I'm usually a fan of Le Guin, but this just didn't do it for me.I found that the story suffered in the long explanations of the Aka world and philosophy.In retrospect, perhaps other people feel the same way about The Left Hand of Darkness, which I think is a masterpiece and I can't understand why anybody would think it's boring; but I find a world where no genders exist incredibly interesting and this world where there's spirituality but no ⬇️

A book about nice people trying to make their way into the world. Leonard and Hungry Paul are two friends that live their lives in a simpler kind of way, they are not very experienced in the world, but they have a clarity about how they see it that benefits everyone in their lives and the reader. Very funny and easy read.

Sethe is a runaway slave. Having sent her 3 kids before her, the youngest still breastfeeding, she gives birth to another daughter during her escape. A few months after reuniting with her family they find her, when she sees the dreaded white man approaching to capture them she kills one of her babies and tries to kill her other children to spare them the life of slavery. Years later the ghost of her daughter comes back in physical form and ⬇️

Maali, a war photographer, gambler and closeted gay wakes up in the afterlife after being murdered. He has seven moons to decide between going into the light or staying in this world with other ghosts who are trying to avenge their deaths. He is not as concerned with who killed him, all he wants is his photographs to see the light. I felt lost during certain parts, I knew nothing about Sri Lanka's history or culture and after reading the book ⬇️

It feels like two different books, one the trial of Maria for attempting to murder her abusive husband and the other the life of Lottie, one of the jurors that also lives with a controlling husband and starts to have feelings for Cameron, another member of the jury. Maria's part is a crime novel; Lottie's part seems like cheap romance novel, with too many descriptions about how Cameron's muscles look like in different clothes. ⬇️

First time doing embroidery, I feel like now I'm ready to twist my ankle and stay for a month in some neighbour's house that I happened to pass by at the time of the accident

Anybody else is reading Dracula in real time and imagining him like this cleaning and cooking every time Jonathan is not looking? #DraculaDaily

Like with all short story books, the review is a bit of a mix. I didn't enjoy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, I loved Head and Shoulders; The Cut-Glass Bowl and most of all Bernice Bobs Her Hair, the ending was my favourite part. I hated O Russet Witch!... Overall a good collection and being written by F. Scott Fitzgerald you can always find moments of absolute brilliance.

Such an adorable read, no wonder it's a classic. I loved all the characters and their little homes and laughed out loud more than once. The illustrations in this edition took the pleasure of reading the novel to the next level.

"You've disregarded all the warmings we've given you, you're getting us animals a bad name in the district by your furious driving and your smashes and your rows with the police. But we never allow our friends to make fools of themselves beyond a certain limit; and that limit you've reached." ??

Overall I enjoy the story, and I have to confess I didn't know anything about the Cyprus civil war and it was really interesting, I'm sure I'll look more into it. Despite loving magic realism and the way Shafak writes, I often found the parts told from the fig tree's point of view quite boring and I felt myself disconnecting and having to re-read them sometimes. I didn't mind the parts of the fig tree when they were relevant to the story, it was⬇️

On second thoughts...I might be a mole 🤔😅

Turns out my spiritual animal is a Badger, who would have thought!

It took me a bit to warm up to this, the fear for the "Antichrist" seemed so unfounded when he's just a kid and the rest of the house didn't seem concerned at all about anyone's safety specially the kids. Just think that people who work with kids must be more used to how they act up, especially when scared. In the end I loved everyone, it is, as one of the critics said "like being wrapped up in a big gay blanket". Feel sad that I have to leave ⬇️

Frankie, an octogenarian that broke her leg and is in need of a carer, finds in Damian, a fellow expat from West Cork, the care that she needs, maybe not physically but emotionally. Loved to hear about Frankie's life as she tells it and about the gay scene in London and NY, and all the art... the book feels well researched and I love Graham Norton's style. Perhaps jumping to the present doesn't feel as necessary, but I don't like Epilogues and ⬇️

This was my least favourite Forster. I didn't feel attached to the characters. I read his exchange of letters with another author in this regard, and although I understand Forsters motivation to not fully show us Philip from the beginning, it does create a disconnection between the reader and the character and by the time I got to know him I didn't care much for him. The descriptions of the settings,where Forster usually thrives, ⬇️

It's a long book and I wouldn't say it's an easy read.We follow the life of one disfuntional family,each chapter told from the perspective of one of its members, each written in a different style, so it really feels like different voices telling the story.I know some people didn't like the end, but I thought it was brilliant, reading it felt like suddenly a lot of little pieces that didn't seem particularly important fell into place and revealed⬇️

When I picked up this book I thought it was going to be a crime novel, after all the plot is about a journalist following the story of a food blogger that was convicted for killing 3 of her lovers. As I started reading it I found it slow and weird and that it seemed to be more about food and flavours. Eventually I realised that it's really about how the patriarchal Japanese society's expectations on women's position in society and their extreme ⬇️

This was a page turner, really flew through it. Oliver, a famous children book's author beats his wife up until she ends up in a coma. Some people who know him are surprised, some not at all. With each chapter we get the picture of Oliver told by different people reminiscing their experiences with Oliver from his childhood until the accidet. It's clear that Oliver is an asshole, the mystery is how much of an asshole he is.

