tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84638556334659812202024-03-05T10:01:11.554+00:00Girl!ReporterA blog for reviews, comment pieces and the odd bit of criticism.Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.comBlogger566125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-51483402741108115362017-12-30T18:52:00.000+00:002017-12-30T18:52:15.226+00:00YA to watch for in 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf0KBoIhOk_leh5sDSEyBIo4Q-NKxwejwGr3s5Jj_m61C_Wft2RzwNyxk7HtTgdJpMJ_iDnrHfGoYYDIZG2bPniRsksk8dkgHluU80dcAagVJhgn7oTyyVlBqyUuoJKCn0QEUcd3zWuBU/s1600/2018+YA+800x500.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf0KBoIhOk_leh5sDSEyBIo4Q-NKxwejwGr3s5Jj_m61C_Wft2RzwNyxk7HtTgdJpMJ_iDnrHfGoYYDIZG2bPniRsksk8dkgHluU80dcAagVJhgn7oTyyVlBqyUuoJKCn0QEUcd3zWuBU/s640/2018+YA+800x500.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Young adult fiction shows no sign of slowing down, but how to navigate the masses of books out there? Well, here are seven YA novels coming out in the first half of 2017 which should be on your reading list.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The Fandom</i> by Anna Day</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chicken House, January 4</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Violet is a member of the fandom for The Gallows Dance - her favourite YA story and film, set in a post-apocalyptic London. On a trip to Comic Con she and her friends are catapulted by a freak accident into the world of The Gallows Dance, where they must put the plot back on track and get out before disaster strikes. This is a treat for anyone who's part of a fandom, or who is a fan of fandoms.</span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Love, Hate & Other Filters</i> by Samira Ahmed</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Maya lives in Batavia, Illinois, and is in her final year of high school. She wants to go to New York and become a filmmaker, her parents want her to study law in Chicago, and that's not the only thing they disagree on - Maya's mum wants her to marry an Indian boy (ideally the handsome and successful Kareem), while Maya is too busy crushing on her classmate Phil. When a terrorist attacks, Maya and her parents must both face hatred, and decide how they want to fight back.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>I Am Thunder</i> by Muhammad Khan</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Macmillan Children's Books, January 25</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Muzna Saleem, aged 15, is expected to get educated, become a doctor, and then get married to someone from Pakistan. But she loves writing and dreams of becoming novelist instead, and when high-school hottie Arif Malik takes an interest in her, it seems like things are going well for her. But Arif and his brother are angry at the West for demonising Islam, and risk pulling Muzna into their world. How will she choose between betraying her heart and betraying her beliefs?</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Belles</i> by Dhonielle Clayton</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Gollancz, February 8</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In Orléans, the people are born grey and damned, and only a Belle's powers can make them beautiful. </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Camellia Beauregard wants to be the favourite Belle - the one chosen by the queen to tend to the royal family. </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">But once Camellia and her Belle sisters arrive at court, it becomes clear that being the favourite is not everything she always dreamed it would be. </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">When the queen asks Camellia to break the rules she lives by to save the ailing princess, she faces an impossible decision: protect herself and the way of the Belles, or risk her own life, and change the world forever. (You can read the first two chapters of The Belles <a href="http://ew.com/books/2017/04/12/dhonielle-clayton-the-belles-exclusive-excerpt/">here</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Unveiling Venus</i> by Sophia Bennett</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This is the sequel to Bennett's <i>Finding Ophelia</i>, in which Mary Adams set out to become a Pre-Raphelite muse, and reinvented herself as Persephone Lavelle. In <i>Unveiling Venus</i>, Mary's secret </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">identity is exposed, so she flees the scandal by escaping to Venice. Lost among the twisting alleyways and shadowy canals she encounters a mysterious, masked young man. He offers her the world, but at what price?</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Children of Blood and Bone</i> by Tomi Adeyemi</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Macmillan Children's Books, March 8</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This is one for fantasy geeks everywhere. Zelie lives in a world where magic has been outlawed, and now she has the chance to bring it back. With the help of a rogue princess, Zelie must outwit and outrun the crown prince of Orisha, who is determined to eradicate magic for good. Zelie must learn to control her own powers, as well as deal with outside forces, and her growing feelings for an enemy.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Clean</i> by Juno Dawson</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Quercus Children's Books, April 5</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">After almost overdosing, socialite Lexi Volkov is forced</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> into an exclusive rehab facility. </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">From there, the only way is up for Lexi and her fellow inmates, including the mysterious Brady. </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">As she faces her demons, Lexi realises love is the most powerful drug of all. Clean is described as "</span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Gossip Girl</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> meets </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Girl, Interrupted</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, with a side of </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Orange is the New Black</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">". Who can resist that pitch?</span></div>
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</style>Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-58565199321290057152017-11-18T20:24:00.002+00:002017-11-18T20:28:56.717+00:00Books of 2017<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBWkNX0Fx9KQBj9xWEtwJglHOsNgGKloUysqZOa0EORrWP69vmTlepdwvOJ_T_W_PNBInudyApBAH2nMnq42RcdayDsLjRf64yOnw753HE10Q1uVQ0EnDfi8Y9F_NGezY4C9q-icKNRl0/s1600/Books+of+2017.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1000" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBWkNX0Fx9KQBj9xWEtwJglHOsNgGKloUysqZOa0EORrWP69vmTlepdwvOJ_T_W_PNBInudyApBAH2nMnq42RcdayDsLjRf64yOnw753HE10Q1uVQ0EnDfi8Y9F_NGezY4C9q-icKNRl0/s640/Books+of+2017.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As the year starts to draw to its end, it's time to reflect on all the books I've read this year, and to pick my favourites.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you're looking for a book to curl up with when everything gets a bit much over Christmas, then hopefully among t</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">he following 10 books - all released for the first time in the UK in 2017 - you'll find something to your tastes.</span><br />
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<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">American War</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> by Omar El Akkad (Picador)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is the story of Sarat, who is a young girl when the second American Civil War breaks out. She is forced to move into a refugee camp, which sets her on a path to becoming a weapon of mass destruction. Utterly compelling, I had a huge book hangover after I finished this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>When Dimple Met Rishi</i> by Sandhya Menon (Hodder & Stoughton)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This YA novel brought me such joy - it's the tale of a young Indian girl pursuing her love for technology and falling in love along the way. <i>When Dimple Met Rishi</i> is fun, funny, and shows that love stories don't always have to centre white people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Lincoln in the Bardo</i> by George Saunders (Bloomsbury)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This book really lives up to the hype. The form takes a short while to get to grips with, but persevere, this is an engaging story, full of great characters and emotional highs and lows. It just happens to be extremely cleverly structured.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Little Fires Everywhere</i> by Celeste Ng (Little, Brown)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is Ng's second novel, and I absolutely adored it. <i>Little Fires Everywhere</i> is a look at a privileged society, a family drama, and a mystery. And Ng's observations about family and race are really, really smart.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Homegoing</i> by Yaa Gyasi (Viking)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The only thing I don't like about Gyasi's <i>Homegoing</i> is that it didn't get enough recognition on awards' shortlists. <i>Homegoing</i> follows the descendants of two half-sisters - one a slave, one married to a slave owner. Effecting and absorbing, <i>Homegoing</i> is a stunning read.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Behind Her Eyes</i> by Sarah Pinborough (HarperCollins)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Psychological thrillers are 10-a-penny, but Pinborough really takes the genre to another level with this unsettling novel, following a woman who gets drawn into a friendship with the wife of her boss, who also happens to be someone she's sleeping with. But there's something not quite right...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Swimmer Among the Stars</i> by Kanishk Tharoor (Picador)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This short story collection is beautiful and charming - the story behind the title of the collection is heartbreaking and poetic. More fables than short stories, <i>Swimmer Among the Stars</i> gives you lots to think about.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The Hate U Give</i> by Angie Thomas (Walker Books)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Taking inspiration from the Black Lives Matter movement, Thomas weaves the compelling tale of a teenager who witnesses police shooting dead a black teenager, and the way the waves of that ripple through the communities she is part of.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race</i> by Reni Eddo-Lodge (Bloomsbury)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Required reading for anyone interested in race in Britain, and especially those who think Britain is post-racist. Eddo-Lodge writes clearly and succinctly about how people of colour are systematically discriminated against, and why a solution can't be sought until white people learn to engage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>I Am, I Am, I Am</i> by Maggie O'Farrell (Tinder Press)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On the surface this is a book about death, as O'Farrell recounts 17 brushes with death. But this breathtaking read is really about living and it's completely life-affirming.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What were your favourite 2017 books? Let me know in the comments.</span></div>
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Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-87234638637610491492017-06-11T15:40:00.001+01:002017-06-11T15:40:46.619+01:00Book review: When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVTTjuSQaFJvO5bl7tioeiiJlknItZmwrb9zWpWvoQzgxJLkPMt03H54FHNqUhiNQ2wjP1PcTyItRvmo76w0fSIFgn2JX_Ey8JgYhEwmlmF8p25JN6DW3XjTkvB3oKZVMysw1fQqFqysQ/s1600/When+Dimple+Met+Rishi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="435" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVTTjuSQaFJvO5bl7tioeiiJlknItZmwrb9zWpWvoQzgxJLkPMt03H54FHNqUhiNQ2wjP1PcTyItRvmo76w0fSIFgn2JX_Ey8JgYhEwmlmF8p25JN6DW3XjTkvB3oKZVMysw1fQqFqysQ/s320/When+Dimple+Met+Rishi.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.27px; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you're white, you've probably seen yourself in books your whole life. But as a British Pakistani Muslim, it's rare for me to truly find a character I can point at and say: "That person, I share their experiences."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.27px; white-space: pre-wrap;">No more, because Sandhya Menon has written <i>When Dimple Met Rishi</i>, a - if we're searching for a quick pitch - YA arranged marriage rom com.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.27px; white-space: pre-wrap;">And reading <i>When Dimple Met Rishi</i> was one of the best, most joyful reading experiences of my life. It starts with the cover (and I know you shouldn't judge), which depicts a </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">brown girl, smiling widely, wearing henna and a kurta, and sipping an iced coffee. It's joyful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.27px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here's a book about a brown girl, and she's not oppressed, and it's not about terrorism or struggles with religion or culture. Instead, it's a book about a brown girl with slightly overprotective parents, who get on her nerves sometimes. It's a book about a brown girl with big dreams doing everything she can to make them come true. It's a book about a brown girl navigating friendships. And it's a book about a brown girl falling in love with a guy she never expected to like.</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.27px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don't have lots in common with Dimple - she's American, of Indian heritage, and Hindu. But what we do have in common is that we grew up in families with dual cultures, and with two languages. Menon seamlessly melds those two languages and cultures together - Dimple wears kurtas with jeans; her mum wants her to wear kajal while Dimple will happily stick with eyeliner (or no make up at all); Dimple and her family (and Rishi and his family) speak to each other in a mix of English and Hindi; and the film and TV references are from American and Indian cultures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.27px; white-space: pre-wrap;">But that's not to say anyone who isn't brown won't get <i>When Dimple Met Rishi</i>. So much of the book is about universal experiences - finding love, dealing with awful people, learning how to communicate with your parents. