Yes yes yes.

Edit: I don't agree with the author and her views, my original review stands below.

We Should All Be Feminists is a book I feel that I have come to 6 years too late. However, perhaps the time to develop and contemplate my own association of the term feminism and my only beliefs only heightened how much this book resonated with me. This book is only 50 pages and it still manages to be unbelievably powerful as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's words and convictions spill from the pages.

There's little I can say on this subject or book that hasn't been discussed before. There were two aspects of this book that felt really important and poignant to me which were Adichie's discussion of masculinity and her thoughts on likeability.

Her discussions on masculinity and the topic of the male ego resonated strongly with me. I will never forget my mum telling me I needed to stop being so pig-headed and be aware of the male ego because it was too fragile and I would just stomp all over it (this is definitely paraphrased - although she definitely called be pig-headed). To tell a 15 year old, even if it was a jest, is a powerful statement. To think I should be concerned about the male ego; what about my own? This is why Adichie's discussions resonated with me as she spoke about how we need to be careful about the messages we teach our youngsters. We should not be teaching our boys that they have fragile egos, and we should not be teaching our girls that they need to cater to this.

"We stifle the humanity of boys. We define masculinity in a very narrow way. Masculinity is a hard, small cage, and we put boys inside this cage."

I think this book remains so, so relevant as we continue to impose harmful gender stereotypes onto the youngsters of today and uphold those amongst all generations. I think I, like Adichie, am still struggling with the way in which gender constructs have been imposed upon me from an early age and reinforced by how society behaves.

"I'm trying to unlearn many lessons of gender internalized while growing up. But I sometimes still feel vulnerable in the face of gender expectations."

The other aspect that really struck me was the concept of likeability. Why do we instil in our girls the need to be liked, the need to be compliant. These are not behaviours thrust upon boys and it irritates me when people say I shouldn't get angry about things. I see men rage on a daily basis about many inane things, yet when I get emotional and angry about injustices in the world I am told to calm down.

This book is so powerful and I think the perfect and easiest introduction to understanding why feminism is important and relevant. Why feminism is accessible to all. And why, as Adichie argues we should all be feminists.

"My own definition of a feminist is a man or a woman who says, "Yes there's a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better.""

"Will there be a future where I, on the page, am simply I, on the page, and not I, proxy for a whole ethnicity, imploring you to believe we are human beings who feel pain?"

Minor Feelings is a collection of essays by Cathy Park Hong which touch on a variety of topics such as race, the model minority theory, depression, mental health, female friendship, art, literature, language and more. I found the essays compelling and readable and whilst some had a little more substance than others the collection makes you think.

As Cathy Park Hong unpacks the Asian-American experience and the topic of race she does so with great nuance. Discussing the difficulties of her own identity as Korean American and the differences between Asian communities.

When she goes on to talk about identity, language and art I found myself scrawling down thoughts and quote after quote as I was struck by the poignancy of her words. It's incredibly clear to me that Cathy Park Hong is a master with words as her essays were evocative and lyrical which isn't generally what I expect from non-fiction. And I almost certainly want to get ahold of some of her poetry work now.

"To other English is to make audible the imperial power sewn into the language, to slit English open so its dark histories slide out."

There are so many elements of this book to draw out and to discuss and to go back to. Her thoughts on Hollywood and literature for one as she spoke about the power of literature/films to fetishize the eras when countries like the UK and US were "violently hostile to anyone different".

Also her discussions about how we have to stop packaging art through the "groups" individuals represent. And she talked about the importance of cultural exchange, innovation and how the arts needs to thrive.

This book is certainly an important read for its discussions surrounding race and the Asian-American experience, however it's much more than that. It's an exploration of language, power, mental health and arts. It's also compulsive and consuming and one everyone should read!

Transcendent Kingdom tells the story of Gifty, a Black woman and scientist who was raised in Alabama to Ghanian parents. The narrative focuses heavily on the subject of science, mental health, addiction, grief and religion. These subjects are deftly interwoven into the exploration of Gifty's life and beliefs and most importantly become central to exploration of her relationships with her mother and brother.

The themes at times make the novel a heavy read, particularly the focuses on addiction, grief and mental health. However it felt really well handled and Gyasi's exploration of grief really touched me.

Gyasi packs a lot of social criticism into this book as she explores masculinity, gender, race and women's role and place in STEM. I have seen a few criticisms of the book for the focus on science, but I actually really liked the focus. I have read so few books about women in science, nevermind Black women in science and that is a narrative we need to see for women and girls to believe that science is for them.

I will say I found the book quite slow at times, but I think this really worked for this narrative as I digested the story slower and it gave me time to think about Gyasi's social commentary and the beauty of her writing.

What I thought was particularly brilliant about this book was the exploration of religion and how Gyasi showed the intersection of faith with Gifty's scientific studies and her upbringing. Gyasi really showed how science and religion which are often considered to be polar opposites can have much more blurred boundaries in a person's life.

Transcendent Kingdom is a powerful story that felt very different to Homegoing which shows the talent of Yaa Gyasi as an author. If you go into this book expecting another Homegoing you're doing Yaa Gyasi a disservice as an author. Appreciate this book for being brilliant on its own.

Thanks to @feelingmyshelf_ and @penguinukbooks for a copy.

