SPLENDID EXPERIENCES

‘Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.’

4 Stars

1. The Eights – Joanna Miller

• Delightful

A delightful read that follows an unlikely friendship between four women who attend Oxford University in 1920, the first year that women were formally allowed to receive degrees.

Known as ‘the Eight’ because they occupy four rooms along Corridor Eight at St Hugh’s College, Oxford; Beatrice Sparks, Theodora Greenwood, Marianne Grey and Ottoline Wallace-Kerr hail from different walks of life each shaped by trauma, pressure, and hardship. They carry secrets they find hard to open up about and yet they are united by a shared determination to earn their degrees.
Over the course of their first year, the four women navigate life at Oxford helping each other in different ways challenging the status quo and fighting for their rights in man’s world where they are not wanted.

‘Ubi cordia, ibi victoria, Where there is unity, there is victory.’

Joan Miller has done a stellar job at bringing in historical details throught the book, I particularly liked how at the beginning of the chapters, she had real newspaper snippets or a set of university rules and regulations which highlighted the different ways male and female students were treated.

A book like The Eight is a stark reminder that women have had to fight relentlessly just to be treated as equals and that fight is far from over. While meaningful progress has been made and many women today have secured a ‘seat at the table,’ equality remains far from complete. The story resonates not just as a reflection of the past, but as a mirror of the ongoing struggles women navigate in the present day.

I loved this book and I enjoyed reading it.

2. The Nightingale – Kristin Hannah

• Heartwrenching

I was shattered after reading The Nightingale. A poignantly beautiful novel that tells the story of what it was like to be a woman during World War II, when women’s stories were all too often forgotten or overlooked.

‘Men tell stories. Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. We did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over.’

The story is told from a perspective of two sisters, Isabelle, an impetuous teenager who’s searching for purpose. And Vivian, a wife, mother and teacher who lives a life guided by rules. Both are shaped by the same absence: a mother gone too soon, and a father who left them behind at boarding school, turning childhood into something colder, more contained.
The sisters have a complex delicate relationship and when the war starts they each embark on their own dangerous paths towards survival. Isabella joins the French Resistance, risking her life to help downed airmen escape Nazi territory. Vivian risks her life helping orphaned jewish children. She endures her own tragedy at the hands of the German officers who stay at with her.

‘In love we find out who we want to be. In war we find out who we are.’

There are love stories woven into the book, but I like that they don’t overshadow the story of these brave women that Kristin Hannah is telling.

An unforgettable and heartwrenching story that celebrates the incredible strength, the unspoken acts of bravery and resilience of women. This is a modern classic masterpiece, the characters and the story stayed in my heart. I’m so looking forward to the movie adaptation.

3. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Hofmeyer

• Magnificent

I loved seeing the world through Eleanor’s perspective. She’s the type of person I would enjoy spending time with. Her character makes you ponder human behaviour.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is an entertaining read but baked in pain. Eleanor is a thirty year old with no friends, she lives alone and has worked the same job for nine years. She is completely fine with her life.

‘Sometimes you simply needed someone kind to sit with you while you dealt with things.’

Her life changes when she meets Raymond from IT, an easy going colleague with questionable hygiene. Its through this unlikely friendship that we get to see the painful life that Eleanor has lived and how her friendship with Raymond makes her a better understand human interactions.

‘Time only blunts the pain of loss. It doesn’t erase it.’

The book is magnificently funny, entertaining, heartwarming, heartbreaking and tragic. I loved the way Gail Honeyman wrote the story, Eleanor’s character is memorable and witty.

‘The past had been hiding from me – or I’d hidden from it – and yet there it was, still, lurking in darkness. It was time to let in a little light.’

3.5 Stars

4. Sounds like love – Ashley Poston

• Dreamy

I was so looking forward to reading this book after having read Ashley Poston, The Seven Year Slip. But if I’m honest, it didn’t land as brilliantly. I struggled with the premise of the main characters reading each other’s thoughts, I found it distracting but their story still made the book captivating.

‘Sometimes the dreams you come with aren’t the dreams you leave with, and sometimes you just don’t leave at all.’

The story opens at a music concert where we meet Joni Lark, a songwriter who is struggling with writers block and coming to terms with her mother’s illness. She meets Sebestian Fell, a former boy-band star hiding in the shadow of his famous father. The two but heads, Joni thinks Sebestian is full of himself. But when a kiss cam locks onto them, they play along…the kiss leaves them with questions. Joni then leaves the concert unannounced and heads back home to Vienna Shores with the hope of finding some inspiration.

She reunites with her family and best friend, Gigi. She also has to face some very harsh realities – her mothers illness and the fact that her parents have taken a decision to close their music venue the Revelry that has been in the family for years. While figuring out her life, she starts to hear a melody and a man’s voice in her head.

