Are you a moral rebel?
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"Broadening how we think about ourselves and our connections to others can help us overcome the firmly engrained human tendency towards inaction."
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The Bystander Effect by Catherine. A Sanderson posed many interesting questions and centered on an interesting topic. I'd heard of some of the studies before but wasn't entirely familiar with the phenomena. The concept is basically that good people or bad people look on as people do bad things without speaking out.
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The topic was interesting and I think important, however I felt that the execution was lacking. Sanderson details a lot of studies, but I found that she didn't really go into details about the scale of the studies, and alternative factors that could influence individuals. For example sexism in the workplace, Sanderson didn't really engage with the considerations surrounding gender inequality and how this may play in. I felt like the writing style lacked cohesion between the studies and Sanderson's ideas and this made it disjointed at times.
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The strength of the work lay in the final chapter where Sanderson identified actions that people can take. Her focus on people actively making small statements to themselves, people in leadership roles taking action like coaches talking to their players, and people focusing on connections to wider groups of society to feel empathy with people. I feel that the book would have benefited from Sanderson's thoughts more coherently throughout and a more nuanced examination of the studies. The focus of her work was mostly on the USA so I think it would be interesting to see how this concept works outside the US.
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I received a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review from Tandem Collective and Harper Collins.

Dream a Little Dream was another DNF for me after making it to nearly 50% of the way through, I just couldn't continue. I think this is sadly the end of my time with the Chicago Stars series, as I come to terms that this series feels too dated, has too many unsettling religious overtones and is just massively misogynistic.

The point of which I had to DNF this book was when Gabe admitted he was underpaying Rachel because he didn't want her to leave. He was purposely making her dependent on him. He switched her pay to a salary so he could seduce her in work hours and then she wouldn't be getting paid for sex. He also spoke about marrying her to keep her there, despite not really seeming to like her, finding it difficult to be around her child and it just seemed ludicrous.

The whole story-line was something I was very apprehensive about and it felt like a little bit too much, but it just got all the more ridiculous when Rachel turned out to be some widowed televangelist crook's wife who the whole town hated.

I'm not sure if I'll be returning to Susan Elizabeth Philips' work, but for now I'm calling it an end.

This was my first book for the Ramadan Readathon and I absolutely adored it. I was absorbed in the story from start to finish and just couldn't put it down for the whole afternoon. It balanced humour and seriousness really well.
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I've heard lots of good things about how well this book represents Islam and Muslims from people that identify as Muslim, as obviously I'm not able to say how representative this is of the Muslim community. From my own reading experience though, the book highlighted and tackled key issues such as work-place discrimination, Islamaphobia and arranged marriages really well. I also thought it was really tastefully written and the whole romance was really well done.
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I loved Ayesha as a character and I loved Khalid. Ayesha was so loyal and caring and I just loved her inner strength. Khalid was a little ignorant about women to begin with, but he was almost certainly shy and I loved how he opened up and grew across the whole novel. Both Ayesha and Khalid learnt things about themselves and their family over the whole novel and I really liked this growth in their characters. I loved the blossoming romance between the two of them. That being said their romance wasn't straight forward as we had selfish characters like Hafsa and Khalid's meddling mother who I didn't like. And do not even get be started on Sheila the Shark, what a horrid woman.
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Nevertheless, the whole novel was just heart-warming and made me feel all fuzzy inside. I would really recommend this read to everyone as a lighter read that still tackles some serious issues.

Hamnet was not the book I expected it to be at all. I went into reading this expecting a book about Shakespeare and his son Hamnet. In actual fact, Sheakespeare took a back seat throughout the whole book. He was never named, only described by his roles as: the tutor, the brother, the husband and the father. His role and relationship to his family were the important factors rather than his infamous identity as a playwright. The books focus was on Agnes, or Anne Hathaway as she is better known, his wife. This was a book about motherhood, womanhood, family, relationships, siblings, and grief.

This book is slow and so incredibly detailed. It looks at the moments of everyday life. Agnes creating her poultices to heal; Agnes flying her bird; Agnes walking through the forests to find herbs and berries. Hamnet playing with his sister' Hamnet worried about his sick sister. The relationship between Agnes and her husband; the relationship between siblings, between parent and child. These everyday actions and relationship were central to the feel and the life of the story. I would have expected this to bore me, but it helped to bring the world of Shakespearean England to life and the world that Agnes lived in.

Agnes for me was the highlight of this book. She was smart, devoted, and painfully human. She felt life deeply and it was clear that she had strong beliefs and attitudes. She also loved her children deeply and this shined through every page where their relationship was described. She was a mother and motherhood was central to this book, but it wasn't the only aspect of her character. I loved that she did not bend to anybody. I loved that she was able to see through Shakespeare and humanise and ground him. She made him a normal father, husband, son, brother.

I absolutely adored when she immediately knew that Shakespeare had been with other women, that she could scold and judge him and she walked away. I liked that he had to earn her back and that she was shown to be so strong

. Agnes took my heart and my heart broke for Agnes in this book.

I honestly did not expect to love or like this book so much, despite all the hype it has received I thought it might have just been overrated). I am happy to say that I was wrong and I can entirely see why this sits on the Women's Prize shortlist.

Prisoners of Geography was a Christmas gift from my boyfriend and not the usual type of book I would pick up. I did not realise that it was initially a book about geopolitics and how the landscape can impact on foreign relations, national politics and agendas.

The strengths of this book are that Tim Marshall offers an accessible introduction to geopolitics as a concept. He splits his book into regions focusing on Russia, China, USA, Western Europe, Latin America, Korea and Japan, the Middle East and Antarctica. He writes in an accessible and interesting way and I flicked through the whole book in a couple of days.

