#SheInspiresMe

As it's International Women's Day today I thought it would be a good idea to throw together a little post about the women in both my personal life and in the media who inspire me, who remind me everyday that women are absolutely badass, that I can do whatever I put my mind to etc etc. Thanks for everything guys.

The ladies in my fam but namely my lovely mother and sister Rebecca, thank you for being solid constants in my life with support and anything else I could possibly ask for. Mum has taught me to be resilient and take things in my stride. Becks, I can only hope I've been a good big sister so far and I'm so glad you're growing up to be a delightful young lady.

The lovely ladies I'm proud to call my friends; Jem, Jess, Mel, Holly, Amalah, Grace, Laura, Emily, Vicky. You are all absolute angels and thank you for being my friend. You all bring something wonderful to the world and to my life. I cannot wait to see what else you're all gonna do but I know it's gonna be fab.

The ladies in the media across TV, film, music, books and YouTube who inspire me in some way or another is probably a list too big but here are my absolute faves and I'm sure if you've heard of them, know me or have seen their work you'll know why  - Emma Thompson, JK Rowling, Emma Watson, Hazel Hayes, Carrie Hope Fletcher, Emilia Clarke, Aisling Bea, Viola Davis, Uzo Aduba, Helena Bonham Carter....there's countless more I assure you.

The reason for an International Women's Day is to highlight the important issues facing women around the world today, to uplift and inspire the women in your life and to hopefully shut up all the men who ask 'why isn't there an International Man's Day?!?!' - there is. November 19th. Celebrate ladyhood today and be proud of it.

Book review: The Deaths by Mark Lawson

This week, I finished 'The Deaths' by Mark Lawson - I'm not gonna lie, I was initially attracted to this book because I thought the cover/font of the title were really pretty and aesthetically pleasing but upon reading the blurb, I was intrigued. This book, on the outside, looks to be a "satirical comedy" regarding Britain's upper class and how an "act of violence" opens the book - I do like a good murder mystery so I figured I would give it a shot.

I have to say I was fairly disappointed with this book. It was funny at times, especially regarding supermarket hierarchies, and I did rather like how it wasn't revealed which characters were killed until the last few chapters as the rest of the novel explained possible motives or killers from within the group of characters but other than that, it was essentially a lot of disjointed narratives from different characters none of whom (except maybe the doctor and the police officer) were particularly likeable - in order for me to enjoy a book, I have to connect with at least one character and that just didn't happen with this story. I stuck with it as I wanted to see how did actually get killed but otherwise, I probably would have given up with book halfway through.

My biggest annoyance with this story though was clearly the author had no clue what feminism actually is - he mentions the word 'feminist' identifying characters as so several time but each time was totally wrong. Feminism simply means gender equality. That is it. Mark Lawson, however, seems to take it as women not needing men to get by, that they should be shunned for enjoying sex with their husband and just bleurgh. I do not have time for people who choose to write about a topic that they clearly have no idea about. Mark Lawson, I'm sure you're a lovely man but please do some research before saying your characters are feminists when they are a rather dodgy idea of one instead.

Overall, I wouldn't really recommend this book, giving it only a 6/10 as it was a mildly intriguing story and an easy read but the characters were just too annoying for me to give a rate any higher!
All opinions are my own and stuff like that and give me some book recommendations please! I need a major book haul soon.
Laura x