I think me and this essay collection got off on the wrong foot. I listened to the audiobook of this last year and reread it this year after having read a bunch of Joan's other books. I love how sharply she writes and how well she balances the emotional with the objective. 

While most writers tend to romanticise the late sixties/early seventies, the hippie movement, the drugs and the free love, Didion shows another side to it all. A darker and more brutal side that I think added another dimension to my understanding of the time period. 

Aside from the titual essay 'Slouching Towards Bethlehem'n the essay that touched me the most was the last one in this volume, 'Goodbye to All That'. Didion's relationship with New York, always feeling like an outsider, hanging around with other outsiders and alway knowing when the next plane home was reminded me so much of how I feel about the city that I am going to university in. It always fascinates me how certain experiences completely transcend generation and geographic location. 

"History, huh?...bet we could make some."

First of all, this reminded 
me so much of a 90s coming of age rom-com which immediately had me endeared. Henry and Alex were such great characters, so sweet, so charming and so easy to love. I really enjoyed the rivalry, friendship and relationship between them. Beyond adorable!!! 

Realistically, this would never go down so smoothly between the spare Prince of England and the First Son of the United States. I found the later chunk of the story a bit too cheesy and idealistic but hey, we don't look for logic in romance novels do we? 

"Dunk the Lunk as thick as a castle wall". 


It's always an absolute pleasure to delve back into the expansive the world and lore of Westeros!! It really is amazing how vividly Geroge R.R Martin has imagined it. These extra stories are fascinating in context with the rest of the series and its always great to get the opportunit  to piece together more of the backstories and histories of Westeros. This gave so much more information about the Targaryen Dynasty as well as the Blackfyre Rebellions and the political and social fall out of them in the years that followed. 

I loved Dunk and Egg as characters and I loved the relationship between them. Dunk was such a wonderful character. So great to have a character that grew up in Kingslanding and rose to greatness through his honesty and chivalry. Really rare in the world of Westeros. I absolutely love love loved Egg. I hope we see how he develops from the cheeky precocious hardworking boy he is here to the future king. You can already see how his perception of the value of life and the dangers of war to the common people of Westeros change his worldview from story to story. You also see him come to understand how the Targaryen family are perceived throughout the seven kingdoms,  which also influences him as a ruler later on. Just so great!!


This was just so much more lighthearted than the rest of the series...almost like a buddy-cop road trip kind of story when compared to the darker more twisted and political plot lines of the rest of the main series. 

This was my first encounter with Isherwood and it definitely turned out to be a good one. He paints a vibrant picture of Berlin in the 1930s, just prior to the rise of fascism. 

His characterisation of each person the main character meets is some of the best I have read in a while. Mr Norris was particularly interesting, in equal parts fabulously eccentric, likable, untrustworthy and suspicious. 

Loved it!!

Read for college. 

Some really great short stories in here with a fair share of kind of unmemorable ones. I really liked the one about the Beatles and the ex girlfriend and the name-stealing monkey one. The ending of the last one also gave me chills...bit spooky.  

Read for college

Read for college

I'm honestly devastated that I read the five books that have been published in A Song of Ice and Fire so quickly. These characters have been such great company these last few months. Can't wait for Winds of Winter, if it ever comes. 

As always, George R.R Martin's world building and character development blows me away. While I definitely don't like all of the characters, he really does do a good job of getting the reader to understand them. I'm really looking forward to seeing how things pan out for Jon, Dany and Davos. Love them! I also really enjoyed the Tyrion and Arya chapters. Cersei is batshit crazy...but she does make me laugh. 

I'm also really intruiged to see how the Aegon plotline is handled in the books, since we see him take Stormsend at the end of Dance of the Dragons. I honestly can't decide whether I think he's the real deal or not. Even if he is a Blackfyre he will be a formidable opponent for Dany with the army he's raising and the belief people have in his claim to the the throne.