On the surface, this all seems good and well. Although, I want to take a closer look at the relationship Esme has with her servant, Lizzie. Esme is motherless, and Lizzie acts in many ways like an older sister and motherly figure all in one. This plot device of women who have lost their mothers and their fathers aren’t great at raising them is a bit tiring and overused for me. Although, I might just read too many books… Continue reading
Tag Archives: book reviews
A Review of “The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois”: Race, gender, and the pecan tree that watches it all
Nations are fiction. The U.S. is fiction. Australia, my home country, is fiction. The stories that are celebrated and told about these nations do not speak to the true history of these lands. They begin at an arbitrary point, picked by and for white supremacy. They are stories told over and over again, like water over stone. They are stories about collective groups that change and form over time. But they are just that – stories. Continue reading
A Review of Peg Conway’s Memoir “The Art of Reassembly”: grief will always linger
Note: This audiobook was provided by Books Forward for review purposes. Thank you to the team at Books Forward and the author for sharing their stories with me. This review is my own opinion, and while I was gifted the book to review, I was not paid for anything that I have written here. The … Continue reading
A Review of Anna North’s “Outlawed”: “The Handmaid’s Tale” Meets the Wild Wild West
I was drawn to the cover of this book. I know what they say, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but here we are. Outlawed by Anna North is a dystopian gunslinging wild west meets Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. It was a really fun genre mash-up, and I loved reading it. Outlawed … Continue reading
Climate Change Fiction (Cli-Fi): A review of Clare Moleta’s “Unsheltered”
I recently figured out I have been reading books of a very specific genre – dystopian novels and climate disaster novels which one could argue are a subgenre of dystopias. I didn’t recognise that I was in this pattern until I looked over my recently read books on Goodreads. I find it strange that I … Continue reading
What You Need to Make Your First Knitted Jumper with the Knitting Book “Knithow”
he pandemic has changed a lot of things for many people around the world. People are making sourdough, running, reading, and other at-home hobbies like knitting and crochet. Before I started knitting two years ago, the idea of making a jumper (or sweater for my North American readers) felt out of my reach. I honestly didn’t think that I would ever be able to do it. But here we are, two-ish years after I started knitting. I made a jumper. Continue reading
A Review of Sally Vickers’ “The Gardener”: A novel about siblings, small country towns, and the power of gardening
After many twists and turns, two adult sisters, Margot and Halcyon also known as Hassie, find themselves living together in a rundown Jacobian house in Hope Wenlock – a small village in the Welsh marshes. The two sisters seem to be completely different. And their relationship is civil but also very cold at the beginning of the novel. The sisters, almost unbeknownst to themselves, want to reconnect. They just don’t know how to do it. Continue reading
A Review of Donal Ryan’s “Strange Flowers”: race and sexuality in 1970s Ireland
This novel is about all the things that families don’t say to each other. It explores the things that are left unsaid, and how that can shape ideas of identity, family, love, and home. Continue reading
A Review of “Every Day is Gertie Day” by Helen Meany
Instead of trying to look after the old, the poor, and the young – we are arguing over elf ears. Continue reading
How To Get Out of a Reading Slump
Today, I wanted to hit pause on my usual book reviews and bookish articles and have a chat about what it is like to be in a reading slump when you have a book blog. As you can imagine, it can be pretty frustrating to be in a reading slump when you have a book … Continue reading
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