Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda is written by Becky Albertalli, published by Penguin and has a front cover by Chris Bilheimer

So I read this quite a while ago and am going to be reviewing from memory so forgive me for any mistakes, but it’s a book I’m really keen to recommend.

It’s about a 16 year old boy called Simon who is gay and is talking to an anonymous person online who is also gay but doesn’t want to come out yet. Simon has to go through the ups and downs of this, struggling with his own identity.

This was a really good book that gave a pretty realistic of teenagers in my opinion, despite the fact it was written by an adult. I found the story really funny and entertaining, and it’s always good to read a book from a boys perspective that isn’t a war book because they’re surprisingly rare! And it’s such a cute story, I spent the whole time reading it either laughing, crying or hoping he’d figure out who the anonymous person was. I loved his family as well, they were really funny and his friends are the kind of people you’d want to be friends with. Basically, it’s just a really good book that’s on my list af all time favourites.

For any secondary school teachers or librarians out there, I also think that that this would be a really great book for a school because (get ready for a rant) there aren’t nearly enough LGBTQ books out there which are well written, positive and fun. So this would be a perfect book to get into the hands of teens.

This is a great book and a great addition to the bookshelf of any adult or teen, and you know it was made into a pretty great movie too!

It’s Not About The Burqa is edited by Mariam Khan and published by Picador.

For anyone currently following my twitter account, you will know that as well as horror and romance and fantasy etc, I read quite a lot of ‘political’ books and this is one of them.

It’s Not About The Burqa is a series of stories and messages by modern Muslim women, taking back a voice they are often denied, to spread awareness and to show people that they are liberated and can be feminists and do have value.

I loved it because it’s so interesting to get to read about the experiences of a group of people I’m not a part of, and also feeling serious deja vu reading about some of their frustrations with being a woman. It also made me think about problems and discrimination that would never have crossed my mind without it.

This is a truly amazing book, by amazing women, that should be on the bookshelf of every bookworm, feminist and person who believes in equality.



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Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton