Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
arlenefinnigan

arlenefinnigan

Joined September 2016

There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more.
blurb
arlenefinnigan
post image
25 likes1 stack add
review
arlenefinnigan
post image
Pickpick

This is a fascinating exploration of gender identities throughout history and across various cultures, challenging the idea that trans and gender-nonconforming identities are a modern ‘trend‘ or ‘fad‘. You may not agree with everything that Kit Hayem argues, but it‘s thought provoking and incredibly well researched.

28 likes1 stack add
review
arlenefinnigan
post image
Pickpick

This is a beautifully written memoir, and an enlightening insight into the LGBTQ+ Muslim community we're often led to believe doesn't exist. Lamya describes moving to the Middle East as a child then moving to the USA, how she draws strength from her faith, the pitfalls of dating/'not-dating', and of finding community where she can be her true self.

blurb
arlenefinnigan
post image

#lgbtqhistorymonth🏳️‍🌈

DimeryRene I love this cover!! 1mo
arlenefinnigan @DimeryRene it's pretty cool, isn't it? 1mo
25 likes3 stack adds2 comments
blurb
arlenefinnigan
post image
17 likes2 stack adds
review
arlenefinnigan
post image
Pickpick

This is as brilliant and funny as I hoped it would be. Rob Delaney is a superb writer, and hearing him relate his life story with brutal honesty (graphically and hilariously so when describing a range of bodily functions) is so enjoyable.

22 likes1 stack add
blurb
arlenefinnigan
He Used to Be Me | Anne Walsh Donnelly
post image

Book post is best post

Ruthiella It does give a little contact high, doesn‘t it? 👍 1mo
arlenefinnigan @Ruthiella absolutely! 1mo
21 likes2 comments
blurb
arlenefinnigan
post image

Next up

22 likes1 stack add
review
arlenefinnigan
post image
Pickpick

This is a brilliant book. A beautiful, vivid portrait of the visceral pain of grief, and of the joy of learning to love life again.

blurb
arlenefinnigan
post image
16 likes1 stack add
review
arlenefinnigan
Poetry for the Many: An Anthology | Len McCluskey, Jeremy Corbyn
post image
Pickpick

This is a brilliant collection. Powerful, radical, eclectic. There are a lot of classics that you'll probably be familiar with here (I don't recommend reading Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas in a cafe a week after you've watched a parent die btw) but, like all good anthologies, there were new discoveries that I want to follow up.

arlenefinnigan From Moss Side: For Morris by Carla Henry made me want to read more of Carla Henry's work and to find out more about Olive Elaine Morris, and Welling by Hannah Lowe is so evocative, I definitely need to read more of her work. And Jeremy Corbyn is a much better poet than you might think. (he is, shut up) 2mo
TrishB Great review 😘 2mo
arlenefinnigan @TrishB ta. Len McCluskey manages to mention Liverpool in every introduction 😉 2mo
30 likes3 comments
blurb
arlenefinnigan
Poetry for the Many: An Anthology | Len McCluskey, Jeremy Corbyn
post image

Sometimes poetry and vodka is the only thing that's gonna make you feel any better #BooksAndBooze

quote
arlenefinnigan
Poetry for the Many: An Anthology | Len McCluskey, Jeremy Corbyn
post image

Oof. This poem is hitting hard right now. My mum passed away last Saturday after being ill for a few months with lung cancer and my God, did she rage against the dying of the light.

TrishB Sorry to hear about your Mum 💔 take care. 2mo
arlenefinnigan @TrishB thanks, I appreciate it x 2mo
Dilara So sorry for your loss. These last few months can't have been easy too. 2mo
See All 17 Comments
Librarybelle So sorry for your loss 2mo
arlenefinnigan @Dilara thanks xxx yeah, it's been a very difficult time. 2mo
quietlycuriouskate Oh God, that's tough. I am so sorry. 2mo
Ruthiella So sorry to hear that. You have my condolences. ❤️ 2mo
arlenefinnigan @Ruthiella thank you x 2mo
Reggie I‘m so s sorry. 2mo
arlenefinnigan @Reggie thank you x 2mo
CarolynM I‘m so sorry, Arlene💕 I‘ve not been around much lately and have only just seen this. My mother has dementia which frequently makes her paranoid and aggressive. We have been thinking of it as her raging against the dying of the light. 2mo
Bookwomble So sorry to hear of your loss, Arlene ♥️ 2mo
arlenefinnigan @CarolynM I'm so sorry to hear that. Dementia's a horrible illness, especially for the loved ones caring for someone with it x 2mo
arlenefinnigan @Bookwomble thank you x 2mo
CarolynM Thank you. There‘s no good way to loose someone you love. 2mo
19 likes1 stack add17 comments
review
arlenefinnigan
Redundant Butties | Shaun Fallows
post image
Pickpick

Another brilliant collection from Shaun Fallows. Witty, honest, often funny reflections on the frustrations of managing in a world built for able bodied people, politics, loneliness, the forthcoming robot war, and the Rothwell incident. Thought provoking and good fun.
(by the way Shaun, rugby was NOT better when Wigan used to win the league every year, I sincerely hope those days aren't returning.)

blurb
arlenefinnigan
Poetry for the Many: An Anthology | Len McCluskey, Jeremy Corbyn
post image

Awwwww. I asked Andy to get me this but I didn't think he would, we're VERY opposite politically and he's not a fan of Jeremy Corbyn and Len McCluskey. All the best everyone, I hope you got the books you wanted xxx

Ruthiella Happy Holidays! It‘s lovely to get a book you really wanted. 3mo
CarolynM All the best to you too💕 3mo
arlenefinnigan @Ruthiella all the best! 3mo
25 likes1 stack add4 comments
blurb
arlenefinnigan
Redundant Butties | Shaun Fallows
post image

Next up

review
arlenefinnigan
post image
Pickpick

Oh God, this is such a beautiful, heartbreaking book. A visceral outpouring of grief and love.

blurb
arlenefinnigan
post image

New e-book from the library

23 likes1 stack add
blurb
arlenefinnigan
post image

New audiobook

15 likes1 stack add
blurb
arlenefinnigan
post image

Awful weekend again, but at least I finished three books and I get to start three new ones today. New week, new books.

Bookwomble Sorry to hear your weekend's been awful, Arlene. I hope the week picks up for you 💖 3mo
19 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
arlenefinnigan
post image
Pickpick

This is a sweet, charming retelling of A Christmas Carol. Good, heartwarming, festive fun.

review
arlenefinnigan
Elfie Season 3 | Gabrielle DuBois
post image
Pickpick

Oh, Elfie. So young, so feisty, so full of joie de vivre, but still so much to learn. This is another beautifully written, charming episode in her adventures with Angus King, and the illustrations are as beautiful as ever.

review
arlenefinnigan
Shuggie Bain | Douglas Stuart
post image
Pickpick

Oof. This is brilliantly written but my God it's bleak.

keithmalek I just finished reading "A Little Life" by Hanya Yananihara. Do your best! Nothing will faze me now. 3mo
Ruthiella True that! 😢 3mo
arlenefinnigan @keithmalek I've seen a lot a reviews comparing this to A Little Life! So beautifully written but so unremittingly bleak. 3mo
squirrelbrain A Little Life is worse IMO. 3mo
27 likes1 stack add4 comments
blurb
arlenefinnigan
post image

#ReadHarder challenge 24: a book you know nothing about based solely on the cover.

