This is where the In Death series gets really good again with the influx of some new characters like McNab. Excited to keep reading.
Had so much more free time with finishing up my own exams and a much calmer week of work before Christmas starts!
Hopefully will have more time over the holidays to read!

A very dark Christmas read. Still really enjoy this series.

Another day, another In Death book devoured.

Hot damn, what a crazy ride this one was. This is definitely one of the best In Death books so far!

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was a book I picked up because it was free on Kindle Unlimited. I wouldn't say I was not interested in reading it and I have purchased the second book because I found this one a fun, quick read and I really enjoyed the movies. However, the whole thing is just a rerun of the movie.

It is obviously a screenplay, so it would be following the dialogue of the movie and the style. There were small extras that help you imagine the scenes within the book such as comments about individual characters looking/behaving in a certain way etc. However, the problem comes when you have already seen the film because then you continue to imagine the film from the description. Therefore, it felt like a re imagining of the film.

I can't in all honesty see the value of this book to many readers beyond money-making for Rowling at this point. I do love J. K. Rowling and all of her books. However, the screen-plays themselves are accompaniments to the film or added extras. I would describe it as a programme you buy when you go to the theatre. It details all the acts, and in this case the script of the acts so you can follow along at home.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this book, and I did enjoy it. I will read the next book. However, to me, it felt like a fun way to relive the film and nothing more. Stick to Harry Potter or the other spin-offs, but I wouldn't recommend the screenplays.

To my mind, there is no point in leaving home if the intention is to take home with you. To recoil from anything new and unnerving is to do a disservice to your hosts, but more so to yourself. Being willing to try another person's way of living is the first step towards developing a spirit of empathy..

Around the World in 80 Trains is not my standard pick of book but I found myself drawn to this book written by a woman about her travel experience around the world. Monisha Rajesh's initial plan was to do the 80 trains mostly alone with her fiance Jem joining her for a month in the middle. However, in the end, he decided to also pack his job in and come on the journey with her following her previous experiences of harassment in India.

On my travels around India I'd often been harassed which was never my fault - yet the onus always fell on women to protect ourselves, to dress down, cover up, look away, keep off the streets, go home early, stay in after dark, travel with a chaperone. No one ever told the men not to grope, not to stare, not to touch, not to follow women, and not to rape. The injustice tied my nerves in knots. This was why so few women explored the world with the freedom and abandon of men; they were frightened of what might happen at the hands of one of them.

This really captured to me why I was incredibly interested in this travel novel as so few women actively choose to travel alone because of safety and concerns. In the end Monisha was not alone, but her aim to travel the world was no less impressive.

Around the World in 80 Trains was an absolutely fascinating read, particularly once they left Europe and started trekking across Russia and Mongolia on the Trans-Mongolian railway. Into China, down into Vietnam and Cambodia. Their journey through Japan was particularly interesting, following on from the trip to see the railway lines in Vietnam built by the Japanese prisoners of war. The focus on trains and the way trains fed into the history was absolutely fascinating and really surprised me how much I loved the book. They then trip onwards to Canada and America and tour from Vancouver to Toronto, and Toronto down to New York. Then from there, down to New Orleans and then up and round to Los Angeles. It was a very impressive trip around the states.

However, I found myself most drawn to the final chapters where they went back to China and flew into North Korea. The time they spent, the thoughts Monisha Rajesh pondered as she talked about the vilification by western media of North Korea. Her discussions with fellow passengers about how it had changed. Then when they meet up with their friend Marc and travel through China, Tibet, Kazakhstan and onwards to Russia as part of their final journey home was fascinating based on the people they met, the stories they told, the experiences they had.

Unlike on European trains - where dining alone is like the modern-day equivalent of having leprosy - lone passengers looked content in their solitude. There was no need for an accompanying phone, book or bottle of wine for them to be visibly at ease as the countryside beat on past the window, the smell of burnt fields carried in on the wind.

Around the World in 80 Trains was not only a travel book, it was a story about friendships, people, history, relationships and it was funny, sad, stark, interesting and a learning experience for me. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was so deeply absorbed in Monisha Rajesh's journey and life for the 7 months of travel. This is one for everyone, not just travel lit fans.

"Maybe this is your mission: to gather the bones of these girls, piece them together, give them a voice and then let them run, free and unfettered, wherever they have to go."

Dead Girls is an interesting and unique piece of work as it crosses non-fiction, journalistic fiction, and crime genres and never settles on a single genre. Selva Almada combines her own research about the murder of these three girls with her personal experiences growing up as a woman. Dead Girls becomes much broader and bigger than just the murder of these three women though as Almada makes the reader consider much more broadly violence against women.

The book itself is split between chapters that each cover different themes as Almada talks to a variety of people in Argentina about femicide or specifically about the murdered girls. She then ties these broader discussions in with the deaths of the girls. I would say this can make the chapters feel a little disjointed at times and it does require your full concentration but it's also very clever.

For example in one chapter Almada states that 2/3 girls' relatives visited psychics following their murders. This is followed up with her own experiences of visiting a psychic for answers about the girls, her childhood experience with a local healer and her experience with a local gypsie community who came to town when she was a child. These experiences all chop and change at various points in the chapter so you do have to pay attention to the switch in time and experience. However what Almada does with these different aspects is construct an image of how women are both treated and how women behave in Argentina. In this chapter specifically, her personal anecdotes serve to impress upon the reader the value and power of local healers and psychics.

The addition of Almada's personal experiences serves to ground the reader with a greater understanding of femicide and violence against women in Argentina. It shows how violence against women continues to happen and how the abusers are often the justice system fails to capture or punish the perpetrators.

