Wondrous Words

To learn about yourself, explore the world around you. Drawing on the rich experience of his own life, bestselling author Paulo Coelho takes us back in time to relive the dreams of a generation that longed for peace and dared to challenge the established social order.  In HIPPIE, he tells the story of Paulo, a skinny Brazilian with a goatee and long hair, setting off on a journey in search of a deeper meaning for his life. He travels on the famous `Death Train to Bolivia', then on to Peru, later hitchhiking through Chile and Argentina. In the famous Dam Square in Amsterdam he finds young people playing music, while discussing sexual liberation, the expansion of consciousness and the search for an inner truth. There he meets Karla, a Dutch woman in her twenties who has been waiting to find the ideal companion to accompany her on the fabled hippie trail to Nepal.  Together with their fellow travellers, they embark on a trip aboard the Magic Bus, heading across Europe and Cen...

Little Black Book: A Toolkit For Working Women is the modern career guide every creative woman needs, whether you're just starting out or already have years of experience. Packed with fresh ideas and no-nonsense practical advice, this travel-sized career handbook is guaranteed to become your go-to resource when it comes to building the career you want. Writer Otegha Uwagba (one of Forbes European 30 Under 30) takes you through everything you need to build a successful self-made career: from how to negotiate a payrise to building a killer personal brand, via a crash course in networking like a pro, and tips for overcoming creative block. Plus Little Black Book is full of indispensable advice on how to thrive as a freelancer, and an entire chapter dedicated to helping you master the tricky art of public speaking. Promised as - "The essential career handbook for creative working women." As you can see form my post-it(ed) copy of this, i genuinely found this an insigh...

A #Girlboss is in charge of her own life. She gets what she wants because she works for it. The first thing Sophia Amoruso sold online wasn't fashion - it was a stolen book.  She spent her teens hitchhiking, committing petty theft, and dumpster diving. By twenty-two, she had resigned herself to employment, but was still broke, directionless, and working a mediocre day job she'd taken for the health insurance.  It was there that Sophia decided to start selling vintage clothes on eBay. Eight years later, she is the founder, CEO, and creative director of Nasty Gal, a $100 million plus online fashion retailer with more than 350 employees.  Sophia's never been a typical CEO, or a typical anything, and she's written #Girlboss for outsiders (and insiders) seeking a unique path to success, even when that path is winding as all hell and lined with naysayers. So good i read it twice. A year apart, but still. It was that great a read and resource i would recommend ...

Bo lives a life most people can only dream of. She and her boyfriend Zac are paid to travel the globe, sharing their adventures with their online followers. And when Zac proposes, Bo's happiness is complete. With Christmas coming up, Bo can't wait to head to the snow-fringed fjords of Norway. Arriving at the picturesque and remote hillside farmhouse that will be their home for the next few weeks, Bo's determined to enjoy a romantic Christmas under the Northern Lights. Everything should be perfect. But the mountains hold secrets from the past and as temperatures plunge and tensions rise, Bo must face up to the fact that a life which looks perfect to the outside world may not be the life she should be living... I mean, obviously this was pre-ordered as soon as the title was released, and i waited very patiently... Anyway. Another gloriously Wintry, scandalous, sexy and 'Christmassy' tale. Bo and Zac are supposedly living the Instagram life of dreams which Swan...

For many of us, life can feel like it's moving too fast with pressure bearing down on us from all sides - whether that's from school or work, family or social media. As a result, we find ourselves frazzled, lost and - too often - feeling blue. It's a subject close to Fearne's heart. Drawing on her own experiences and including expert advice, HAPPY offers practical ways of finding joy each and every day. Happiness isn't a mountain to climb, it's just one foot in front of the other on the path of life, and here you'll find little steps that will help make the differences that count. With workbook elements to help you start and end the day well; get in touch with your creative side; and find peace through written exercises, simple practical ideas and visualisations, these are daily tricks and reminders to help you unlock that inner happiness. This was a recommendation from a close friend and fellow bookworm and I can see why. Such a lovely book that you...

A collection of 8 stories all telling a different narrative and involving a different central character.  An interesting collection focusing on the Vietnamese refugees who have gone to a diverse range countries as a result of conflict in their homeland. What made me pick this up?  Simply - it was different. A collection of short stories which meant i could read a different one when i had a spare bit of time.  I'm glad i saw this at the local charity shop because i probably wouldn't have looked at it otherwise. It was a good buy in the sense that the stories were very different to what i would normally read, with characters i probably wouldn't get into the mindset of. I'd recommend if you want to broaden your bookshelf but i wouldn't say these are 'light' reads as they all have a serious undertone to them. Not the best description i know but have a read and see what you think.  Have a look here

When people ask me what I do – taxi drivers, dental hygienists – I tell them I work in an office. In almost nine years, no one’s ever asked what kind of office, or what sort of job I do there. I can’t decide whether that’s because I fit perfectly with their idea of what an office worker looks like, or whether people hear the phrase work in an office and automatically fill in the blanks themselves – lady doing photocopying, man tapping at keyboard. Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive - but not how to live She leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted - ...

