Bookshelfie is back baby! We’re kicking off our return with a delightful episode recorded live at our Women’s Prize LIVE day festival with Chef, writer and national treasure, Nadiya Hussain. Nadiya joined our illustrious host, Vick Hope and 200 of our lovely attendees to talk about motherhood, discovering literature and the battle with our body image all through five spectacular books.
Check out the full episode here.
“When I read this book, I was in floods of tears because it’s so honest. I felt like it was normal for me as a woman to always worry about what I look like [..] I’ve had children, my body’s changed. My body weight fluctuates all the time. But it was that moment when I read it, and realised that it affected me very differently after being in the public eye.”
“[This book] is like being on a ride, it’s up and down and you feel quite connected to each of the chapters. I think for me, as a Muslim woman, I tried to practice gratitude every single day […]To be able to have that extra layer, to be able to read a book that has nothing to do with my religion, and be able to add to feeling grateful, to being present in the moment, and to be happy with everything that you have around you is such a wonderful feeling.”
“She has this amazing way of letting you into her life. Which is what I love about reading, which is what I love about storytelling is when people allow you into their lives. And I think and especially because when Candice writes she writes what she knows and they’re the best books I believe the best books are the ones that when authors write about the things that they know the things that are the closest to them.”
“The way the book is written is unlike anything I’ve ever read before in my life, […] because never ever have I thought what could have been if a fig tree could talk, what would it say? You know, that’s what it asked, if a tree could talk, what would it say? And I just loved that perspective.”
“I think we all think it. We all think it but Bella was smart enough to write it. And then she wrote it in a way that like made you feel like it was okay. Yeah, like, this is good. Like, and you’re with her on the journey as she’s killing them one by one. One by one the plot, like the plan and how she gets them there, and how she eventually does it. And you’re like, yes, who’s next?”
