"Shakespeare is a good reason to stop writing about kings because his brilliance makes them seem silly. And when they don't seem silly, it's just beca"Shakespeare is a good reason to stop writing about kings because his brilliance makes them seem silly. And when they don't seem silly, it's just because he'a put words in their mouth that they could never have thought of themselves."
This covers the kings and queens of England from King Arthur to William Shakespeare, a literary characrer to a literary genius. It is an irreverent brief history of the kings and queens of England. It ends with Elizabeth I.
I don't think I was the correct audience for this book. I've probably spent a little too much listening to podcasts recounting the War of the Roses and making my own homemade royal family tree to want only a cursory overview. I also really, really like social history, so the breezy pace leaves out most of the personal details I find compelling in history and the humour didn't jive super well with me. Sometimes it did, like medieval peasants trying to keep warm by the heat of burning heretics made me laugh – twice. But he mentioned covid a lot. Which I know must have been contemporaneous when writing it but must have felt a little too late in 2023 and feels super late, only a year after publication. It has the feel of watching a monologue for an election that happened six months ago. We remember that these things happened and were very funny or very enraging at the time but they also don't feel remotely relevant anymore.
I liked the first book I loved this one! Emily and Wendell are such loveable characters, the footnotes and magic is perfect. I just felt full of whimsI liked the first book I loved this one! Emily and Wendell are such loveable characters, the footnotes and magic is perfect. I just felt full of whimsy and happiness the entire time....more
I know this isn't a fair complaint but this is not my Knightley, what have they done to you, GEORGE???
Spoilers galore:
They decided to make a completeI know this isn't a fair complaint but this is not my Knightley, what have they done to you, GEORGE???
Spoilers galore:
They decided to make a complete overhaul of his personality into a no strings businessman that Emma has watched bring women to his house over the years. And rather than having a heartfelt, tender scene where they admit their love, they have sex and then Emma worries for days about how he might only want to hook up with her???? What. How do you read Emma and adapt Knightley like that? I don't understand. And their arguments rather than good natured kindness and accountability in friendship are rude and needs to learn to be nice? Like they told me they were attracted to each other but there was little scenes where I felt the chemistry and looooong friendship.
Emma is one of my favourite books of all time and I love Mr Knightley, particularly for the way he is kind, sees the best in people and calls her out when she needs it. Rather than patronizing, it shows that he respects her. Doesn't view her as indulgent child but wants her to grow, develop. And I really love that in a relationship, I think Lizzie does this for Darcy, Marianne and Elinor do this for one another. Healthy relationship include calling each other out in love.
I thought many of the changes were interesting, I can tell that Clueless was also a big former of the character/world of a modern Emma. I think some worked better than others, many characters slotting into various other people's roles. I think Miss Bates's modern interpretation was the best.
I don't know about Harriet's because her change kinda makes Emma not learn lessons. Essentially the only lesson learned was to be kind to Miss Bates. Nothing else she did was out of line. So we kinda gave that role to Knightley but his character progression also was weird. It created this element that made their romance less appealing and didn't fully resolve it.
The characters of Frank Churchill (Montgomery Knox) and Mr Elliot (Zayne) were just sooo shallow. They had barely any air time and their motives were so paper thin and they were gross. Both became almost satires of themselves, and Zayne tried to force himself on Emma (fair interpretion) but Montgomery kinda tried to corner her too, he from the first time alone tried to have sex, then again the next time he saw her. It was just creepy and predatory, and as someone who likes Frank (he's flawed but has a good heart) it was not fun to have him be such a one dimensional misogynist jerk.
I know I'm talking about the adaptaional parts of it but I also just don't think I'd like it of it was completely divorced from Jane Austen.
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I think the authors are lovely and I love that they are friends that worked on this together and that is so sweet. I just have feelings....more
Abby Jimenez's commitment to writing disability rep as well as family dynamics and mental health fills me with so much joy. This story follows VanessaAbby Jimenez's commitment to writing disability rep as well as family dynamics and mental health fills me with so much joy. This story follows Vanessa and Adrian, Vanessa is the guardian of her newborn niece and is facing a terminal illness. ALS has killed her mother, aunt and sister all before the age of thirty, at twenty-eight she's feeling her arm already lose function. Three years ago when her older sister died, she became a travel vlogger and now she is stationary for the first time. She meets her neighbour at 4 am when he knocks on the door to ask her if he can help with the screaming baby. Their friendship begins there and Abby Jimenez is very gifted at writing actual friendships, there's flirtness at times but they are friends and I love that.