Birdsong28 You should read it!! It's really good. 📚📖 3mo
17 likes1 stack add1 comment
review
arlenefinnigan
post image
Pickpick

This is a brilliant memoir. Sylvia Patterson describes her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment in unflinching detail, and is brutally honest about how she felt, and how the pandemic made a horrible situation worse. She also reflects on the perspective the experience gave her, and her appreciation for her loved ones and the joys in life. Funny, moving, and a surprising amount of snooker chat.

blurb
arlenefinnigan
Elfie Season 3 | Gabrielle DuBois
post image

Next up

Tamra Love that illustration! 3mo
arlenefinnigan @Tamra the illustrations in the Elfie series are lovely. 3mo
18 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
arlenefinnigan
The World's War | David Olusoga
post image
Pickpick

This is a brilliant, wide-ranging book, telling the forgotten (or deliberately airbrushed) story of the millions of colonial and non-white troops who served in World War One, the patronising and racist attitudes they encountered, and how the backlash against them fed into the ideology and rise of the Nazis in Germany and the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan in the USA.

arlenefinnigan It's meticulously well researched, but David Olusoga's engaging (and often funny) style makes it really enjoyable to read. 3mo
25 likes1 comment
blurb
arlenefinnigan
post image

Next up

21 likes1 stack add
review
arlenefinnigan
The Woman in Me | Britney Spears
post image
Pickpick

This is a fascinating story. Having been celebrity gossip fodder for most of the 21st century, it's great that Britney Spears is finally getting to tell her own story. The emotional & financial abuse her family inflicted on her is shocking, and I've never understood how, if she was so unwell that she couldn't be allowed to see her kids or access her own money, she could be forced to work. Oh & Justin Timberlake and Kevin Federline are utter dicks.

squirrelbrain I just finished this about an hour ago and I agree with your thoughts entirely! 4mo
arlenefinnigan @squirrelbrain seriously, FUCK her dad. 4mo
Birdsong28 Totally agree with everything you have said. After I read it I just wanted to go give her a huge hug 🤗 📚📖 4mo
arlenefinnigan @Birdsong28 I know, I really want her to live her best life. 4mo
30 likes4 comments
review
arlenefinnigan
Chouette | Claire Oshetsky
post image
Pickpick

This is a remarkable, sinister book. As always with fantasy/magical realism, I struggled a bit getting my head round what was going on ("so is she hallucinating and/or mentally ill, or has she actually given birth to an owl baby?"), but it's brilliantly written and really gripping. A dark, unsettling parable of the violence and brutality and motherhood and caregiving.

Tamra I have this on my shelf - I‘ll bump it up! 4mo
Megabooks That is a gorgeous cover! 4mo
36 likes1 stack add2 comments
quote
arlenefinnigan
The World's War | David Olusoga
post image

Went to bed at 1.45am. Awake again at 5.45am. Looking after a sick parent must be what having kids is like.

The lack of sleep is probably why I found this sentence so unfathomably funny.

TrishB Hope all works out with your parent ♥️ it is very similar-I‘ve done both. 4mo
Balibee146 I've done both too, currently looking after an in-law with heart disease and dementia as well. It is similar to the 24/7 of childcare and can drain your wellbeing too on every front. Wishing you and your parent all the best. 4mo
CarolynM Yep, very like. I feel you, I am still reeling from being the aged carer and then the transition into residential care. Hope your parent‘s situation improves and that you get more sleep tonight💕 4mo
See All 7 Comments
CarolynM 💕 to you and your in-law too, @Balibee146 4mo
Balibee146 Thanks @CarolynM 😘 4mo
julesG Hope your parent feels better soon. Try to get as much as rest as possible. Remember the oxygen-mask information on a plane, you need to take care of yourself before helping others. And yes, I know it's hard to do when you're right in the middle of the situation, but keep it in mind. Care work is tough. 😘😘 4mo
Megabooks I‘m dealing with this too. Some days are hard. Sending hugs! 💕💕 4mo
18 likes7 comments
blurb
arlenefinnigan
Chouette | Claire Oshetsky
post image

Spooky Halloween read

18 likes1 stack add
blurb
arlenefinnigan
The Woman in Me | Britney Spears
post image

Next up

squirrelbrain I‘ve just started listening to this. Wasn‘t intending to, but it appeared on BorrowBox on audio with no-one waiting. The digital print copy is reserved until about May next year. 5mo
23 likes1 stack add1 comment
review
arlenefinnigan
post image
Pickpick

This is a really sweet, funny, quirky book. Highly recommend listening on audio because Jarvis Cocker is as lovely and charming as ever.