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.27px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reading <i>When Dimple Met Rishi</i> is like sinking into a warm bath - comforting. I got caught up in the novel, which is fun and sweet and cute, and found myself laughing out loud at times, and at other times had tears in my eyes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.27px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>When Dimple Met Rishi</i> is essential reading for anyone who loves rom coms, and it's also a book I want to press into the hands of every young Asian kid who feels like they don't belong in a book. Because <i>When Dimple Met Rishi</i> will show them that they do.</span>Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-33971554617837632462016-12-26T10:52:00.005+00:002016-12-26T12:12:59.840+00:00Best books of 2016<div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkXIs44D74fs731gsFJP0t8M74ihQUKHm6T4E-O3bCXSZu4MBhOFFr5OA2SoawayxeYNTHi42_bzlEbMwv-Tdsf4Ku-XqY4tSzC9UFuxsugrCjtcLlXgLBNPaKBUxexcqWKXCXLf-LFUw/s1600/Best+books+of+2016.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkXIs44D74fs731gsFJP0t8M74ihQUKHm6T4E-O3bCXSZu4MBhOFFr5OA2SoawayxeYNTHi42_bzlEbMwv-Tdsf4Ku-XqY4tSzC9UFuxsugrCjtcLlXgLBNPaKBUxexcqWKXCXLf-LFUw/s640/Best+books+of+2016.png" width="640" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I thought 2016 had a bit of a slow start when it came to books, but some of the books I've read this year are among the best I've ever read, and I'll be talking about my 10 favourite for years to come. <br /><br />I made a conscious effort to try and read more books by writers of colour this year, something which bears out in my best of 2016 list (even though I still read more books by white writers, could the fact that the majority of my list is books by non-white people possibly show the really high quality of writing by writers of colour who do get published? Discuss).<br /><br />There were some notable gaps in my reading this year - I failed to get round to Sarah Perry's much-lauded The Essex Serpent, which I'm now saving for a time when I can savour it, and I skipped most of the Man Booker Prize shortlist because it just didn't capture me this year, plus I've not read as much YA as I did in previous years.<br /><br />Now, without further ado, here are my 10 favourite books of 2016...<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><b><i>The Good Immigrant</i> ed. by Nikesh Shukla (Unbound)</b><br />This collection of essays by established writers, new voices, actors, poets and more was always going to be good, but its stories of belonging (or not), representation and appropriation resonated even more as 2016 unfolded in a way few could have predicted.<br /><br /><b><i>The Underground Railroad</i> by Colson Whitehead (Fleet)</b><br />Hands down, the best book I read in 2016. It's been months since I read it and there are still times I find myself just thinking about certain scenes or moments. Utterly brilliant writing, a simple but effective concept, characters that draw you in, and a story that makes you feel and teaches you something - this book has everything.<br /><br /><b><i>American Housewife </i>by Helen Ellis (Scribner UK)</b><br />I'm not usually a short story person but I loved these wicked, sharp, funny stories about, well, American housewives. Just don't go in expecting stories about cotillions and how to make lemonade, these are delicious and dark.<br /><br /><b><i>Another Day in the Death of America</i> by Gary Younge (Guardian Faber)</b><br />Gun deaths in America seem to make news regularly, but Younge's book shows that barely a fraction make it to the headlines. Taking a randomly picked day, he dedicates a chapter each to a child who died as a result of a gunshot - Younge's understated writing style, devoid of histrionics, is quietly effecting, and gets under your skin.<br /><br /><b><i>The Power</i> by Naomi Alderman (Viking)</b><br />A book that is part science fiction, part political thriller and part satire, <i>The Power</i>'s straightforward concept - that women wake up one day with the ability to inflict pain with just a touch of their bare hands - soon makes for a clever, subversive look at gender, power and more. It'll send shivers down your spine, and with the year we've had, some of it won't even seem that dystopian.<br /><br /><b><i>Orangeboy</i> by Patrice Lawrence (Hodder Children's Books)</b><br />A YA novel that really captures a young voice, as well as a place. Following 16-year-old Marlon as he tries to live his life without getting drawn into the gang culture around him, this is a wonderful exploration of teenage life in the inner city. The musical influences on the character and the book are a lovely touch, and the beautiful cover is the cherry on the cake.<br /><b><br /><i>My Name is Leon</i> by Kit de Waal (Viking)</b><br />I knew before I picked this up that it was going to make me cry, and I was right. De Waal effortlessly takes us into the world of Leon, whose mother is not fit to care for him and whose (white) baby brother is adopted - all I wanted to do was reach into the pages and wrap Leon in a protective blanket so he would stop hurting.<br /><b><br /><i>An Unrestored</i> Woman by Shobha Rao (Virago)</b><br />For someone who doesn't often read short stories, that I have two collections on my list this year amuses me. <i>An Unrestored Woman</i> is really pairs of stories, with one character from the first appearing somewhere in the second. Rao's look at the vulnerability, but most importantly the strength, of women affected in one way or another by the partition of India and Pakistan is exquisite.<br /><br /><b><i>A Rising Man</i> by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)</b><br />A fabulous, properly old fashioned crime story set in the vibrant world of post-First World War Calcutta as a British detective investigates his first crime in the city. This stands alone as a crime novel, but also works as a critique of the British Raj and an exploration of race, class and gender at the time.<br /><br /><b><i>Crooked Kingdom</i> by Leigh Bardugo (Orion Children's Books)</b><br />The sequel to Bardugo's <i>Six of Crows</i>, <i>Crooked Kingdom</i> is full of action and great characters. <i>Six of Crows</i> was my introduction to Bardugo, who is a great storyteller, something<i> Crooked Kingdom</i> (which I stayed up late reading because I just couldn't stop) illustrates in spades. (Plus, the characters make for excellent cosplay.)<br /><br />And, because I can't resist, honourable mentions for Margaret Atwood's retelling of The Tempest, <i>Hag-Seed</i>, and poet Kei Miller's short, lyrical novel <i>Augustown</i>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Which books make your best of the year list?</span></span></div>
Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-25426248122072688992016-11-27T14:57:00.005+00:002016-11-27T14:57:41.506+00:00Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life review - a trash fire with few redeeming qualities<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Gilmore Girls revival - we've all been waiting for it, wanting to revisit Stars Hollow, hang out with our favourite characters (Emily and Paris, for what it's worth), see who Rory ends up (#TeamJess).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Well, I'm here to tell you the wait was not worth it. <i>Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life</i> - made up of four episodes by the show's creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino - is a trash fire with few redeeming qualities. It's horrible and awful, and it features terrible characters who act in terrible ways. In short, it's ruined the original <i>Gilmore Girls</i> forever.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Warning, there are spoilers ahead for all four episodes...</b></span></span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><b>Saying goodbye</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The best part of the revival could have been about the way Emily, Lorelai and Rory dealt with the grief of losing Richard. Indeed, for me the most moving part was in <i>Fall</i>, when Lorelai called Emily to finally share her favourite memory of Richard - it was emotional and just felt right for both characters.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, everything that came before ruined that, not least Lorelai and Rory's complete disregard for Emily, who has just lost the man she's been married to for 50 years. Instead of making sure they spend time with Emily, check in with her, invite her to do things with them, they are completely absorbed in their own lives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lorelai, unforgiveably, wrecks Richard's funeral by sharing ridiculous, mean stories about him. I know she's grieving, but I found this disrespectful towards Emily and Richard, and disrespectful to the Lorelai of the original, who I don't think would ever have acted this way in such a situation. And to then bed in, have a go at her mother and refuse to apologise or see how Emily is doing for MONTHS afterwards is just awful behaviour. Lorelai has Luke, she has her job, she has Stars Hollow. Her mother has no one but her servants (more on them later).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And Rory, let's not try and pretend Rory is any better. SHE LEFT RICHARD'S FUNERAL EARLY to fly to London, where she is doing no work and having an affair with Logan. This is cruel behaviour, yet everyone lets her get away with it because it's Rory and she's so wonderful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As a very minor point, how come Jason <span style="font-size: small;">turned up to
Richard's funeral, yet Christopher couldn't be arsed to be there?</span></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rory's "career"</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I put career in quotation marks because Rory doesn't seem to be doing any work. She's written a few pieces here and there, and one <i>New Yorker</i> article that everyone adores for some weird reason. Anyone ever think the <i>New Yorker</i> piece was so good because of its subject? After all, none of the rest of Rory's work seems to garner such praise.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I'm a journalist, and I know plenty of freelance journalists, and if they operated the way Rory did, they would be living on the streets because there's no way they'd ever get any work. Why does she have no ideas beyond a book that Naomi Shropshire pitched to her? And the whole Naomi Shropshire plot proves Rory has no journalistic judgement - everyone keeps telling her Naomi is unpredictable, and Rory sees it for herself, yet she still pursues the book even though the story is not worth it. And the way she deals with Naomi towards the end of their relationship is unprofessional.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In fact, Rory is just plain unprofessional all the time. When she goes to talk to Sandee of SandeeSays she's completely unprepared. She's clearly done no research on the website, and just expects Sandee to take her on because she's Rory Gilmore. I don't care if Sandee has been chasing her, you still go in prepared and ready to pitch yourself as an excellent employee. And the phone call with Sandee afterwards is cringe-worthy, and shows Rory throwing all her toys out of a pram like the child she clearly is.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And the piece about lines. Who takes their mum to work? Who falls asleep
interviewing someone? Who spends their day as a journalist wandering
around NY in heels with a tiny bag, no pen and no
notepad? Someone who's a crap journalist, that's who. </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By the end of Summer my notes just said "TERRIBLE JOURNALIST".</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Colour-blind</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Gilmore Girls</i> has always been eyewateringly white. I could buy that in Stars Hollow there are only a few people of colour (although the Kims and Michel were always treated as novelties, which is a whole other issue), but it became a real area of concern when Rory went to Yale and everyone was still white. The revival had the opportunity to correct some of the wrongs of the original. Instead, it went full tilt racist. Yep, I said it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For a start, there are Emily's family of servants. I understand she doesn't want to speak to anyone because she's grieving the loss of Richard, but the "funny" plot about not knowing what language they speak is racist and disrespectful, no matter that eventually Berta and her family become Emily's family because her own daughter and granddaughter are trash. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The only other new character of colour with a decent speaking part is the woman Lorelai meets when she goes on her Wild experience. She's the one character of colour who seems to be treated okay by the show.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Apart from, all the other new characters of colour we see are servants, drivers, chefs who get fired by Lorelai, or people whose job it is to remain completely silent and drone-like (there are some staffers at SandeeSays for example) yet still be highly visible, just so Gilmore Girls can say it has characters of colour.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I know this show was made pre-Trump, but the creators are completely out of touch with the narrative around race that's ongoing in America, and it catches horribly in the throat.</span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Fat shaming</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This was one of the worst parts of the whole revival. At the beginning of <i>Summer</i> we join Lorelai and Rory hanging by the pool, where they proceed to spend a good five minutes fat shaming a variety of characters. It's disgusting and I was filled with rage at the whole scene (so much so that the enforced child labour - including of a child of colour - paled in comparison). The Palladinos should hang their heads in shame.</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So. Much. Privilege.</span></span></span></span></span></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Look, I don't think I can talk about the scenes with the Life and Death Brigade, because I'll never be ready, but they were an illustration of how this show views privilege - as something to either be celebrated, or completely ignored. There's no explicit acknowledgement of the privileges Rory and Lorelai (and many other characters) enjoy, but Rory and Lorelai's privilege is evident in so many scenes, and it's distasteful.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The money is one thing. Emily and Richard were always embarrassingly rich, as was Logan's family. And Chris came into money as well and then started spending it like no tomorrow. I assume it's Rory's trust funds that enable her to fly back and forth to London with alarming regularity. The wealth is not the privilege I find objectionable. (Although - </span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Paris and Doyle: "Our house is so impossibly huge because we're
so rich and successful that our (foreign) nannies keep quitting on us.
