enobong's Reviews (492)

I would have never read this book if I wasn't reading through this BBC list from 2003 and, to be honest, I wasn't looking forward to this volume and was very ready to DNF. An adventure novel from the 1930s? I was ready for sexism and racism and having to excuse it all because of history.

I was pleasantly surprised.

This is a book where the adventurers are boys and girls of a mix of ages, the girls are motherly and the boys aren't insensitive. And, despite being published in the 1930s, there is a level of sensitivity in discussions surrounding "natives" and "savages" - albeit nobody's favourite choice of word.

John, Susan, Titty, and Roger are the children sea Captain spending their summer holidays in the Lake District with their mother, baby sister Vicky and Vicky's nurse. For a couple of weeks in the summer, the children are allowed to sail out on a boat their father made for them and camp out on a small island in the lakes. They soon make friends with two sisters who are also sailor-in-making (pirates really) and get caught up in a grand adventure involving thieves and treasure and the like.

In my review of The Night Circus, I said it was an escapist novel and this novel also offered its own form of escapism. It transported me to a somewhat idyllic time in which children could go camping by themselves and all the adults in the community would band together to take care of their well-being. I appreciated that although Susan turned motherly when she needed to (making sure everyone was fed and warm) she was just as wild as the other children. Girls who can hang with the boys and still be girly. Yup, I know a few girls like that. And how John, the oldest boy, gets a lump in his throat and has to go be by himself when a grownup unfairly accuses him of being a liar. I loved that the majority of the adventuring children were girls and I especially the children's mother who just as knowledgable about sailing and the outdoors and as able to guide them in their adventuring as their father.

Definitely, one I'll be recommending to my nephews and niece.

Equal parts powerful family saga, forbidden love story, and piercing political drama, it is the story of an affluent Indian family forever changed by one fateful day in 1969. 

I only started being cognizant of Booker Prize winners a couple of years ago when I read Milkman by Anna Burns, which I loved. I also loved this year's Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo so I guess my expectation to love all Booker Prize winners was pretty high.

I think this is one of those books that many people will love for good reason but it just wasn't for me. It's a very slow start and only really picks up slightly around the mid-point but by that point, I was pretty exasperated with the characters and the narrative style. Roy acknowledges that the structure of this novel is unconventional. It begins at the end and ends in the middle. The kind of writing that will win prestigious writing but leaves readers feeling disjointed and disengaged.

The main characters, Ammu, Estha and Rahel, go through a lot. Be prepared for some traumatic stuff. But how everything is structure left me not fully understanding how they were affected or why their behaviour evolves in the way in does. TBH the character I cared the most about was Velutha, a secondary, maybe even tertiary character, with little air time. 

One thing I did love is how the reader is placed into the Ayememen culture with little to no reference points. Language and culture are not explicitly explained, the reader just has to go with it and work it out as they read. I love this because it challenges the notion that Western, European culture is standard and everything else must be explained for that gaze.

Overall, I did appreciate the experimentation with language and style but all of this means nothing if I'm not engaged with the story as a whole.

"Many women insist that their decision to go natural is not explicitly political. The fact that they even have to state this, however, shows how far from the norm black hair is still considered to be."

“It’s only hair,” is the response many Black women contend with when voicing their frustration at society's judgement of their tresses. In this debut, BBC presenter and Guardian contributor, Emma Dabiri, explores the underlying issues of racism tangled up in conversations surrounding Black hair.

Like many Black women, Dabiri can remember in detail the first time she chemically straightened her hair. She can recall the smell, the burning sensation of her scalp and the mixed range of emotions she experienced watching her thick, tightly coiled hair transform to lank, straight locks. As a mixed-race child growing in Ireland in the 1980's, she spent her childhood hating her hair and exploring ways to make it better comply with European standards of beauty. But as she has come of age she has realised that white is not right and this book is a detailed exploration of how she came to that conclusion and what she has done with that knowledge. 

There have been many conversations on Black hair culture and cultural appropriation that, while important, fail to reach the heart of the matter. Dabiri situates her own personal hair story within the wider history of how African hair has been perceived from before the European invasion of Africa til now. One of the parts I enjoyed most in this book was the exploration of the original, Yoruba names for many of the hairstyles that are staples in black culture. Aside from terms such as "boxer braids" and "mini buns" that have been the Kardashian and wider mainstream media's way of taking ownership of a culture that isn't theirs, terms such as "cornrows" or "canerows' are situated in a slave narrative. Dabiri reverts to original terms, reminding Black people of African descent that our history did not begin in slavery and colonisation but way before.

Written in a style that will challenge you yet also create the illusion of a casual conversation with a friend, Twisted brings new perspective to the topic of Black hair.

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Back in December, I read THE COLOUR OF MAGIC, my first Terry Pratchett book and the first in the Discworld. I didn't get it. The humour was lost on me and the whole thing just felt like a waste of time. ⁠
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This book is a testament to the fact that an author might just surprise you. I got on WAY better with this one. GUARDS! GUARDS! is book #8 of Discworld and #1 of City Watch. A secret decides to organise a coup by unleashing a dragon on the city and it's up to the failing City Watchmen to save the city. ⁠
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Yes, it was still in that peculiar Terry Prachett satirical fantasy in which you sometimes don't know where you are in the book or what the point is, but I could get more on board with the humour this time and found myself actually rooting for some of the characters.⁠
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The BBC really loves TP because there are 2 more of his books on the list but following this one I'm more optimistic about making my way through them.⁠
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The remaining TP books on the list are Mort, Good Omens and Night Watch. Can anyone let me know what I can expect with these?⁠

