I read this as a team book for a readathon this month. I had never heard of it, and learned some things about the Philippines I wouldn‘t have otherwise.
I read this as a team book for a readathon this month. I had never heard of it, and learned some things about the Philippines I wouldn‘t have otherwise.
Omg this is such a wonderful treat of a book! Such lovely characters… it centers in the titular siblings, and extends outward to include their complicated family dynamics, their partners/ex-partners, and the life challenges they face: relationships, finances, racism, mental health, etc. I want them to adopt me.
Perfect St Patrick‘s Day reading: three generations of an Irish family share a connection but are largely absent from each other. There‘s famous poet Phil, the patriarch who leaves his family, his stalwart daughter Carmel, and her daughter Nell, a twenty-something trying to find herself. Nell feels a deep connection with her grandfather and his work. I started the audio but connected much easier on the page and ended up loving this.
A well crafted story about grief and a family left behind. While I found it interesting that squash was at the center of this - and I learned a lot about the sport from the book and much googling - the characters where a bit basic, and overall the story a bit bland. Unfortunatly this is not a book that is going to stick with me. It was a quick an easy to get through read.
Read for the Women's Prize for Fiction Long List 2024
3⭐
I‘m sure I‘ve never read a story as masterfully told inside of 88 pages as this. My recommendation: Treat yourself to a master class in writing!
….Last month I unexpectedly hosted my IRL bookclub discussion on Small Things Like These. To prepare I watched several 30-90 minute YouTube videos about the book. Often, as much as the speaker liked STLT, they liked Foster even more and I thought, No Way. Then I read it.
…Updated thought, Way!!!
Bailing at 27% The writing is very pretty and I love generational family stories, however there are too many POV‘s and the non-linear timeline is very hard to follow. It may just my current reading tastes, so I may attempt at a future time.
This month is so the month of DNF‘s but chipping away at that #roll100 backlist! #hailthebail
Bereavement. War. Death. Families that teach us love and violence simultaneously. I loved this book to the core. Especially since it tells of what colonisers can do to the colonised so brutally, so factually, that it truly hits you in the face that, yes, this is what happened. To many.