Book Reviews.
How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie
I just Googled the title of Bella Mackie’s novel and am now fairly certain I’m on some sort of criminal watch list. Not to worry – I’ve learnt enough from the psychopathic but worryingly relatable main character Grace Bernard to worm my way out of any legal trouble. Tip number one seems fairly obvious: don’t write down a detailed account of your misdeeds. But then, we wouldn’t have this romp of a cynical comedy to entertain us…
Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia
Of Women and Salt tells the tale of the lives of five generations of Cuban women, jumping from present-day Miami to 19th century cigar factories in Cuba, as well as the story of a mother and daughter who have to deal with ICE detention centres. The lives of all these women are interconnected, and through their relationships and circumstances, the author discusses issues of immigration, motherhood, mother-daughter relationships, sexual violence, substance abuse and more…
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
I have mixed feelings about this novel, but I closed the book with an ache. With a sense that no matter what decisions or paths the characters took, hearts would be broken, lives changed, and relationships forever altered. There’s no easy path, no right way. This book embodied the messiness that is life. I’m also very aware that this book was not written for me and that the characters and the intended audience speak a language that I am not fluent in so it’s likely that what I didn’t love about the book comes from a lack of understanding from not having lived and experienced life in that way…
When the Apricots Bloom by Gina Wilkinson
A story about friendship, loyalty, family, and freedom set in Baghdad. The characters felt alive and real. Despite the differences in my own background and upbringing, the author brought these characters to life. I found myself transported to another world. The busy and chaotic markets, the smells of the food and spiced air, the call to prayer. I enjoyed the descriptive scene setting.
The three characters have so much depth. The stories of Huda, Raina, and Ally intersect so beautifully. The hardworking woman, originally from the local village, who has lost her brothers and her closest friend and is forced to become an informant in order to protect her son. The struggling aristocrat who floats in upper circles and the art world while trying to pay the bills and keep her daughter safe…
Big Girl Small Town by Michelle Gallen
Warning: if you read this book you are almost certainly going to want, nay NEED to eat a bag of salty, vinegary chips! You have been warned!
Majella, an autistic woman from Northern Ireland lives with her alcoholic (and abusive) mother and works at the local fish and chips shop. Spanning the week after the murder of her grandmother, we read in minute detail Majella’s mundane and monotonous life. The writing is broken up with timestamps and items from Majella’s list of things she likes and the much longer list of things she doesn’t…
All About Us by Tom Ellen
On this very snowy day it’s only right we talk about our first book of the year.
All About Us is a cosy Christmas treat perfect for the festive season. We wanted something a little easier than our usual books, something that would see us through a very unusual Christmas but still gave us something to talk about and this certainly did that…
Writers and Lovers by Lily King
Casey is first and foremost a writer but in the wake of her mother’s death and the end of a tumultuous relationship she feels lost and untethered. Unsure of herself, her life and her career, she meets two very different men who offer her very different paths.
Oscar is a successful author who lost his wife and is now raising their two young boys. Then there is Silas, who is also a writer but struggling with his career like Casey. He is kind, intelligent and handsome but battling his own demons. Caught between two men, Casey slowly starts to how she is living her live and the choices that brought her to where she is. Slowly she begins to take ownership of her life…
F*ck Being Humble by Stefanie Sword-Williams
A corker of a book for anyone looking to be their own cheerleader both professionally and personally. We are talking SELF PROMOTION PEOPLE! No longer sitting in the shadows hoping our bosses will recognise the extra mile(s) we go and the long hours we stay. Now is the time to champion ourselves, speak up in meetings and get the recognition we deserve…
The Memory Police by Yōko Ozawa
On the island things disappear. It can be anything, hats, birds, perfume, photographs, even limbs.. When the Memory Police have decided something is to be disappeared, it no longer has any meaning and must be disappeared by any means necessary until it is completely erased from living memory. However, there are people on the island who don't forget. When a young novelist discovers that her editor is in danger of being taken away by the Memory Police, she desperately wants to save him…
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
A mixed bag of responses from Brunch Book Club; a number of us struggled to get into and it wasn’t until around Part 2 that we really got stuck in. As ever, it sparked a beautiful discussion with great topics and thoughts debated. So for that it gets a thumbs up!
