Hello!
I am here with my September 2017 Wrap Up! These are the book I read in the second half of September. Since #TheReadingChallenge took place in the first half of the month and I’ve already wrapped up those books.
I read a total of 6 books which I am really happy about. I read 1 Picture Storybook, 1 Anthology, 1 YA, 1 Historical Fiction and 2 Fantasy.
Onto the ratings!
Author: Melissa Lozada-Olivia
Publisher: Button Poetry
Published: 26 September 2017
Rating: 3.5 stars
“…maybe: the Cloud is historical memory
the reason i wince when some people touch me
or: the reason i need to be touched…”
I will start by saying that I was given an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. These opinions are my own.
I really enjoyed this collection. I adore getting a look into backgrounds different to my own. I don’t have much knowledge about that Latina culture so a lot of the Spanish words and phrases went over my head. Despite this, the raw heart Lozada-Olivia pours into each poem still hits me in the chest, still resonates with me because, despite the cultural differences love, feminism, body hair and wanting to fit is universal for young women. Ultimately this collection is about what it’s like to be human.
This is a collection I will read over and over again. Highly recommend.
Author: Kristen Ciccarelli
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Published: 3 October 2017
Rating: 4 stars
‘Asha lured the dragon with a story.’
I will start by saying that I was given an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. These opinions are my own.
This book reaffirms my love of YA fantasy and my love of dragons. The world Ciccarelli has created is new and exciting. I adore the idea of telling stories to dragons and having the dragons tell you stories in return. I highly recommend!
Our protagonist, Asha is a dragon slayer and she wants to destroy them all. This is her amends for telling stories as a child and causing a dragon named, Kuzo, to burn down Firgaard. If she kills Kuzo and gives his head to her father she will fulfill her task and bring an end to the Old Ways. But more importantly, if she can kill Kuzo she won’t have to marry Jarek.
Sure we’ve seen the whole princess wants to terminate her arranged marriage. But it’s not often you see the princess than falls in love with a slave. I will point out that the slave, Torwin, was never her slave but her betrothed’s. I really enjoyed seeing their relationship unfold. It was a slow burn, which was believable. Asha is a girl who has been told her whole life of cautionary tales of what happens to people who fall in love with slaves and that they are not like her. She spends most of the narrative fighting against the romance. She struggles with these beliefs but in the end, Torwin proves to be loyal and treats her like no one else does.
At first, I wasn’t sure I was going to like Asha. We see that she is the best dragon slayer but the reason she is the best is that she breaks the law and tells old stories to lure them. She comes across as arrogant, entitled and more than a little dangerous—the perfect mix for an unlikable character. But, as the narrative unfolds, it’s as though she starts to trust the reader and shows us who she is beneath the dragon slayer exterior.
The dragons are not just sprinkled in there as standard fantasy elements. They are just as dangerous, threatening and intelligent as Asha. When they aren’t fighting for survival you see a side of them that’s curious and protective which reminds me of Toothless or Saphira.
I adore the way Ciccarelli weaves in the stories of this world. After a chapter, there might be a story told in fairy tale tradition. The story will be the one Asha tells within that previous section. This is an amazing idea. We get the story without it clogging up the pace of the action scenes.
While I adore the world and the dragons, I would say that it does feel like a debut and the plot feels predictable. However, since I was so captivated by the world, the predictable plot didn’t affect my enjoyment of reading this book.
Similarly, the secondary characters are only there to further Asha’s narrative arc. I don’t feel like I know them. Her brother, while mentioned multiple times he only appears when she’s in trouble. Her cousin, Safire, exists only as a hurdle to Asha’s task and to show her humanity. Everything that happens to Safire is done as a way to keep Asha in line. I would love to see these characters become more fleshed out in the rest of this series.
Overall this is a pretty fantastic start to a new series! I adore Asha and Torwin! The world is amazing—Arabian inspired, dragons, and storytelling. Who could ask for more? All I can say is that it’s going to be a long wait for the squeal!
Author: Roxane Gay
Publisher: Corsair
Published: 3 January 2017
Rating: 3 stars
“It was too much. She didn’t dare trust it. She broke his heart. When she closes her eyes, she remembers his fingers, tracing the bones of her spine.”
Difficult Women is Roxane Gay’s latest short story collection. The collection focuses on quirky women with hardscrabble lives who are hunting for passionate loves through vexed human connection. The women live lives of privilege and poverty, and are in marriages both loving and haunted by crimes or emotional blackmail.
