45 Not Just Jane, Ghachar Ghochar & The Last Piece of My Heart

I rated Not Just Jane 3.5 stars, Ghachar Ghochar 3 stars and The Last Piece of My Heart got 4.5 stars.

Not Just Jane: Rediscovering Seven Amazing Women Writers Who Transformed British Literature, Shelley DeWees

336⎟ Harper Perennial ⎟ 12th January 2017

Synopsis

Jane Austen and the Brontës endure as British literature’s leading ladies (and for good reason)—but were these reclusive parsons’ daughters really the only writing women of their day? A feminist history of literary Britain, this witty, fascinating nonfiction debut explores the extraordinary lives and work of seven long-forgotten authoresses, and asks: Why did their considerable fame and influence, and a vibrant culture of female creativity, fade away? And what are we missing because of it?

You’ve likely read at least one Jane Austen novel (or at least seen a film one). Chances are you’ve also read Jane Eyre; if you were an exceptionally moody teenager, you might have even read Wuthering Heights. English majors might add George Eliot or Virginia Woolf to this list…but then the trail ends. Were there truly so few women writing anything of note during late 18th and 19th century Britain?

In Not Just Jane, Shelley DeWees weaves history, biography, and critical analysis into a rip-roaring narrative of the nation’s fabulous, yet mostly forgotten, female literary heritage. As the country, and women’s roles within it, evolved, so did the publishing industry, driving legions of ladies to pick up their pens and hit the parchment. Focusing on the creative contributions and personal stories of seven astonishing women, among them pioneers of detective fiction and the modern fantasy novel, DeWees assembles a riveting, intimate, and ruthlessly unromanticized portrait of female life—and the literary landscape—during this era. In doing so, she comes closer to understanding how a society could forget so many of these women, who all enjoyed success, critical acclaim, and a fair amount of notoriety during their time, and realizes why, now more than ever, it’s vital that we remember.

Rediscover Charlotte Turner Smith, Helen Maria Williams, Mary Robinson, Catherine Crowe, Sara Coleridge, Dinah Mulock Craik, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon.

Mini Review

I was so looking forward to learning about some of the pioneering women who wrote in the 18th and 19th centuries and I was blown away by some of the things these women achieved, how they were treated and the tragedy in them being forgotten.

The stories of all 7 women in this book were fascinating and I loved learned about the things that they achieved, but even more fascinating may be the glimpse Shelley DeWees gave us into a different side of Victorian society - the darkness, the persecution, and the unfairness of living in that time as a woman, regardless of social position. I did sometimes struggle to go back to it as it was a collection of biographies rather than a narrative non-fiction, but it’s a brilliant read for every literature fan.

Ghachar Ghochar, Vivek Shanbhag

192⎟ Faber & Faber ⎟ 20th April 2017

Synopsis

In this masterful novel by the acclaimed Indian writer Vivek Shanbhag, a close-knit family is delivered from near-destitution to sudden wealth after the narrator's uncle founds a successful spice company. As the narrator - a sensitive young man who is never named - along with his sister, his parents, and his uncle move from a cramped, ant-infested shack to a larger house and encounter newfound wealth, the family dynamics begin to shift. Allegiances and desires realign; marriages are arranged and begin to falter; and conflict brews ominously in the background.

Their world becomes 'ghachar ghochar' - a nonsense phrase that, to the narrator, comes to mean something entangled beyond repair. Told in clean, urgent prose, and punctuated by moments of unexpected warmth and humour, Ghachar Ghochar is a quietly enthralling, deeply unsettling novel about the shifting meanings - and consequences - of financial gain in contemporary India.

Mini Review

After reading a short sample of this, I was captured by the simple style and the reviews of the book. I snapped it up!

