Ok, ok, we suck. A whole month of activity before we inevitably forgot about our whole blog and stopped posting. Here is where I’d place an excellent excuse, if we had one. BUT, like all good humans, we learn from our mistakes, and we’re working on a tonne of stuff right now. To start us off, here’s the latest extension to the reading list.

Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body by Sara Pascoe

I could easily write a whole post about how much you need to read this, and I probably will one day. You need to read it. Discussion of consent? Check. Acknowledgement of female pleasure? Check. Body positivity that actually helps? Check (and who knew that such a thing existed?). Sara Pascoe explores the mechanics and history of the female body, putting forward facts and opinions as discussion points rather than the law. I would have said that I was fairly well informed about my body and the history surrounding it, but this book really enlightened me.

Read it. Make your daughters read it, your sons, your friends, everyone. Just read it.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

I have mixed feelings about this book. I’m definitely a crier when it comes to reading, but nothing can possibly compare to this book; I don’t think I’ve ever cried out of sheer anger before. In fact, just thinking about it and I’m welling up. All the Bright Places follows the story of two young people who are blatantly suffering from depression, and severely. When they meet, they head off on a whirlwind adventure that changes both their lives forever. I don’t want to give too much away, but holy cow, are there a lot of emotions involved in reading this.

Although, side note, I’m not a fan of the way a few things are romanticised. You’ll see what I mean. The tagline is “a compelling and beautiful story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who wants to die” and I think you can see the problem with that. Discussion post to follow.

We were Liars by E. Lockhart

This book had one of the best plot twists that I’ve ever read. Written in a beautifully poetic way, We Were Liars is so full of secrets and mystery and trauma that it’s a wonder it fits into 242 pages. One of the few books that I could honestly give 10/10.

The Knife of Never Letting Go  by Patrick Ness

Ness will keep you genuinely gripped for the whole book. Set in an intriguing world where all the women were killed by a disease, the story follows Todd Hewitt as he waits come of age. I was incredibly ashamed of not having read this sooner, as it’s suitable for a wide age range.

The Blogolepsy Reading List can also be found on Goodreads.