Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton is a coming-off age memoir where Dolly takes us through her teenage years at boarding school, her university years at Essex and her mid to late twenties exploring London. Dolly Alderton gives a refreshing, uncensored view of her love life, her mental health state, her work life, her friendships and her family relations. The story has laugh-out-loud moments, tear-jerker moments and painful truths that I think many girls/women/people can relate to.

By no means is the book perfect, there were some random references, letters and ramblings that I didn't really follow. I'm also not sure I was sold on her recipes dotted throughout the book (mostly because they weren't foods I was that interested in). However, the whole thing fit with Alderton's personality and style and offered an interesting glimpse into a woman who has clearly grown and developed over her teens and twenties immensely.

For me, the pinnacle of the book was Alderton's focus on her female friendships, the strength she took from those, the support she gave to her friends and the growth that she was capable of recognising in this memoir. These friendships to me held the most pain, joy and tearful moments and it was so incredibly refreshing to see a young woman talk about her friendships as the driving force in her life. Often, I feel like we focus too much on sexual love life, when our friendships are just as important when talking about love. This was something Alderton made very clear throughout her book and was really heart-warming.

The second point that was really good was Alderton's honesty about her mental health, sexual relations, her mental health, her relationship with her body and her attitude. She spoke about going to therapy, she spoke about her relationship with food and alcohol, and frivolity with money. I think for a woman, these are still subjects that can have women branded and condemned and are not frequently talked about by women. The courage and the honesty is so important if young women are not going to be slandered for their behaviour whilst men are applauded. Considering that I came across Alderton's book after listening to her joint podcast with Pandora Sykes, I'd been introduced to Alderton when she wasn't a reckless youngster. This offered a very different insight to Alderton's life and really made me see how much she's grown as a person. This is definitely something I related to as my late teenage years are far different to how I feel now in my 20s.

Overall, I really enjoyed Dolly Alderton's memoir and it felt fiery, honest and refreshing. I would recommend both the book and her podcast to fellow feminists, non-feminist, fans of interesting women and fans of memoirs.

This was enjoyable - but I feel like it could easily have been combined into one slightly longer novella and then the main book. Will be trying Consumed soon as I'm certainly intrigued.

This was a fun little introduction - intrigued to read more.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is a book about two half-sisters, Effia and Esi born in Ghana under British colonial rule, and it follows their descendants across time and the ocean to America. The descendants of Effia and Esi break off in very different directions. One path leading to slavery, civil war in America, abolition, jail and the ghettos of Harlem; the other path through colonial Ghana, Asante conflict and eventually across the ocean to America. The inherent focus of the book is on racism between the white and black communities, however, it also addresses the conflicts between cultures and communities. The narrative is cleverly done as each chapter introduces a new descendant of Effia an Esi, and switches between male and female narratives from both women. We skip through time as we follow each descendant and it makes for an interesting narrative as we are not sure which of the descendants we will follow.

When I picked up this book I was a little apprehensive about whether I would like it and be able to immerse myself in the world, as despite being a history student I do not always find that historical fiction captivates me. However, from the beginning of this book I was drawn into the rich world that Yaa Gyasi built and described. She crafted real human stories that made me want to cry at many moments, and Yaa Gyasi did not shy away from the brutalities that black people suffered at the hands of the British, the Americans and each other.

We were transported across locations: colonial Ghana, the plantations and mines of America, ghettos of Harlem and the deep south of Alabama, and eventually back to a free Ghana. The locations were always pivotal to the storylines and directions of each individual character and Yaa Gyasi drew her readers into all corners of these places. The storylines ultimately provided the background to which area of world history we would be confronting; the plantations connected us to slavery; the mines connected us to abolition when 'free black men' were condemned to forced labour for 'crimes' they supposedly committed; the ghettos of Harlem connected us to the poverty of the black population in the 20th century. The book certainly made me want to investigate more about Ghanaian history and how Ghana suffered under colonialism. It also highlighted to me how even as a history student who studied slavery, British colonialism and American history I still felt like there were deep rifts in my knowledge about Ghana, and American history (particularly the black communities of Harlem and their struggles).

Despite the book being relatively short at just over 300 pages, it managed to accomplish a lot. It was an emotional rollercoaster throughout and I very much enjoyed the end, which is something I was apprehensive about. I would recommend this to everyone as I think it provides a fantastic if brutal insight into the troubles of the slave trade, colonialism and slavery in America. It also speaks about very human stories and experiences that enables us to relate to the characters and their experiences more than it does when reading about the nameless and faceless millions who suffered under these systems. I'm really excited to see what else comes from Yaa Gyasi. It also made me aware that I read so little by women of colour and different cultures, and I want to correct that. So as part of my goal to read more by women authors this year, I want to read more from women around the world.

Ahh so much drama I didn't expect.
I need more.

Ghana Must Go was an interesting and unusual read. The book follows the story of one family, the Sais. There is the renowned surgeon and father of the family, Dr Sai who is the centre of the start of the book as Taiye Selasi looks at how the events of his life and his choices impacted on his wife Folasade and four children (Olu, Kehinde, Taiwo and Sadie). The first third of the book is discombobulated, difficult to follow and very confusing. If I had not read a review that said the last two-thirds of the book were fantastic and entirely different, I probably would have abandoned the book there. Therefore, I urge you to get past the first few chapters as the book becomes insightful, thought-provoking, emotional and dark. This is as the book shifts from the narrative of Dr Sai, to a narrative following his children and examining the troubles in their lives. Taiye Selasi creates real, human stories for the four children Olu, Kehinde, Taiwo and Sadie. As characters they are not necessarily likeable, but they are interesting individuals with secrets, experiences and shared horrors in their past.

Taiye Selasi looks at how the lives of Dr Sai's four children can differ so dramatically within one family and how they can all take different routes in life. She looks at how their parents' choices have resulted in their lives being inflicted with pain, sadness and occasionally moments of happiness. She draws the four children together by examining how grief and pain can affect family bonds. Taiye Selasi creates an interesting exploration of what family means and examines how family behaves. She looks at the Nigerian civil war (albeit briefly and as a backdrop) for understanding how this impacted Nigerian/Ghanaian families and the future generations. This is because in 1983 the Ghana Must Go movement was enacted in Nigeria to expel all Ghanaians from Nigeria as part of the civil war conflict. Although Taiye Selasi does not directly talk about this in explicit detail, the issues between Nigeria and Ghana are evident at certain points in the narrative. This is because Dr Sai is from Ghana, whilst his wife grew up in Nigeria.

Taiye Selasi's book was very different from the recent book I read about Ghanaian/African-American families, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Ghana Must Go is largely rooted in contemporary culture. It looks at a family dynamic and relationships within the family and how this shaped the lives of the characters. Although race and identity were important to this book, I didn't feel like it shaped the narrative in the same sense as Homegoing. This was less about the conflict between white and black. It was about the conflict within one family and I really enjoyed this focus on the family. There was also a big focus on the concept of redemption, and how the actions of each individual character impacted on their family, each other and how they could seek redemption and happiness despite the problems in their lives. Ghana Must Go was not necessarily a happy book, but it was interesting, thought-provoking and I would definitely read more by Taiye Selasi.

This was enjoyable and I think a very interesting look into corruption and life for the "servant class" of India.
Full review and thoughts to come.

08/05/2019 - Re-read and it brought out many more emotions and I just enjoyed this one so much more. Weird.


3.5 Stars.

Enjoyable as always.