I dislike starting the review of a work I enjoyed with a negative but I would like to offer an alternative way in which to read this book, Solnits collection of essays does not need to be read together or even at once, take it slow, read one essay at time, devour the writing and then take time to think on it. Having said that, Men explain things to me and other essays is a collection of feminist writings which really didn’t go where I […]
Freedom, like everything else, is relative.
Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale tells the story of Offred; a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead – a reconstructed United States. Offred witnesses the dissolution of her former way of life and the transformation of society into a totalitarian theocracy. Women are enslaved and stripped of even their most basic rights, they cannot choose who to be in a relationship with, they cannot, read, write, own property, gain employment or even hold on to their own name. Offred is a patronymic, it is a […]
Completely fine. 100% fine. a thousand percent fine.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is the debut novel for author Gail Honeyman. The book rights have sold for huge sums worldwide and the movie rights now belong to Reese Witherspoon’s new company Hello Sunshine. In writing Eleanor, Honeyman has created a character I would love to get to know – She is unfiltered, forthright, smart, funny and profoundly lonely. Eleanor has no interpersonal skills, no social skills, no concept of what opportunities life could hold for her and she is very very real, there […]
it would have been better for him if he’d died. . . .
This title is only 80 pages long and can easily be read cover to cover in one sitting. It is aimed at older teens and is a psychological thrill ride wound up in a short story. It is part of a collection of Dyslexia friendly titles produced by Barrington stoke. ( https://www.barringtonstoke.co.uk/ ) What makes a book dyslexia friendly you ask? Well, the typeface, the layout and the colour of the paper stock all make it much much much easier for someone with dyslexia to read. […]
to stay sane. to stimulate, provoke, nourish and to console.
How to Stay Sane – This book’s stated goal is “how to remain stable and yet flexible, coherent and yet able to embrace complexity” sounded like a good brief – and let me tell you the tricks I’ve learnt, they work, they 100% work, they 1000% work. I have suffered with bouts of depression since my late teens and I embrace the opportunity to learn new ways to manage my depression and new behaviors to interrupt my descent into that pattern. This book has allowed […]
the aliens are invading silently. . .should I care?
The Silent Invasion – spores from space, plants, animals, humans all becoming part of a vast alien intelligence, 2 girls fleeing to the zone – this all sounded like fun, wrapped up in a neat little bundle, packaged in a YA wrapper. I hadn’t read any science fiction recently and I thought this could be a nice little foray into the genre which could lead to more. . . . or it could put me off forever. James Bradley has produced a post apocalyptic tale […]