Posts

Book 68 - I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin

Image
Reading date - February 2021 I have always loved James Baldwin.  I like people who are unapologetically themselves as this is how I am.  I love how James Baldwin writes, how he deals with the issues that a black man came across in the time he was alive.  Giovanni's Room is the only book of his that I could not get along with but I love everything else he has done.  I saw the feature film to this and it was so well done. The book is a very quick read and I loved it.

Book 67 - Real Life by Brandon Taylor

Image
Reading date - February 2021 I took a bit of a break after my last book, by break I mean a few days.  I just got bored with reading, reading, reading all the time so I broke my time up by watching TV and taking massive baths..on one occasion I nearly drowned because I fell asleep.  I have also been catching up on more vintage Crimewatch but it's heading towards the 2000s now and I remember most of them.  I am also trying to limit my screentime because my eyes are feeling a bit goggly so I'm back in podcast land. This book was another severe disappointment.  This is the second book that has been shortlisted for an award which has disappointed me so badly so from now on, I am going back to my old ways of choosing books and that is choosing whatever grabs my attention and not what everyone else is saying is amazing.  This is about the fourth time I have been burnt this year and it's only bloody Feb.  A part of me thought maybe I didn't like it because I'm feel...

Book 66 - Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Image
Reading date - February 2021 I am on bookswap which is a fantastic website where you can get rid of your old books. For every book you get rid of, you get one point which goes towards a book.  One point - one free book, you just pay for postage.  I have got rid of a lot of my books this way and I have obtained a fair few books from this site.  You basically add books to your wishlist and once it's available, you get an email.  You have to be super fast for certain book as some go within seconds.  This is one of them.  I have been sniping at a few of these books and have managed to get some highly sought after ones. This book wasn't on my radar at all until I saw it on there as the most requested book.  Once I read the blurb and saw what it was about, I thought I'd try and get it..and I did.  It cost me less than 4 quid. The themes running through this story are very en vogue and modern which I really liked, it bases around white savourism and livi...

Book 65 - Black Sunday by Tola Rotimi Abraham

Image
Reading date - February 2021 This is another book which was suggested on the Sky Arts Book Club and I thought it would be a good read.   I really enjoyed this book for many reasons.  Firstly, it was about something I had no experience of. Secondly, I liked how the book was written.  It made me laugh and I really liked the writing style. It is, at the heart, a story of a family that falls apart.  The story mainly follows four siblings through their lives as teenagers to young adults.  Each chapter is from the view of one of the children (two boys and two girls). I can't say much about it without spoilers coming out but I really liked this book because it showed ethnic people as having the same issues and problems that non-ethnic people have.  I like books like this because they show people as they are, I am sick of reading books where ethnic people are shown as being docile and with no lives and issues of their own..or showing them simply as being suppo...

Book 64 - My Dark Vanessa by Katie Elizabeth Russell

Image
Reading date  - February 2021 Before I start this review, I have a few things I just need to say. 1)I've started having Minor Figures Oat M*lk in my coffee and it's really a gamechanger.  I've had it loads of times in the coffees I pay for outside the house but I thought they did some kinda trickery to not make it split but it's not trickery cos I'm having a coffee right now and the milk is super smooth.   2)Further to point one, I really need to get another milk frother.  My old one was from Tiger and it gave up the ghost, I replaced batteries and nothing happened.  I do have the Nespresso one but it's such a faff to get it out, plug it in and use it cos it's not involved in the machine.  I like a streamlined look in my house so keeping it out on the surfaces isn't an option. 3)I wanted to read this book for a while without having any idea what it was about.  Then I found out it was about a teacher who groomed his student.  Having been a gir...

Book 63 - The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Image
Reading date - February 2021 You know sometimes you hear something being hyped up by everyone and think that everyone cannot be wrong and that it must be something great?  And then you think, I like this person, I've seen them on the tv so it must be as great as everyone is saying it is? This is how I felt about this book.  Everyone has been raving about it and everyone loves Richard Osman cos he's all tall and intelligent and funny. Well, let me tell you what a disappointment this book was.  I feel like he has dumbed it right down so it gets onto a daytime tv show list.  He has gone for the lowest common denominator and come up with a shitey holiday read which would fit perfectly on Richard and Judy's booklist.  I thought this would be a delight to read but it most definitely was not.  I know I sound like a literary snob when I say this and I don't care because I don't like it when books dumb things down and don't think the reader can read and understand s...

Book 62 - Killer Children by Danielle Tyning

Image
Reading date - February 2021 A very quick read.  This is my favourite type of book about killers, no fluff and straight to the point.  It covered some killer children who I had never heard of before and I feel the amount of information portrayed was perfect.  It was done in a very easy to read way and I managed to finish it during one lunchbreak. Bosh.