UK Literary Luvvies

[slugella]

I picked up Really Good, Actually in Waterstones earlier (it's the debut novel from a writer on Schitt's Creek) and saw that blurb testimonials had been given by Pandora, Elizabeth Day and Marian Keyes. Back on the shelf it went!

I made the mistake of buying and reading it, and you made the right choice putting it back down!

She mentions Dolly and Caroline in the acknowledgements too.

 

[Aardvark]

Yes, Dolly is a nickname "because she looks like Dolly the Sheep" aka that she gave herself to seem more interesting

I think if you’ve gone by a different name for twenty years that’s allowed. Plenty of people don’t use their birth names, it’s kind of rude to decide you know better

 

[fleabagster]

I like Dolly Alderton. I find her funny and I do think she’s a talented writer. I didn’t like Ghosts that much though.

 

[summersolstice]

The Curtis Sittenfeld interview on Sentimental Garbage was very awkward! Also felt Caroline started to mirror Curtis’ American accent at the end

 

[soph30]

I think if you’ve gone by a different name for twenty years that’s allowed. Plenty of people don’t use their birth names, it’s kind of rude to decide you know better

Yeah but the point still stands, she gave herself it to make her sound more interesting and it wasn’t quite twenty years, it was her sixth form years I think, I found a Facebook profile for Hannah Alderton (recommended)! GOSH YOU’RE RIGHT I’m the same age and that WAS nearly twenty years ago

She’ll hate you for pointing out her early twenties were over a decade ago haha

 

[miagia]

I think if you’ve gone by a different name for twenty years that’s allowed. Plenty of people don’t use their birth names, it’s kind of rude to decide you know better

"Kind of rude" Okay, many apologies, I'll watch my mouth.

 

[soph30]

No fighting girlies, this thread is for female empowerment

 

[really_whythough]

Just seen that if you pre-order Emma Gannon’s book ‘The Success Myth’ she’ll enter you to ‘win’ a coaching session with her.

Is it just me who sees the completely conflicting notions at play here?! The book is about not striving for traditional markers of success (as far as I can tell) but instead accepting yourself and knowing your own needs and goals more deeply.

Sooooo, this woman with no formal training in life coaching, psychotherapy or personal development is going to tell you how to do better in your own life with one single session of spouting god-knows-what nonsense to you, someone she has absolutely no idea about.

I’d like to gift her with a session of how to actually listen and sit with stuff and not immediately literally write the book on something that you’ve had your first experience of a matter of months ago. Stick to poorly written fiction and don’t try to get in people’s heads or lives. You are FULLY unqualified to do so.

Also, total irony of the braggy ‘I’m so proud of this book, I’m changing my life because of it’ pinned Instagram post when we’re supposed to be finding our own fulfilment and not perpetuating external validation that society expects of us. Maybe it’s just me and this is actually fine?

ETA it’s all very well encouraging us to embrace ‘joy-led living’ when you’ve made loads of money, gotten married and built a career and professional network already. Please Emma, do tell me how I can better rest and love my life after buying your book. Just as long as I can not worry about the disproportionate amount of my precarious earnings that get eaten up by rent and bills.

 

[Love_hate_small_town]

The Curtis Sittenfeld interview on Sentimental Garbage was very awkward! Also felt Caroline started to mirror Curtis’ American accent at the end

We’ve all been there with the accent mimic. Mortifying.
---

Just seen that if you pre-order Emma Gannon’s book ‘The Success Myth’ she’ll enter you to ‘win’ a coaching session with her.

Is it just me who sees the completely conflicting notions at play here?! The book is about not striving for traditional markers of success (as far as I can tell) but instead accepting yourself and knowing your own needs and goals more deeply.

Sooooo, this woman with no formal training in life coaching, psychotherapy or personal development is going to tell you how to do better in your own life with one single session of spouting god-knows-what nonsense to you, someone she has absolutely no idea about.

I’d like to gift her with a session of how to actually listen and sit with stuff and not immediately literally write the book on something that you’ve had your first experience of a matter of months ago. Stick to poorly written fiction and don’t try to get in people’s heads or lives. You are FULLY unqualified to do so.

Also, total irony of the braggy ‘I’m so proud of this book, I’m changing my life because of it’ pinned Instagram post when we’re supposed to be finding our own fulfilment and not perpetuating external validation that society expects of us. Maybe it’s just me and this is actually fine?

ETA it’s all very well encouraging us to embrace ‘joy-led living’ when you’ve made loads of money, gotten married and built a career and professional network already. Please Emma, do tell me how I can better rest and love my life after buying your book. Just as long as I can not worry about the disproportionate amount of my precarious earnings that get eaten up by rent and bills.

All sounds v toxic positivity. It’s like a naturally athletic person offering diet/ fitness tips. Bleugh. Nothing worse that this kind of crap when you are struggling to keep head above water. I also think of theee self helpy adjacent books truly have something useful, empowering or novel to say, they sell themselves. The self promotion is not necessary.

 

[Bezzzz]

Oh there is a whole world of coaches out there - …shilling themselves on social media

 

[TravellingPants]

The Curtis Sittenfeld interview on Sentimental Garbage was very awkward! Also felt Caroline started to mirror Curtis’ American accent at the end

It was quite stilted and strange, really highlighted the difference between Caroline talking about material she also knows and loves and has strong emotional connection to (late 90s/early 00s) and something like Dirty Dancing that pre-dates her and she didn’t seem all that familiar with. Also it’s normally Caroline’s laugh that drives me potty but this week it was Curtis just doing a big ‘HA!’ instead of a real laugh.