Not as good as the first one because being a sequel it can't be as innovative, Gilead has already been invented. But a great sequel nevertheless. Although not as brilliant, it's easier to read than the Handmaid's tale, feels more like a novel. Follows the story of three different women: an Aunt; a girl that was raised in Gilead; and a girl that was raised in Canada, so we get to experience the fictitious estate from three different perspectives.⬇️

Alice is a brilliant Harvard Professor, wife and mother that has to face life with early onset Alzheimer diseased when she's diagnosed at only fifty years old. Alice's curse is the reader's blessing, there's no rush to move through the pages, to know what happens next, because sadly Alzheimer doesn't have a cure, doesn't have hope, you just have to enjoy every minute of consciousness until the darkness arrives. ⬇️

As always with Dostoyevsky a bit of an uncomfortable read, where the author makes you hate everyone, but this time I couldn't feel that I was empathising with any character, perhaps I'm now too old to relate to raw youths. At times it felt like the story was wandering aimlessly, but I flew through the last chapters. It is probably my least favourite Dostoevsky so far, but his worst work is still better than many other author's best.

Dickens is always such a comfort read, the way he writes just transports you to a different world where you feel that you really get to know the characters as if they were old friends. This book is the Christmas spirit in itself. My edition, a beautiful replica of the first print, recommends to read it out loud, and how great Dickens sounds! It really does make a difference, it's a story that was clearly written to be told.

This was awful. It's supposed to be a mystery, but I kept forgetting what Phryne was supposed to investigate. It's all muddled in non stop descriptions of her clothes, sex (without any eroticism) and comments of people admiring her? I'm surprised it has so many books in the series and even made it to the tv. I wonder if the whole book is just an introduction to the character and then the series improves...but let's be honest, I'll never find out⬇️

Amir and his father fled Afghanistan after the Russian invasion. Behind, they leave a comfortable life...and Hassan, the son of one of their servants. Amir and him were best friends, almost like brothers, despite Amir's frequent jealousy. One day their lives get shattered and both will have to learn how to live with what happened. Years later Amir receives a call and will have to decide if he can go back and find redemption.
⬇️⬇️

Re-reading Persuasion for the million time and my mind still gets like that every time Wentworth and Anne interact

It took me a while to go through this one, I only stuck with it because it was so small, but after finishing it, I don't think I learnt anything about the 1798 Rebellion. It just felt like a list of dates, names and battles. It could have benefited from explaining a bit more than with one line about who the characters were. I guess now I know how people who didn't have a good history teacher must feel during the classes.

Li-yan is part of the Ahka minority in China, they live in the mountains, harvesting tea and following their old traditions. As Li-yan grows up she ventures into the outside world,just as the outside world enters her village.

The theme sounded a bit heavy so I kept posponing starting the book but it turned out to be one of my favourite of the year.I loved it from the first page,the descriptions of the scenery left such beautiful vivid pictures⬇️

Like every collection of works there is a bit of everything, some are great, some are meh, but being one-act only even the ones that are not good don't drag for too long. The introduction to the book outlining the history of one-act plays as well as the introduction to each play were great; and I appreciate the fact that each play is a different genre to show how versatile one-act plays can be in so little words.

One of my #24in2024 with @Jas16

Finally managed to find a pretty enough edition of In Search of Lost Time. Definitely going to be one of my 2025 reading projects 🥰

I read this thriller as a teenager, found it in my parents bookshelf one summer and couldn't put it down. I lent it to someone never to see him or the book again, my parents couldn't remember reading or buying the book and I forgot the title. A couple of years ago in a second hand bookshop in the middle of nowhere in Patagonia I recognised the cover and bought it. ⬇️

A fictionalised story of one of the school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram. I knew this was going to be a difficult read, but I really struggled. The fist third of the book feels like a collection of gruesome stories about what extreme misogyny and religious fanaticism can take us. It makes difficult to connect with the character since there's no personal details outside the horrors that she's enduring. ⬇️⬇️