Ghachar Ghochar is the story of a family as it almost becomes corrupted by wealth. The relationships change, the goals and attitudes of the family members, the way life is altered beyond recognition - but not in a good way. I loved watching the clashing of family dynamics and the distinct lack of agency the unnamed narrator of the novel has and the effect that has on the family. It’s a very short novel - I read it in under two hours - and the ending was a bit of a shock. I felt like there was a lot more to the story and I’m not really sure what happened in the end. I even popped into a bookshop to double check that my Netgalley proof hadn’t been cut short!

Thanks to Faber and NetGalley for the review copy.

The Last Piece of My Heart, Paige Toon

432⎟ Simon & Schuster ⎟ 18th May 2017

Synopsis

When life feels like a puzzle, sometimes it's the small pieces that make up the bigger picture... Join Bridget on a journey to put her world back together.

A successful travel journalist, Bridget has ambitions to turn her quirky relationship blog about the missing pieces of her heart into a book. But after a spate of rejections from publishers, she accepts an alternative proposition.

Nicole Dupré died leaving behind a bestselling novel and an incomplete sequel. Tasked with finishing the book, Bridget is thankful to have her foot in the publishing door, even if it means relocating to Cornwall for the summer and answering to Nicole's grieving husband, Charlie...

Mini Review

My love for Paige Toon’s novels in no secret. I’ve followed her career since Lucy in the Sky debuted 10 years ago and loved every one, but The Last Piece of My Heart is one of my favourites in a long while.

I’ve loved Bridget from her side roles in a few of Paige Toon’s other novels, but she quickly became one of my very favourite heroines - she’s the type of person I’d love to be friends with. I felt like I was following her every step of the way on Bridget’s journey and I fell in love with her, Charlie and little April. One of my favourite elements of Paige’s books is always the locations and I thoroughly enjoyed my virtual trips to Cornwall, Ireland, Sydney and Thailand - I wonder where she’ll take me next!

I laughed, cried and didn’t want the book to end. Why do I have to wait another year for her next book?!

Sophie

44 The Fate of the Tearling, American Monsters & Stay With Me

I rated The Fate of the Tearling 3.5 stars, American Monsters 2.5 stars and Stay With Me got 4 stars.

The Fate of the Tearling, Erika Johansen

496⎟ Bantam Press⎟ 1st December 2016

Read by: Polly Lee

Synopsis

Since ascending to the throne, Kelsea Glynn has grown into a powerful monarch and a visionary leader.

But in her quest to end corruption and restore justice within the Tearling, she has made many enemies. Chief amongst them is the evil and feared Red Queen, who now holds Kelsea – and her magical sapphires – captive in her castle in Mortmesne, a deal brokered to protect the Tearling from a Mort invasion.

But the Tearling needs its Queen, and the Mace, head of Kelsea’s personal guards, will not rest until he and his men rescue their sovereign from her prison.

Now it is time for the fate of Queen Kelsea – and the Tearling itself – to be revealed . . .

Mini Review

I loved the first book in this trilogy and really enjoyed book two, but it really felt like The Fate of the Tearling dragged a little. It was a little underwhelming as a finale for me.

The novel was split between Kelsea’s story in the present and the visions Kelsea was having of Katie, the daughter of one of the women who made the Crossing with Tearling. While Katie’s story was interesting and important to what was happening in the present story, there was so much time dedicated to it that it almost felt like it overtook Kelsea and her predicament. It almost felt like Kelsea’s imprisonment was partly to allow for Katie’s story to take precedence. I wanted more Kelsea, Penn, the Mace and the rest of her guard - they were the characters I fell in love with and wanted to follow.

It was a disappointing end to a brilliant, political fantasy series and I wasn’t 100% convinced by the conclusion.

American Monsters, Derek Landy

464⎟ Harper Collins⎟ 25th August 2016

Synopsis

The epic conclusion in the mind-blowing supernatural thriller from bestselling author DEREK LANDY, creator of international sensation Skulduggery Pleasant.