The story was told beautifully, I loved how the romance played out and how these two character found each other through music. The cameo appearance of my favourite people from The Seven Year Slip, was nicely done. It took me back to how much I loved their story.

Even with all the unfortunate life challenges in the book, the one thing that Ashley Poston does is tell a heartwarming story that leaves one feeling completely satisfied.

‘We just want to live everyday as full as we can, because the only thing that makes grief worse is regret. And I don’t want anyone to regret anything…’

5. Some Bright Nowhere – Ann Packer

• Heartbreaking

This book is heavy, heartbreaking and complex. Eliot and Claire have been married for nearly four decades, with two two adult children and two grandchildren. Eliot’s wife Claire was diagnosed with breast cancer eight years ago and has been undergoing chemo. Throughout Claire’s illness, Eliot has selflessly transitioned into the role of caregiver. Claire has reached the stage where she will be stopping treatment and preparing for the inevitable.

As Eliot plans to spend his last days with Claire, she makes a request that sets his world spinning. My heart broke for Eliot having to endure and support his wife’s unexpected dying wish. What was meant to be a time of processing the inevitable, their marriage is tested. There were moments when I disliked Claire’s character and then I had moments where I put myself in her shoes, one can never comprehend what goes on a person’s mind when death doors are knocking. It’s easy to judge from the outside.

Some Bright Nowhere explores the emotional reality of someone facing death and the quiet, complicated emotions of those who support someone through it.

I loved how Ann Packer told the story from Eliot’s perspective. She focuses on his relationship dynamics – his relationship with Claire, his children, Claire’s friends and his friends.

This book is a heavy but a riveting read.

3 Stars

6. Bosadi – Kopano Matlwa

• Heavy

A touching story that is told through Naledi’s and Aunty (Naledi’s Zimbabwean domestic worker) perspective. 

‘Neither in life nor death is there justice for a woman.’ 

Bosadi tells the story of Naledi, whose life is confined in an abusive marriage and as to carry the family as the bread winner. Aunty whose privy to the fights carries her own pain – these two women form a complex protective relationship. 

The book is set during Covid during a time when there was a rise in silent war – the ‘Shadow Pandemic’. (A surge in violence against women and girls, primarily intimate partner violence, that intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic.) Fast forward to November 2025, GBV (Gender Based Violence) is declared a national disaster.

The book was captivating, the story premise topical and important in the context of South Africa. The book itself was a quick, easy read, I read it in one sitting. Unfortunately the writing style did not work for me. 

7. Coconut – Kopano Matlwa

• Intriguing

Having read her latest novel, Bosadi, I had mixed feelings about her writing style and wanted to read another book of hers before forming an opinion. I decided to get Coconut, her debut novel.

The premise of the book seemed interesting: a story of two Black girls who grow up in white suburbs and struggle with their identity. There’s Ofilwe, who grows up in a privileged world and is eager to fit in and be accepted in her white society, and Fikile, who comes from a township and is desperate to leave her past behind. Through these two stories, the reader gets a glimpse into the hardships of Black South Africans. The book touches on Blackness, racial identity, and self-worth in South Africa, although at times it feels like it only scratches the surface.

Kopano’s writing has depth and insight. That said, I had the same issue here as I did with Bosadi. Her storytelling style made it a bit hard for me to fully get into the book.

Having grown up in the Coconut era, there were moments of nostalgia with the book highlighting the challenges faced by people of colour who had to integrate within a society that made them feel less than and inferior.

Its an easy read.

 2.5 Stars

8. Home Bodies – Tembe Denton-Hurst

• Dreary

I really wanted to give Home Bodies a higher rating, but I struggled to get into this book. The story follows Mickey, a Black woman working in media, she struggles to connect with her white boss. She’s seen as difficult to work with and is eventually replaced by another Black woman, which leaves her feeling pretty hard done by. While she’s dealing with all of that at work, her relationship at home is also being put to the test.

The first part of the book, set in New York, is engaging and full of promise. Watching Mickey navigate her life, career, and relationships really pulled me in. But once she moves back home to Maryland, things start to drag. The story loses momentum and becomes quite slow and I found myself losing interest and just wanting to get to the end.

I also felt like Tembe Denton-Hurst could have gone deeper into Mickey’s work struggles. That aspect felt especially relatable – so many people of colour working in white-dominated industries deal with these kinds of challenges every day and it would’ve been great to see that explored more fully.

Overall, the book has a really strong premise. It touches on race, identity, and workplace dynamics in a way that could have been incredibly powerful. Unfortunately, the execution didn’t quite live up to that potential, which was a bit disappointing.

TS!