1974 and Elena Damiani lives a gilded life. Born to wealth and a noted beauty, no door is closed to her, no man can resist her. At twenty-six, she is already onto her third husband when she meets her love match. But he is the one man she can never have, and all the beauty and money in the world can't change it. 2017 and Francesca Hackett is living la dolce vita in Rome, leading tourist groups around the Eternal City and forgetting the ghosts she left behind in London. When she finds a stolen designer handbag in her dustbin and returns it, she is brought into the orbit of her grand neighbour who lives across the piazza - famed socialite Viscontessa Elena dei Damiani Pignatelli della Mirandola. Though the purse is stolen, Elena greets the return of the bag with exultation for it contains an unopened letter written by her husband on his deathbed, twelve years earlier. Mutually intrigued by each other, the two women agree to collaborate on a project, with Cesca interviewing El...

A distraught young woman boards a train at King's Cross to return to her family in Scotland. Six hours later, she catches sight of something so terrible in a mirror at Waverley Station that she gets on the next train back to London. AFTER YOU'D GONE follows Alice's mental journey through her own past, after a traffic accident has left her in a coma. A love story that is also a story of absence, and of how our choices can reverberate through the generations, it slowly draws us closer to a dark secret at a family's heart. Now i know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but i have to admit i did exactly that when my friend thrust this into my hands. But boy was i wrong and she right! I read this in 3 sittings, simply just couldn’t put it down. With each new chapter and different perspective (switches between characters throughout) a new level of depth, history, sordid deeds etc came to through the page and into my mind. Each character was superbly written wit...

In a London flat, two young boys face the unbearable sadness of their mother's sudden death. Their father, a Ted Hughes scholar and scruffy romantic, imagines a future of well-meaning visitors and emptiness. In this moment of despair they are visited by Crow - antagonist, trickster, healer, babysitter. This self-described sentimental bird is attracted to the grieving family and threatens to stay until they no longer need him. As weeks turn to months and physical pain of loss gives way to memories, this little unit of three begin to heal. What a different read. I’d recommend this to anyone on this basis alone. I got this book after a salesman at Waterstones sang its praises and sold it as a novella of poetry - obviously I'm an avid Waterstones customer and don;t need much persuasion but, i’m so glad i picked this up. I think if you just picked this up you’d put it back down after the reading the somewhat bleak premise of it and that’s why i’m hoping you ignore those niggle...

Katie Brenner has the perfect life: a flat in London, a glamorous job, and a super-cool Instagram feed. OK, so the truth is that she rents a tiny room with no space for a wardrobe, has a hideous commute to a lowly admin job, and the life she shares on Instagram isn’t really hers. But one day her dreams are bound to come true, aren’t they? Until her not-so-perfect life comes crashing down when her mega-successful boss Demeter gives her the sack. All Katie’s hopes are shattered. She has to move home to Somerset, where she helps her dad with his new glamping business. Then Demeter and her family book in for a holiday, and Katie sees her chance. But should she get revenge on the woman who ruined her dreams - or try to get her job back? Does Demeter – the woman who has everything – actually have such an idyllic life herself? Maybe they have more in common than it seems. And what’s wrong with not-so-perfect, anyway? Now i love a chick-lit like the rest of the general pu...

Santiago, a young shepherd living in the hills of Andalucia, feels that there is more to life than his humble home and his flock. One day he finds the courage to follow his dreams into distant lands, each step galvanised by the knowledge that he is following the right path: his own. The people he meets along the way, the things he sees and the wisdom he learns are life-changing. I think anyone who has heard of this book can safely say it is one of the world’s most read and most iconic novels and I can see exactly why. I opened this at a time I felt a little confused and lost and I have to admit it massively helped. Not in the sense that I had a great epiphany and decided to roam the land with a herd a sheep, but it made me realise just how everyone feels a little lost at times and it is this reason why a novel like this is written and read in its millions! An incredible fable which has gained worldwide status. Beautifully written, yet gets to the point of why and how we should ...

Before every new beginning, there must be an ending . . . Running from heartbreak, Chloe Marston leaves her old life in London for a fresh start in New York. Working at a luxury concierge company, she makes other people's lives run perfectly, even if her own has ground to a halt. But a terrible accident forces her to step into a new role, up close and personal with the company's most esteemed and powerful clients. Charismatic Joe Lincoln is one of them and his every wish is her command, so when he asks her to find him a secluded holiday home in the Greek Islands, she sets about sourcing the perfect retreat. But when Tom, her ex, unexpectedly shows up in Manhattan and the stability of her new life is thrown off-balance again, she jumps at the chance to help Joe inspect the holiday house; escaping to Greece will give her the time and space to decide where her future truly lies. Tom is the man she has loved for so long but he has hurt her before - can she give him another chan...