Poor us, in our massive, expensive mansion in NY.")<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rather, it's the way Rory and Lorelai put themselves before everyone else, think they're far above everyone else, and treat people horribly, and everyone lets them because they're pretty and chatty and funny, and oh, they're just Rory and Lorelai, you know? They're cute, let's let them get away with it because they're just our Rory and Lorelai. That's the privilege that sticks.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Well, as Emily would say, bullshit.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The way Rory and Lorelai treat people is awful. I mean, poor Paul. I assume the plot with Rory having a forgettable boyfriend was meant to be funny, but it's really, really not. It's mean, and born from Rory being in a position where everyone wants her and it's okay to treat them terribly because they'll keep coming back.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">One of the ways in which Lorelai's privilege manifests itself is the way that she just keeps throwing chefs out of her kitchen to further the pain she feels through Sookie's loss, yet there are no consequences to her actions. More celebrity chefs keep coming in, and she keeps being rude to them, yet gets off scott-free.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And rudeness. Why are some of the characters on this show so rude? The scene with Naomi accosting waiters in the private members' clubs (that much of the London action takes place in private members' club and expensive restaurants is another illustration of the privilege Rory has) is just plain rude.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I was a little worried that we were going to get a cameo from Lena Dunham, given how many times she was mentioned. It's a true illustration of how blind Rory and Lorelai (and the Palladinos) are to their privilege that they cite Dunham - the embodiment of white female privilege - as someone they love. </span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rory and Logan</span></span></span></span></span></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ugh. Why, why, why? I don't get any of this storyline. Why do the Palladinos love Logan so much? Logan has always been a terrible human, and it's no surprise he'd cheat, but why is Rory still someone who would have an affair? Did she learn no lessons from her previous experiences? Why do the Palladinos think we'd feel for Rory, instead of thinking she's a trash human being who has no compunction about hurting people by cheating on them, unless of course she is the one being hurt?</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I just can't.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And the rest</span></span></span></span></span></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">There's no way I can cover everything I thought was terrible, but here are a few more things:</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> -all of Luke and Lorelai's communication problems still exist. How in nine years have they never spoken about having children? And when Luke says he's fine with not having kids, why does Lorelai still steamroller over him and take him to the clinic?</span></span></span></span> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">-why did Lorelai tell Luke he'd never get to go to his own child's
graduation, even though they'd been talking about April 30 seconds
before? And why did Luke say it was okay, because he went to Rory's
graduation, even though they'd been talking about April 30 seconds
before? Why did April not get to go to Luke and Lorelai's wedding? She's not mentioned in Luke's list of family that Lorelai spends a lot of time going over. (Neither is Jess.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">-and why was Emily not in town for Luke and Lorelai's wedding? We know she knew about it and was on the guest list, so why was she in Nantucket the night before? Wouldn't she have been in Stars Hollow?</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">-</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">poor Kirk - the town got together to get him a pig so he and his
girlfriend wouldn't have children? Where does the town get off? Who are
they to decide? This is eugenics, people.</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">-</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">that is not how you pronounce Aeschylus.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">-</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">how is Paris already in charge of a fertility clinic, and apparently
so good at her job? She's four years out of medical school, she wouldn't
even have finished her training by then surely? And how is Paris both a qualified lawyer and doctor by the age of 32? </span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">-</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">when
Rory calls Logan the UK's country code wrong. Why did no one on this
show check? It's not a difficult piece of research to do, but I guess it shows just how lazily made the whole revival was.</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">-</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I'm so disappointed Lorelai backtracked on the book. Saying no initially
was one of the few decent things she's done this whole series, because Rory was completely unreasonable about just expecting her mum to be okay with it. Also, it's a bit rich that Rory says this is the thing she's meant to do, considering the idea was all Jess'. We already know Rory has no ideas. (Also, this is just a crap plot - Dawson's Creek already did it way back when.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">-I used to be #TeamJess. Now I'm #TeamJessButNotWithRoryBecauseShe'sATrashHuman. </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
-why was the Stars Hollow: The Musical bit soooo long? Actually, I
know why. It's because the creators are lazy and they just wanted to
fill space instead of staying true to the characters and writing
something meaningful. I ended up skipping most of it because I didn't need to watch it to understand the metaphor of Lorelai then finding herself through listening to a song.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">-I know I said I couldn't talk about the Life and Death Brigade but... </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Look at us, we're super rich and fun and we still haven't grown up and
think it's okay to BREAK INTO A GROCERY STORE." Like, Rory, this is your
hometown, why do you think it's fun to play around and break into
Doose's? Do you have no respect?</span></span> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">-Poor Sookie. It seems like we were meant to dislike her for abandoning Lorelai, but it just felt so untrue to the character that all I could think was that it was the Palladinos dislike for Melissa McCarthy manifesting itself - I don't know what went down there, but McCarthy's involvement was initially denied, until she said she hasn't been invited. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And I'm done. For now. Join me in the comments and tell me what you hated, or indeed, loved. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span>Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-7108979033133119722016-07-05T12:36:00.000+01:002016-07-05T12:36:06.416+01:00Book review: The Good Immigrant ed. by Nikesh Shukla<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP8412OnCYG1Mih6nbk5OSqxTdPsdcjl30_f9Ej7PL0xyjO5vBx39rkM14o5OSJPK7CA8lq1n72Zea7e-ZCfjcocApeyPc1XRwZFKkv8faE0_ciLmExrsEgQ1CZXv4-FHUC0fX7jKgnHM/s1600/The+Good+Immigrant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP8412OnCYG1Mih6nbk5OSqxTdPsdcjl30_f9Ej7PL0xyjO5vBx39rkM14o5OSJPK7CA8lq1n72Zea7e-ZCfjcocApeyPc1XRwZFKkv8faE0_ciLmExrsEgQ1CZXv4-FHUC0fX7jKgnHM/s320/The+Good+Immigrant.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sometimes a book hits at the right time. <i>The Good Immigrant</i>, edited by Nikesh Shukla and crowdfunded on the publishing platform Unbound, is one of those books.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm heartbroken over the result of the EU referendum, saddened and angered by the surge in openly racist attacks, and all round worried about the future of the UK. And even before the referendum, who can have missed the discourse around immigrants in recent months, even years? From Prime Minister David Cameron calling refugees seeking shelter from war a "swarm" to Donald Trump's plans to build a wall between Mexico and America and ban all Muslims from entering the US, it can seem like an awful time to not be white.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So <i>The Good Immigrant</i> is both a soothing balm and a fiery call to action against the ugliness of the world today. <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As
the daughter of immigrants, I have a particular interest in this book,
but this collection of essays is essential reading for all human beings.
It's not a book of essays where non-white people moan about how they're
treated unfairly - it's a collection of nuanced pieces looking at the
immigrant experience, providing a state of the nation and serving as an
eye-opening agent for change. During my reading </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I laughed, I fought back tears, I nodded in understanding, I got angry, and I also felt inspired.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is so </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">much
talent assembled in one book that it seems a little unfair to call out a few
of the essays I particularly loved, but I'm going to anyway.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">First,
of course, there is editor Nikesh Shukla himself, writing in an essay called Namaste, on the way language is
appropriated, and why it's important that we call people out on it. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I'm
a huge TV person, and will watch just about anything. But it annoys me
that the majority of what we see on our screens is so white - where are
the towns and cities that look like our actual towns and cities? Where
are all the people of colour? Therefore, I adored Bim Adewunmi's essay
on tokenism and popular culture, and found myself nodding along to every
word.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're
still so often judged on skin colour, so Miss L's essay on how she
is stereotyped because of the way she looks was powerful. And when she
recounted how she was told by a teacher that the parts she'd be best
suited to were those playing a terrorist's wife, I got more than a
little bit angry.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Comedian Nish Kumar made me laugh out loud with his piece on how he became a meme. Yes, we Muslims definitely have </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">massive,
secret meetings where we discuss what one opinion we're going to have
on things. But for all the laughs, Kumar's essay, like all the others in
the book, made a serious point about how judgement about immigrants is still based on little more than a dismissive glance by many people.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
essay which affected me most was probably Musa Okwonga's on how
immigrants and the children of immigrants have to be grateful all the
time. In The Ungrateful Country Okwonga recounts how he realised
that being grateful will never be enough for some people, that they will
always judge you for your surface appearance or your name, and that by
being eternally grateful you can never truly be yourself. The essay made
me weep. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The Good Immigrant</i> is a sorely needed book, one that tells people immigrants shouldn't need to be a white person's ideal of 'good', shouldn't need to be twice as good as a white person, to be accepted and loved. A</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> powerful and uplifting and essential book, full of the words of talented, talented people, I hope <i>The Good Immigrant</i> can serve as a wake-up call for us all.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">*<i>The Good Immigrant</i> is out on September 22, 2016.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Disclaimer: I donated to help crowdfund this book, and know the editor, Nikesh Shukla and some of the contributors. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span></div>
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Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-58333776281126904222016-06-06T12:21:00.001+01:002016-06-06T12:21:15.144+01:00Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2016 shortlist reviews<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-B5vBsB4s4lHnYbkIUxeDfc7e7AarMhTjuTB0KCFmdvuypi1xw6du3HPnm8xnbhsVqFuP8RsTuhS2252l3eNX9O0Sn8wF2wLJP0GmjEh1u8IRWsKuzGiH0FWX29pyBuw3YIoez9eUa_4/s1600/Baileys+shortlsit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-B5vBsB4s4lHnYbkIUxeDfc7e7AarMhTjuTB0KCFmdvuypi1xw6du3HPnm8xnbhsVqFuP8RsTuhS2252l3eNX9O0Sn8wF2wLJP0GmjEh1u8IRWsKuzGiH0FWX29pyBuw3YIoez9eUa_4/s400/Baileys+shortlsit.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />The Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2016 is awarded this week. Here's my take on the shortlist.</span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Ruby</i> by Cynthia Bond</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Synopsis: In small-town Liberty, Ephram Jennings still holds a candle for Ruby Bell, who has returned to home to the demons she has been trying to rid herself of for years.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Review: <i>Ruby</i> is very readable and its unique style makes it very different to anything else I've read this year, with its merging of historical fiction and magical realism. I love the way it examines religion and faith, small-town politics, and family. <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This is a devastating read - just when I thought it couldn't get any more heartbreaking Bond would throw in a starkly horrifying chapter that brought tears to my eyes. But because these sections with tempered with gorgeously rendered, very relatable relationships and situations, it all really works. This is my winner.</span></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: small;"><i>The Green Road</i> by Anne Enright</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: small;">Synopsis: Four siblings return to their family home when their domineering mother announces she wants to sell up.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: small;">Review: Wow. This is my first Enright and I am stunned (although I probably shouldn't be) by just how wonderful a writer she is. This book is essentially five character studies, of Rosaleen Madigan and her four children, Hanna, Dan, Constance and Emmett. <i>The Green Road</i> is all very down to earth - there are no big explosions or tragic events, but there are fireworks aplenty in all the little things that make up a life. The way Enright tells the story of the Madigan family will have you nodding in familiarity and also marvelling at just how fascinating ordinary lives can be.