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July Bookshelf: What I Read in July (and what I’d say you can skip)

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré was my favourite read of the…

July 31, 2020

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Feeling lighter and brighter today - worked out wi

Feeling lighter and brighter today - worked out with some new friends this morning at a high school track (just like you see in the movies!) and looking forward to the long weekend and then the inauguration next week - finally! 😬 I've definitely been doing more doom-scrolling than reading, but that's going to seriously change. Is anyone else's screen-time report an actual horror show? 🤯 Also here's a sneak peek of our nearly-finished living room. The thing above the mantelpiece (which is actually a headboard from @urbanoutfitters) is being swapped out for a circular mirror, so that's just a placeholder for now. I love the way the morning light hits this room. ✨

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#miamihome #coralgableshome #southfloridahome #livingroominspiration #livingroominterior #livingroominspo #lonnyliving #colourfulhome #housebeautiful #projectnamastayincoralgables #sittingroom #styleitlight #loveyourspace

🌟New Year Giveaway! 🌟
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I meant to do a book giveaway when I reached 1500 followers but life got in the way, so this is a combination mini celebration (the bar is low!) with a new year giveaway! I really love the Bookstagram community, and my friends who dutifully like and comment on every post -- you’re appreciated! 😘
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I’m giving away a $50 gift voucher to the bookstore of your choice (yep - that can be Amazon!). 💵
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🌟 To enter the giveaway:
✨Follow me (and please don’t follow to unfollow - let’s talk books and tweens and home decor and everything in between!)
✨Tell me below what you’re looking forward to in 2021 and tag up to three friends!
✨ Like and save this post.
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🌟 For extra entries
Share this post on your stories and tag me @hester
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🌟 The fine print
No giveaway accounts
Must be over 18
Winner will be chosen at random, announced in my stories and notified by DM
This giveaway is not affiliated with this platform
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The giveaway will end on Saturday January 9th at 5pm EST, and I’ll announce the winner on Monday morning! Open internationally! ✨
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#freebooks #bookgiveaway #giftcardgiveaway #bookofthemonth #botm #newtobookstagram #currentlyreading #tbr #bookhaul #coffeeandcurrentlyreading #booksandcoffee #aestheticreading #ilovereading #onmyshelf #booksaremagic #bookishlove #bookstagramgiveaway

✨Reading Bitch Face✨ Roped my girls into takin

✨Reading Bitch Face✨
Roped my girls into taking some candid reading photos today and I had a hard time picking between the one where I’m cross-eyed or the one where I look very cynical indeed. Despite my expression, I loved A Promised Land by Barack Obama and have barely put it down for the past week. It’s rare a book takes me so long to finish, but even though there’s a lot of dense descriptions of the ACA, the Financial Crisis and geopolitics, I wasn’t tempted to skip or skim as he’s such a skilful writer when it comes to breaking down complex issues. There’s just enough insight into his family life (he writes extremely touchingly about his relationship with Michelle and his daughters) as well as political gossip and intrigue to break up the dryer sections. This 700 page epic only takes us up to the killing of Osama Bin Laden, so I can’t wait for the second instalment to tackle the rise of Trump and how Obama views the dismantling of his legacy. It’s hard to find reasons for hope in politics at the moment (come on Georgia!!) but A Promised Land is a wonderful and inspiring reminder of a time when people came together in pursuit of an ideal. It will make you want to take action. 💪🏼p.s. For a more detailed review I loved Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s piece in the NYT.
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#apromisedland #barackobama #barackobamabook #obamabook #autobiography #book #tbr2021

I hope I'm just slipping in under the acceptable t

I hope I'm just slipping in under the acceptable time limit for posting a 2020 reading roundup! Here are my top 10 favourite books that I read this year (not necessarily published this year!). I totally spend too much time thinking about these things, but I wanted to list the books which I found most impactful, memorable and which I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to someone else. There's a bit of a recency effect of course, with more from the second half of the year than the first, and I might not have found Severance as striking if I hadn't read it during 2020, as the subject matter is a pandemic which wipes out most of the Earth's population. I don't give myself any kind of "grade" for reading, or count the number of books I read -- not knocking people who do, but just not somethings I've ever done, but I was pretty interested to see that among my top 10 there was so much diversity in the authors. In fact, only one book was by a cis white man. Which just goes to show, doesn't it, how opening yourself up to consuming different subject matter, not only opens your eyes to other viewpoints, but is also thoroughly bloody enjoyable. Now, I can officially drop the curtain on 2020 and onwards to 2021!!
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The Top 10 (In no particular order)
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Hamnet
The Girl with the Louding Voice
Severance
The Book of Longings
The Death of Vivek Oji
The Undocumented Americans
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
Between The World and Me
Intimations

A very merry Christmas from sunny Miami and our fo

A very merry Christmas from sunny Miami and our food coma! Lots of love and light to all our friends and family across the world. We wish we could be celebrating with you all, but for now, we’re happy to be safe and sound and to have (thus far!!) survived 2020.

One of my new mum friends in Miami called me this

One of my new mum friends in Miami called me this morning to say she has been thinking (after I made a self-deprecating comment about my parenting) and she wanted to tell me I’m doing a really good job. It hasn’t been super-easy doing this move, but it also hasn’t been as hard as other moves, so I’ve just been trucking along, working to get our family settled and trying not to think too much about anything other than one day at a time. It meant so much to me just to hear those words, and I was in the car and driving and had a little cry and felt better. If no one has told you yet this year or month or week, you’re doing a great job! Give yourself a massive pat on the back for being a functioning adult this year, and maybe pass it along. ✨

(C) 2020 - Hester & Co. All Rights Reserved.

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