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. The black sign, painted in white letters that hangs upon the gates, reads:  Opens at Nightfall,  Closes at Dawn. As the sun disappears beyond the horizon, all over the tents small lights begin to flicker, as though the entirety of the circus is covered in particularly bright fireflies. When the tents are all aglow, sparkling against the night sky, the sign appears.  Le Cirque des Reves.  The Circus of Dreams.  Now the circus is open.  Now you may enter.  I had such high hopes for this book as it was recommended to me by 3 of my friends (all book lovers) but it just didn’t live up to expectation and maybe because I opened the front cover expecting to be dumbstruck with literary greatness. The story is quite a bit different to what I’d usually read; a mystery circus which pops up anywhere in the world, characters with unusual ta...

‘Please’  She sinks. By the time they drag her out the second time her lips are the blue of a bruise, and her breath is gone for good. In the last days before her death, Nel called her sister. Jules didn’t pick up the phone, ignoring her plea for help. Now Nel is dead. They say she jumped. And Jules has been dragged back to the one place she hoped she had escaped for good, to care for the teenage girl her sister left behind. But Jules is afraid. So afraid. Of her long-buried memories, of the old Mill House, of knowing that Nel would never have jumped. And most of all she’s afraid of the water, and the place they call the Drowning Pool… I’ve come to the decision. One of my top reads of 2018 so far! I mean, seriously, what a read - I cannot recommend enough. The story focuses on women through generations, a lake, an old wives’ tale, murder, suspicion and affairs - what’s not to love? I read this in 2 sittings as I couldn’t put it down. I was a huge fan of ...

YOU ARE A BADASS AT MAKING MONEY is the book you need if you've spent too much time watching money land in your bank account and then roll through your fingers. Jen Sincero went from living in a converted garage to traveling the world in 5-star luxury in a matter of years, and knows all too well the layers of BS one can get wrapped up in around money, as well as what it takes to dig your way out. In this funny, fascinating and practical book she goes in-depth on how powerful our thoughts are and how our bank accounts are mirrors for our beliefs about money. Y OU ARE A BADASS AT MAKING MONEY combines laugh out loud comedy with life-changing concepts, all boiled down into manageable, bite-sized tips so that YOU can put them into practice and get life changing results. Shelfhelps’s September read was that of Jen Sincero – an in-depth, to the point book on making money work for you and changing your mindset; you shouldn’t be ashamed of wanting money nor feel you are being...

Our narrator’s days are numbered. Estranged from his family, living alone with only his cat Cabbage for company, he was unprepared for the doctor’s diagnosis that he has only months to live. But before he can set about tackling his bucket list, the Devil appears with a special offer: in exchange for making one thing in the world disappear, he can have one extra day of life. And so begins a very bizarre week . . . Because how do you decide what makes life worth living? How do you separate out what you can do without from what you hold dear? In dealing with the Devil our narrator will take himself – and his beloved cat – to the brink. Genki Kawamura's   If Cats Disappeared from the World   is a story of loss and reconciliation, of one man’s journey to discover what really matters in modern life. So of course, I jumped on the bandwagon with this book and ordered promptly from the library after seeing it all over Instagram and the book seller lists. At first I struggle...

When Lexi's sport-mad boyfriend Will skips her friend's wedding to watch football - after pretending to have food poisoning - it might just be the final whistle for their relationship. But fed up of just getting mad, Lexi decides to even the score. And, when a couple of lost tickets and an 'accidentally' broken television lead to them spending extra time together, she's delighted to realise that revenge might be the best thing that's happened to their relationship. And if her clever acts of sabotage prove to be a popular subject for her blog, what harm can that do? It's not as if he'll ever find out... Hilarious. The main reason i chose this story was the element of the blog writing as i've recently started my own and sort of hoped it would nudge me to stop overthinking and just do it.  Anyway, back to the plot. Lexi, a long term sufferer of a sports mad boyfriend who lies about being unable to attend her best friend's we...

When Harold Fry nips out one morning to post a letter, leaving his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other. He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone. All he knows is that he must keep walking. To save someone else's life. I finally picked this book up after one of my friend's adored it and basically told me i had to read it. The story focuses on a retired gentleman who is bored with life and whose marriage is a routine with each of them sleeping in separate rooms and lack conversation. One morning he goes to post a letter and just keeps on walking and walking and walking.  His journey was delicately written and his character drew me in straight away as i just envisioned a little old man with glasses who has pottered through life. I wasn't expecting the twist towards the end (i won't spoil it) but that is what made the story for me. Until the twist, i was a littl...

She'll need a triple-barrelled name for the castle one. She'll need a gallon of glitter for the woodland one. She'll need a lobster-shaped hat for the Shoreditch one. Laura Lake longs to be a journalist. Instead she's an unpaid intern at a glossy magazine – sleeping in the fashion cupboard and living on canapés. But she's just got her first big break: infiltrate three society weddings and write a juicy exposé.  Security will be tighter than a bodycon dress, but how hard can it be? Cue disappearing brides, demanding socialites – and a jealous office enemy who will do anything to bring her down... I've read books by Wendy Holden in the past and she is really is an author who delivers on her blurbs; an easy read, large sum of bitchiness, office gossip, dash of romance and of course, a central protagonist you can feel for and align your allegiances with. Laura Lake was no different. The original title was what drew my attention to this simply from the men...