This is a very dark collection; focusing on abuse victims, mother dealing with the death a her children, pressure to conform to society ideal body image and broken families. I can’t say this was a collection I enjoy reading, in the traditional sense of the meaning enjoy. Some of the stories like La Negra Blanca makes my skin crawl. It’s an important collection, which gives voice to haunting realities some women live.
I would suggest reading these stories with a break in between—maybe one a day—only because having read them one after another I found myself getting desensitised to these women’s horrible situations. The women started to read the same. They were sad women with horrible circumstances thrown at them and who were trying to find some sense of worth through sex. This is a very real reality and I applaud Gay for representing it. I just think in a collection like this there needed to be some variation. Thinking back on the collection the stories are all intermingled and I’m finding it hard to separate them.
The reason I gave this collection 3 stars is because it wasn’t the collection I thought it would be. And this fault lies with the marketing. My expectation was that this would be a feminist collection. When I hear the title was Difficult Women I was expecting women who were fighting against the mold society has for them. However, the Difficult Women in this collection weren’t difficult because they challenged gender roles but were, mostly, victims. Which, in my mind, doesn’t make them difficult at all.
Overall, this is a brave collection and not one for the faint of heart. Gay’s writing is beautiful and the way she plays with form and structure is genius. Would definitely recommend if you’re looking for a raw, realist collection that will play with your heart and leave it slightly dented.
Individual Ratings
Hello!
I am here with my — belated — August 2017 Wrap Up! These are the book I read in the first half of August. Since #TheReadingChallenge took place in the last half of the month and I will do a wrap up for that.
Author: Sherry D. Ficklin
Publisher: Crimson Tree Publishing
Published: 19 October 2017
Rating: 5 stars
‘When life makes you a criminal, only love can set you free.’
I will start by saying that I was given an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. These opinions are my own.
I didn’t read any of the novellas before reading Canary Club, but I don’t think you need to. Canary Club is set in the late 1920s New York and follows the lives of two characters, Benny and Masie in alternating POV chapters.
This book was everything I love about YA and Historical Fiction — life-like setting and swoon worthy romance. The 20s is one of my favourite eras to read about and Ficklin nailed it. I felt like I had been sucked into the era from the first page. She weaves in slang with ease; it never felt off-putting or unnatural for any of the characters. The romance was a slow burn, which I adored. I also enjoyed seeing their relationship unfold from both Benny and Masie’s POVs.
Benny and Masie have definitely become two of my favourite characters. I feel like I know them, that I could head down to a club and have dinner with them. In fact, all of the Canary Club gang feel real. Their speech, action and motivations are believable and a reality for this era.
Masie is a strong character throughout the book when see her fight for independence. She’s constantly rebelling against her father and society. She’s the daughter to one the city’s rising crime bosses. Her father keeps her and her brother, JD, under his control as he builds his empire. But Masie doesn’t want to live life on her father’s terms. She has dreams of Ivy League Colleges, faraway places and security. But can she find the strength to leave her family and do what she wants?
I adore Benny. We meet him as he’s let out of jail and on his way to his family, Mum and younger siblings. He is sweet and will do whatever it takes to keep his family fed and healthy. But he has a habit of always winding up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Quickly his luck lands him in the ranks of Dutch Shultz’s gang. This would’ve been a reality for many people at the time. You see the struggle they would’ve gone through. The only work they can find is running liquor to the speakeasies. It’s dangerous but it also pays better than anything else. Luck, drama, love and setbacks are thrown at Benny but never gives up.
I will be pre-ordering a physical copy. This is one of my favourite books of the year. Please grab a copy! Canary Club it’s stunning. It will suck you in, play with your heart and spit you out the other end. I highly recommend!
Author: Maxine Beneba Clarke
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Published: 9 August 2016
Rating: 5 stars
‘The margins between events have blended and shifted in the tell of it. There’s that folklore way West Indians have, of weaving a tale; facts just so, gasps and guffaws in all the right places — because, after all, what else is a story for?’
Maxine is hands down one of my favourite authors — I will seriously pick up anything this woman writes. The Hate Race is her third book and her first memoir. It was just as beautiful as her short story collection, Foreign Soil.
Clarke has a magical writing style. Being a poet, her prose has an innate rhythm and melody that grabs your hand and guides you through the narrative. Within the pages of this book, she shares what it’s like growing up in suburban Sydney as the only black family in their town. And just after Australia had dismantled The White Australia Policy—this was a policy that up until the early 70s barred people of non-European heritage from immigrating to Australia.
This book is heartbreaking. It highlights and showcases all the casual and everyday racism, which is embedded in our culture. From people contently question Clarke where she’s from, even though she was born in Australia, and then telling her where she’s from; to PE teacher assuming you’ll be good at track and field because of your skin colour; all mix with that desperate need to fit in at school. The most shocking element wasn’t the playground bullies but the teachers, kids parents and councillors who sat back, excused and at times defended horrible racist behaviour and taunts thrown at Clarke.