Romcoms always include people being much more brave than they are in real life, being like, hey I'm gonna call you or follow up or help with your baby, the thoughts that cross your mind but never do. But after that 'unreality' of it, it really just follows people living life.
This is my fourth of her books after her Part of Your World series and I was afraid going into her back catalogue but I was not disappointed. Also her books always include dogs and normally kids and that makes my heart happy. And for people who like low spice like me, they tend to have one short scene that is easily skipable. I love it!...more
I really, really apperciated Jimenez's depiction of trauma and how it affects relationships. I saw myself so much in Emma. A rare feat. Our childhoodsI really, really apperciated Jimenez's depiction of trauma and how it affects relationships. I saw myself so much in Emma. A rare feat. Our childhoods may have been very different but her depiction of 'smallness' and avoidance in traumatic situations mixed with an unbridled belief in people is something that is rarely seen. You either have the clueless happy one or the traumatized shout out one and it's not that Emma isn't shut down in some ways but it doesn't make her cranky or withdrawn from empathy.
Jimemez is dedicated to showing mental health and complicated family dynamics and she shows it again. I really apperciated that Emma and Justin never lie to each other and in tgis case their breakup was fully reasonable, discussed and had no miscommunication about it. This might be the only romance book where the leads are never out of the loop on how their love interest is feeling. Their trauma may get in the way but the other is aware of what is keeping them apart.
I also apperciated that this had barely any spice, there's only one scene with any detail and it's still rather vague/short. As someone who loves closed door romance this is pretty much there.
I also really loved the family aapect. I loved the siblings and that was a beautiful aspect of the romance....more
This is the second novel I have read translated by Ann Goldstein and I can say whether it is the original Italian or her translation, I love the sharpThis is the second novel I have read translated by Ann Goldstein and I can say whether it is the original Italian or her translation, I love the sharp, poetic way of writing.
I began thinking this might be a favourite of the year but as time went on I began to wander. I had a harder time being drawn in and staying invested in our main character. Which might be because she herself loses herself. But also though not supposed to be a model character the acts of neglect and abuse at times done to her children really disturbed me.
This is a classic unhinged woman narrative, her husband leaves her and she falls into obession and grief, her feelings overwhelm and unmoor her. Reality and unreality meld. I read this beside Claire Kilroy's Soldier Sailor that looks at a similar break within the context of early motherhood. I finished Soldier Sailor yet so I can't comment on the finish but I just felt it was hard to follow Olga back to life after such a time her life.
There is so many themes from the disposal of women as they age, the pressure of motherhood, the grief of divorce and how we, willing or unwillingly, share traits of those around us. How do we exist? How can we decide? What do we do when we fall into the tropes we thought we never would.
I am so torn. It is a brilliant book but it left me unsatisfied in places....more
What gripped me the most was how short the 20th century was, it is an intergenerational story but we don't leave the old generations behind. We begin What gripped me the most was how short the 20th century was, it is an intergenerational story but we don't leave the old generations behind. We begin in 1898 with Pirbhai, a thirteen year old Indian boy abducted and brought to Uganda to work as an indentured servant. After breaking free of his captivity by setting his camp on fire, he wanders until he finds a family of Indian immigrants running a shop, their eldest daughter Sonal teaches him to read and they fall in love. We see their life throughout the years.
We see them arrange a marriage in 1948 between their son Vinod and a young Pakistani woman: Rajni (who is devastated to leave her family, but with petition loomimg, Uganda is safer than India). We will follow all four of them for some time, before slowly Pirbhai and Sonal pass, and we see Vinod and Rajni as the parents and the stories of their daughters: Latika, Mayuri, and Kiya.
Eventually, we will seem the family forced out of Uganda, the explusion of all Asians. We will see them re-make a life in Canada.The hurt, the grief, the starting over.