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: small;"><i>The Glorious Heresies</i> by Lisa McInerney</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: small;">Synopsis: A murder in post-financial crash Ireland brings together five very different people, and affects their lives for years to come.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: small;">Review: This is so cleverly done, with McInerney weaving together the lives of teenager Ryan, his dad Tony, prostitute Georgie, accidental murderer Maureen and her son and local gangster Jimmy. This is another book on the shortlist that examines religion and faith, although that faith and religion is very different to that in <i>Ruby</i>. McInerney effortlessly takes us through modern day Ireland, with little observations about the way Cork and its people have been affected by the economic crash. For me Ryan was the heart and soul of the story, and arguably the person who both changed the most and in some ways stayed exactly the same.</span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: small;"><i>The Portable Veblen</i> by Elizabeth McKenzie</span></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: small;">Synopsis: A newly-engaged young couple navigate life in the run-up to their wedding.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: small;">Review: Spoiler alert - a Veblen is not a thing, it's the name of the protagonist in this absolutely delightful novel. From its opening page it's clear that this is going to be a joyful read, even as it addresses serious topics from medical testing to corporate greed and, of course, what it means to love someone and how relationships work. A fun read with an unusual voice that keeps you hooked. </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: small;"><i>The Improbability of Love</i> by Hannah Rothschild</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: small;">Synopsis: Annie McDee buys a painting from a junk shop - a painting with an illustrious history and that has the art world, from dealers and auctioneers to party planners and Russian oligarchs, in a storm.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: small;">Review: A love story, a study of class and an art mystery, <i>The Improbability of Love</i> (named after the painting at the centre of the book) is many different things, and some of those things work better than others. I think this is meant to be a satire, although I personally didn't think it quite got there - it didn't have the depth needed. Annie, for a start, is too lightly drawn and comes across not as a realistic struggling chef, but rather as what the novel's rich folk think a struggling, poor person should be like. There are parts I loved - no spoilers but the reveal of the painting's most recent history is compelling and I wish more space had been given over to that whole plot line. Overall, an entertaining read but for me, the weakest on the shortlist.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>A Little Life</i> by Hanya Yanagihara</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Synopsis: In New York successful lawyer Jude is haunted by his past, and friends Willem, JB and Malcolm try to help him come to terms with what happened to him.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Review: A hugely accomplished piece of writing, <i>A Little Life</i> is a stunning achievement. Yanagihara is brilliantly observant and there are times her prose is just absolutely beautiful. There is no emotional let up during <i>A Little Life</i>, and it's an all consuming read. Ultimately, for me it was just too much - there were plot points that felt farcical and the book's relentless misery regularly felt manipulative.</span></span></div>
Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-63067969129996291252016-04-17T17:14:00.002+01:002016-04-17T17:14:59.256+01:00The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story - further reading<div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9oVwqenOw7EsQ3YpNsicPGzEhTZAR62U7jYD6xxhtp63Pg_wpgY9G0i9NgBBDym84d-FnY_YA7yRZcKUnhdAnMESZ4qwvkandlnUayttIX1wHkOjw-Ogs6kuYykmkhZxCp8uOUESmQBg/s1600/The+People+V+OJ+Simpson+American+Crime+Story+BBC_Fox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9oVwqenOw7EsQ3YpNsicPGzEhTZAR62U7jYD6xxhtp63Pg_wpgY9G0i9NgBBDym84d-FnY_YA7yRZcKUnhdAnMESZ4qwvkandlnUayttIX1wHkOjw-Ogs6kuYykmkhZxCp8uOUESmQBg/s320/The+People+V+OJ+Simpson+American+Crime+Story+BBC_Fox.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The People v OJ Simpson. Picture: BBC/Fox</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I'm a little bit obsessed with <i>The People v OJ Simpson</i>, and as well as tuning in every week to the TV programme I've been reading a lot around the subject, from pieces of journalism from the time of the trial to think pieces.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If you're as fascinated by me as the case (and you've read the book by Jeffrey Toobin that the show is based on), here is some recommended further reading...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Where are they now? <i>Vulture</i>, whose coverage of the TV show has been excellent, provides <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2016/01/people-v-oj-simpson-where-are-they-now.html">a primer on the main players from the Simpson case</a> and explains where they are now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Bronco chase, which seems completely farcical (like many aspects of the case), captured the attention of a TV watching public in a time when 24-hour news and rolling coverage was not the norm. If it took place now, there would definitely be a live blog, so <i>Deadspin</i> has done the work for us, getting <a href="http://deadspin.com/go-oj-go-liveblogging-the-white-bronco-chase-twe-1592622167">Drew Magary to watch the chase and blog his reactions</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/feb/15/the-people-v-oj-simpson-21-years-on-celebrity-culture-has-changed-but-race-issues-have-not">Gary Younge is excellent on the racial tensions</a> of the early 1990s, celebrity culture and how much, and how little, has changed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Here's <i>The New York Times</i>' article covering the day in court when <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/14/us/issue-of-racism-erupts-in-simpson-trial.html">Johnnie Cochrane and Christopher Darden argued</a> about whether the jury should be allowed to hear the "n" word during the trial.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Simpson trial was all caught on film. Here's one of the most famous moments from the whole thing, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__reD_phfbg&app=desktop">Simpson trying on the gloves</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Here's a great <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2016/04/oj-juror-people-v-oj-simpson-right-and-wrong.html">interview with one of the jurors</a> in the case, in which she reflects on the verdict and whether she has ever changed her mind.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>Time</i> magazine came under fire shortly after Simpson was arrested for altering his mugshot to make him look more black. It was forced to respond to criticism, as the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/25/us/time-responds-to-criticism-over-simpson-cover.html"><i>New York Times </i>reported</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Jim Newton covered the trial for the <i>Los Angeles Times</i>. He has been examining each episode of <i>The People v OJ Simpson</i> to see what aspects remain close to reality, and where the show has taken liberties. Here's <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2016/02/people-v-oj-simpson-fact-checking-episode-1.html">episode one</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sociology professor <a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/02/03/why_were_still_fascinated_with_the_o_j_simpson_trial_the_basic_centrality_of_race_in_america_hasnt_changed/">Darnell Hunt has some interesting insights</a> on how the case illuminates racial differences and why we're still fascinated by it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The BBC's article from the day <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/3/newsid_2486000/2486673.stm">Simpson was found not guilty</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The <i>Washington Post</i> looks back on America finding out <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/02/03/the-day-america-woke-to-learn-that-o-j-simpson-was-a-murder-suspect/">Simpson was suspected of murder</a>, and on the way it <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/04/06/heres-how-big-a-news-event-the-o-j-simpson-verdict-was-in-1995/">covered the not guilty verdict</a>. And here's how <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2016/04/how-new-york-magazine-covered-the-oj-verdict.html?mid=twitter_vulture"><i>New York</i> magazine covered the verdict</a>.</span></div>
Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-81490727637828880422016-04-16T16:46:00.002+01:002016-04-16T16:46:24.034+01:00Book review: Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It is a truth universally acknowledged that a brilliant story told once needs to be retold for a modern audience, and so it is with Jane Austen's classic <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>, which has been retold by Curtis Sittenfeld as part of The Borough Press' Austen Project.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Moving the action to modern day Cincinnatta, we join the Bennet family as the two oldest daughters, Lizzy and Jane, return home to help their father recover from heart surgery. The Bennet household, with all five daughters under one roof, is chaos, and the house itself is falling apart, although Mrs Bennet is more concerned about seeing her daughters married off, and Chip Bingley is more than perfect for at least one of the girls.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This is the <i>Pride and Prejudice</i> we all know and love, brought bang up to date. Bingley is as shy and naive as in Austen's original, but now he is a doctor - one of the ultimate status symbols in the modern world - and a reality TV star after a stint on Eligible where he searched for (and failed to find) his soulmate. His friend Fitzwilliam Darcy, a neurosurgeon, is as haughty as Darcy in the original, while lovely Jane is a yoga teacher and smart Lizzy is a journalist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The familiarity of <i>Eligible</i> is pleasing, but there are enough changes that the story feels refreshing and not wholly predictable. Jane's story especially gets a twist that could only be possible in the modern world, while cousin Willie has made his fortune and reputation as a tech entrepreneur (a religious figure for these times). Meanwhile Lizzy is trying to deal with the modern American phenomenon of huge medical bills and how to pay them, as well as, of course, the awful but not really awful Darcy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's with Lizzy and Darcy that the best parts of <i>Eligible</i> are found, as they should be. Their relationship is full of tension, which the pair use as an excuse to engage in acts that would have made Austen blush. The tone of their interactions is pitch perfect, infused with snark, respect, lust and love over the course of the book.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Where I don't think <i>Eligible</i> stands up is with Jasper Wick, this retelling's Wickham. We're introduced to him very early on as Lizzy's university friend, on again off again not quite boyfriend, and the man she can see herself marrying. Unfortunately, I found him to be a charmless individual, clearly using Lizzy for his own ends, and thought he was a man any intelligent woman would see in a matter of seconds was a useless wastrel. The reason Wickham works so well in <i>Pride and Prejudice</i> is because there is a charm about him - you know he's no good, but you kind of like him anyway. In <i>Eligible</i>, you just know he's no good, which led to me not being bothered by him as a character, or his relationship with anyone else in the story.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Overall though, Eligible is a lovely read. It's a long book, clocking in at more than 500 pages, but it's a quick read. I found it amusing and fun, and thought it largely kept the tone of Austen's original, although there were a few times it felt like Sittenfeld was trying to cram every aspect of modern life into the book. It's not better than <i>Pride and Prejudice</i> (what retelling could be?) but <i>Eligible</i> is a worthy retelling, and Sittenfeld does well to keep the spirits of Lizzy, Darcy et al alive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">*<i>Eligible</i> is out in the UK on April 21, 2016.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How I got this book: From the publisher, The Borough Press. This did not affect my review.</span></div>
