Posted on October 26, 2024 in Books
A Witch’s Guide to Burning by Aminder Dhaliwal
A very good graphic novel about a young headstrong witch who was burned at the stake by her village. This graphic novel was very well illustrated but it felt more like a traditional novel than most of other graphic novels. There is a lot more text and in depth character and relationship work. I liked the themes of healing, time, and friendships.
October 7, 2024.
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall
Narrated by the author. This is a book of feminist essays. It is specifically written about how mainstream white feminism overlooks the struggles of many women of colour. I was not the audience for this book. It’s written more to educate white feminists and even though I am not BIPOC, I was already more familiar with the topics covered. The essays were written from an anecdotal point of view rather than more research based.
1.5-1.75x. Oct 7-10, 2024.
The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoughue, Tara Flynn (narrator)
Listened to a lot of this audiobook in tandem with the ebook. I adored the narration. Great job by the narrator.
This has been on my list since last year as it was buzzy even from Holly Gramazio who wrote The Husbands, the other contemporary novel which I adored earlier this year. After Colm Toibin’s Long Island and now this one, I should probably add “Irish people having messy relationships” to my wheelhouse. I really liked this book from the beginning and the ending was very satisfying that it shot up to being a novel that I adored. The book was set in 2009-2010 Ireland during the Great Recession. While I have different personality and background to the characters, I was the same age and a lot of this book resonated with me. The novel reminded me deeply about that era. That terrible time where I had an expensive education and could not get a consistent job. The author did a great job with the time setting especially the emotional upheaval of having a broken heart in your early 20s while also not having any work. This book had a wry and funny Irish tone which is why I loved the audiobook. I did have to stop listening to it in tandem right before the climactic scenes. The book builds up a tangled extramarital affair. As in Long Island, I knew it would end in a lot of drama. It made me tenser here though. I realize that the journey to these peaks was great because the character work is so well done.
I really enjoyed the characters and the writing for personal reasons. I am really glad I read such an interesting reflective contemporary novel. It often feels like a lot of the books that I read are removed from my own life and experiences. It’s been a long time since I’ve related so much to a novel. It felt the closest to my own life experiences even though I am different to the characters except maybe not really. I even knew the road that Rachel first lived in London. I lived one road over. I do not remember reading a novel that echoed my own memories and feelings of a time so well.
1.5-2.0x. October 7-11, 2024 on Kobo Mini and Kobo Libra 2.