I’ve read and loved Dawn O’Porter’s novels so was keen to read her non-fiction book. I got a copy of this one from NetGalley and I read it a little while ago now. This is the author’s diary and blog posts from the first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic. I couldn’t read it when I first got it as it all felt too recent but when I finally did pick it up I quite enjoyed it. I like her writing style and could hear her voice in my head as I was reading. There are quite a few sections in the book that I could identify with and found very moving but some of it felt very self-indulgent and unaware of how other people might be feeling as they read her words. It was jarring at times as she complained about being stuck in her big house with her big garden. At the same time I think that the general fears around Covid and grief, and they way our priorities have changed throughout the pandemic and what we want in life has become much more apparent to all of us. These parts of the book I very much enjoyed and could identify with. Ultimately, this was a mixed bag but I did quite enjoy it for the most part.

I absolutely love Dawn O’Porter’s books. I really enjoyed The Cows and So Lucky, and Paper Aeroplanes is on my Kindle TBR list. So when I came across this one, I thought it would be a great read, perhaps an emotional yet also humorous exploration of life in lockdown about community and the new normal as we adapt to the changes Covid-19 forced upon the world.

However, I didn’t get that. Life in Pieces is a diary, a selection of what appear to be blog posts documented at the start of the initial lockdown. Masks, social distancing, Zoom calls, parenting, drinking (so much drinking!) are all touched upon in this book; things that most of us have had to experience at some point. It’s relatable in some small ways, but that’s about it.

However, there are some emotional chapters that focus on grief (following the death of O’Porter’s close friend Caroline Flack) which were quite devastating and, sadly for me, relatable having lost someone recently.

Life in Pieces offers a relatively humorous look at lockdown life, but (for me personally) it only skimmed the surface. There was no exploration of aspects that circle Covid and lockdown, which could have given this book more substance. Instead it contains merely self-indulgent daily ramblings that make Covid seem like a minor inconvenience (aside from the Caroline chapters). It was almost as though the author was trying just a tad too hard to be funny and relatable, but it just fell flat and way out of touch.

I seem to be in the minority here though, but even though I adore Dawn O’Porter’s writing, I really did not enjoy this one.

I would read anything written by Dawn O’Porter. This book had the potential to be just another comedic diary but there’s something about O’Porter that just reads so honestly (probably she is writing honestly) but still hilariously. This book deals with quite dark themes (how could it not after how 2020 was) but it a joy to read. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an egalley.

Heartbreakingly funny............only Dawn O'Porter can write like this. I love her books and this is no exception!

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book

Diary style account of... survival in the pandemic.

Frank, honest it's filled with humour, grief and everything in between

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins this book though I didn't get on with it. I chose to read it because I thought that it would be humourous having read another of Dawn Porter's books but I found it too self indulgent.

Please don't get me wrong as I think that there are people who have had it worse than me though I find it tricky when people have a fairly good life but are complaining in a book about how tough life is.

I'm not sure if I would read another book by this author though I think I first came across her because she did a good documentary series.

A great look at lockdown life with a family. Loved Dawn’s wit and humour in the diary style entires. Heartfelt and wonderfully written, I’d highly recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for an advance copy to review.

I like Dawn O’Porter’s fiction, so I was pleased to receive a copy of her latest book. It’s non-fiction and her lockdown diary.

As it’s basically Dawn’s diary, I expected it to be quite personal. It is to a point but I also found it very self indulgent. She moans about so much (don’t we all) but she has a lot less to worry about than most people. She does mention a few times that she’s grateful but it reads as though she’s added this in for the book and it isn’t genuine.
It didn’t have much flow and was quite bitty. I felt that some parts were repeated and it was quite higgledy piggledy. There’s far too much mention of CBD gummies and drinking and it was quite tiresome.

Some bits were vaguely amusing but I couldn’t relate to much of the book as I have a totally different lifestyle. I did relate to the overeating, though.

For me, this book just felt thrown together to see if she could make any money from it. I found it quite boring and didn’t really enjoy it.

Thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley for providing me with a copy for review.

I can't finish this book. I can't take myself back to the tricky time of lockdown 1 when we are experiencing lockdown 3. It has made me grumpy, anxious and brought back all the feelings of April 2020.

If anyone needs a reminder life in 2020 then this is it. I love Dawn O'Porter, but at the moment I need escapism. Life is tough for everyone just now. I have friends and family members who are nurses. We've lost too many people from our circle. I have little tolerance for celebrities (however lovely) being self-indulgent about their situation. Maybe in years to come I'll be able to read this and enjoy it as others seem to have done. But at the moment I found it irritating and I couldn't finish it. I'm sorry..