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Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-16120202119447653132016-03-21T05:36:00.000+00:002016-03-21T05:36:00.893+00:00Book review: Rush Oh! by Shirley Barrett<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmDlc1Gj-USxtvXGdO1CPs2pZvkznhoNfo_0YZhC8UH-GsdZghshFn4XuJqMmY_d16Mg5Ca2l-q-ArUwchB8liL2HfwWTnDHlAuC98j0IJBYQxMxlODRdVOjPllM3BxANXQADpF788mKY/s1600/Rush+Oh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmDlc1Gj-USxtvXGdO1CPs2pZvkznhoNfo_0YZhC8UH-GsdZghshFn4XuJqMmY_d16Mg5Ca2l-q-ArUwchB8liL2HfwWTnDHlAuC98j0IJBYQxMxlODRdVOjPllM3BxANXQADpF788mKY/s320/Rush+Oh.jpg" width="208" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How entertaining can a novel about a whaling family in a tiny community in Australia be? The answer, I was pleasantly surprised to learn while reading Shirley Barrett's debut <i>Rush Oh!</i> is very.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Mary Davidson, the oldest daughter in a whaling family in New South Wales, chronicles the difficult whaling season of 1908. Drama, misadventure and first love all feature in Mary's telling, as do a pod of whales who align themselves with Mary's father and his crew of whale hunters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">First off, I didn't expect this novel to be funny, but it really is. It's full of little laughs, and that's all down to the wonderful protagonist. Mary's retelling of the season of 1908 is charming, her voice a little like a grown up Anne of Green Gables. Mary is slightly naive, and wonderfully forthright in most things. Her honesty about her family, about the people in her community, and about her feelings for John Beck, the newest recruit in her father's crew, is by turns poignant and hilarious, and always straightforward even when nothing else in her life is. <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Mary is an optimistic, lively, independent female, who very rarely lets life bring her down.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><i>Rush Oh!</i> is primarily a story about family, even if that family is not always conventional. There are the Davidsons - Mary, her father George, her siblings, and their various animals. There is also the family of whalers, an extended part of the Davidson family. The whalers spend the season living with and being fed by the Davidsons (food is very important to the whalers), and though some of the men are blood family to each other, during the whaling season they are first and foremost members of the Davidson family.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The most unusual family is the pod of whales, led by Tom, who help George and his whalers capture other whales. We're introduced to Tom and company pretty early on, and I confess, for a few paragraphs I found myself very confused as to whether these characters were humans or whales, Barrett imbues them with that much personality. The whales have distinct characteristics, and the way Mary talks about them and their faults and their good points, they are at times just like any of her other siblings.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><i>Rush Oh! </i>is also a story about love, and Barrett captures the heady feeling of falling for someone for the first time really well. John Beck is a mysterious character, an ex-church minister who wants to explore whaling. He is sweet and charming, but is also clearly hiding something - at least, it's clear to the reader. For Mary, in the midst of her first crush, she thinks John's behaviour is largely because he can't make up his mind about her, or because he doesn't want to get on the wrong side of her father.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">For all its sweetness and light, <i>Rush Oh!</i> is also dark and spares no details when it comes to the scenes of whale hunting. Death, blood, the taking of a life, is never skirted around, and we graphically hear how whales are chased around the bay, how they are hit with harpoons, tied up, how their bodies sink and are attacked by other whales, and how they are then cut apart and parts sold. And we hear how the whole act of capturing a whale was a spectator sport, with bloodthirsty villagers lining the cliffs to shout encouragement to George and his crew as they chase a whale. The details are not for the weak-hearted reader. They are brilliantly realistic and prevent the novel from becoming too saccharine. The minutiae Barrett goes into is fascinating, and a showcase of just how much a whaling community knew about whaling and how invested they were in every part.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><i>Rush Oh!</i> is an engaging, fun, sweet, funny novel about life and love, family and work. It has a tough protagonist, who you will very quickly fall in love with, and who can take her place alongside Anne, Emma and Elizabeth as one of the most endearing characters in literature.</span></span></div>
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Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-25302295636538546212016-02-08T06:08:00.000+00:002016-02-08T06:08:03.342+00:00Book review: Not Working by Lisa Owens<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Many people spend the majority of their waking time working, so you want a job where you're happy, and challenged, and where you feel like you're making a difference.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But what if your work just isn't living up to expectations? (If my boss is reading this, I love my job, we're not talking about me here.) If your work isn't working for you, if you don't have an answer to the question 'what do you do?', what, well, do you do?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In Lisa Owens' <i>Not Working</i> Claire Flannery quits her unsatisfying job, determined to grow as a person and ultimately find her calling. But instead of getting ever closer to finding out what it is she wants to do, Claire finds herself distracted with all the little and big things in life, from how to deal with an infestation of buddleia to a death in the family that leads to a breakdown of the relationship between Claire and her mother, to accepting her best friend's (seemingly personality free) new partner.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Everyone knows a Claire, or is a Claire, making <i>Not Working</i> a relatable read when it comes to the issue of work, and what we do (or don't do). Claire has free time, and freedom to pursue what she wants, which seems fine in theory. But when she is faced with friends who all seem to be happy and fulfilled with work, it's difficult for her to see the joy in her situation. It's a classic case of the grass being greener on the other side.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Owens is a star when it comes to observing the minutiae of life, and most people will find something in the book that makes them say: "Oh, I do that." For me, it was this tiny tidbit:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Not proud of the fact that when crossing the road, I use fellow humans as a buffer from the oncoming traffic, but there it is: that's the sort of person I am.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yep, that's me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">But while I enjoyed the overall experience of the novel, I fully connect with <i>Not Working</i>, and I didn't feel deeply invested in Claire, who is in a comfortable enough financial situation that she can give up her job, who has a kind and loving boyfriend who's a doctor, whose family is fairly middle-class. Sure, she isn't happy in her job, but she's also not spending all day on her feet doing 12 hour shifts in a fast food outlet to make ends meet. It sometimes felt a little hard to sympathise with Claire<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"> (</span>who is privileged in many, many ways<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">)</span> especially when she found herself in trouble, because that trouble was mostly of her own making.</span></span></div>
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Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-67674884632628023142016-01-10T19:58:00.000+00:002016-01-10T19:58:18.199+00:00Book review: The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">On the day he retires two things happen to Inspector Chopra. The first is that a young man is found dead, his death dismissed as an accident by Chopra's colleague. The second is a little more unusual - Chopra gets home to find he has inherited a baby elephant from his uncle. And so begins <i>The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra</i> by Vaseem Khan.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A lively, dark novel, </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra</i></span></span> is hugely fun to read and full of charm. At its centre is a murder mystery, with Chopra finding himself in more and more danger as he gets closer and closer to the truth. But it's not the crime element, as brilliantly executed as it is, that makes this novel such a joy. It's the way Khan explores what a man does with his life after the thing that takes up most of his time - work - is no longer taking up that time. Khan shows the fear Chopra has of going from respected police inspector to irrelevant old man, and he does it with humour as well as sympathy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Part of the humour comes, of course, from Chopra's relationship with the baby elephant - Ganesha. But Ganesha is no comic sidekick. Instead, the relationship between Chopra and Ganesha is touching, and the two teach each other things - the elephant teaches Chopra he is still needed and valuable, and Chopra shows Ganesha how to trust and love. It sounds strange to be talking about a man and an elephant, but the relationship is as strong as any detective and their human sidekick.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">There is plenty of other humour in the book, mostly from Chopra's wife, the fierce and intelligent Poppy, and her battles with neighbour Mrs Subraminium. I love that we laugh along with most of the characters, and not at them (apart from in the case of Mrs Subraminium). As well as humour, Poppy is also the person who brings a bittersweetness to the novel. Chopra and Poppy have no children, a point of sadness between the couple, who otherwise are deeply in love. Khan sensitively handles the plot point, without taking obvious or easy paths out.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">My favourite thing about <i>The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra</i> is its setting. Taking place in Mumbai, we travel through the city with Chopra, and are caught up in the heat, the smells, the sounds. Khan's descriptions of Mumbai are beautifully done, and make you feel like you're right in the middle of the city. Mumbai, after Chopra, is the other protagonist in this book.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Combining characters coming to terms with the passing of time, a compelling murder mystery, an unusual policing combo, and a fabulous setting, <i>The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra</i> is an engaging, irresistible novel that ticks all the crime novel boxes you had, and ones you didn't know existed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">How I got this book: From the publisher, Mulholland Books. This did not affect my review.</span></span></div>
Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-61143370159047070782016-01-02T10:50:00.000+00:002016-01-02T10:50:14.925+00:00Book review: Sofia Khan is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sofia Khan has had it with men. She thought she'd found the one, but it turned out he wanted her to move in with his parents (sort of, next door but with a hole connecting the two houses) after they got married, so now Sofia has given up. Or she thinks she has - when she accidentally pitches a book about Muslim dating to her boss, Sofia finds herself having to examine love, life, family, and go on a few weird dates all in the name of research.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ayisha Malik's <i>Sofia Khan is Not Oblige</i>d is brilliantly funny, and put me immediately in mind of Bridget Jones, albeit a more up-to-date version with a Muslim protagonist. Malik's book is full of fun, and if I wasn't smiling with Sofia, I was usually laughing with her. The first truly laugh out loud moment came just pages in, when Sofia, after being called a terrorist by a Tube passenger, leans out the doors to shout: "Terrorists don't wear vintage shoes, you ignorant wanker!" It's the kind of comeback that is both clever and a bit silly, and <i>Sofia Khan is Not Obliged</i> strikes a balance for its protagonist between both those qualities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>Sofia Khan is Not Obliged</i> is a love story at heart, but not just one about romantic love (although of course Sofia's journey to finding, or not, a man is a large part of the novel). Instead, the best bit (not that I don't love the romance, or lack thereof sometimes) of the book is the relationship Sofia has with her family - mum, dad and sister Maria - and her best friends - Hannah, Foz and Suj. Every scene involving Sofia's family and friends is infused with warmth (even the desperately sad ones), which makes the novel a joy to read. From the scenes with Sofia's mum and dad bickering to Foz, Suj and Sofia giving Hannah advice about whether or not to marry a man who already has a wife (!), <i>Sofia Khan is Not Obliged</i> is full of moments we can all relate to (ok, maybe the married man not so much, but we've all definitely given friends advice about love).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">That <i>Sofia Khan is Not Obliged</i> has a Muslim protagonist is unusual, but it's not weird. Sofia is likeable, mouthy, she swears, she procrastinates, she is, in essence, just like any other 30-year-old woman looking for love in London. It's just that she wears a hijab and prays five times a day as well. Malik is brilliant at folding Sofia's religion into her everyday life and making it completely normal, thereby avoiding turning <i>Sofia Khan is Not Obliged</i> into an issue book.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's refreshing to see something like <i>Sofia Khan is Not Obliged</i> being published - books giving a slightly different perspective on life but showing how alike people of different religions and ethnicities are in their experiences. More importantly, it's great to read something as witty and fun and human as <i>Sofia Khan is Not Obliged</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How I got this book: From the publisher, twenty7. This did not affect my review.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">•<i>Sofia Khan is Not Obliged</i> is released in paperback in the UK on January 16, 2016. </span></div>
Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-8600137369077810982015-12-30T11:29:00.001+00:002015-12-30T11:29:42.686+00:00Best books of 2015<div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So many books, so little time. Luckily, I did have time to read these 12 brilliant books, my favourites of the year...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><i>All Involved</i> by Ryan Gattis</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This is one of the first 2015 releases I read, way back in September 2014, and it is still without doubt one of the best books of the year. Raw, unflinching, without a speck of judgement, Gattis' brutal fictionalisation of the days following the LA riots is just so good.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><i>Headscarves and Hymens</i> by Mona Eltahawy</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This book made me sad, and it made me angry, and I am beyond happy that I read it. A blistering indictment of how women are treated in the Middle East, Eltahawy's book is a must-read for anyone even vaguely interested in equality.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><i>Sophia</i> by Anita Anand</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A biography of Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, goddaughter of Queen Victoria, it's difficult to believe that 1) this isn't fiction, and 2) that, until Anand, no one had really told Sophia's story is great detail before. Gripping stuff.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><i>A Brief History of Seven Killings</i> by Marlon James</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">An utterly worthy winner of the Man Booker Prize, James' novel is a portrait of Jamaica in the 1970s, a study of gender roles, an exploration of gang culture, but above all a hugely engrossing tale.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><i>The Year of the Runaways</i> by Sunjeev Sahota</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Probably the most heartbreaking book I read this year. Sahota's novel of illegal immigrants in Sheffield is topical, but this book would have been as emotionally resonant in any other year.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><i>I Call Myself a Feminist</i> edited by Victoria Pepe, Rachel Holmes, Amy Annette, Alice Stride and Martha Mosse</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A call to arms for young feminists, this collection of essays shows the depth and breadth of feminism, and how it's not just a cause for straight, white, middle-class women.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><i>Life Moves Pretty Fast</i> by Hadley Freeman</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Anyone who dares to say films don't matter should read Freeman's study of some of the best (and worst) films of the 1980s and what they taught us about gender, race, relationships and more.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><i>A God in Ruins</i> by Kate Atkinson</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A masterclass in how to write a novel, <i>A God in Ruins</i> somehow succeeded in being better than its predecessor and companion novel <i>Life After Life</i>. Lucky us.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><i>The Ecliptic</i> by Benjamin Wood</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I felt like my brain had melted after I finished this novel, in the best way. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><i>The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra</i> by Vaseem Khan</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A fabulous start to a fun yet dark crime series, set in Mumbai. Also, one of the main characters is an elephant. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><i>One</i> by Sarah Crossan</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Told in verse, this tale of Siamese twins is stunning, beautiful and affecting.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><i>Asking For It</i> by Louise O'Neill</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Not just a novel, this is also an examination of consent, body politics and the failings of the legal system when it comes to sexual assault. A book I want to press into the hands of every teenager.</span></span></div>
Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-90067041543970343852015-12-07T05:57:00.000+00:002015-12-07T05:57:00.139+00:00Book review: All the Rage by Courtney Summers<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0H37CW5f2V2nlaoxI1ghNBaWQ3QUVcKgsHkFU8wYt78zL40eQOuWwHQhFSEdg6v89LFcVRgwUMPaAWx8q7gNElscEkp5NAerewNfoxDGzd_gk8N1jTA3rMgWjnI0rPhjQMSNA8uf8oHg/s1600/All+the+Rage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0H37CW5f2V2nlaoxI1ghNBaWQ3QUVcKgsHkFU8wYt78zL40eQOuWwHQhFSEdg6v89LFcVRgwUMPaAWx8q7gNElscEkp5NAerewNfoxDGzd_gk8N1jTA3rMgWjnI0rPhjQMSNA8uf8oHg/s320/All+the+Rage.jpg" width="211" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I have struggled and struggled with this review - I started writing it weeks and weeks ago (months actually) and I've written and rewritten paragraphs, deleted sentences and whole sections, and given up many a time only to come back a few days or weeks later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Because how do you review such a brilliant and brutal book like Courtney Summers' <i>All the Rage</i>?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Romy Grey wouldn't stand out from any other teenagers in her town if it wasn't for the fact that she accused the sheriff's son Kellan Turner of raping her. No one believed her, so now Romy takes refuge at her after school job in a diner where no one knows about her past. When a girl from her school goes missing, Romy suspects she knows what has happened, and she has to decide whether to take action to help, at the risk of becoming even more of an outcast.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Consent, justice and memory are all dealt with by Summers in <i>All the Rage</i>. We meet the tough, prickly, fierce Romy, and root for her from beginning to end. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Her every word and action shows someone who has survived and who is still fighting in small ways, even though she may think she's hiding away. Just getting up, going to school, going to work, interacting with people is a huge battle for Romy, but she does it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Summers captures how life changes in myriad small ways, as well as huge ones, after being sexually assaulted. There is Romy's constant suspicion about men, the way she has to physically steel herself before leaving the house. The most visual representation of Romy's attack is the way she <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">arms herself against others by choosing to wear blood red lipstick whenever she leaves the house - the lipstick is both protective armour, and a reminder of what she's been through, the red representing her anger and loss and the blood that was evidence of her assault. If her lipstick is spoiled, it means something has gone wrong, but as long as it's perfect Romy can face the world. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Perfection is something Romy is striving for throughout </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">All the Rage</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">. Of course, no one is perfect, regardless of what has happened to them, and </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">All the Rage</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> is the story of how Romy comes to realise she has nothing to make up for, that she doesn't need to strive for perfection, or to be afraid to trust people again, although of course the latter is an ongoing exercise.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A<i>ll the Rage</i> is an extraordinary book, and it comes at a time when discussions about feminism and consent never seem to be very far away. Reading it I felt angry and sad, yet also hopeful that such a book can exist to inform and inspire young girls to speak out and speak up, and not be ashamed of being a woman, or of ever thinking that they are at fault for an attack against them. Like Louise O'Neill's <i>Asking For It</i>, I want to press this book into the hands of young people everywhere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How I got this book: From the publisher, Macmillan Children's Books. This did not affect my review.</span></div>
Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-6551795709732314852015-11-29T18:00:00.001+00:002015-11-29T18:00:15.564+00:00A promise to read more ethnically diverse writers<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Here's why I love books - they can take you to different lands, introduce you to different types of people, teach you about things you never knew. Books are diverse, and I love them for it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So I was more than a little embarrassed to discover how undiverse the books I've read this year are when it comes to the ethnicity of their authors (there are lots of other kinds of diversity which are also missing in publishing, but I want to focus on ethnic diversity because it's of particular personal interest to me). I put together a list of <a href="http://girlreporter.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/summer-reads-nine-books-you-cant-miss.html">my top summer reads for 2015</a>, and all the authors on it were white. I didn't do this on purpose, and I only realised afterwards, once I'd read a critical piece about a best of summer reading list compiled by a newspaper. No one called me out on the lack of diversity of my list, but they should have. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I can make excuses, and say that I read the books I'm sent, and if the books I'm sent aren't authored by ethnically diverse writers, there's nothing I can do about it. I'll come to what I'm sent in a bit, but I refuse to let anyone else take the blame. I think, if we work in publishing, we all have a responsibility when it comes to increasing diversity in the industry, and as part of that we should be seeking out books by ethnically diverse authors, and calling people and organisations out when they display a lack of ethnic diversity (like author <a href="http://www.thebookseller.com/blogs/where-are-world-book-night-2016s-bame-writers-317041">Nikesh Shukla did here brilliantly when World Book Night revealed its all-white author list for 2016</a>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Which brings me to the publishers. I've been scouring publishers' 2016 catalogues for books I can request whose authors are ethnically diverse, and I've been left dismayed. One SFF imprint printed photos of each of its writers in its catalogue - all of them were white, all of them were men, most of them were middle-aged. Are you telling me that in a genre in which authors write about everything from space cowboys to demons to witches, there are no ethnically diverse writers? Another catalogue, which also had pictures of its authors, had not a single non-white face. Again, where are all your ethnically diverse writers, guys?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So here's my pledge for 2016: to make a conscious effort to read authors from a variety of ethnicities. That doesn't mean I'll stop reading books by white authors, I want to expand the ethnic diversity of the authors whose books I read, not strip one kind of ethnicity out for another. I will also make sure that I speak more about and recommend the good books I read that are by non-white authors. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And hopefully, I can do my little bit to make sure publishing is reflecting the ethnically diverse world we live in.</span></div>
Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-386340869136621642015-11-28T18:21:00.000+00:002015-11-28T18:21:43.531+00:00The inner monologue you have when you're getting a massage<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"My back is killing me, and my shoulder. I should get a massage. This is going to great, I deserve a treat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Massage day tomorrow! Wait, are <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">my legs properly waxed? I should make sure. What if I've missed a bit?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"What should I wear? I don't want to look like a slob, but I want to be comfortable.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"Should I moisturise before I go? I mean, the masseuse will use massage oil, but I don't want her thinking I'm an adult who has never met a tub of body butter in her life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Okay, here I am, I can do this. No reason to feel uncomfortable. Just get undressed and get under the towel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"This doughnut thing I'm supposed to out my head on is weird. But I <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">feel comfortable, my head is balanced correctly, it's all good. I should get one of these at home.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"Oh, I hear the masseuse coming back into the room. Does she think I'm lying down weirdly? It'll be fine, I'm sure it's all normal.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"Ouch, the masseuse's hands are cold, but don't flinch too much, don't make her think you're uncomfortable. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"Alright, this is fine, this is good, I'm rela...ouch! That hurts. Should I mention it hurts? It's supposed to hurt a bit though, right? I mean, my shoulders aren't immune to all the crap I carry round in massive bags all day. Okay, this is actually pretty uncomfortable. I'm going to say something. I'll say it now. Oh no wait, she's moved on to the other shoulder. I don't need to say anything now. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"Ok, I'm good. I mean, my neck has a little crick in it from this doughnut thing. If I move slightly, is that okay? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I moved, it's ok. But now I have an itch on my nose. Am I allowed to scratch it? I hope it goes away. It'll go away right?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"She's moved onto my back. Does she think I'm fat? I've got loads of back fat. I should eat more healthily. I'll go and get loads of fruit when this is over.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"Oh no, she's moved on to my feet. My heels are so gross, it's the cold weather, that's the problem, that's why they're so dry. I hope she doesn't think badly of me. Should I book myself in for a pedicure as well?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"Arms, this is good. I'm relaxed now, I can enjoy this. Oh, it's over. She's telling me to drink water and, was that the door?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"How long do I stay here? It's pretty warm, what if I fall asleep? Okay, get dressed really, really fast. Right, pay and leave.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"That was stressful. I'm going home to veg on the sofa...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"Ouch, my back hurts. Should I book a massage?"</span></span></div>