 

[Londongirl89]

Emma’s book Olive was not good: flimsy plot, annoying main character. Her theme around that time was being child-free, which is a perfectly fine, totally valid life choice, but she went on and on about it like she was the only woman in the world to make such a choice. “Burnout” seems to be her new theme.

 

[really_whythough]

Emma’s book Olive was not good: flimsy plot, annoying main character. Her theme around that time was being child-free, which is a perfectly fine, totally valid life choice, but she went on and on about it like she was the only woman in the world to make such a choice. “Burnout” seems to be her new theme.

I started it and gave up which really rarely happens. Couldn’t even hate-read it, too badly written and wooden.

 

[queenamber]

Just seen that if you pre-order Emma Gannon’s book ‘The Success Myth’ she’ll enter you to ‘win’ a coaching session with her.

Is it just me who sees the completely conflicting notions at play here?! The book is about not striving for traditional markers of success (as far as I can tell) but instead accepting yourself and knowing your own needs and goals more deeply.

Sooooo, this woman with no formal training in life coaching, psychotherapy or personal development is going to tell you how to do better in your own life with one single session of spouting god-knows-what nonsense to you, someone she has absolutely no idea about.

I’d like to gift her with a session of how to actually listen and sit with stuff and not immediately literally write the book on something that you’ve had your first experience of a matter of months ago. Stick to poorly written fiction and don’t try to get in people’s heads or lives. You are FULLY unqualified to do so.

Also, total irony of the braggy ‘I’m so proud of this book, I’m changing my life because of it’ pinned Instagram post when we’re supposed to be finding our own fulfilment and not perpetuating external validation that society expects of us. Maybe it’s just me and this is actually fine?

ETA it’s all very well encouraging us to embrace ‘joy-led living’ when you’ve made loads of money, gotten married and built a career and professional network already. Please Emma, do tell me how I can better rest and love my life after buying your book. Just as long as I can not worry about the disproportionate amount of my precarious earnings that get eaten up by rent and bills.

“Life coach” is laughable. She is verging closer to Gwyneth Paltrow pseudoscience every day. She’s so desperate to seem like an Elizabeth Gilbert type but she doesn’t have anywhere near enough life experience for it to come across as authentic.

It really boils my piss when all of these writers start talking about their trauma or burnout or depression or *insert catastrophic event here* and then pitch the book that they've written about it. In my bad depression and burnout spells I can barely write an email or a text, let alone a whole book.

 

[slugella]

Just seen that if you pre-order Emma Gannon’s book ‘The Success Myth’ she’ll enter you to ‘win’ a coaching session with her.

Is it just me who sees the completely conflicting notions at play here?! The book is about not striving for traditional markers of success (as far as I can tell) but instead accepting yourself and knowing your own needs and goals more deeply.

Sooooo, this woman with no formal training in life coaching, psychotherapy or personal development is going to tell you how to do better in your own life with one single session of spouting god-knows-what nonsense to you, someone she has absolutely no idea about.

I’d like to gift her with a session of how to actually listen and sit with stuff and not immediately literally write the book on something that you’ve had your first experience of a matter of months ago. Stick to poorly written fiction and don’t try to get in people’s heads or lives. You are FULLY unqualified to do so.

Also, total irony of the braggy ‘I’m so proud of this book, I’m changing my life because of it’ pinned Instagram post when we’re supposed to be finding our own fulfilment and not perpetuating external validation that society expects of us. Maybe it’s just me and this is actually fine?

ETA it’s all very well encouraging us to embrace ‘joy-led living’ when you’ve made loads of money, gotten married and built a career and professional network already. Please Emma, do tell me how I can better rest and love my life after buying your book. Just as long as I can not worry about the disproportionate amount of my precarious earnings that get eaten up by rent and bills.

Totally agree with you and you've perfectly worded how I was feeling about her before I unfollowed!

I don't know how Emma and others have that much confidence and nerve to release books on topics they are completely unqualified to advise on. It's so thoughtless as some of the people buying the books and taking the advice could be in tough situations and won't be able to get any help from people like Emma. But a lot of people may just assume that in order to get the book deal, it must be from someone who is qualified, when in reality anyone with a social media following gets a book deal these days.

 

[Kingsway]

Dolly hanging out with Hannah Louise Farrington - the perfect awful combination

 

[soph30]

Dolly hanging out with Hannah Louise Farrington - the perfect awful combination

Oh I don’t really know who that is but I looked at the Insta profile pic and I keep getting recommended her tweets. She’s very proud of her ‘eat me out to help out’ from 2020, keeps retweeting it- it’s like, it’s an obvious joke, I bet the Tories even made it at one of their parties, it’s vulgar and it doesn’t make you an edgy millennial

 

[LucyEyelesbarrow]

Oh I don’t really know who that is but I looked at the Insta profile pic and I keep getting recommended her tweets. She’s very proud of her ‘eat me out to help out’ from 2020, keeps retweeting it- it’s like, it’s an obvious joke, I bet the Tories even made it at one of their parties, it’s vulgar and it doesn’t make you an edgy millennial

Oh lord, about three years after everyone else too

 

[Cloak]

So this account has under the influencer threshold numbers (although thousands) so have blocked it out but I think we have a JUNIOR LITERARY LUVVIE
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Ah, yes, 4am in the morning. As opposed to 4am in the evening.
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If anyone is watching the Dolly live stream tomorrow, can you somehow share a link? (Sorry if probably not allowed)

 

[Jelly Bean]

Emma’s book Olive was not good: flimsy plot, annoying main character. Her theme around that time was being child-free, which is a perfectly fine, totally valid life choice, but she went on and on about it like she was the only woman in the world to make such a choice. “Burnout” seems to be her new theme.

Just wait til they are all menopausal
That will be milked for all it is worth.
Nobody else would've been through it obvs.