The Overflowing Library

Long time readers might have noticed that I've struggled to get on here and blog about much for a good long while. Last year was obviously an awful one for everyone. I am very lucky in a lot of ways that my family and friends have all remained safe over the pandemic but I did lose one of my lovely friends under the saddest circumstances last summer and it has and continues to hit me hard. Added to that the usual pressures that come with my day job have just intensified exponentially over the last year. All of those things combined has led to me struggling to keep to any kind of decent sleep pattern and thus my ability to plough through books and write about them in any kind of coherent fashion has severally diminished compared to the halcyon days when I started blogging and was getting through and reviewing 200+ books a year. So here we are in 2021 and into my 11th year of blogging and I'm hoping this is a new start and with me making a proper return to my little blog and findi...

 I am delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for Heidi's latest book today. Fliss Brown has grown up living with her mother on the Rossi family’s Italian fruit farm. But when her mother dies, Fliss finds out she has a family of her own, and heads back to England with Nonna Rossi’s recipe for cherry and almond tart and a piece of advice: connect with your family before it is too late… Fliss discovers that her estranged grandfather owns a fruit farm himself, on the outskirts of Wynbridge, and she arrives to find a farm that has fallen into disrepair. Using her knowledge gleaned from working on the Rossi farm and her desire to find out more about her past, Fliss rolls her sleeves up and gets stuck in. But what will she discover, and can she resurrect the farm’s glory days and find a taste of home…? Heidi's books are the sort of books that I have come to crave over the past few years. You start a new one knowing from the outset that they are going to be lovely and whilst they...

 Today I am delighted to have a guest post from author Joe Brady talking about the inspiration for the brilliant new graphic novel No Country The reasons for writing No Country were the situation with refugees from Syria, the nativist reaction to it in the UK and elsewhere, and what I felt was a general empathy deficit around the whole crisis. The stories of refugees have filled the news in the UK for years, and they are so powerfully compelling. But when looking at them from our perspective, they all have the same narrative bias: people fleeing somewhere far away to come here. In this light, even the most sympathetic news stories could be read as saying to viewers that the UK is the destination. It establishes the illusion that this is the good place, and other places are falling apart. It creates an ‘us’ and a ‘them’ with a clear hierarchy - it makes us seem better than them, more successful than them, and gives us a permission structure to feel superior to other nations, and the...

It's been a while blogger just to let you know I'm still here. I'm still reading books. Probably more than ever since I actually bought a kindle in a panic after I ran out of library books but I'm not on here so much at the moment. If you want to find me on the internet where I am chatting about the books I'm reading go to Instagram or twitter @overflowingklc or  goodreads kirsty at the overflowing library Who know I might be back on here at some point - lockdown has increased my workload and my screen time a lot so not really feeling up to more time blogging but I am still reviewing and reading loads

Escape to the seaside with the brand new novel from Heidi Swain, the Sunday Times bestselling author of feel-good women’s fiction! Tess Tyler needs a break. Weighed down by her high-pressure job and her demanding father, she’s left little time to take care of herself. But after a shocking discovery sends her spiralling, she flees to Wynmouth, the seaside town she fell in love with as a child, to escape it all. With its sandy beaches, stunning rock pools and welcoming community, Tess feels like she can finally breathe again. And as she grows ever closer to local barman Sam, she dares to dream that she might never return to her real life. But when a familiar face returns to town, Tess realises that there are secrets in Wynmouth too, and that her own past may be about to catch up with her . . . The Secret Seaside Escape  is the perfect read this summer, promising sandy beaches, stunning rockpools and breath-taking romance. Perfect for fans of Carole Matthe...

I can't quite believe we are at the end of the year again and I'm picking my favourite books again but here we are. I can't make this a top 10 list and don't particularly want to. This list features all of the books I've rated 5 stars this year. This list very much shows off the type of reader I've become over the past 10 years of fiction focusing particularly on contemporary fiction (both YA and adult) although I am surprised that there isn't more historical fiction on the list as I love that just as much. Women's fiction The Cornish Cream Tea Bus by Cressida McLaughlin I loved this book because the story was lovely and featured all the cakes and I basically want to be Charlie. There's a sequel(ish) coming next year and I'm already beyond excited for it. Messy wonderful us by Catherine Isaac One of those books that transport you to the setting and make you desperate to visit. I loved it. Living my best life by Claire Frost ...

I am delighted today to be part f the blog tour for Christina Pishrirs's brilliant book love songs for sceptics. I was lucky enough to read a copy a while back and found myself hooked to every page as I rooted for the main character from the outset. I have been asked today to share my favourite sceptical love songs and after lots of deliberating I've picked one song that I think fits the bill from Striking Matches a band I am currently obsessed with after seeing them live in London over half term. The song I've picked is Make a Liar out of me which I really think fits the bill of a sceptical love song and the video I've picked is an acoustic recording of them which shows off how brilliant the duo are. When she was thirteen, Zoë Frixos fell in love with Simon, her best friend and the boy next door. Though they’ve been friends for over twenty years, she’s never found a way to tell him how she feels. Now Simon is returning to London, newly divorced and as deva...