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Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-14362329678519557602015-10-11T19:36:00.001+01:002015-10-11T19:36:19.596+01:00Book review: The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Refugee, migrant - two terms that are very politically charged, but how often do we think about the people behind these words?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sunjeev Sahota's <i>The Year of the Runaways</i> is fiction, but its subject is something that hits the headlines in the real world with alarming regularity, although with little of the nuance displayed in Sahota's novel.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tochi, Avtar and Randeep live in a cramped house in Sheffield. All are illegal immigrants from India, all spend their days working hard to make enough money to live, and all have very, very different stories, and reasons for seeking a better life in England. Born and brought up in London and seeking an escape of a different kind, Narinder finds her life tangled up with the three men in unexpected ways.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>The Year of the Runaways</i> very quickly identifies itself as one of those books that is going to grab you by your heart and not let go until the last page. It's emotional, heartbreaking, and about the best and worst of humanity. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The book moves between present day Sheffield and the backgrounds of its three male protagonists, so we see what brought them to the city. In the present day the men work their fingers to the bone, live in horrendous conditions, and always have the fear of being caught by the authorities hanging over them. That they choose the existence they do shows how desperate they are, and makes you sympathise with them, and that's even before you learn about their lives in India.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tochi is a man who everyone is prejudiced against because of an old caste system, Avtar is seeking an education and money to help marry the girl he desires and make something of himself, and Randeep seems to have it all but his circumstances mean he has to take responsibility for his family's future. <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">All three men have very different tales, but all are subject to injustice of some kind, and all their stories are equally moving. And all beg the question as to whether these men are migrants, or refugees - there's not a black and white answer.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">That's not to say that Sahota presents Tochi, Avtar and Randeep only as victims. All three men do unsavoury things or behave selfishly - one particular incident involving Randeep caused me to become angry at him, but Sahota creates such perfectly formed characters that I understood Randeep's state of mind and motivations, and I soon felt my sympathy for him return, although I never forgot what he did. We also see the three men change and grow - it's sometimes difficult to remember that these guys are only just into adulthood, they live such hard lives and have seen so much - and those changes and growth are largely for the better.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">And then there's Narinder, whose life is completely different from Tochi, Avtar and Randeep's. She grew up in safety and security, with a family who love her in their own way. She is deeply religious, and finds security in her faith. Sahota initially presents her as completely different to the three men, and at times indifferent to them and their way of life. But as we learn more about her, we realise there is something missing in her life too, something she's not even aware of at first. It's that realisation and search that leads her to Randeep, and then Avtar and Tochi. Arguably, it is Narinder who is affected most by her year in Sheffield, losing some things and finding others. She is the character I felt closest to, it's not just her gender that made me sympathise with her, but her search for more and her desire to be better.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><i>A Year of the Runaways</i> humanises the plight of those living hidden in society, those that we don't notice or choose to ignore, or give labels to that don't encompass their lives and experiences and humanity. It's a moving book, and a story that is told with care. And n</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">ot only is it a great novel, it's one that teaches us compassion.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">How I got this book: From the publisher, Picador. This did not affect my review.</span></span></span></div>
Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-15671267336947585802015-10-10T16:16:00.001+01:002015-10-10T16:16:20.806+01:00Book review: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In Jamaica in 1976 a group of gunmen stormed Bob Marley's house, and although the singer survived, the men were never caught.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This incident forms the centre point of Marlon James' stunning <i>A Brief History of Seven Killings</i>. In the novel, James fictionalises the build up to the shooting, and its long reaching aftermath, as seen through the eyes of gangsters, journalists, politicians, the CIA and more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>A Brief History of Seven Killings</i> isn't at all brief - my paperback edition is 686 pages - but it never feels like a long novel, and it was never a chore to read. It did take me a while, around 80 pages, to get used to the voices and the rhythms of the characters, especially the gang members who use words and phrases I was unfamiliar with but whose meaning I quickly guessed. Once I made a bit of headway with the book, it was easy going, and I flew through it, especially the last 300-400 pages.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">James is brilliant at building to the shooting of Marley, who is referred to as The Singer throughout the book, giving him an almost mythical quality. The shooting is almost mythical as well. I knew it was coming, and I just wanted to get there, but I also really enjoyed the build up and spending time with all the different characters whose world I had never been exposed to before. <i>A Brief History of Seven Killings</i> is told in first person with chapters alternating through a roster of characters, all with extraordinary stories and opinions and motives for doing what they do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">When the shooting does happen, James deals with it in an absolutely jaw-dropping way. I won't give too many details, but up until the point of the shooting I thought <i>A Brief History of Seven Killings</i> was a very, very good book. Once I read the day of the shooting, from the points of view of two characters in particular, this book was upgraded to phenomenal. James' skill at writing is evident, but that skill never ever gets in the way of <i>A Brief History of Seven Killings</i> being a brilliant story. Also dazzling is James' choice to have a 'narrator' who pops up after the significant killings, who is actually dead. It sounds completely wrong, but it works without issue.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>A Brief History of Seven Killings</i> is a very political novel - territory is important, as is the desire for a better life, and politics - whether that's through official channels or on the street - is important and a major motivator. But the thing that struck me the most as I read the novel is how James is describing what is very much a man's world. There are female characters, but we only hear directly from three (these three are brilliant, complicated women). The male gangsters largely see women as their property, although there are a few exceptions - the wives often get respect not afforded to anyone else. Mostly though, women are to be used and discarded, and violence against women is just a way of life. It's heartbreaking to read chapters in the first section from the point of view of Nina Burgess, who matter of factly deals with a terrible crime against her mother like it's nothing unusual. For me the treatment of women was one of the most captivating parts of a truly captivating novel, and the voices of Nina, Kim and Dorcas offer a counterpoint to and deeper insight into the actions of the men in the novel, and the consequences of those actions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>A Brief History of Seven Killings</i> is an epic novel, in size, in scope, in telling. It's impressive, and I'm in awe of James' talent, and I would urge everyone to read it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How I got this book: From the publisher, Oneworld. This did not affect my review.</span></div>
Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-81104189995899531032015-10-06T21:24:00.001+01:002015-10-07T06:39:03.969+01:00Book review: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Have you ever had to keep quiet about a book by an author you love? And when I say keep quiet, I mean you can't talk about its plot with anyone, or analyse the characters, or just gush about how amazing the author is.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's difficult, let me tell you. In the weeks since I read Rainbow Rowell's <i>Carry On</i>, I've sent one email saying how fabulous it is (to the publicist, I didn't break an embargo) and that's it. But now, the time is finally here, and I can write to my heart's content about Rowell's first official foray into fantasy writing (she has written Harry Potter fanfiction before).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Simon Snow is a Mage. In fact, he's not just any Mage, he's the Mage who will save all other Mages, even if he can't control his magic all the time, and is a bit clumsy, and hates, hates, hates his roommate Baz. And Baz? Baz is a bit mysterious, and from an old magical family, and he hates, hates, hates his roommate Simon. When Baz doesn't return to school after the summer holidays for his final year, Simon becomes suspicious that he's planning something evil, and with the Insidious Humdrum to fight, and a headmaster who isn't really talking to and helping him, Simon is in a whole heap of trouble.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If any of this sounds vaguely familiar, it's because Simon and Baz were characters written about by characters in Rowell's absolutely amazing book <i>Fangirl</i> (that novel speaks to me). In <i>Fangirl</i>, Simon and Baz were created by a fictional author called Gemma T Leslie, and then put into fanfiction by <i>Fangirl</i>'s protagonist Cath and her twin sister Wren.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But the Simon and Baz here are not those of <i>Fangirl</i>. These are Rowell's creations written how Rowell wanted, and not as Gemma, Cath or Wren drew them. It's best to think of this Simon and Baz as completely different to any previous Simon and Baz, so you don't need to have read <i>Fangirl</i> to understand or enjoy <i>Carry On</i> (but you should anyway, because <i>Fangirl</i> is stunning).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>Carry On</i> is a Chosen One story, although it's not your typical Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings (wonderful as those series are). Instead, it's heavily grounded in reality. Simon Snow is the Chosen One, but he's just a normal boy who's actually not particularly talented or special. <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">He just happens to have been given a title and is now doing his best to live up to it. And that's hard, because what teenage boy would feel comfortable having the weight of the world on his shoulders?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The spells in <i>Carry On</i> are also grounded in reality. Instead of made up words or Latin terms, the spells in <i>Carry On</i> are all phrases. Any phrase can become a spell, provided the spellcaster believes in the spell. So 'see what I mean' results in the knowledge the spellcaster has about a certain subject being written down (or in the air, as the case is). And the world that Rowell has created is nuanced and totally believable (even though magic and dark creatures don't exist, at least, not in my world).</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">And just like in real life, nothing is black and white. The Mage, the headmaster of Simon's school and Simon's mentor, is meant to be the good guy. But he's kind of shifty and a bit weird, not your typical authoritative wise mentor. And the old magical families, who dislike the Mage, aren't necessarily as evil as they are first presented. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">One of the best things Rowell does is tell <i>Carry On</i> from a number of points of view, giving us a rounded look at the world she has created. We hear from Simon and Baz, whose relationship is complicated and compelling, and who form the centre of the novel. They're very different, and also more similar than they can imagine. We also hear from Simon's best friend Penelope, who completely rocks, from someone very mysterious called Lucy, from The Mage himself, and from Simon's girlfriend Agatha, who could be a really drippy character, but is actually so complex, because all she wants is to be completely normal and that's the hardest thing to be in the world of mages. I love the equality in <i>Carry On</i>, it's diverse and its characters break stereotypes all the time, while remaining fundamentally human.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The charm of <i>Carry On</i> comes from its characters. Rowell is brilliant at writing great dialogue, at eliciting emotion, and at creating believable people who leap off the page and into your heart. The excitement of <i>Carry On</i> lies in Rowell's talent for creating tension and in her action scenes, which are far from usual for a fantasy novel. And the novel is also fun, and funny. There's plenty of humour, which is much needed and adds lightness to the novel, which can get pretty angsty at times (in the best way).</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">If this was Tumblr I'd be writing about how I have ALL THE FEELINGS because of <i>Carry On</i>. What the heck, I do have all the feelings about <i>Carry On</i> - it made me happy and sad and it made me laugh and brought tears to my eyes, it made my heart ache and my heart soar. It's a brilliant first (official) foray into fantasy for Rowell, and I really hope she writes more.</span></span></span></div>
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Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-20066302801804132472015-10-05T05:58:00.000+01:002015-10-05T05:58:00.287+01:00Book review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I adore Sarah J. Maas' Throne of Glass series, which features a complex, kick-arse heroine, lots of action and smart writing.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Her new series, which kicks off with <i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A Court of Thorns and Roses</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">, contains many of the same good points, but wrapped up in a new, original fantasy story.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When Feyre kills a wolf in the woods one day, she thinks nothing of it, glad instead to have killed what she thinks is a threat to her family. But the wolf she killed was no ordinary wolf, he was a faerie, and one of his friends, Tamlin, is determined to punish Feyre for her transgression. Tamlin takes her to his enchanted court, where she is free to roam but where threats lie around every corner. And as Feyre gets to know Tamlin better, she discovers he is no threat to her, but that his life and hers are in grave danger.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Feyre is the kind of heroine I like - noble, flawed, brave, headstrong, with plenty of faults. Maas writes her as capable and self-sufficient, but she's not able to do everything and not willing to accept help without protest, which makes her realistic. That realism is important in a book that otherwise is almost pure fantasy - that the characters have believable characteristics and are relatable and likeable means I'm far more connected to the book.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The world Maas creates is fully realised - there are lush descriptions of Feyre's surroundings, and a whole host of mythical creatures, plus a political system that sits at the core of the novel's conflict. I like that <i>A Court of Thorns and Roses</i> is not a traditional good vs evil battle. There are more grey areas than that and that's what makes it so much fun to read, and what makes the characters so interesting - often those who might seem bad actually have hidden depths, and those who seem good aren't so on the straight and narrow.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">There is some romance within <i>A Court of Thorns and Roses</i>, which isn't unexpected but which does fit well, and doesn't overwhelm the rest of the story. In fact, I actually really liked the romance aspect, because it challenges convention - instead of Tamlin going through a series of challenges and battles to save Feyre, it's the other way round. And those challenges and battles are brilliant - full of tension so that I had no idea who would triumph, as there was never any guarantee it would be the 'good' guys.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In <i>A Court of Thorns and Roses</i> Maas has created a dynamic, original, exciting fantasy novel. It's full of layers, great characters, and traditions flipped on their head, and it's the start of what is sure to be a fantastic series.</span></span></div>