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I went into this with some trepidation. Enid Blyton is not exactly known for having a very modern world view and her books are quite (read: very) dated. However, I have fond memories of reading Enid Blyton books as a child and it was part of the BBC top 100 books list, so I had to read it.⁠
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What I loved about these books are their simplicity and innocence. My six-year-old niece loved reading through them with my sister and, as she's more of the demographic age, her opinion is probably worth more than mine. I love the depiction of a world in which children have responsibilities around the house and it is very clear that the chores must be complete before they run off and have fun. Blyton values common sense and politeness and I'm all for instilling these values into children at a young age. ⁠
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However, there were some cringey moments in which certain characters definitely got a bum deal. And children's books don't have to be completely void of nuance. Some of the best picture and chapter books out there have character development and cause for engagement with young minds. Plus, there was a very triggering moment in the final book in which a character named Mr Whatizname discovers his real name but it's too long and complicated for anyone to remember and so they decide not to call him by his real name because it just isn't sensible. 🙄⁠
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I enjoyed this little journey through nostalgia but I don't need to revisit anytime soon.⁠

In the late 1960, Adah, a spirited and resourceful Nigerian woman, moves her family to London in search of an independent life for herself and her children. Once there, she encounters racism and hard truths about being a new citizen.

Although this is one of my Mum's favourite books, I will begin by saying that this book did not hit me with the same impact as The Bride Price, which I read in the later half of last year. Structurally, I still love the simplistic nature of Emecheta's style. It's a non-nonsense, erase all fluff, clear-cut style, very reminiscent Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart.

 But don't be fooled by the simplicity of the language because Emecheta throws some truths and deep thoughts. I approached this novel expecting to encounter a narrative focused on the systemic and individual racism within Britain and discovered a more complex narrative exploring culture, tradition and the lens through which we see ourselves. Yes, Adah experiences many horrendous instances where she is treated like a second class citizen but she also makes many friendships with the white people she encounters. What was most poignant was the acceptance of her fellow compatriots of the status given to them. Although many arrived in England with high hopes and sometimes high qualification, they began to embody the idea that they were worth less than their white neighbours.

And this book doesn't only tackle issues of race but sexism too. Adah left her comforts of a good job and financial security for a country that promised more autonomy for women and this country failed to live up to that promise.

This is a book with wonderful insights and reflections and it provokes you every step of the way. It's a worthy addition to my library but not one I'll be rushing to revisit. I'm not sure I could handle it emotionally.

My take-away from the 2006 movie Amazing Grace (about the abolitionist William Wilberforce) was, who is Olaudah Equiano and how can I find out more about him? Obviously, Wilberforce was very instrumental in the abolition of slavery in the UK and the British colonies but the narrative of one white man defeating the evils of slavery has never sat well me.
So I watched the movie and then I put this book on my TBR about 10 years ago and it has been there ever since. I was hesitant to read it in part because it's an 18th-century memoir/biography. I don't get along with biographies at the best of times, least of all when they're over 300 years old. The other reason I was hesitant was that there is always a season of preparation needed to embark on yet another tale of our suffering.

But I'm glad I pushed past the hesitancy and the pain barrier to engage with this honest and eloquent plea highlighting the barbarity of slavery and savagery of any nation partaking in it.

The autobiography begins in Equiano's childhood as a free boy in Benin and follows him through his kidnapping and sale into slavery through to the purchase of his freedom and the life he lived following. Equiano had a fairly unconventional experience in bondage. He was fortunate to have kind slave owners and spent his captivity working on merchant ships which prevented him from the cruelty of the overseers on the sugar cane plantations in the Caribbean. However, in his work, he was witness to some of the worst atrocity, many of which are detailed in his narrative.
I love the way Equiano doesn't hold back from describing the perpetrators of chattel slavery as barbaric and savage, the very words they used to defend it.
In terms of pacing, it reads like historical writing. There are moments of great excitement and eloquence but these are interspersed within the often not very exciting day-to-day. It's a book that's written to inform, not entertain. If you go in with that expectation, you'll get a lot out of it.

Excel seems like a normal Philippino-American teenager but he's hiding a secret. He and his mother are "tago ng tago": "hiding and hiding." They are undocumented, which means that, despite his best efforts, he will never be a "normal" American teenager. Unable to forgive his mother for the life she has forced him into, Excel escapes to the remote desert town of Hello City to live freely among the drifters, old hippies, and washed-up techies. But a disastrous misstep forces him back into his mother's house where he must reconcile with the choices she made for his protection, both good and bad.

This was a fine book but it just didn't capture me. It started off great, with a great premise, the opening scene created a sense of intrigue and was followed by a well-timed flashback with got me just the right level of investment in the characters. But then the pacing fell away and so did my interest. 

This novel has a lot going for it and it's one that I feel will get lots of rave reviews because Tenorio explores so new theme from innovative angles. I love Excel's mum, Maxima, a fiesty but tiny fighting master with a short-lived career as a Philippino movie star. The tension between herself and Excel that permeates their whole relationship because of their status as undocumented residents was very well crafted and explored. At times I was mad at Excel for not appreciating his mother but I was also forced to wonder, as Maxima does herself, if it was worth it?

The characterisation was great and the development of Excel and Maxima was at times painful as the reading experienced forced me to enter into their missteps with them. I liked that this is a kind of narrative I haven't read much of and I love that this is a voice in my reading. Plus, it's an own voices book. But there was just something that didn't quite gel with me on the pacing, but that might not be a problem for other readers.