The novel follows three spheres that are intertwined: Mr Grandgrind is deep down a good man, but he only believes in facts and not feelings and tries to raise his kids accordingly...with totally forseeable consequences; his friend Mr Bounderby is a banker and manufacturer devoid of feelings who has problems with Unions and recognising employment rights; and Stephen Blackpool is on of Bounderby's employees that has a difficult life. ⬇️

Just keep in mind these fairytale retellings are not for kids, they are the stories of a survivor that sees them through the prisma of abuse. They tell stories of domestic abuse, rape, alcoholic parents, eating disorders... Let the evil that abusive men throw into the world come back to hunt them, in the form of a princess warrior that defeats them, or in the form of a villain that has been broken too many times and seeks revenge. ⬇️

I read this one for a book club and started it late,so I had to rush through it and it was a pity because it's kind of slow and I feel it would have benefited even more of a paused reading.Follows the life of Daisy Goodwill, from her birth until her death. Each chapter in a different style, narrator, autobiography, epistolary, different PoV...The writing is really great and it does get into the details of a very ordinary life in such a vivid way⬇️

Still fun, still fresh, the ex boyfriend with vegan powers is one of the funniest ideas I've ever read. Really enjoying this series and will continue with it.

"To a parent, your child wasn't just a person: your child was a place..." THIS ❤️

Shakers Heights is the perfect community nothing bad ever happens there, it is embodied by the flawless Richardson family. When Mia and her daughter arrive and the two families intertwine we find that all that glitters is not gold.

The novel explores themes of motherhood, family, privilege and race. The fight for the custody of an Asian baby between the foster white parents and the biological mother provides a very interesting discussion.

The heroine of our story, a shy poor young girl, falls in love with Maxim de Winter, a rich widower double her age. They marry shortly after and return to his mansion, Manderley. There, the presence of his late wife, Rebecca, is ever felt and still influences everything and everyone. Little by little we learn the details of her life and mysterious death.
This was amazing,the writing is so immersive,the atmosphere so dark that even when there's ⬇️

What can I say about the queen of the murder mystery, all the clichés are here, but she created them. Hastings is a bit of a simpleton which gives us some funny moments and it's interesting to see Poirot's first case, also it has drawings with layouts of the room and the house, always a plus for me. You won't find any depth in the story, but if you grabbed an Agatha Christie book you weren't looking for it, just to be entertained.

This was an interesting read, I read Melmoth the Wanderer some years ago (the book that inspired this one), and I think the idea is much better executed here. There's a lot to be said about how the obsession with appearances and staying young forever is so relevant today, but so much so that there's no need to get into that. The dialogues were a bit too witty, seamed unbelievable because everything the characters said was so profound ⬇️

A wild ride. First a lot of things happen in very little time, before he reaches the island; then nothing really happens for ages, is basically Bear Grylls telling you how he survives in the wild, but I'm not sure that Defoe had any experience (this is actually a compliment, I enjoyed this part). When Friday comes in there's a bit more happening, some good reflections but overall too much religion. Then suddenly the amount of people coming ⬇️

I'm trying to catch up with this, just have to say that if I had a dog, that's all I'd write about in my diary. I WOULD NOT write about building a table instead.

(Picture of detector dog Jack that I saw the other day on the news and fell in love with cause he's obviously such a good boy)

#RandomClassics @TheAromaofBooks

My husband bought me this little book store for my birthday, it took me a couple of hours to set it up but it was great fun doing it 🥰

We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom.

We lived in the gaps between the stories"

"We're designed to enjoy it," Tilda had said. "Not to avoid it or endure it. Enjoy it, just like them"

Clitoris, Nature's reminder that women are also supposed to enjoy sex, not to be here just for the pleasure of others. That's why some societies cut it off before little girls have a chance to discover it. Use this post as reminder to unashamedly enjoy yours ❤️

I was reviewing extracts of Middlemarch.What makes it such a great book is the layers on every character.Dodo for example,choses Casaubon because she appreciates his intelligence and wants to better herself,but also almost out of certain vanity,like she wants to show the world how different she is,how little she cares about appearances.Her character develops through suffering the consequences of her choices,but there's vanity in her martyrdom. ⬇️

To me, Lord Henry is the most unethical character of the book, but "One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner" is quite a good ethical rule to follow.

Robinson is rescued by a Portuguese ship,with the help of the captain he sells all his possessions(which apparently includes his friend xD)and settles in Brazil where he has a prosperous plantation.After his first trip almost ended in death;and the second captured and made a slave; he makes the OBVIOUS decision of going for a third trip to buy slaves for other people. I'm happy he is now in the Island cause I can't cope with his decision making

This chapter with the weird unidentifiable beasts, and the lion swimming to the boat to attack them got me so confused 😂 It made me think about that theory that says that unicorns were just badly described rhinos

#RandomClassics @TheAromaofBooks