It made me angry, it made me cry, it made me laugh at times at all the 90s books, music, shows and toys I also grew up with. It scared me that this wasn’t all that long ago. But ultimately it’s made me hopeful. Having this book is an invaluable insight into an experience I am fortunate enough to never have. It’s through people voicing their experience that our culture can learn and think before making any vaguely offensive comment.
I highly recommend. This book is significant in the fight against racism and a move towards an accepting and inclusive future.
Author: Lucille Turner
Publisher: Hengist Press
Published: 19 November 2016
Rating: 2 stars
This is a review I have been putting off for a while. I’ve had too many thoughts about it and needed time to reflect on them. Ultimately I was disappointed in this book, which is a shame since I thought it would become a favourite of mine.
Just a warning this review may contain mild spoilers – even though it’s based on history I thought I’d mention that.
Turner has a beautiful writing style. It’s visceral and I certainly felt like I was sucked into the 15th century
Ottoman Empire. I can’t fault her writing style.
But…
There was too many point of view characters – from memory, I can recall 8. Because of the huge number of POVs, there were way too many storylines for a standalone. It’s like Turner is using these to try and capture the whole political and religious landscape of the 1400s Eastern Europe. I think there are ways to show this without having so many characters with their own story line. If these changes are important, they will be affecting Vlad. His own country is caught between the Christian church and the Islamic Ottomans.
Most of the book focuses on Vlad’s childhood as the Ottomans, in hopes of keeping his father loyal to the Sultan, take him. Which is awesome to see this backstory. But of a nearly 500-page book, less than 200 pages show Vlad ruling Wallachia or his rivalry with new Sultan Mehmet II. This wouldn’t have be an issue if this was the first in a series but as far as I know, it’s a standalone.
There isn’t much action for a book focused on warring countries. A large portion of the book is spent planning the fall of Constantinople, however, we don’t get the see the fall of the city but instead are given the prelude and aftermath.
Also, there is no impaling, which I could kind of get if this is an origin story. However, when the main character is known as Vlad the Impaler you’re expecting it. Even if this was an origin story, the number of POVs makes Vlad’s character get a little lost – we don’t really get to see the effect all the political planning and scheming has on him.
This isn’t a book I would recommend unless you are aware that it’s not focused on Prince Vlad Dracula of Wallachia and how he become Vlad the Impaler.
Author: Kerry Greenwood
Publisher: Mandarin (imprint of Reed Books Australia)
Published: 1995
Rating: 5 stars
“It was not a vision. I smelt sweat, grease, salt, men and burning. Always the burning reek of wood and flesh which soured my nostrils and seared my throat.”
Cassandra is based off the prophecy cursed character from the Greek Myth of The Trojan War. Along with Cassandra, we have a second protagonist Greek healer Diomenes. Both characters are pawns for two of the Gods – Apollo and Aphrodite – as they see whose power is stronger.
This is an incredible retelling. I’m in awe of the way Greenwood is able to balance the fantastic elements of the Gods with the historical setting and culture of the ancient world. All the characters feel very grounded in a real historical setting. And the Gods feel like accurate representation of what the Ancient Greeks believed them to be.
The story doesn’t stray too far from the major plot points in the myth. And even though these events are prescribed they don’t feel out of place in the context of the story and they still pack an emotional punch. While reading it at work I was on the verge of crying three times — if I was home I would have been a sobbing mess!
I enjoyed learning about the differences in the Greek and Trojan cultures — how they celebrated the Gods, which Gods they favoured, women’s roles and healing practices.
I highly, highly recommend for any one interested in myth retellings or who is a fan of books set in antiquity.
Author: Anjan Sundaram
Publisher: Bloomsbury Circus
Published: 2016
Rating: 4 stars
“But the written word belongs to no one. It has no source, no root that can be annihilated. It passes from hand to hand. It is destroyed; new words are written.”
What is the price of knowledge? Or free speech? In our Western world these are fundamental rights we take for granted. Bad News shows us just what that price is.
Sundaram gives us insight into a country still feeling the political and social unrest of the 1994 Rwandan genocide that shocked the world.
Sundaram is a journalist who is teaching a class of Rwandan reporters. This book is not one for the faint of heart. While not overtly gory, Sundaram is blunt is his recount of his time in Rwanda. He refuses to censor his own or his students experiences.
Bad News will tear you apart in all the right ways but leave you hopefully that change can happen.
wordsoftheroses.com 