Where I chronicle my attempts to get through hundreds of kindle books, my personal library, library books and my NetGalley requests
Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
Sometimes writers try so hard to do something different with their riffs on existing stories that they become achingly obvious and contrived. That was ultimately the feeling I was left with after reading this book.
Continue reading ““Girls Made of Snow and Glass” by Melissa Bashardoust”
Thanks to Canongate and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
What if you could change the past? Take all those nasty regrets and make a different choice? Nora, the main character of this novel is given that chance to remake some of her past decisions.
Thanks to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
It’s tough to review a book when essentially my review is “I liked it ok but it’s not nearly as good as the first book”.
Thanks to Penguin Press UK and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
Hmmm…how does one summarise a book such as this? I guess by saying it is VERY Italian. The book is an autobiographical account of the life of the Italian writer Sibilla Aleramo and follows the early part of her life and career at the beginning of the 20th century. Continue reading ““A Woman” by Sibilla Aleramo”
Thanks to Random House UK and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
Anyone who reads and researches a lot about Japan knows that there isn’t much tangible social history about those outwith the nobility. This book seeks to shine some light onto a life of an “ordinary” Japanese woman coming of age in the early 19th century. This was a time of huge political and social change in Japan and it was still largely closed off from the wider world and the social and cultural influences of the time. I say “ordinary” because Tsuneno was still rather privileged by the standards of the time, at the beginning of her life at least.
Continue reading ““Stranger in the Shogun’s City” by Amy Stanley”
Thanks to Yale University Press and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
I was so excited to read this but having just finished it, I’m left with a sense of extreme disappointment.
Continue reading ““A Little History of Poetry” by John Carey”
Thanks to Penguin Random House UK Children’s for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
When I requested this book, I thought it was for older teens but I think it’s probably aimed more at the younger teen/tween audience – think Jacqueline Wilson age group. The story follows Jo, a young British Chinese girl growing up in the 1980s. As an 80s kid myself, a lot of Jo’s experiences really clicked with me and there are some real laugh out loud moments, particularly in the first part of the book. The text is interspersed with Cheung’s illustrations which are quirky and fun and really enhance the narrative.
Thanks to W.W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
I do love a lost city…although as Newitz is quick to highlight, some of these cities are far from lost.
Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
. So Girl, Serpent, Thorn sounded rather interesting despite the fact I’ve gone off YA a bit recently or maybe I’ve become a bit more picky about what I want to read when I don’t have nearly as much time to read as I used to. What piqued my interest in this book was it was clear that it was set in a slightly different world to most of the young adult fantasy settings that are usually a riff on Western European countries. I haven’t come across many Persian inspired settings before, so I was looking forward to seeing a Persian inspired story by an own voices author.
Continue reading ““Girl, Serpent, Thorn” by Melissa Bashardoust”
Thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.
So, I actually read this book a number of months ago and I’ve started writing a review for it at various points since but I could never really get my head in the right place to talk about it properly. There is something so incredibly difficult about writing a review for a book that you absolutely love and this was one of those books for me.
Continue reading ““The Ten Thousand Doors of January” by Alex E. Harrow”