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her — but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known. (From Goodreads)…
Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez
Rainbow Milk is a tender, explicit, and beautiful intersectional story about race, sexuality, and religion.
It begins in the 1950s with Norman Alonso, a wonderful man from Jamaica. Wanting to seek out a better life, he and his wife travel to the UK. They arrive in the motherland with many other Caribbean people – now known as the Windrush generation – and settle in the Black Country in the Midlands. However, their arrival is met with racism, ostracisation, and illness…
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
This is a masterclass in writing; Brit Bennett is a marvel!
The Vignes twins, Stella and Desiree, are born in the fictional town of Mallard, Louisiana, an exclusive place established by their ancestor for light-skinned black people. Identical in every physical way but with very different personalities, the girls are inseparable growing up. However, longing to escape the restraints of living in a small town like Mallard the girls runaway to New Orleans. It is there that their paths begin to diverge. Ten years later, the twins' lives couldn't be more different: one has returned to Mallard with her young black daughter having escaped an abusive relationship, while the other is in LA, in a white neighbourhood, married to a wealthy white man and living as a white woman…
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Fifteen-year-old Vanessa is a talented writer with a love of literature. She is a deep thinker and has always felt painfully different from everyone else. Feeling alone and isolated from her classmates, she immediately takes to her English teacher, 42-year-old Jacob Strane. Like a diary entry, Vanessa describes in intricate detail every way she is attracted to him, weaving the tale of her first love. Slowly, he begins to indulge her teenage fantasies. It begins small — a touch of the knee, long hours spent in the classroom alone together — but evolves into something much bigger and more sinister…
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
We all know that we live in patriarchal societies, but to what degree is the world built for men? This is a question Caroline Criado Perez answers in Invisible Women and let’s just say that the answer should make us all angry.
Data is used in the modern world to dictate decisions related to every aspect of our lives – education, healthcare, infrastructure and so on and because so much data fails to account for gender, much of our systems are biased towards men. Gender biases cost women money, time, and often their lives…
Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
Dare to Lead is the seventh book written by researcher Brené Brown. This time, we are invited to take a deeper look into the world of leadership.
Firstly, Brené is an amazing storyteller who knows how to present the topic in an interesting way. It is clear she doesn’t shy away from her own mistakes as she uses them to help the reader understand what it means to lead a team of people and how can it be done better. The reader will find a bunch of useful tips on how to deal with miscommunication, negative feedback, and overall frustration in the workplace…
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
When Zachery stumbles upon a book detailing his own life, right down to the very moment he is reading that very book, little does he know that it is his first step into a world of hidden histories, secret clubs and an ancient library hidden beneath the Earth that must be protected at all costs.
To review this book fairly and do the initial idea justice, I will have to separate it into two parts: the first three quarters and then the final quarter…
Circe by Madeline Miller
Circe is the divine daughter of the titan Helios and naiad Perse. Deemed unattractive and powerless from birth, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology.
But there is danger for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love…
The Red Word by Sarah Henstra
Karen is an Ivy League university student. Her boyfriend is part of the notorious GBC (Gang Bang Central – I’m not kidding ) fraternity, she regularly attends parties at the infamously raucous and dangerous frat house. Witnessing fellow female partygoers disappear into the basement and bedrooms she is acutely aware of the threat that beats throughout the house. Feeling somewhat protected from this danger by the status of ‘girlfriend’ to one of their members, Karen turns a blind eye to the known rapists preying on drunk women…
The Cactus by Sarah Haywood
Susan Green is the cactus, she’s prickly, obtuse, and entirely herself whether you like it or not. If you don’t understand her or her ways… well that’s simply your problem. She has crafted the perfect life for herself, “perfect” being entirely defined by her of course. Her life is turned irrevocably upside down when she is told her mother has died and she’s pregnant. Faced with her mother’s will that favours her seemingly incapable brother, she embarks on a mission to prove that her brother schemed his way as beneficiary but as her due date draws ever closer, she discovers life is much more complicated than she ever thought and to get through it she might just have to shed some of her spikes.
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo came out to what seemed like universal praise and as such, it was hard to get into the book with the right level of expectation. It was also marketed as the book on female sexuality, which is perhaps why it felt like such a disappointment. In reality, the book follows three women and their sex lives. And that’s it. There’s nothing wrong with that being the focus of the story, but if you come in expecting more, you will feel frustrated.