One Day I Shall Astonish the World

One Day I Shall Astonish the World has Nina Stibbe's trademark writing style all over it: female main character living in the Midlands, full of sharp and witty observations about her ordinary life. The preface of the book starts in November 2019, setting the scene of Susan trying to write the newsle......more

Norma is a terrible friend. And yet Susan cannot stop missing her, competing with her, confiding in her, or forgiving her. That was the most compelling thing about the book for me—the comic treatment of a friendship that starts before marriage and careers and persists almost beyond belief, and yet t......more

The way that Nina Stibbe wrote this book was wonderful. I greatly enjoyed the actual writing, and found the book to be funnier than I originally expected. Unfortunately, as far as stories go, I found this one to be quite bland. It is, indeed, about the protagonists unlikely friendship with the daught......more

I think I should have read the blurb better for this book, as with the title I was expecting either some coming of age story, or for someone to tire of their dull existence and overhaul their whole life. I'd also seen lots of quotes about how funny this was and was really looking forward to it. Inst......more

(free review copy) The book showed up in my mailbox from the publisher and although I knew nothing about it, I loved the cover so much that I started reading it immediately. And I have such mixed feeling about it. I almost stopped reading several times because it was unlikeable at that moment, or be......more