However, I think what is quite evident is that Tim Marshall is a journalist first and foremost. The writing style and opinion elements are clearly traits of his journalism roots and I think this book is very surface level. He skirts over historical events and I think even some of his geopolitical arguments are not always conclusive or entirely convincing. He also does not footnote any of his work, which is becoming a pet-hate of mine in non-fiction, and this always leaves me sceptical about which arguments are sourced and which are opinion driven.

Overall, I think Prisoners of Geography is a great introduction to some important world-political arguments. It raises important questions about Chinese power and influence, Russian intelligence, US plans and legacies of colonialism. However, Marshall attempts to cover a lot of countries and history and for that reason this can only ever be a surface-level introduction. I definitely learnt things from reading this book, and would be curious to read more on the topic of geopolitics for sure after reading this.

3.5 stars

Enjoyable, but I'm excited for the events in the rest of the series beyond this one.

Wow, I need to collect my thoughts on this one. So powerful, so important and so feminist. I loved it.

This was okay, it was very similar set up to Maya Banks' other series. However Mairin was a bit annoying so I knocked this down.

It's not a bad book and an easy afternoon read.

A feminism that is truly anti-racist and anti-imperialist must also be anticapitalist.

Feminism for the 99% was an impulse buy and read, and I am so glad that I picked this book up. Feminism for the 99% is a series of theses that critiques capitalism and highlight how capitalism has resulted in racism, discrimination, gender inequality, gender violence, ecological destruction and hetero-normative behaviour being entrenched as acceptable behaviour in our society. This book is inherently political and calls out capitalism as a problem; the book also serves as an attack on liberal and capital feminist like Sheryl Sandberg who it openly critiques throughout for her "lean in" doctrine. However, this book is titled as a manifesto and is clearly a call to arms for women to strike and take action. Therefore, I don't think this book has to be or should be objective in its arguments. This book does not pull punches as it rallies for the socialist/marxist cause and promotes equality in its truest form. If you do not have leftist political leanings then you probably would not appreciate the arguments in this book.

The book also feels especially relevant in the current climate, which is why I think it felt so stark reading it, as the authors highlight how the structures and system of capitalism does not benefit the people. In the UK at the moment, we are seeing how the government has prioritised the economy over the safety of the people. The government plans to send primary school children back to school as a means of providing free child care, so parents can return to work. This evidences the way in which capitalist culture and society prevails and does not protect the weak and the vulnerable, and is exactly the arguments this book puts forth.

The book is very high-level in its approach and there is no bibliography to the research that these women have clearly done to inform their arguments. However, all the authors are professional academics who have written extensively on their subjects. Furthermore, this book didn't need the research and footnotes to support its arguments as their examples are so clearly demonstrated in key cases we see in the news. One example would be the question about the justice systems ability to deal with violence against women. The authors argue that the justice system disproportionately targets poor and working-class men of colour. We have seen, particularly in America as this book focuses on, only recently with the shooting of the jogger Ahmaud Arbery, the justice system targets people of colour. The justice system, especially in America accuses and shoots first on people of colour and asks questions secondly. Another instance of the justice systems failure to protect women is the gang-rape of the teenager in Cyprus last year. The young woman was then vilified and given a suspended sentence for public mischief despite being a victim, highlights how across the world the justice system is not working to protect the vulnerable. It shows that these arguments that are put forward do not need footnote documentation when we can see the real-life examples so clearly around us right now. This book is also a manifesto, so it would draw away from the pace and punch of the arguments.

Feminism for the 99% is entirely persuasive and well-written as I found myself utterly absorbed and agreeing with the arguments that were put forward throughout the book. At times some of the language was a little academic as the authors talk about neo-liberalism, social reproduction, imperialist and colonial behaviours etc. However, in the authors note at the back, the authors unpick some of the terminology they use, their credibility for writing this piece as women academics involved in extensive research around these topics, as women involved in the strikes for women around the globe. They bolster and support their piece effectively in their authors notes and articulate both why and how they chose to write a manifesto which I think is important and relevant. This is definitely a book that is reaching out to the masses, and I think its accessible at just under 100 pages. Although you may need to google some terms if you're not familiar this book feels incredibly relevant.

Far from proposing to obliterate or trivialize them, our Manifesto advocates that we fight against capitalism's weaponization of our differences. Feminism for the 99 percent embodies the vision of univeralism: always in formation, always open to transformation and contestation, and always establishing itself anew through solidarity.

I especially liked the focus on interweaving feminism with topics of racism, LGBTQ+ discrimination, Islamphobia etc. The book highlighted how nations show 'enlightened toleration' in one area and use it as a way to vilify other communities; for example they spoke about how certain European nations show increasing liberalism to LGBTQ+ communities, but then use this to actively discriminate against Muslims who they argued don't show this 'enlightened toleration'. When it comes to issues of race, a lot of their arguments drew back to the impact of colonialism and the exploitation of workers under colonialism, apartheid and the international division of labour. The authors called out how the exploited workers have roughly always coincided with the "global color line". They also spoke about how women of colour were predominantly in the service of their white women counterparts and the disadvantages and exploitation that left them open to. I liked how clear these messages were.

I think it was incredibly important that this brief manifesto connected together all these issues so clearly and at a really high level connected the various problems to show how they are all a feminist issue. This book feels like a good introduction and call to arms to bigger problems in regards to global feminism, inter-sectional feminism and true feminism that believes in equality for all. I only wish for me there was a bibliography as a stepping stone to reading about more areas these women spoke about, however, I think the next step will be to look up their other works.