Her Body & Other Parties

Read 24/03/2018-30/03/2018

Rating: 4 stars

Read for The Reader’s Room March Madness Reading Challenge.

Carmen Maria Machado’s writing style reminds me of Ben Marcus. It’s tangential to reality, unsettling in the way it seems familiar but is slightly off, and it mixes the everyday with the fairytale to create a new kind of horror.

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Six Degrees of Separation – from The Beauty Myth to Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

 

Heck! It’s almost time for April’s Six Degrees and I haven’t done March’s yet. (It doesn’t matter, Jan. Get your completer-finisher anxiety under control.)

Home Fire

Read 22/03/2018-24/03/2018

Rating: 3 stars

When this came out and I read reviews of it, I wasn’t particularly grabbed by what was said. It’s one of the books on this year’s March Madness Reading Challenge over at The Reader’s Room and, because of its ranking in the pool, it’s one of the books I chose to make the final, so I thought I should read it. It’s also on the longlist for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction.

I don’t know what to say about it. It was slow to start, but then kept me gripped as the story unfurled, like one of the main characters removing her hijab.

Negroland: A Memoir

Read 14/03/2018-21/03/2018

Rating: 5 stars

I can’t remember where I found out about Margo Jefferson’s memoir Negroland. I thought I’d read a review on one of the book blogs I follow, but a search threw nothing up. Maybe I found it when I was searching for more to read about black experience in a white-dominated society. Maybe I saw it on someone’s Instagram. However it crossed my radar, I’m glad it did.

The House of the Seven Gables

Read 07/03/2018-14/03/2018

Rating: 3 stars

I bought The House of the Seven Gables for £1 from the book shop in the café at Mrs Gaskell’s House. Once upon a time, it had cost five shillings, and its purchaser had given it to a friend. There’s an inscription inside the front cover. The recipient is nameless, the donor signs themself M.L. and it’s clear that the book meant a lot to them.

The Lonely City: Adventures in the art of being alone

Read 28/02/2018-07/03/2018

Rating: 5 stars

The Lonely City by Olivia Laing is more than I expected it to be. I thought I would read some personal reflections on navigating a strange city on your own mixed with a bit of art criticism. Instead, between the pages of this wonderful book, I found understanding, thoughtfulness, sorrow and love.