Vinod and Rajni are elderly but alive when we end the story and though this can be seen as a small spoiler I think it can be important to know that the reader will have that consistency. It isn't a story jostling, confusingly and rapidly going through generation after generation.
We see how a boy born in the early 20th century, can have a father abducted as an indentured servant in 1898 and live to see his grandson involved in the 1992 Rodney King Protests. It is the common refrain of those who don't want to reckon with racism to say that all of this happened long ago. But this story shows how much happens in one lifetime. How many times one has to start again to survive.
Also the events wracked tears from me but there isn't any prolonged graphic detail of horrific events (there is a brief scene of a soldier groping a woman (about halfway through), and a husband pressuring his wife to consummate their marriage (near the end of the book).
I wept. Such a beautiful, intimate, messy retelling of the March sisters set in 1980s Chicago. The Padavano sisters are as close as bones weaved togetI wept. Such a beautiful, intimate, messy retelling of the March sisters set in 1980s Chicago. The Padavano sisters are as close as bones weaved together, with their strong willed mother and their poetry quoting often drunk father, they make up a chaotic household that argues over which one of them is Jo March and says they are Beth when they are sick or devastated.
William Waters grew up with parents who not only didn't love him, but didn't look at him. He grows up making himself smaller and properer while dribbling on the court. His life collides with Julia Padavano is freshman year of college and she scopes him out by introducing him to her three younger sisters.
This book is full of friendship and art, looking at stars and considering the world, small acts of kindness and community and the distance that comes between those who were once inseperable. It also kindly and with compassion looks at mental health.
I say a retelling of the March sisters and not of Little Women because it doesn't follow the story arc of the novel but it does embody the dynamics, love and adventure of the sisters. If you watched the 2019 movie and thought I want more sisters talking over each other, cuddling and having deep longings and desires that don't always allign with the others' view of how their lives should be than this is your book.
This is my second of Napolitano's books and the second that stole my heart both with misery and joy. She has a real gift of capturing full embodied characters and their mental health, grief and connections. Both ptotagionists also use their suffering to better understand those around them and this one with the basketball teams just flanking William as he went through big moments, sitting with him and showing up. I just loved how people showed up for people in this novel....more
This filled me with such joy. I love books that celebrate beauty and hope as changers for those around. There is definitely elements of racism and ablThis filled me with such joy. I love books that celebrate beauty and hope as changers for those around. There is definitely elements of racism and ableism that I can't get with but over all, it is a book that says community, adventure and having someone to hear your aches and wounds will be healing.
"Who gives you the men? We women. We bear and rear and agonize. Well, if we are fit for that, we are fit to have a voice in the fate of the men we bea"Who gives you the men? We women. We bear and rear and agonize. Well, if we are fit for that, we are fit to have a voice in the fate of the men we bear. If we can bring forth the men for the nation, we can sit with you in your councils and shape the destiny of the nation, and say whether it is to war or peace we give the sons we bear."
A dark brilliant feminist play about a household of women 'in a war torn country' published in the beginning of World War I. It follows Amelia, a young woman dreaming of being a nurse, pressured to marry for the sake of her country and her sister-in-law Hedwig who outspokenly speaks against the emperor and war, saying she will not bear her son only for war to continue. ...more
I read this for this for the Women's Prize. I am a big fan of sci fi but not a big fan of space operas/aliens. Since it isn't a book I would naturallyI read this for this for the Women's Prize. I am a big fan of sci fi but not a big fan of space operas/aliens. Since it isn't a book I would naturally pick up, I'll leave it unrated....more
Sonia is thirty eight, she grew up in Britain with a once 'radical' Palestinian father and a Dutch-Palestinian mother. She spent every summer of her ySonia is thirty eight, she grew up in Britain with a once 'radical' Palestinian father and a Dutch-Palestinian mother. She spent every summer of her young life in Palestine but has not returned in decades. It is a story of homeland, family, acting and art, resistance, memory and of the private wounds we hold within.
