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
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
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
Who doesn’t love plants? I mean really. They keep us alive – literally. Whether they are purifying our air, bringing colour and light into our homes, nourishing our bodies, or providing shelter and food for birds and bees, they are without a doubt, amazing. I wanted to bring together a list of some of my … Continue reading
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
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
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
Instead of trying to look after the old, the poor, and the young – we are arguing over elf ears. Continue reading
Carvan’s book is about motherhood and the changes it brings with it. It is (despite what the title suggests) also a little about her love of Benedict Cumberbatch. And it is about losing yourself and then finding a way back to yourself by exploring and embracing the things that bring you joy. Continue reading
Shafak’s novel has a simple premise, love. And it might seem like a cliche, but it just works for this beautiful story. Defne, a Turkish woman, and Kostas, a Greek man, fall in love at the peak of the conflict in Cyrpus in 1974. Their love is helped along by a beautiful mixed Turkish and Greek couple Yusuf and Yiorgos and a little tavern called “The Happy Fig”. Continue reading
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