This book, like many that focus on journalism and crime, raises more questions than it answers. Almada talks to the friends and relatives of the girls, consults with a psychic, visits the various places, examines the media, the crime files and more to construct an understanding of what led to these girls murders. However, it's still clear that even with this research the answers remain aloof from Almada and it's unlikely that these women's stories will ever be known.

Ultimately Dead Girls serves as a voice to the countless women who have had their lives taken away by brutal acts of violence. Almada questions why these acts continue, how society enables them to go along, and questions whether these people will eventually receive justice. It raises a lot of questions and provides a lot to think about. A rather stark and tragic read in places, this book is quite haunting but incredibly important as we think about the number of women who have violent acts perpetrated against them.

Geography is about the human relationship to our environment, both human-built and natural. A geographic perspective on gender offers a way of understanding how sexism functions on the ground. Women's second-class status is enforced not just through an actual, material geography of exclusion.

Feminist City was my first read for Verso Books new monthly subscription book club (back in July). I wouldn't have necessarily picked this one up so soon had it not been for that and I actually found it really interesting.

I thought it was great that Leslie Kern within the first few pages outlined her position as white, cis-gendered and able-bodied women and how that experience has guided lots of her interactions in city spaces. However she draws on the work of others to highlight that disabled individuals, people of colour, LGBTQ+ communities and other marginalised groups will all have different experiences within the city framework and identifies how geography further marginalises these communities.

Leslie Kern has a very critical and astute set of observations throughout this book as it's broken down into various chapters that focus on motherhood, female friendship, safety, and more. One of the points I found most interesting was about how white women's comfort has been used to marginalise and increase danger for people of colour and homeless people; as areas are gentrified, this pushes out the homeless and people of colour who are then vilified in these spaces.

Indeed, women's lack of comfort in certain spaces can be used as justification for a host of problematic interventions that increase danger for others, for example homeless people and people of colour, in pursuit of comfort for middle-class white women.

Kern does predominantly focus on London and Canadian cities as she outlines these are the ones she has the most experience and observations in. And she still manages to touch in on other cities and make broader observations about cities in general. I also don't think the London/Canadian city focus was a negative for the book as it served to strengthen her arguments and she offered multiple references to other works by feminist geographers and particularly feminist geographers of colour.

This book felt like an excellent starting point for understanding how we construct, interact with spaces and change city spaces to both the benefit and alienation of certain communities in society. And most importantly how this relates to feminism and demands for equality.

The extent to which violations of women's personal space via touch, words, or other infringements are tolerated and even encouraged in the city is a good measure as any for me of how far away we actually are from the social - and feminist city - of spontaneous encounters.

"Some houses filled with sickness, some with sin, others with sorrow. But hers? It probably just seemed empty. The silent, uncluttered rooms, the whole house open like a wound that would never scab over."

I have come to adore Brit Bennett's writing style. The way she crafts her stories, her characters and the words she uses draw me in from the very first page. The Mothers was Brit Bennett's debut book and whilst I would say you can clearly see the development in her characterisation, themes and writing in [b:The Vanishing Half|51791252|The Vanishing Half|Brit Bennett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1577090827l/51791252._SX50_SY75_.jpg|73423787]. I loved this book no less and felt that it was still incredibly beautiful.

The book follows Nadia Turner who loses her mother to suicide at 17. It examines themes of grief, motherhood, family, community and ambition. As it follows Nadia through her relationship with Luke Sheppard, the former football star who now waits tables, and the breakdown of this. Her friendship with god-fearing Aubrey and her eventual journey to college and adulthood. It also examines her difficult and distanced relationship with her father as they both cope with the loss of her mother in different ways, and how events can both part and draw family back together. As the story continues we see how secrets begin to unravel and cause rifts in friendships, relationships and the community.

"Grief was not a line, carrying you infinitely further from loss. You never knew when you would be sling-shot backward into its grip."

The Mothers is heartfelt and heartbreaking tale and examines how our life choices can change our life course and alter our futures. It examines the impact of choices and secrets on those around us. It also examines how adulthood, motherhood and life can be difficult and distressing. It speaks of love and loss, and family and hardships. It's a book that spoke to me and broke my heart just a little bit. I'd definitely recommend reading this and then The Vanishing Half as Bennett's writing only blossoms further with each book. I cannot wait for what she is next to write.

Take a Hint, Dani Brown was even more enjoyable than Get a Life, Chloe Brown. Talia Hibbert is officially a queen of romance. I loved everything about Take a Hint, especially #DrRugbae.

Dani was a fantastic MC and I could relate to her on many levels with her drive for perfection, her academic interests and research and her all around go getting attitude. However, Zaf absolutely stole the show for me. I'm not sure I have ever loved a love interest MC so much. He was adorable, sexy, kind, genuine and thoughtful. He loved romance, spoke openly about men's mental health and was a surly, slightly shy but entirely loveable guy. I'm not sure what was not to like.

I enjoyed the pacing and the mood so much of this romance. Although the book touches on themes of mental health, anxiety, loss and grief I personally found them all really well handled and not depressing in tone. There was sadness and pain that I could relate to, but it didn't overshadow the novel. The book also touched on relationships gone wrong, casual relationships and bisexuality which I thought was really great as Hibbert continues to open up healthy attitudes to sex and sexuality. This was all interspersed with humour, some sexy times and character, relationship and friendship development arcs that were really well paced.

I think this book was so much stronger than Get a Life, Chloe Brown which I still adored. One thing I know for sure is Talia Hibbert is definitely an instant-buy author for me and I'm in love with all of her characters and plot lines.