Bigger, meaner, stronger, Amber closes in on her murderous parents as they make one last desperate play for power. Her own last hopes of salvation, however, rest beyond vengeance, beyond the abominable killers – living and dead – that she and Milo will have to face.

For Amber’s future lies in her family’s past, in the brother and sister she never knew, and the horrors beyond imagining that befell them.

Mini Review

I loved the first book in the Demon Road series. It was one of my surprise reading hits of 2015 and I loved how quick, fun and witty it was. Then book two came along which was still good, but had a little second book syndrome, though my hopes were still high for the finale. And I was so disappointed.

In book two, I really didn’t like the way Amber’s non-demon appearance was constantly ridiculed and sneered at and though that was almost compensated for in a change in attitude in American Monsters, I still didn’t like the forceful ay Derek Landy wrote the female characters. It was so forceful, as if he was writing them to be ‘feminist’ because he knew he should - it didn’t align with anything else. I also didn’t think that the book was well written. The prose jarred and the speech felt insincere; I can’t help but think that this book was rushed out so he could refocus on Skulduggery Pleasant, his real money-maker, to the detriment of this series which could have been really, really good.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the review copy.

Stay With Me, Ayobami Adebayo

305⎟ Canongate⎟ 2nd March 2017

Synopsis

'There are things even love can't do . . . If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks, comes close to breaking and sometimes does break. But even when it's in a thousand pieces around your feet, that doesn't mean it's no longer love . . .'

Yejide is hoping for a miracle, for a child. It is all her husband wants, all her mother-in-law wants, and she has tried everything - arduous pilgrimages, medical consultations, appeals to God. But when her relatives insist upon a new wife, it is too much for Yejide to bear. It will lead to jealousy, betrayal and despair.

Unravelling against the social and political turbulence of 1980s Nigeria, Stay With Me sings with the voices, colours, joys and fears of its surroundings. Ayobami Adebayo weaves a devastating story of the fragility of married love, the undoing of family, the wretchedness of grief, and the all-consuming bonds of motherhood. It is a tale about our desperate attempts to save ourselves and those we love from heartbreak.

Mini-Review

Shortlisted for the Baileys Prize for Women’s Fiction and all over the Internet, Ayobami Adebayo’s Stay With Me is everywhere. And for good reason.

I was actually really unsure of this for the first third of the novel. I found the cultural differences jarring and I struggled to wrap my head around the situation that Yejide found herself after her marriage to Akin, but I eventually became utterly engrossed. The Nigerian political unrest of the 80s and 90s was the backdrop to their struggle to conceive and live with the pressures to have a family. I did still struggle with the alien-ness of some aspects of their life and culture and it made me realise just how little I know about that part of the world.

I really don't want to spoil this beautiful, heartbreaking and surprising novel, but I was definitely that: continually surprised. Adebayo really keeps you on your toes and turning pages as fast as you can. I cried, I gaped in shock and I’m so glad I persevered. Beautiful.

Sophie

Exploring Classics: War and Peace

Translated by: Anthony Briggs

Originally serialised in The Russian Messenger from 1865-67

My edition: the Penguin Clothbound Classics hardback

WHEN I Discovered This Classic

I’m honestly not sure. It feels like I’ve always known about War and Peace. It’s a novel that in the literary world people pretend to have read or one they claim they will never attempt.

WHY I Chose to Read It

As with so many classics and period drama fans, I lapped up the stunning 6-part mini-series adapted by Andrew Davies for the BBC in 2016. I fell in love with the sweeping luxury of Russian high society and the bumbling Pierre and moody Prince Andrey. I was sold. And then last summer I read Anna Karenina and fell head over heels in love. I knew that I’d have to tackle War and Peace and decided to start it at the beginning of 2017.

WHAT I Thought of This Classic

This epic novel details the lives of Count Pierre Bezhukov, the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys and the people surrounding them, spanning 1805 to 1820, covering the period of several wars, but most significantly Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. We see them fall in and out of love, live and die, and navigate high society in times of peace and fight in times of war.