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Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-29138773383055534662015-09-28T06:46:00.000+01:002015-09-28T06:46:00.057+01:00Book review: Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Everyone knows who James Bond is, or at least they think they do. The James Bond I know is the James Bond of the films, particularly those featuring Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig as the man with a license to kill.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But that James Bond - suave, smooth, likeable if a little angsty and high maintenance - is not necessarily the James Bond of Ian Fleming's novels. Granted, I've never read a Fleming novel, but by all accounts Anthony Horowitz's <i>Trigger Mortis</i> is a pretty faithful rendition of Fleming's character, and Horowitz seems the perfect person to write a Bond novel, having created a young spy, Alex Rider, who is kind of Bond junior.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In <i>Trigger Mortis</i> Bond is sent to Nurburgring to prevent SMERSH from killing a British racing driver. While there he becomes suspicious of a meeting between SMERSH and a Korean millionaire, Jai Seong Sin. Bond has to team up with the clever Jeopardy Lane to stop a plot that could destroy the western world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Horowitz's Bond isn't a pleasant person. He treats women badly (including Pussy Galore, who is living with Bond at the beginning of the novel), and while Jeopardy Lane is a feisty, independent heroine, she's still treated largely like an object by Bond. We do see Bond show some humanity once, when he hesitates before killing someone, but if anything that moment doesn't do him any favours, instead it just feels out of character, even if that character is unpleasant.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I found the start of <i>Trigger Mortis</i> fairly slow. We spend a lot of time hearing about and seeing Pussy Galore, again I think to show a softer side to Bond (at least briefly). I wasn't really interested in this aspect of the novel, and just wanted to get straight to the action.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Once it arrives, the action is brilliant. There's a great car chase (<i>Trigger Mortis</i> includes some original material by Fleming written for TV but never used, and that material is around the race track - I have no idea exactly what part it is because it fits in seamlessly), a glamorous party Bond has to make a quick escape from, and a climax that is as good as any adrenaline-fuelled ending to a Bond film.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>Trigger Mortis</i> is a good read, but I read it as more of an experiment, to try and find out about the literary Bond. It turns out he's not really a character I like, although Horowitz writes him very well. I think though, when it comes to Horowitz and spies, I'll stick to Alex Rider.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How I got this book: From work </span></div>
Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-72582414974682021122015-09-23T06:55:00.000+01:002015-09-23T06:55:00.433+01:00Book review: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">If you go by social media, Hanya Yanagihara's <i>A Little Life</i> is either the most amazing, emotional, poignant book ever written, or it's an ill constructed, ridiculous, far too long brick, and there is no in between.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Well, I'm here to say that I'm the in between. There are moments of <i>A Little Life</i> I think are sheer genius, where the beauty of Yanagihara's prose can't be denied, and then there are moments where I think the book is just full of holes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>A Little Life</i> follows four friends - Jude, Willem, JB and Malcolm - in New York after they graduate. The novel quickly focuses its beams on Jude, who is a powerful, brilliant lawyer, but who is deeply affected by an awful childhood which has left him scarred in numerous ways. As Jude grows older, he becomes more and more unable to let the demons of his past go.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yanagihara's novel is billed as the tale of four men, but really it's not. We soon lose sight of JB and Malcolm (especially Malcolm), who then only pop up occasionally, and often to serve a particular plot point before disappearing. Willem, who is far closer to Jude, continues to play a significant part in the book and in Jude's life, but I expected to be reading a book exploring male friendship, and what I actually read was a book about one man and how he connects, or not, with the people in his life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I got over the hurdle of not reading the book that <i>A Little Life</i> is billed to be, mainly because Yanagihara is so good at writing Jude, and Willem, and also Harold, the man who goes from Jude's professor to his adopted father. For all his many, many faults (which the other characters often seem blind to) I did love Jude. He can be bad tempered, and is completely irrational about many things, but he's also endearing and loveable, and I can see why he inspires such strong feelings from so many of his friends, feelings which are wonderfully described in the all too brief sections where we hear from Harold.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>A Little Life</i> is an emotionally draining book. I knew it wasn't going to be an easy read, but it's almost too difficult. Jude's horrendous past is revealed slowly through the course of the novel (which clocks in at more than 700 pages), and knowing that graphic detail about what Jude faced as a child was ahead made me often reluctant to go back to the novel. At times the detail was too much - I already felt horrified and disgusted by what Jude went through, the detail didn't do anything but make it more difficult for me to go on. Similarly, in the present time having to read in incredible detail some of the things Jude puts himself through was effective the first couple of times, but after being repeated again and again I felt numb.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I also felt there were big plot points that I couldn't buy into. One of them concerned Jude's past, and when it was finally revealed, I just felt like it was an unbelievable plot point, taken straight from a really bad horror movie from the 1970s written by a teenager who thinks over the top melodrama is the height of good stories. If that particular part of Jude's past had not occurred, I think the book would have been so much stronger, and I would have forgiven some of the other parts of the story I did not buy into - why Jude's friends, who love him so fiercely, fail to take action to help him time and time and time again; how Jude, JB, Malcolm and Willem all become so phenomenally successful; why Malcolm, who we barely know, is handled the way he is by Yanagihara.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But for its faults, <i>A Little Life</i> is an engaging book. It's not a happy one, but it is captivating, powerful and moving. Yanagihara is brilliant at capturing little moments of friendship and love on the page, and despite how difficult it felt at times to read this book, I am glad that I did.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">How I got this book: From the publisher, Picador. This did not affect my review.</span></span></div>
Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-72586506487464613572015-09-14T06:08:00.000+01:002015-09-14T06:08:00.185+01:00Book review: I Call Myself a Feminist: The View from Twenty-Five Women Under Thirty<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I call myself a feminist.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I call myself a feminist because gender equality is something we're still striving for even in 2015, because women are still judged and treated in different ways to men and those ways are often demeaning, because being compared to a woman or female characteristics is usually a way to insult someone.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>I Call Myself a Feminist</i>, edited by Victoria Pepe, Rachel Holmes, Amy Annette, Martha Mosse and Alice Stride, features essays by 25 women under the age of 30 on feminism. From writer and journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge on what men can do to support feminism, to student Maysa Haque talking about her Islam and her feminism, to author Louise O'Neill writing about her journey to feminism, the book is full of different perspectives on women, their power and their struggles.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It's the different perspectives that are key. I almost cried with joy when I saw the first essay was written by Hajar Wright. Could it be that this book was willing to include a non-white perspective? And as I read further, it became clear that there was more than one non-white perspective in the book, and that there was plenty of other diversity in the book too. The battle for feminism is one that affects all women, but women from non-white backgrounds, women who are not straight, women who are not middle-class, are often battling discrimination on two fronts, or more. Student Jinan Younis captures the subject perfectly in her essay Manifesto for Female Intersectionality, but intersectionality is addressed again and again throughout the book, and it made my heart sing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>I Call Myself a Feminist</i> is an important, powerful book that succinctly lays out why there is still a need for feminism. Its writers are brave, and its editors have curated a collection of essays that I want to press in to the hands of everyone I meet and say: "This. This is inspiring and needed and you should read it because it will help you understand the world and make it want to be a better place." We all still need to call ourselves feminists, and <i>I Call Myself a Feminist</i> tells you why.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">•<i>I Call Myself a Feminist</i> is released in the UK on November 5, 2015. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">How I got this book: From the publisher, Virago. This did not affect my review. </span></span></div>
Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8463855633465981220.post-63907470355969883972015-09-13T13:19:00.001+01:002015-09-13T13:19:27.047+01:00Theatre review: Kinky Boots at the Adelphi<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The most beautiful thing in the world... is a shoe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Or at least, that's what the opening number of <i>Kinky Boots</i> tells us, and I find it difficult to disagree after seeing some of the beautiful boots in the London production, currently on at the Adelphi Theatre.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Telling the story of a young man who takes on his late father's shoe factory, the drag queen he encounters, and the plan they come up with to save the factory by manufacturing a line of shoes for drag queens, <i>Kinky Boots</i> is fun, fabulous and feel-good, and I say that having seen it from the nosebleed seats at the Adelphi, so it must be glorious close up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The show features Matt Henry as Lola and Killian Donnelly as Charlie. Henry's role is louder and more in your face, but he brings a depth to Lola that makes you connect with her on a number of levels and he's able to make her quieter moments just as addictive to watch as her louder numbers. <i>Not My Father's Son</i> and <i>Hold Me In Your Heart</i> are both beautiful ballads, full of heart, and Henry sings the heck out of them.</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As the more staid Charlie, it would be easy for Donnelly to blend into the background and to let Henry's Lola steal the show. But Donnelly's likeability, and his voice, are endearing and powerful and your eyes are drawn to him as much as to Henry. The supporting cast all build out a world that you fully believe in and there's not a weak link among them, from the factory workers to Lola's rather amazing Angels, who have legs I am in awe of.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Of course, it's the music that is the real star of the show (brought off the page brilliantly by the cast). Cindy Lauper's songs are phenomenal, and ran the gamut from 1980s pop (<i>The History of Wrong Guys</i>) to heartbreaking quieter numbers (<i>Not My Father's Son</i>) to Whitney Hosuton style belters (<i>Hold Me In Your Heart</i>) to full on Broadway ensembles (<i>Raise You Up/Just Be</i>). The songs are moulded to each character perfectly, and the big numbers are just so full of joy and bring a smile to your face (and make you tap your feet and clap your hands and shimmy your shoulders).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Quietly backing up the music and the talented cast is a set design that is super clever, and that I just have to mention. Working most of the time with a cube structure, the cast use it alternately as the central space of the factory, Lola's performance space, and, ingeniously (with the use of the one of the Angels and their fabulous legs), as a boxing ring.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>Kinky Boots</i>' magic lies in the way it seems to be an in-your-face show with dazzling costumes, brilliant songs, and fantastic choreography, which would be enough. But it's also a show about human connection, about taking people for what they are, and about friendship. It draws you in with its sparkles and colours (and shoes), and before you know it it's got you by the heart. The most beautiful thing in the world, the show teaches you, is love. And the shoes are pretty great too.</span>Girl!Reporterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396148243207091507noreply@blogger.com0