23 likes1 stack add
blurb
arlenefinnigan
post image

Next up

review
arlenefinnigan
post image
Pickpick

This is a beautiful, funny, moving book. Jo Caulfield gives an unflinching, heartfelt account of her sister's illness and death, and doesn't shy away from how inconvenient and intrusive grief is, and how difficult family relationships can be, as well as the joy of them. Part of the proceeds go to Macmillan Cancer Care so you should definitely buy it.

review
arlenefinnigan
6A BLACKSTOCK GARDENS. | GERRY. POTTER
post image
Pickpick

This is brilliant, a heartfelt love letter to Gerry's family and the community he grew up in. It's viscerally evocative of both the unbearable grief and loss his family suffered in his childhood, and of the joy and camaraderie he was surrounded by. Made me dead homesick.

TrishB Oh this looks good! 5mo
arlenefinnigan @TrishB it's brilliant, you'll love it. Think News From Nowhere has it! 5mo
TrishB 👍🏻 Will have a look. 5mo
23 likes1 stack add3 comments
blurb
arlenefinnigan
post image

Next up

16 likes1 stack add
review
arlenefinnigan
The Girl from Krakow | Alex Rosenberg
post image
Bailedbailed

This just wasn't for me. The epic scope of the book is ambitious and the author has clearly done an impressive amount of research, but I found it difficult to follow and some of the writing was icky to be honest.

blurb
arlenefinnigan
The World's War | David Olusoga
post image
14 likes1 stack add
review
arlenefinnigan
Yellowface | R F Kuang
post image
Pickpick

Wow. This book is amazing. The protagonist, June Hayward/Juniper Song, is...... Quite something. Unreliable, complex, unlikeable and likeable and relatable and awful. And if you're a fan of a twisty plot, this is definitely the book for you. There is SO much going on here.

review
arlenefinnigan
The Trumpeter of Krakow | Eric P. Kelly
post image
Pickpick

This is a lovely charming book, both a gripping historical adventure and a love letter to the city of Kraków. Some of the descriptions of the characters are a bit (ahem) 'of their time' but it's also really beautifully written and illustrated. Given that it was written in 1926, and what Poland has suffered since then, the final line - "May it bring in an epoch of peace to all men!" - is heartbreaking.

arlenefinnigan Highly recommend reading this if you're visiting Kraków - I read it on the flight here, and after reading this, it was quite the experience hearing the trumpeter for the first time. 6mo
25 likes1 comment
blurb
arlenefinnigan
The Trumpeter of Krakow | Eric P. Kelly
post image

Pre holiday reading

quote
arlenefinnigan
6A BLACKSTOCK GARDENS. | GERRY. POTTER
post image

I hear you G

blurb
arlenefinnigan
6A BLACKSTOCK GARDENS. | GERRY. POTTER
post image

Yiirrss look who's here

15 likes1 stack add
blurb
arlenefinnigan
Shuggie Bain | Douglas Stuart
post image

Next up. Looks like an uplifting feel-good read. #BooksAndBooze #InappropriateHashtagForThisBook

Karisa 😬👏👏👏 6mo
Ruthiella Ooof! 😬 6mo
25 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
arlenefinnigan
post image
Pickpick

This is a brilliant collection. Gerry's poems evoke and reflect on the joy and pain of life in his unique Scouse voice. Me and my family are going through a really crappy time at the moment and this book was exactly what I needed. This is what poetry should be. Can't wait to read 6A Blackstock Gardens. #BooksAndBooze

squirrelbrain Sorry you‘re having a tough time. 6mo
arlenefinnigan @squirrelbrain ta. Life's life, innit x 6mo
Ruthiella ❤️❤️❤️ 6mo
25 likes3 comments
quote
arlenefinnigan
post image

"Love makes us God-sized,
loss bigger"
?

quote
arlenefinnigan
post image

I hear you G.

blurb
arlenefinnigan
post image

Next up

16 likes1 stack add