The Alibi Book Club #20 | 3 Books For 2017

I'm typing this up at 9pm at night, and to many of you, that may seem like a normal time to get blogging done. But for me that's nearing bedtime and I should just be vegetating in bed watching Netflix. But tonight, I feel motivated (strangely) to type up another blog post. And this one is the laziest one I can write, so why not??

It's been yonks since I wrote a book post, and if you know me, I'm an absolute bookworm and to date I've probably spent close to £500 on books in the past year. Oops. As it's hit 2017, I knew I needed to give my book case a mini refresh, so I went out, hit up Waterstones and picked up three books that were on my goodreads 'to read' list. So, without further ado, here are the three books I picked up...

001: Ali Smith - Public Library and Other Stories:
I read How To Be Both during the Autumn and I loved it. Her writing is so skillful and you feel like the characters are real people telling you their own stories. So, I thought I would start a collection of her books, and this was the next one on my list - I've never read a book of stories, and I'm excited to delve into its pages!

"Why are books so very powerful? What do the books we've read over our lives - our own personal libraries - make of us? What does the unravelling of our tradition of public libraries, so hard-won but now in jeopardy, say about us? The stories in Ali Smith's new collection are about what we do with books and what they do with us: how they travel with us; how they shock us, change us, challenge us, banish time while making us older, wiser and ageless all at once; how they remind us to pay attention to the world we make. Public libraries are places of joy, freedom, community and discovery - and right now they are under threat from funding cuts and widespread closures across the UK and further afield. With this brilliantly inventive collection, Ali Smith joins the campaign to save our public libraries and celebrate their true place in our culture and history."

002: Robin Wasserman - Girls On Fire:
I'm now a sucker for gripping books with incredible plots, and this one was the one that hit me in the face and demanded attention. Never judge a book by its cover I say, because even the cover is a bit meh, the actual story line sounds right up my street!

"This is not a story of bad things happening to bad girls. I say this because I know you, Dex, and I know how you think. I'm going to tell you a story, and this time, it will be the truth. Hannah Dexter is a nobody, ridiculed and isolated at school by golden girl Nikki Drummond. But in their junior year of high school, Nikki's boyfriend walks into the woods and shoots himself. In the wake of the suicide, Hannah befriends new girl Lacey and soon the pair are inseparable, bonded by their shared hatred of Nikki. Lacey transforms good girl Hannah into Dex who is up for any challenge Lacey throws at her. The two girls bring their combined wills to bear on the community in which they live and think they are invulnerable. But Lacey has a secret, about life before her better half, and it's a secret that will change everything ..."

003: Lara Williams - Treats:
I first heard about this book from Jenny, when she reviewed it either on her main blog or her book blog. It was so long ago, I can't remember... And you can probably get the jist of how long I've been looking for this book, and hurrah I've finally found it. It's another book of stories, but this time with much deeper themes. Oooohhh.

"It was the curse of the modern age, options; who needed options, when everything was essentially meaningless?'So says one of the characters in Lara Williams's extraordinary debut story collection. Treats is a break-up album of tales covering relationships, the tyranny of choice and self navigation. This fresh, beguiling new voice paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood, balancing wry humour with a pervading sense of alienation.Williams's characters struggle with how to negotiate intimacy within relationships and isolation when single, the pitfalls and indignities of dating, dragged down by dissatisfaction. Meanwhile the dilemmas of contemporary adulthood play out, including abortion, depression, extra-marital affairs, infatuation, new baby anxiety, bereavement, hair loss, sexual ethics, cats and taxidermy."