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Have loved Dawn’s fiction writing and was excited to read about her pandemic adventures. I loved this book, so many things that I could identify with. Reminds us that we are all in this together, all experiencing the same.

Life in Pieces

Over Christmas I gave myself a break from fiction because my concentration was poor and I couldn’t take in a long, involved story. This was due to a combination of events: I was affected by a mistake with my prescription medication; I was getting ready for Christmas with plans constantly changing; I had two chatty and excited stepdaughters in the house; we’d cancelled our wedding; and we’re mid - moving house. There were days that felt like nothing went right and I simply had no room in my brain or energy in my body. It felt like the ‘perfect storm’ of circumstances. This is the position that writer and broadcaster Dawn O’Porter found herself in last spring - only on a much more devastating scale. Just before the country went into lockdown Dawn received the news that her best friend, the super-talented and funny Caroline Flack, had taken her own life. She received this news out in LA where she now lives with her husband Chris O’Dowd and their two small boys. Shortly afterwards LA went into lockdown, followed by riots protesting the killing of George Floyd. Through all of this she was finding it difficult to write and like many of us decided to write a small blog each week for Patreon subscribers. This book is the result of those blogs.

I love books like this, because they give me short sections to read that don’t require a lot of brain power. Reading like a diary, Dawn goes through the mundane, funny and terribly painful aspects of each day. Determined to keep her grief from her children, and unable to travel until the funeral date was definite, meant having to find ways of coping. Of crying in private, but being able to be mummy at a moment’s notice. She withdrew from social media and once the funeral had taken place the home became her whole world. It wasn’t that she could put the loss to one side, she felt Caroline in her head every moment every day. Having been very critical of celebrities who shared Caroline’s last messages after her death, the author manages to tread a fine line by joyfully reminiscing about her friend while not talking about her death and the circumstances surrounding it. This is not a book about Caroline, it is very firmly a book about Dawn and her own experience of the past year. It isn’t just about grief either, it’s about suddenly being a full-time Mum while trying to find space to create, how it feels to be British living in LA, and the huge social upheaval on their doorstep during the riots. Each section is the equivalent of a Polaroid snapshot of this extraordinary time.

Dawn has a such a definite and accessible narrative voice - she is brutally honest about her experiences whether they be physical or whether she’s relaying her complex interior monologue. I had the feeling nothing was censored and I could identify with those chaotic ‘family in lockdown’ moments even if the children in my house are more teenage than toddler. Those dilemmas of whether we bother to dress and groom or not, do we keep a set routine or do as we please, keeping up with exercise and eating well or just eating like it’s Christmas. Sadly, I think we largely failed in these challenges! I understood that sense of only dealing with what’s in front of us - even if what’s in front of us is a shitstorm of tearful children, shitting animals, followed by puking animals and the inability to find a food delivery slot anywhere! These are common to everyone’s experience of the year. We’ve spent time with the same people every day, potentially doing the same things over and over. This heightens everything - tensions, emotions, worries. If we’re struggling with difficult emotions it forces us to face them, there’s no escape.

Between stories of disasters with the boys, food adventures and concerns about lockdown drinking, come global concerns. Dawn talks about her wardrobe and since we share a love of vintage this is something I really enjoyed, but it was interesting to think about in terms of the environmental impact of fashion - something I’ve been concerned about for a few years now. Her exploration of the riots in her neighbourhood stood out particularly to me. Again, her worries are at family level. Rioters are directly outside their home, the bins are set alight and she talks of keeping an emergency bag in case they have to leave in a hurry. Yet she is hugely sympathetic to the cause, profoundly moved by the terrible footage of a man begging for his life, and both she and Chris join the protests where they can. She writes eloquently about our white privilege, and how her black friends keep her on track when she’s not understanding something - if more of us admitted not knowing, a better dialogue would emerge. I went from laughing about a household mishap to grab a pen and note down some reading she recommended about white fragility. I think this is what I enjoy most about being in Dawn’s company - there’s room for silliness, raw honesty and emotion, then profound reflections on the bigger problems our society faces. It’s like a long evening with your best friends. My favourite anecdote involved a very famous red haired actress and our British humour about ‘gingers’ really not translating! This was a great read and I was sorry when it ended.

A hilarious, entertaining read. Loved the lockdown tales and O'Porter writes about the realities of family life. I found this incredibly insightful and full of laugh out loud moments.

