On my first book binge of the season I’ve told myself I’m opting for the book equivalent of a rom com but, this book gave me so much more. Jo Jo Moyes transported me to a mining town in Kentucky where readers watch a young Englishwoman, Alice, learn what love really is. As she becomes …
Continue reading The Giver Of Stars: How books unlock minds and help change the narrative
Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein was the perfect transition book for me this October. Going from a classic-based MA Dissertation on Mary Shelley’s original masterpiece, Winterson’s piece continued the conversation she started centuries ago and gave it life in a new, 21st century setting. Despite the introduction of Shelley’s real-world snippets in this dual-narrative novel, I don’t …
Continue reading If you don’t understand it, it doesn’t make it wrong: A Book Review of Frankisstein
Having previously read Salman Rushdie’s other titles his signature personality runs through this book in just the same way, sometimes almost in an overpowering way. As I first opened this text I really wanted to love everything about it, I felt honoured to be able to read it early and wanted to be able to …
Continue reading Salman Rushdie’s ‘Quichotte’: a jumbled metafiction
In my family a saying we’ve grown up with is, “you’ve got to laugh, or you’ll cry.” Ricky Gervais’ After Life 2 felt like a true embodiment of that mantra: within the space of ten seconds a single scene had me hysterically crying (and I mean like pet-lip trembling, tears streaming, sob holding cry) and …
Continue reading “Don’t wallow, it’s addictive”: Why You Need To Watch After Life 2
Cathy Rentzenbrink's Dear Reader had me inset with nostalgia from the first chapter. She takes us, the dear reader, on a somewhat whistle-stop tour of her life simultaneously going both from memory to memory whilst taking us from book to book. We feel her confidence bloom from page to page as she goes from being the …
Continue reading ‘Dear Reader’: A Nostalgic Echo of an Introvert’s Love Of Books
Emma Gannon’s debut novel Olive initially felt like she had taken a microscope to look at my thoughts and had wrote her findings in book form. From the recognisable references of using outlets like Instagram as a way to busy your mind and reflect the day you wish you were having, to the ever-bearing new …
Continue reading “Olive”: That childhood novel we didn’t write
Modern day women can feel a pressure to detach themselves entirely from everything they admired about fairytales when they grow up; to feel that striving for a happy ever after is unrealistic and just a product of the world they were brought up in. Andrea Blythe's 'Twelve' is an accessible, enjoyable read that brings to …
Continue reading Andrea Blythe’s ‘Twelve’ and the retelling of the heroine’s fairytale
Disclaimer: there are spoilers! If you are anything like me or my boyfriend learning there’s a new, weird Netflix show about an obscure, crazy serial killer is like Christmas coming early. After following an insistent recommendation from a friend, we booked tickets to Jennifer Rees’ lecture on The Psychology of Serial Killer and wow wow …
Visiting Edinburgh for the Christmas markets has become quite the tradition for my boyfriend and I (can you call something a tradition when you’ve only done it twice?) yet, we like to make each visit to anywhere as least repetitive as we can. After a, for the lack of a better word, crappy couple of …
Continue reading Edinburgh: a hilly city just so you can burn off all the good food?
Whilst sat tackling (or attempting to) my latest University essay deadline I clicked play on a pre-made playlist of "mellow" songs I hoped would lead to minimal distraction. I put on my headphones to shut out the world, or more importantly the sound of my boyfriend's Xbox, and became immersed in each calming melody that …
Continue reading The Most Emotional Song I’ve Heard All Year
Like An Open Book 