I think it was an absolutely brilliant book that made me think about politics, family and of art and it's relationship with resistance. I loved how they adapted and changed Shakespeare and retold. All of that is incredible!...more
Medie is a masterful storyteller, she first sets up the story of Akorfa before subverting it with Selasi. She shows two childhoods side by side but woMedie is a masterful storyteller, she first sets up the story of Akorfa before subverting it with Selasi. She shows two childhoods side by side but worlds apart. The interpretation of memory, generational trauma and the price of 'reptutation' and silence.
I have seen the way she has carefully done this with Afi in His Only Wife and I am impressed by how she continues this in her sophomore novel. I cannot wait for all the stories she will tell in the future.
CW: sexual assualt of minors (concise but on page), sexual harassment, sexism, abandonment, racism, physical abuse, verbal abuse, sexualization and shaming of young girls, corrupt government, abortion, death of a parent
Medie does a good job of discussing these topics without it ever being graphic....more
Alicia Elliott draws many threads together to tell a story of motherhood, family, colonialism and postpartum depression/psychosis that is cutting and Alicia Elliott draws many threads together to tell a story of motherhood, family, colonialism and postpartum depression/psychosis that is cutting and tender at the same time....more
I really loved this retelling of Lydia Bennet's story. It reminded me a lot of Jane Hadlow's The Other Bennet Sister which similarly takes the story oI really loved this retelling of Lydia Bennet's story. It reminded me a lot of Jane Hadlow's The Other Bennet Sister which similarly takes the story of Mary and sheds light on her story before, during and after the plot of Pride and Prejudice. That one is strictly historical and this one is magical, but the magicalness of this does not take away from the groundedness of the story. The big difference is that some people can have advantages or control by the use of magic but that magic always comes at a price.
Taub effortlessly retells Pride and Prejudice with humour, social criticism, and so much heart. I loved the exchange of Kitty for a familar or Mrs Phillips being a hedge witch. With all the magic included it never breaks the realism of these characters and I felt so much for these nuanced, well drawn characters....more
This was incredible! I loved the way that Mc Ivor handled a litany of issues with complexity.
Bianca Bridge is at rock bottom, after her affair with aThis was incredible! I loved the way that Mc Ivor handled a litany of issues with complexity.
Bianca Bridge is at rock bottom, after her affair with a prominent politician is revealed she is left modelling with sleazy photographers. Her mother died at fourteen, her father is distant and remarried and she had no friends. She meets a prominent cocky make up artist who insults her and offers her a job in one fell swoop.
So begins her journey, it tackles the ways affairs affect a woman and man differently, the ways rich and powerful men can isolate and manipulate women, the affect of our words. Class, race, gender and corruption. I love how she focused on isolation/ lonliness is a huge factor in abuse and manipulation.
It is a slight take on Pride and Prejudice, with characters that come from different worlds, with different secrets and masques and the way we must change, grow and find our voice.
Mc Ivor's is authorial voice is intoxicating, it sweeps you in and I did not want to leave.
Heavy trigger warnings for disordered eating, food preoccupation and body shaming. Also for those like me that love a closed door approach to sex, there is virtually zero sexual content despite tackling slutshaming and sleaziness. There are references to the affair and them having sex but these scenes are included to demostrate the nature of their relationship and are not explicit or lingered on.
I loved that Mc Ivor had an 'about the book' section where she talked about her various drafts and the development and feedback she received. I have a lot of affection for the Bianca and Obadiah that she slowly developed and changed and that she wasn't afraid to make them human and messy alomg the way. She said so many amazing things on writing and how we learn as we write, both of ourselves and those around but also of how we want yo go forward.
Okay, I love a slow burn but dang, I wanted them to kiss. I know the hint was there and we can see the direction of the relationship but I wanted them to kiss....more
This was an incredibly thought provoking and interesting novel on memory and the glotification of the past. One of my favourite sections was that of tThis was an incredibly thought provoking and interesting novel on memory and the glotification of the past. One of my favourite sections was that of two old gentlemen, one a dissenter, one a government spy, when the dissenter's memory begins to fail he relies on the spy to fill in his memory gaps. The two forming a friendship after years of quiet surveillance.
This is chalk full of conversation of fiction, writing and history of the 20th century Europe.
Kier Scrivener
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