Loved this book. In the midst of the pandemic, it is exactly what we needed. With 2 nephews I can relate and in actual fact I enjoyed the book so much that I bought the hardback for my sister-in-law. I couldnt not!

Like many other people around the world, I was deeply moved by Caroline's death and I feel so much for Dawn and indeed all Caroline's friends & family as they grieve. It was lovely to read about Caroline's presence throughout the book.

I enjoyed the laughs, the highs and the lows and I am sure this book will be in many a stocking this Christmas.

Dawn O'Porter a British Broadcaster Married to Chris O"Dowd is poleaxed by the death of her best friend and the swiftly following Covid Crisis. In the book's blurb it says "From reflections on grief and identity, bad hair and parenting, sleep and spirituality, to the things we can control and the things we cannot, Dawn’s daily diaries track the journey – for a hilarious, heartbreaking and highly entertaining glimpse into the new normal."

The book had the potential to examine the effects of Covid especially as it is one of the first to apply itself to the subject. Instead it is a diary of how much the author drinks and how much weed she can consume whilst "parenting" so hard that her children are not even washed for days - her words not mine.
Loc 2062 " better go stay home stay safe and stay drunk in the meantime" Loc 2242 " I am extremely hungover after Mother's day"
The best thing about this book is that it is so fatuous and pretentious that it can be speed read without missing any content. I wonder how such rubbish gets published It isn't funny and it adds nothing to the discussion of grief.

So I have just finished reading The Cows by the same author, which I really enjoyed and was an interesting mix of humour and social commentary, challenging the stereotypes woman have created for ourselves. I would highly recommend it.

I realise this book had a different purpose but I felt a bit disappointed because I have higher expectations of this author. She writes about her experiences during COVID, battling home schooling, self indulgence and frustration with the new way of living, while subtly comparing with her life style from before. There are lots of identifiable moments and smart, funny observations but I'm used to her storylines having more meat. So while mildly amusing, I wasn't racing to finish this and have read two books in between this mildly enjoyable observational anecdote.

I bloody love Dawn O'Porter. I’ve read all her books, I’ve listened to her So Lucky podcast and she makes me laugh everyday on Instagram so of course I jumped at the chance to read her latest book that takes a look at life through lockdown.

Like usual Dawns writing is raw, honest, emotional and absolutely hilarious. She summed up Lockdown perfectly and even spoke of the terrible heartbreak, the death of her friend Caroline Flack and how she dealt with grief during lockdown.

As ever she pushes the boundaries and speaks about alcohol and drugs openly so if that offends you its not the book for you. I loved it though and highly recommend.

Dawn has written searingly honest and often amusing dairy/anecdotes about of her life in lockdown. The challenges of two small boys and no school or childcare. A cat that Is elderly and incontinent. The loss of her close friend Caroline Flack. And alcohol. How it forms a crutch and it starts earlier in the day along with drug sweets. I am sure that this resonates with many readers who have had similar challenges and use similar crutches. The only annoying thing was that out of the blue, after describing all the yummy food she has been cooking and eating, the weight that was put on and clothes that stopped fitting, suddenly she was slim again and lockdown weight gain had gone. How???????? This only merited one line whilst most of us took months to get rid of it, if ever!! An entertaining book

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest, independent review.

"LIFE IN PIECES is a book for anyone who’s been thrown into a life they didn’t plan, or who just wants to stick it to 2020. When it looks like everything’s falling apart, we’ll piece it back together."

Dawn O'Porter is a British writer and TV presenter, who lives in LA, with her husband, actor Chris O'Dawd, their sons, Art and Valentine, a cat called Lilu, and a dog called Potato.

I have watched some of Dawn's documentaries in the past, as well as read one of her fiction books so I did have an idea who she was.

However, it was great to get to know her a bit more, the real her, in this book. The book is made up of blog entries from the start of the coronavirus pandemic, just as Dawn is grieving from the death of her best friend, TV presenter Caroline Flack. Like many, Dawn had to quickly get used to working from home; endless Zoom calls; home education; entertaining her young boys 24/7; and the constant, endless cleaning up after her children and pets!

I enjoyed Dawn's writing style; it was raw and honest. No matter how embarrassing a situation was, Dawn wrote about it. This is not the book for you if you are easily offended, or do not condone alcohol or drugs (legal in LA).

A quick, entertaining and enjoyable read.

I'm sure this will appeal to Dawn O'Porter fans or people who like Instagram content at book length, but I found it very dry and nothing special; the whole allure just seems to be the author.