Meet Linda
Chemistry geek & die-hard South Londoner, I have a chronic case of wanderlust (age-related crisis) which pushes me to pick books up which are set as far away from home as possible. Three-and-a-half years ago, I created a WhatsApp group, added my book-loving mates @miriamshanna, @jess_panch, @tankazama and @ineededanat to it, and created The Candid Book Club where we share what we think of our recent reads out loud with the rest of you. We don’t hold back!
The other girls laugh at me because my go-to genre is heart-wrenching fiction set in a distant land - anything set in the Middle East, Africa, Asia…you name it. And specifically, if a book’s got anything to do with Egypt then I’m all over it. BUT I read a whole heap of other stuff too and being a part of Candid has broadened by literary horizons by epic amounts evidenced by the exponential growth of my TBR pile as well my deteriorating short-sightedness.
To take a break from the pressures of PhD Chemistry, @jess_panch and I exchanged books all the time and in my youth, I was that kid with the first editions of Harry Potter having already read #Gulliverstravels and some #CharlesDickens. At work, my desk is a library and luckily for me I sit next to another bookworm @christiewj_ who entertains all the photo-taking.
We still pinch ourselves when we get #bookmail through the post or when we get invited to great publishing events, and get quoted in books!! (Mindblown emoji). Thank you and long may this continue - how did this even happen!?!
It’s been a pleasure to host our own events and have discussions with fabulous authors - you guys give us the confidence to keep doing this and it has been great to connect with bookworms, far and wide.So you get the drift...I read all the time, everywhere (on the tube mostly), everyday, a book a week, and very quickly I'm onto the next! And then sometimes there is a book that stops me in my tracks, makes me want to swallow the pages whole, with some sentences staying with me forever:
Stay With me by @ayobamiadebayo
A Little Life by @hanyayanigahara
Born A Crime by @trevornoah
The Greater Freedom by @alyamooro
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Family Tree by @sairish_hussain
Little Fires Everywhere by @celesteng