She’d always thought she was destined to do something special but failed to equip herself with the skills to achieve it. They are the “healthy, strong, intelligent, spiritual and sexual” beings who did everything: nurtured families, farms and businesses, dug graves, birthed babies, brought in harvests, staffed factories, led riots and held communities together…Gregory has the novelist’s eye for the quirky and the vivid; the wryness of a confident narrator. It makes explicit the connection between women's paid and unpaid labor and is a hilarious send-up to gendered expectations surrounding appearance, motherhood, and societal value. The plot of the book teases a dark direction (along with several other heavy handed red herrings), but ultimately ends up flatlining and ending in a very obvious and unsatisfactory way. Darkly comic, sharply witty and fiercely smart, Normal Women asks how our societies truly value female labour – and what independence really means.

It looks back at the past lives of half the population – without the judgemental gaze of the present; telling of women who did not want the vote, as well as those that did, those that wanted to be idle at home as well as those who fought for freedom. Philippa Gregory has produced something rare and wonderful: a genuinely new history of [Britain], with women at its beating heart. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency and built ships, corn mills and houses as part of their everyday lives They committed crimes, or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things and rioted.An exhilarating ride of a novel that deliciously and irreverently skewers the complacent, the entitled and the self-satisfied. I’d registered lots of love for Ainslie Hogarth’s Mothering but hadn’t got around to reading it which also made me keen. Corvus Atlantic’s commercial fiction list which includes women’s, historical, romance, sci-fi, crime and thriller. Summary: Dani is a new mother who has moved back to her hometown with her husband who took a very lucrative job. On the one hand, Dani (with a degree in philosophy) doesn’t have a “career” per se — and they already know that finding day care will be an issue — but on the other, Dani understands the power and freedom that she’ll be giving up if she allows Clark to make all the money.

The start was a little slow for me, and I think I may have been bothered by that if I didn't enjoy the writing style as much as I do. I still enjoyed Hogarth’s writing style and will read future releases from her, but I’m sad to say Normal Women was not it. The ‘normal women’ you will meet in these pages rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency, and built ships, corn mills and houses as part of their everyday lives.Grove Press An imprint of Grove Atlantic, an American independent publisher, who publish in the UK through Atlantic Books. And it maybe won’t be for everyone, but I winced and laughed and nodded my head with recognition throughout; and while straight married women might benefit from seeing themselves in this, men might benefit even more by getting a peek inside their wives’ secret thoughts.

I went into this book thinking it would be such a standout, page-turner that I would eat up, but unfortunately, it just fell quite flat for me. Voices of the past can be heard through careful analysis of the fragments that do exist, and reading a document 'against the grain” - of its author’s intention often reveals crucial details.But just as she’s preparing to embrace this opportunity, Renata disappears, leaving Dani to step into another role entirely – detective. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. When Dani meets Renata, a magnetic and revolutionary force, she introduces her to a lifestyle that Dani can't help but feel drawn to with shameful desire. Quirky, unexpected, and charming, Motherthing uses all the right ingredients combined in equal measure to ensure a delicious experience.