The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

This is honestly one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking historical fiction books I've read. The Mountains Sing is set against the backdrop of the Viet Nam War in the 1970s, and follows the story of one family. Through the eyes of young Huong and her grandmother, we jump back and forth as Huong's grandmother recounts the traumas and hardships of World War II and the invasion by the Japanese, the rise of the Communists, Land reform that brought her family to Ha Noi.

The storytelling is rich and beautiful, interwoven wih Vietnamese proverbs that the author has worked to translate for the reader, whilst still keeping the original translations so the readers can appreciate the beauty of the Vietnamese language.

It is by no means an easy read as it comes with a lot of trigger warnings as it centres on war, plunder, violence and brutality committed against and between the Vietnamese people. It's a story of deep divisions, but also of journeys to heal, to forgive. It speaks of resilience, of family, love and hope.

Huong and her grandmother Dieu Lan were the central figures in the narrative and two incredibly strong women. I loved that this multigenerational story put their relationship and bond at the centre of the narrative.

This book will almost certainly stay with me for a long time to come and I think it's absolutely a must read for everyone because of the beauty of the writing, but also of the historical narrative it tells. The history of the Vietnamese people through their own voices. Without a doubt one of the best historical narratives I've read in a long while!

I'd like to firstly say, I absolutely adore Nalini Singh's writing and have read her entire psy-changeling series and I've started on her guild hunter series, so I'm a little bit of a super fan. So I was super excited to get ahold of her newest book, Quiet in her Bones that came out last month.

Quiet in Her Bones is Singh's second stand-alone thriller, so different genre to her paranormal-romance writing that I love. And whilst this book started off a little slow, I was absolutely raving in excitement about the end of the book and the plot twists.

The book is set in the lush greenery of New Zealand, and follows Aarav Rai. Aarav is a newly famous crime-thriller writer haunted by his past and struggling with his present. When his mother's remains are found after she disappeared without a trace 10 years ago with a quarter of a million dollars, Aarav starts to ask a lot of questions of himself and the socialtes around him in the rich cul-de-sac he grew up in.

The book starts off a little slower than I would have liked for a thriller as I do like them to be fairly gripping from the beginning. However, Singh builds up an exquisite tension across the book that slowly keeps you coming back for more. The little plot twists that unravelled across the book had me more and more hooked and almost screaming at the pages as I was on the edge of my seat. She has a gorgeous writing style and fleshes out excellent characters with nuance and conflict. Singh's novels are so multidimensional as she weaves in Hindi references to New Zealand scenery, Maori culture and more.

I won't share anymore details because I don't want to spoil the book and thrillers are all about the plot twists. I have to say though, the brilliance of Nalini Singh's writing comes through clearly in Quiet in Her Bones and I'm even more of a super fan now! Thank you so much to Gollancz for the review copy!

HOLY FUCKING SHIT. I PUT OFF READING THE ENDING FOR TWO DAYS BECAUSE I COULDN'T DEAL WITH THE ANGST AND THEN LARA COMES IN AND DOES THAT AND I'M STILL LIKE AHHHH I CAN'T COPE BUT EQUALLY LIKE YES LARA AND I WANT MORE

This is by no means the best fantasy I've ever read but it has a spark and an intensity that makes it addictive. The characters are loveable and there's a real connection.

2.5 stars

The second half took a bit of a dive for me.

"Memory is not just in mind. It lives in actual places, in actual things. It sits in empty chairs and in written carpets and smudged walls and light switches. I stand close to the wall and rest my own fingertips against the mark my father's touch had left, a final intimacy, the closest I will ever get to his physical presence again."

The Clearing is a heavy exploration of family, mental health and grief. Samantha Clark is incredibly open about her emotions and experiences making this a frank and important contribution to discussions about mental health and grief. The book follows the period of Clark clearing out her parents' house in Glasgow, following their death, interspersed with her memories of the past and philosophical musings.

She talks about the difficulties growing up with a mother who took medication to treat psychotic episodes, who was anxious to control and catalogue her every movement. Her mother who sent police round to find her when she failed to call. She discusses their fraught relationship and the difficulties of grieving for a woman she had never truly known and been losing over her entire life.

She talks about the burden of her parents as her father attempted to take care of her mother and suffered his own ailments. Her failure to do more but her inability to do so because of money, time, her parent's staunch opposition to meddling.

She delves into some very real difficulties that I think many people can understand and relate to, especially those who have cared for ageing relatives, know loved ones who suffer with their mental health and those dealing with grief.

My main gripe with the book was the many metaphors Clark uses. These drew heavily on science and space specifically and whilst some of them worked, I found the longer sections that dived into details about ether and dark matter really jarred my reading experience. These sections weren't really what I expected or wanted from a memoir about "art, family and mental health" and it meant I often skim read these sections.

Despite the short length this book felt quite dense and emotionally heavy, so not one I'd necessarily recommend to everyone. However the emotion touched me, it brought a tear to my eye and lump in my throat. It made me think about how messy and chaotic life can be, how unfair it can be, how loving family is not always easy and how grief weighs heavy on the soul. This book feels carthatic for Samantha Clark and whilst not a read I loved, it's one I can appreciate.

Thanks to Little Brown Books for the review copy.