6 The Parallel Path, Jenn Ashworth
A massive thank you to @bibliomania for the mention of this one up-thread. A non-sentimental, although emotional, account of the author's walk across the width of England on the Wainwright coast to coast walk (the same one they do in David Nicholls You Are Here btw). Along the way she records her thoughts on motherhood, illness, grief, the nature of caring, the pandemic, and many other subjects as well as appreciating the landscape of The North with great affection.
This is very outing (so hi to everyone who knows me IRL) but the end of the book deals with Ashworth's diagnosis with a brain tumour and subsequent treatment. I went looking for this as I have been diagnosed with the same type of tumour (one of the reasons I have been missing from these threads for the last couple of years), and found an interview which she did talking about it, which utterly touched me to the heart and put into words so many things that I have been trying to work out for myself.
I already liked Jenn Ashworth, and this would have been a bold for me anyway (first of the year 😊) but this personal connection has made it quite a life changing read. So, again, thank you @bibliomania
7 Consider Yourself Kissed, Jessica Stanley
Humph. I read somewhere that this is a romcom. It isn't. It starts with a meet cute (although (minor spoiler) she meets him when he takes his eye off his toddler daughter while buying himself a coffee, and the daughter falls into a pond and almost drowns, and the heroine saves her - romantic? I'd have run a mile) but it's actually a painful, and horribly claustrophic (they have a very intense and irritating extended family but never look past the end of their noses to see how the rest of the country might be faring) account of bringing up tiny children in wealthy hipster Hackney, against the backdrop of the whole Brexit mess. We re-visit all the political twists and turns in excruciating detail, while our romantic hero has to spend late nights in Westminster (away from his kids) because he's a political podcaster. Of course he is.
I really don't know if I was supposed to like or hate these people. I still found it very readable. Love-hate.