There’s no escaping how long War and Peace; my edition is 1440 pages long, 100 of which are notes on the text. I planned to read 7 chapters a day so I would finish it by the beginning of March. That didn’t quite go to plan and it ended up taking me nearly five months to conquer, but it really was worth it. And not just because of the pure triumph of turning that final page.

What I fell in love with in Anna Karenina was the breadth of the story, the unbelievable growth and development of the characters and the flaws in them. I couldn’t help but fall in love with hapless, dreamer Pierre; I learned to love moody, firm Prince Andrey; and I think Princess Marya is vastly underrated throughout the whole novel. As ever, the way Tolstoy portrays his female characters and the way they are treated inside marriages that started with grand declarations of love and equality don’t sit right with me, but I really do get the feeling that that is purely Tolstoy’s own views on marriage and the role of women at the time. Natasha, Marya and Hélène are all spirited and strong with distinct personalities.

A post shared by Sophie (@solittletimeforbooks) on Jan 1, 2017 at 3:12am PST

One of the major worries about diving into War and Peace is the dullness of the war sections of the novel. I have to confess that, yes, some of the mundane scenes, the political ones, the ones detailing intricate histories are boring and it does take a degree of sticking power, but I found that the other sections of the story and characters kept me going. Those sections I flew through, even surprising myself.

It wasn’t until the second part of the epilogue where I genuinely wanted to stop reading. For the later books in War and Peace, Tolstoy definitely starts to lean towards explorations of philosophy and history, but it really came out in the epilogue. Of the 28 chapters only about a quarter of them actually feature the characters i’d spent the last 1300 pages with. Tolstoy waxed lyrical about historians and the recording of history, free will, cause and effect and the flaws in even trying to document a historical event because only the winners and the higher classes were able to do so. While all this has validity and relevance to the story, i really don’t think it had a pace in the epilogue. An introduction, an afterword, an author’s note, sure - just not an epilogue! It was dry, boring and I was very ready to be done at that point. If War and Peace was to go out on submission now, that definitely wouldn’t be there and I’m pretty sure it would lose about 400 pages!

But whining aside, I knew what I was signing up for and I really did enjoy the experience of reading Tolstoy’s masterpiece. It was a really worthwhile endeavour and I’m so freaking proud of myself for doing it! Even if it took me nearly twice as long as it should have done...

WILL It Stay a Classic

Of course! It is said to be one of the finest novels ever written, and the masterpiece of Russian literature.

WHO I’d Recommend it To

- Those interested in war, war history, Russian culture and politics.

- Fans of Russian literature.

- Those with serious reading stamina.

Review format from Stacey at The Pretty Books as part of the Classics Challenge.

Sophie

On the pure indulgence of re-reading

I’ve had a strange reading year.

Last year’s influx of classics has dwindled to three (though one of them was War and Peace so, ya know); the YA reading has taken a nose-dive; and the non-fiction and memoirs have gone through the roof. I’ve also indulged in some glorious re-reading.

Since I began blogging in 2009 re-reading was something that I felt I wasn’t allowed to do. I had too many review copies, I had a reading schedule, I had goals and challenges I needed to meet. But this year it’s all changed.

Of the 47 books I’ve finished as of writing this, 7 of them have been re-reads: the last five Harry Potter books which I reveled in listening to on audiobook for the first time and then the first two books in Sarah J Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy in time for the finale. And it was glorious.

The sheer joy of re-discovering and falling in love with books I either know I’ll always love or ones I had adored the first time around was so nice. Re-reading is the epitome of stress-free and pleasure reading.

I enjoyed it so very much that I’ve vowed to re-read whenever the urge strikes me. It takes me right back to being a kid and a young teenager who would finish a book I loved and start it all over again immediately. Some books I would read every month, every other, every year, completely guilt free and loving every second of it.

