Micro Review 4 (2023)

 

Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin (Fourth Estate)

This book has been longlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize and while I don’t have time to read the whole longlist this one really leapt out at me and I am so pleased that it did.

To my shame the Vietnam War is not something I know a lot about, in fact I think I know more about the end of French rule in Indochina than I do about the American conflict, and the fallout through the 1970s and 1980s (and most of this comes from the musical Miss Saigon which is not a great admission).

Wandering Souls  is told in many voices but all of them relate to the story of siblings Anh, Thanh and Minh as they flee Vietnam in one of the small boats first to Hong Kong and then the UK. To say much more will spoil the way the book unfolds and I really wouldn’t want that to be the case as I loved it so much.

It is a shortish book but one that punches well above its weight in many ways and at more than one point I was in tears as well as reaching for my phone to research more about the things mentioned. It opens up so many things to talk about, and I also liked the exploration of intergenerational trauma which I’ve read a lot about regarding the Holocaust but hadn’t thought about in regards to other conflicts.

I also came away really wanting to try some of the food that is eaten in the book but this feels a very shallow response to such a great book.

Kentish Book Boy returns - part four

 

SkyWake Invasion by Jamie Russell (Walker Books)

Synopsis:

Casey Henderson – aka CASEY_FLOW – is obsessed with online team shooter SkyWake, which has taken the world by storm. The Ghost Reapers are a high-ranking team, and when Casey’s in the zone, anything seems possible.

Then, at a live SkyWake tournament, things start to get weird. The Red Eye alien “cosplayers” seem to have real guns, a massive spaceship looms overhead… and kids are going missing.

My view on the book:

Personally, I find this book very weird. I don't really know how to put my true view into words.

However, I am intrigued as to what the sequel has to offer.

Recommendation:

Honestly, I am giving it a 3.5/5 because it could be better.

Maybe more action/drama is needed; however, mine's just one opinion among many.

I think that this is one of the lowest starred books that KBB has sent over and while not every book can be a hit I admire his perseverance in getting to the end and then in being just curious enough to want to know what happens next. This is very much my reading style so I love that the traits of a bookworm are a family thing!

When he let me know this was the book he'd picked for the month I was really impressed at how far out of his comfort zone he was happy to go. I could see that the sci-fi aspect would appeal I was more surprised at the appeal of the computer game as I didn't know he was into multiplayer games...

I've added this one to my list as again it isn't my normal type of book but I have to confess that I won't be in a huge rush to reserve a copy from the library.

Micro Review 3 (2023)

 

A Complicated Matter by Anne Youngson (Doubleday)

I am always going to read everything that Youngson writes after the wonderful gift her Meet Me At the Museum gave me when I was so ill and I am so pleased to say that this one is just as good (possibly even better) than Museum.

I’ve read a lot of fiction and non fiction set in World War Two and yet in this book Youngson manages to introduce me to a completely new story from that time as we meet the women and children of Gibraltar who are forcibly evacuated from the Rock as a safety precaution while the men remain to work the essential port operations.

Their arrival and stay in Britain isn’t simple either, as they are first (disastrously) evacuated to French North Africa before coming to London where, despite their British citizenship, they are treated with some suspicion. Rather than being billeted in the country like most evacuees or held in large camps like many refugees they are housed in a hotel in central London which I found fascinating as it shows that no one really knew how to treat them. Their return to the Rock at the end of the war was also handled very differently from other evacuees and refugees.

Our main narrator is Rose and we follow her story closely through the war years as well as learning lots about life in Gibraltar and how society there was structured. Lots of ideas and themes are tackled in the book, but it isn’t an issue book, and throughout the story Rose remains a likeable character even in her fish out of water role.

I'd love to know if anyone else saw a parallel to one of my favourite classic novels - I can't say more for fear of spoiling the plot but it *isn't* Little Women!

The book has made me want to know more about Gibraltar and its wartime history from a non-military point of view and firmly places Youngson on my must read list.

Kentish Book Boy returns - part three

 

The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Drama and Danger by J T Williams, illustrator Simone Douglas (Harper Collins)

Synopsis:

Lizzie Sancho and Dido Belle live very different lives. Lizzie works at her family's buzzing Westminster tea shop, while Belle leads a quieter life at the majestic Kenwood House.

Their worlds collide when disaster strikes at the Theatre Royal, Dury Lane and Lizzie's father's life is put under threat. Why is someone after Ignatius Sancho? And who is the shadowy figure on the theatre balcony?

My View on the Book: 

I was really gripped into this book. The prologue encouraged me to read more, and it has a surprising plot twist as well. A very well written book and I want to read the sequel: Portraits and Poison.

Recommendation

I thoroughly enjoyed this book; I give it 6 out of 5 stars!

More people should read this because it is based on the black rights movement ad that is significant in history, all over the world.

When I saw the Bookily book token subscription at the end of last year I thought that it was a fun idea but I never dreamt just how many book recommendations I'd end up with thanks to the books the Kentishbookboy is choosing. 

I'm seeing him this weekend and hope to borrow this one from him too a book rated as 6 stars out of 5 can't be ignored. Interestingly I also have an adult novel on my TBR pile about Ignatius Sancho so perhaps I should read them back to back to compare...

Norfolkbookworm took an unexpected hiatus

 

Oops once more I really didn’t mean to leave a gap of almost 2 months between posts on here. Part of this has been because I’ve been reading lots of advance copies of books which means my lips have to be sealed until much closer to publication, part of it has been that I’ve not read a lot of books that I’ve loved, and part of it is pure laziness! Now the Kentishbookboy has supplied two new reviews for me so I really have to start blogging again!

Proper posts about a couple of books coming very soon but for now here’s a few non fiction books that I’ve enjoyed and that I think are worth looking out/reserving from your local library.

All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley

Bringley shares memories of his 10 years as a guard at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. He took the job as a stopgap during a traumatic period of his life and stayed 10 years. He talks about the job, the people and the art wonderfully and I am truly impressed at his stamina, I am sure museum floors are made out of harder material than anything else in the world!

 

Letters from New York by Helene Hanff

Alistair Cooke’s Letters from America were always interesting to listen to and gave an insight into how he saw America through the decades, I didn’t know that Hanff had had a similar slot on Women’s Hour. Her monthly essays are very chatty and in general just focus on life in her neighbourhood of New York, but they are simultaneously of her time and timeless and I laughed out loud more than once reading them.

 

Last Sunset in the West by Natalie Sanders

This book came out just at the same time as David Attenborough’s new series Wild Isles and the two tied together brilliantly. This book is about Orcas and in particular the pod found off the west coast of the UK rather than the east coast whales featured on the TV, however it is also about orcas in general and how unique each small population around the world is. I’d love to see an orca in the wild, and even more after reading this book. At times the book feels a little repetitive and at points like separate essays awkwardly linked together but overall the author’s love for the orca shone through and outweighed these minor annoyances.