Bringing modern mums to books

Friday, May 09, 2008

'I'm not really into chick lit ... but I enjoyed Jordan's book'

Denise Watson (36) is a sports journalist for BBC Northern Ireland. She lives in Lisburn with their three-year-old daughter Sam, and husband David Scott. She is currently pregnant with her second child. She says:

Before I was pregnant I would have been a bad one for picking up glossy magazines like Heat or Now. I even had a subscription to a glossy mag. My New Year's resolution was always to read more books.

When I was pregnant with Sam I started reading a lot of pregnancy and parenting books like KISS Guide to Pregnancy, but I'm not reading them now as they tend to scare you. Everyone's different so if you read too many pregnancy books or things on the internet, you get scared when something doesn't happen, or something unexpected does happen. I now ignore pregnancy guides.

Since Sam was born, I've read a lot of Sydney Sheldon. I'm a big fan of the Alex Cross Series and the Women's Murder Club. I'm not really a chicklit person, but I have read some. I suppose quite close would have been The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. I found it very interesting, but I didn't know enough about the characters surrounding the story.

I'm currently reading Madonna: Like An Icon by Lucy O'Brien. I was given Pushed to the Limit by Jordan (left) as a gift. I didn't want to read it but I thought it was very well written, and she was very honest about being a mum and juggling her life. I've also read Kerry Katona's biography and both of Piers Morgan's.

If you work in the media, you can totally identify with what he says. I'm also looking forward to Andrew Morton's book on Tom Cruise.

Time's so valuable, so reading is me time. I want quality, not glossy magazines. If the book is good then it's a really good way to spend my time."

'I'm re-reading Harry Potter. I've read the series again and again'

Alison Fleming (36) is a journalist and presenter for UTV. She lives in Holywood, Co Down, with her husband Damien Heavern, and their children Annie (4) and Finn (3). She says:

I'm a huge reader, but I'm not very forgiving, so if I'm not hooked by the first couple of pages then it doesn't really happen. I suppose what I read is the original chick-lit, but a lot edgier. I loved Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong, and I've just read The International by Glenn Patterson which is a fabulous book. I'm also a big fan of Nancy Mitford who wrote Love in a Cold Climate and In Pursuit of Love.

When I was pregnant I craved Maeve Binchy. I wanted escapism and a calm environment then, but since I've become a mum I've become more diverse.

I was introduced to a local writer called Philip Henry, who writes vampire novels based on the north coast. I wouldn't have read that before, but I'm more open to new writers now. I don't read books that are relevant to me — I don't want to read about what I do every day. I read most days, and I try to get to bed half an hour earlier to read for a bit. It takes away from the stresses of everyday life.

I'm currently re-reading the Harry Potter books by J K Rowling (left). I've read the series again and again. When the last book came out, I'd to get up at 6am to go to a hen weekend and I made the taxi driver stop at the supermarket on the way there so I could buy it. After the night out, at 3am, me and another girl sat up in bed reading it!"

'My mother took me to the doctor's when I was eight because I was reading so much'

Author and playwright Annie McCartney is in her mid-fifties. She lives in Belfast with her husband Iain, and their two children Katy (27) and Duncan (25). She says:

When I was eight years old my mum took me to the doctor because I was reading all the time. The doctor told her to take me out as he had sick people to look after. My kids used to say to me: "Mum, please stop reading look at me!" I'm always reading, it's like an addiction.

When I was at school I read all the classics. I still re-read them these days. When I lived in America I read a lot of political books, like (Bob) Woodward and (Carl) Bernstein. The political shelf was the only one I brought back with me when I moved home.

Women have to do the cooking and housework and pay the bills, and when you do get the time to read you want something uplifting.

When the kids were young I didn't have the time or the peace to read big novels, I read kids books to them, but when I started picking up novels again, I went through a long phase of women writers like Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Jane Howard and Margaret Attwood.

I never really got into chick-lit. It leaves me unsatisfied and they're writing to a formula. It's so simplistic and boring. They tend to get flung against the wall. Some of them are well written, like the early Marian Keyes. If you're a writer and your first book is successful then there's so much pressure on you to build on the success. Anita Shreve's first books were fantastic, but I found later on they became pot-boilers. The pressure on writers turns them into writing factories. I don't have the ability or desire to do it.

Now, I stumble between snack books like frothy crime novels and more serious literature, like biographies. I'm currently reading Carl Bernstein's biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton called A Woman In Charge."

'I go for brain candy, though Jacqueline Susann was good'

Radio presenter Lynda Bryans (46) is married to Mike Nesbitt and lives in Belfast with their two sons, PJ (13) and Christopher (10). She says:

What I read hasn't changed much since I got pregnant. I would have read a lot of Irish writers like Brian Moore, Edna O'Brien and William Trevor. I don't like chicklit, I never have, I suppose I go more for brain candy. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann is about as close as I would get.

I don't get the chance to read regularly, so I take books on holiday. There's a guy in Waterstones called Paddy, he's brilliant at finding books for me, so I go and ask him what I've missed this year. When I'm packing for holidays I think about the books I'm going to bring before I think about the clothes.

Some of the best ones I've read have been Donna Tartt, The Secret History, Joseph O'Connor's Star of the Sea. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks is one of the best books I've ever read. Some brilliant stories I've packed in the suitcase recently include the Kite Runner, Khaled Husseni's first novel, and it was so good I read his next one, A Thousand Splendid Suns. That's brilliant too.

Actually, I'm quite into Afghanistan and its culture. Last year I also read The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra. I tried to read the Booker prize winner Anne Enright's offering, The Gathering and losing the will to live halfway through, I picked up the one that should have won — On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwan.

Michael's got a couple of books up his sleeve, too, so I'm sure I'll read them someday, but really just getting any time to read at all is lovely."