More of that, please.

Sophie

Mini-reviews: A Court of Wings and Ruin, Wishful Drinking & Exit West

I rated A Court of Wings and Ruin 4.5 stars, Wishful Drinking 4 stars and Exit West got 4.5  stars.

A Court of Wings and Ruin, Sarah J Maas

720⎟ Bloomsbury⎟ 2nd May 2017

Synopsis

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin's manoeuvrings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit - and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well.

As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords - and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

In this thrilling third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Sarah J. Maas, the earth will be painted red as mighty armies grapple for power over the one thing that could destroy them all.

Mini-review

I’m a huge fan of this trilogy and for the most part, ACOWAR was a perfect ending, but some really problematic elements about the novel have been brought to my attention and I can’t ignore them.

I HATE how SJM's issues with bad rep have made my friends and other readers feel. For an author with so much clout, it's really, really not on. I feel like she tried a little more to be inclusive in this book, but she missed the mark.

Putting that aside, I’m a die hard Feysand shipper and I adored them even more, I fell even more in love with Azriel, Mor, Amren and Cassian and the wonder of Velaris. It was a finale full of emotion, action and I could easily have read far past the already chunky 720 pages.

Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher

176⎟S&S⎟1st June 2009

Audiobook read by: Carrie Fisher

Synopsis

In Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher tells the true and intoxicating story of her life with inimitable wit. Born to celebrity parents, she was picked to play a princess in a little movie called Star Wars when only 19 years old. "But it isn't all sweetness and light sabres." Alas, aside from a demanding career and her role as a single mother (not to mention the hyperspace hairdo), Carrie also spends her free time battling addiction and weathering the wild ride of manic depression. It's an incredible tale - from having Elizabeth Taylor as a stepmother, to marrying (and divorcing) Paul Simon, and from having the father of her daughter leave her for a man, to ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed.

Mini-review

A blisteringly funny, wise and honest journey through Carrie's life and the battles with addiction and mental illness that she's faced along the way.

I’m about the make a confession: I’ve never seen Star Wars. Any of them. At all. And yet I thoroughly enjoyed this nonetheless. Carrie and her family lived a fascinating life and her writing is so warm and witty that I couldn’t help but love her for that, even if I’d never know her as Princess Leia.

And the audiobook, narrated by Carrie, is completely wonderful. I listened to the whole thing in only two sittings and I’m really looking forward to reading more of Carrie’s work, even though I do get a lump in my throat when I think of her loss.

Exit West, Mohsin Hamid

240⎟ Hamish Hamilton⎟ 2nd March 2017

Audiobook read by: Ashley Kumar

Synopsis

An extraordinary story of love and hope, travelling from the Middle East to London and beyond, from the bestselling, Man Booker-shortlisted author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

Nadia and Saeed are two ordinary young people, attempting to do an extraordinary thing - to fall in love - in a world turned upside down. Theirs will be a love story but also a story about how we live now and how we might live tomorrow, of a world in crisis and two human beings travelling through it.

Civil war has come to the city which Nadia and Saeed call home. Before long they will need to leave their motherland behind - when the streets are no longer useable and the unknown is safer than the known. They will join the great outpouring of people fleeing a collapsing city, hoping against hope, looking for their place in the world . . .

Mini-review

Exit West is a book that I kept seeing all over Instagram and booktube and the stories of beautiful writing and importance of the story completely captured me. I had to read it. And I’m so very glad I did.

I grabbed it on audiobook and devoured it in one go during a day of chores. I loved it. This novel is the perfect example of magical realism telling you about the real world more powerfully than a piece of realistic fiction. The doors that join cities in Exit West, the growing of Black London and the local reaction to immigrants fleeing to safety across the world. Take out those doors and the reactions that are left behind are real, the horror immigrants are fleeing is real.

It’s a breath-taking book and an essential one. Don’t miss it.

Sophie