Books like Mad Honey — picked by fans

Want to spend 10 glorious hours with Meryl Streep?

I loved her audiobook performance of Tom Lake. Her intonation mirrors the exact qualities that the main characters, who are actors, strive for: neither underacted nor overacted. Just genuine. 

Ann Patchett is a treasure, and in Tom Lake, she effortlessly navigates two timelines: one in which Lara tells her daughters about meeting famous actor Peter Duke in a long-ago play. These scenes are just as compelling as the flashbacks in which we learn about her time with Duke before he became a famous movie star.

It's a talent, the ability to tell a mostly ordinary life in a page-turning way. Her imagery is magnificent. Every scene is wondrous. Touching. So real.

I adored the intertwined storylines in The Magnolia Palace. 

Fiona Davis is famous for her historical fiction which unearths little-known true stories. She sets this book in dual timelines, between 1919 and 1966, until the two characters meet in the present day. Her heroine’s gripping drama takes her from losing her mother, to being sought for questioning in her landlord's death, to landing a job as a private secretary in The Frick House. Along the way, we get an insider's view of art, architecture, and the rich inner lives of colorful characters.

Davis depicts the world of fashion and modeling, taking inspiration from real-life model Audrey Munson. I loved learning about Munson, whose likeness can be found on statues around New York City. 

The Magnolia Palace is magnificent!

The Chao’s are a mother-daughter duo who have created an absorbing, beautifully-written story.

Each scene is brought to life with well-wrought details. This time period is personally meaningful for me, as my grandparents were a well-off family in Shanghai who left everything behind to forge a new life in the U.S. 

Impressively, Claire Chao strikes the perfect balance between keeping the authenticity of the Chinese names and vernacular while making the storyline clear for an English-speaking audience. I loved being transported to this long-ago world, and am glad that Remembering Shanghai has captured this time and place for posterity.

This book is a poignant exploration of guilt, love, and redemption in the aftermath of a life-altering swimming accident. 

The novel follows Hunter, paralyzed from the waist down, and his ex-girlfriend Emma, who blames herself for his disabling accident. This is a topic that really touches me, as I’ve met Purple Heart veterans who have dealt with life changing in an instant. 

I loved Woodburn’s evocative prose and authentic character development, as Emma journeys through self-forgiveness and the healing power of art. 

I’d recommend Before & After to anyone who is seeking a compelling read that reminds us of the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative nature of forgiveness. 

This is certainly a gripping tale as it gets going.

I was impressed by how it realistically shows abuse of children and abuse of women in different families in two different story threads that are tied together dramatically as a thriller. It is told from two points of view: Celia a mother who works in Citizen’s Advice, and Lucie the little girl she befriends.

It begins as a normal domestic scene with the two characters meeting by chance, but soon it develops into a thriller where Celia is suddenly hijacking at knifepoint whilst going about her business. It shows another aspect of violence against women where they can be suddenly assaulted by strangers.

This is a non-fiction book about how domestic abuse can easily turn into murder.

The author is an authority on cases of coercive control, stalking, and domestic abuse. Case studies are used frequently and the writing is clear and easy to read quickly. I found some of the concepts echoed some minor bullying that I was subjected to at school.

It begins with a typical scene where a victim of domestic abuse will not report the incident and will not get into the ambulance even though they are badly injured. The author says that it was this case which opened her eyes to the complexities of domestic abuse incidents.

The book debunks some common myths which perpetrators use as excuses, such as ‘crime of passion’. It describes eight stages of coercive control which can often lead to homicide. These are a whirlwind of commitment in the early stages of a… show more.

I think this is a basic skills book from which I was able to refresh my own knowledge.

This is an excellent workbook for therapists dealing with domestic abuse. It shows the real statistics behind domestic abuse, and begins by debunking myths, then explores the long-term effects on the survivors including the cycle of abuse in families.

It itemises therapeutic approaches and how people can be helped. It explores ways in which people can be helped to reconnect with their own identity and find themselves again after the terrible period of trauma.

Laura McClusky’s investigation of conjugal abuse among a Mayan community in Belize is one of the most ethnographically compelling books I have read on lived experiences of domestic violence.

McClusky was motivated to write this book because most domestic violence research had been clinical or sociological and had focused solely on the experience of violence, often approaching the phenomenon in a “peopleless manner.”

Refreshingly, McClusky decided to focus on the emotions, desires, motivations, and personal experiences of living women more holistically, thus overcoming tendencies to reduce women to the experience of violence and granting them the recognition as agents of actions that they deserve.  

Billy’s family gets caught up in the care system when the six-year-old narrator is smacked by his father. An only child surrounded by adults, Billy emulates the talk of others but mishears and repeats language incorrectly with hilarious results. Malapropism sees Billy using the word copulating instead of cooperating, he loves sayings but transcribes them incorrectly giving us a different cuttlefish rather than a different kettle of fish. Through Billy’s voice, readers are securely within the mind of a child. Extended periods of internal monologue and interrupted using an em dash to indicate speech. Questions directly to the reader add to the sense of intimacy created in this fine novel.

The story is told as a memoir in first person. What I like about this is that it tells of a period in a Derbyshire working class home in the 1940s and 1950s.

The description of the family environment is very realistic and one is drawn in immediately and carried along by the love in the home is and the playful the antics of the children. However, it soon develops into a novel of a young girl who runs away from that home because her mother becomes mentally ill and her father doesn’t know how to help his wife and ends up severely beating her.

It continues into what she does on the streets of London and how she eventually ends up in a women’s refuge. It is a lesson on how things can dramatically change.