsensical, often pointless tasks, but not only is it very funny, the book is filled with so much humanity. It's surprisingly touching. He says that he also liked Denis Lehane's Since We Fell, Nige Tassel's Bottom Corner, James Acaster's Classic Scrapes and Danny Baker's three autobiographies. And he's now reading the Holy, Holy Bible by John Robbins and Ellis James. And he's going to read Peter Crouch's book after that. Wow. I did not think, so I was quite surprised about the whole Peter Crouch thing. I thought he was just a tall bloke who liked to do a robot dance on a football pitch and play a bit of good football. But no, writes a book as well. Do we think he wrote it himself? Or do we think it was ghostwritten? Well, I've just completely ruined getting him on the show, haven't I? So then in terms of the Jessica Daniels novels, I asked him, I feel like I've had quite a long relationship with her now. Again, as I said, I feel like I've been more committed to the Jessica Daniels novels over the years than I have to a partner. "If I was to cheat with another one of your books, which one should it be?" That's what I said to Kerry, and he said The Girl Who Came Back or The Wife's Secret. His standalones are more character-led, probably slower with the plot than the Jessica's stuff, but he thinks I'd prefer that. So yeah, that's a couple of books there, a couple of book suggestions. Now, Kerry is originally a Bath boy, and he went to university in Lancashire and now lives he lives in Vancouver. So I asked him, what's your go-to food or drink? A good old cuppa, Bath gin, or maple syrup? That's where you kind of, you know, what makes him feel like he's at home. And he said, well, I'm actually more of a Frome boy. I was born in Bath but never lived there. I don't really drink tea or gin, so I guess it's going to be maple syrup, although I wouldn't recommend drinking that. No, me neither, Kerry, me neither. That would be bonkers. So I have read every single one of the Jessica Daniels novels, but I, what I wanted to find out from him was, because he self-published until 2012 and then he became the UK's best-selling self-published author. And I asked him if he could offer any tips to writers about how to embark on their journey. Here at GetBooked, we like to offer hints and tips as well. Quite a lot of us think we've got a book in us And it's, where do you even start? And he says, "Write the book and worry about what you're going to do with it, if anything, afterwards. The number of people busy plotting a route to literary domination before they've finished a chapter is absolutely ridiculous." Good advice, Kerry. I appreciate that. And I asked him what his favourite book was that he has written, and he says The Wife Secrets. That was the other one that he recommended to me as well. Well, so there you go. Brilliant. And I did actually ask him when he's actually going to write another book and use my name as one of the characters. I felt like I was going to try and force him into doing something, but he just said people that sign up to his newsletter, he randomly picks people from his mailing list for names of characters. How cool is that? That is just an absolutely brilliant idea. So that me chatting, that was a blog interview. If you want to go and check it out, just type into your internet search engine, I don't want to advertise or anything even though we're not the BBC, just type in Hazel Butterfield and Kerry Wilkinson and it'll come up there for you. But the one that I read recently was, um, Books 10 for Richer for Poorer, um, and how does I just love that they've got a very kind of Scott and Bailey feel to it, which is just everything. I find it intriguing, entertaining, the dysfunctional and stubborn female figures that have so much passion for what they do. I just, I love it. Fallible and relentless in getting the job done. The books are so easy to read and I just love There's 12. I think there's another one coming out soon. He's releasing them thick and fast. I kind of have a vision of him sitting in this cabin in Canada, kind of trying not to drink maple syrup, just going, "I'll shove another book out." Go and check out, if you go onto my website actually and have a look at the blog, you can, the details of his website are up there as well. The guy has written so many books. He is absolutely incredible. None of his books have disappointed me, and I'm just so incredibly— I'm like a super fan. "Please, can you answer my questions? I really like books and I've got a book show and a book blog and everything." Although I said it over email, so the voice didn't quite come across, which let's be honest, is probably a very good thing. Do you know what? Today's show has flown by. We've only got a couple of minutes left. I hope you've enjoyed it. I have just one more book I want to tell you about, and I'll be honest, I do love books, but not every book out there is amazing. Now, I read The Unmumsy Mum. I do like the mum books. I'm a mum, and sometimes they're entertaining. Kids Can Do Incredible Things, and it's a collection of hysterical stories from the front line of parenting. What a tagline. I got bored at page 5. Yes, the stories are funny, but kids are funny. Mine probably more than Joking, joking, but that's the point. We find our own kids funny because we're there and we're dealing with it and we're dealing with the embarrassing things we say. The hilarity in such occasions and situations as described in this book, in my view, come from telling the story and having a personal knowledge of the victim or perpetrator. But bore off, I unfortunately found the Daily Mail more of a challenging and interesting read. So, I do like to tell you books that you should read, and every now and again, just let you know that, you know, use your time wisely. There are so many books out there. I want to make sure you are reading the best ones out there. Make sure that you listen in to Get Booked at 5:00 PM and 5:00 AM, if you're up that early, every single day of the week. Listen to my book reviews, my book shares. I'm Hazel Butterfield, and you've been listening to Get Booked here at our wonderful station here in Covent Garden, supporting women's emotional well-being. Books have a lot to answer for. They help us escape, they help us experience life, and just sometimes get some downtime. It's so incredibly important. Thank you so much for listening to me today, and I'll see you next week. Women's Radio Station is a fresh new broadcasting platform 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. Hi, I'm Liz van I'm Lyndon, a UK travel consultant for Hazelmere Travel. People come to me as they want unique experiences and a personalised service. This happens from the moment that they enquire till they come back home. I work with luxury tour operators. You can contact me on 07825 44 12 12 and liz@hazelmeretravel.co.uk. Payzomaytravel.co.uk. 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. Are you struggling with money? Turn to us as a national charity helping people struggling to make ends meet. Job loss, illness, or bereavement can cause a real financial crisis. We give practical help to get people back on track. 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