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199 reviews by:
samdalefox
reflective
fast-paced
I'm not sure I should continue to give star ratings to poetry collections, because it's becoming increasingly clear that I just don't 'get' the artistic format. As such I rate all of them quite poorly and I'm sure that's not truly reflective or fair of the quality of work within the genre. I'll consider how to change my approach to reviewing poetry going forwards for my 2023 goals.
I picked up 'Like a tree walking' because it was recommended as 'ecopoetics' to me, and I'm actively reading more literature relating to the climate crisis. I have not read any of Vahni Capildeo's works before so can't comment on her apparent change in style for this collection.
I definitely picked up on the themes of nature, anti-colonialism, response to the climate crisis, and reflections upon the COVID-19 pandemic. I didn't get any strong sense of feeling from the works though, besides 'In praise of trees'. Capildeo uses a variation of free form structure and language which I'm not naturally adept at interpreting. Overall, I struggled to understand, and in lieu of understanding, I struggled to feel anything either. This total emotional lostness is reflected in the star rating.
"It is unfortunate that your friend's book became political before it was born, because of where he was born, some places are political. also his body thunders politics, let it remain dark in text, some bodies are political from their conception
Poems I actively liked
I picked up 'Like a tree walking' because it was recommended as 'ecopoetics' to me, and I'm actively reading more literature relating to the climate crisis. I have not read any of Vahni Capildeo's works before so can't comment on her apparent change in style for this collection.
I definitely picked up on the themes of nature, anti-colonialism, response to the climate crisis, and reflections upon the COVID-19 pandemic. I didn't get any strong sense of feeling from the works though, besides 'In praise of trees'. Capildeo uses a variation of free form structure and language which I'm not naturally adept at interpreting. Overall, I struggled to understand, and in lieu of understanding, I struggled to feel anything either. This total emotional lostness is reflected in the star rating.
"It is unfortunate that your friend's book became political before it was born, because of where he was born, some places are political. also his body thunders politics, let it remain dark in text, some bodies are political from their conception
Poems I actively liked
- Plague poems, IV Flowers for the house
- Walk #6
- In praise of trees (my favourite)
- Violent triage
- Odyssey response, I. Words take wing
Poems I kind of liked and/or maybe understood what it was supposed to be about
- In praise of birds
- Windrush reflections
- Nocturne #1
- Nocturne #6
- Is there an afterwards
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I read this as a child of a parent who hoards and has chronic depression. I have lived experience of the situations described; growing up in the unsafe living conditions, the stigma, the lack of support, the long term affects etc. I mention this to note that I already had an idea of the condition before reading.
I found the book to be informative, validating of my experience and observations of my mum (for example, I've never seen such a brilliant concise description of 'churning') and not at all condescending or judgemental. I think this is an excellent book introducing what hoarding is, the causes behind it, and most importantly, how to help people who hoard. This is a hugely misunderstood area by the public, and sadly by many social and health professionals. The advice given is easy to understand, clear, split into steps, and compassionate. I would recommend to people who want to help loved ones struggling with hoarding, and to all people who work in sectors in a position to interact and help people who hoard, e.g. (healthcare, social care, emergency services, essential services like electricians, plumbers, binmen etc.).
I found the book to be informative, validating of my experience and observations of my mum (for example, I've never seen such a brilliant concise description of 'churning') and not at all condescending or judgemental. I think this is an excellent book introducing what hoarding is, the causes behind it, and most importantly, how to help people who hoard. This is a hugely misunderstood area by the public, and sadly by many social and health professionals. The advice given is easy to understand, clear, split into steps, and compassionate. I would recommend to people who want to help loved ones struggling with hoarding, and to all people who work in sectors in a position to interact and help people who hoard, e.g. (healthcare, social care, emergency services, essential services like electricians, plumbers, binmen etc.).
challenging
informative
sad
slow-paced
Renni Eddo-Lodge provides a good primer and accessible book on institutional racism embedded into our UK history and culture. It is a good entry point for anyone wanting to become actively anti-racist. Anecdotal evidence for this, my mum has bought a copy of the book to read! A 57 year old sheltered white woman is open to self-learning and I'm proud of her. It seems to have a wide appeal to the people that need to read this... white people.
Main con: the larger points on intersectionality (particuarly around that of class) I found to be overly simplistic, probably because I've read more around the subject - I'd recommend reading Bell Hooks and Angela Saini, plus Eddo Lodge credits the coiner of the term intersectionaliy Dr Kimberlé Crenshaw. I also found this slow to read as an audiobook, so I read it at 1.5x speed. Main pro: It gives a UK perspective with UK examples. This may be obvious but it's important to highlight. A common theme in our culture is the ignorant view that racism isn't a problem here because it doesn't look exactly like that what we see in American culture, news, and anti-racist literature. American civil rights history often eclipses the UK one. The UK absolutely does have racism and a rich civil rights history and Eddo-Lodge does well to introduce many contemporary examples across England that should shake up newcomers to the topic. My favourite quote on this subject: "Faced with collective forgetting, we must fight to remember".
Ultimately, although I personally didn't find the way it was written very engaging, I have learnt more and I greatly value how accessible the book is, I genuinely think it will engage a wider audience that we need to become engaged in anti-racism. The author recognises that racism is structural, that structures are made out of people and thus are an amplification of personal prejudices. I have hope that this book starts that process by challenging and educating the UK population on our personal prejudices.
Main con: the larger points on intersectionality (particuarly around that of class) I found to be overly simplistic, probably because I've read more around the subject - I'd recommend reading Bell Hooks and Angela Saini, plus Eddo Lodge credits the coiner of the term intersectionaliy Dr Kimberlé Crenshaw. I also found this slow to read as an audiobook, so I read it at 1.5x speed. Main pro: It gives a UK perspective with UK examples. This may be obvious but it's important to highlight. A common theme in our culture is the ignorant view that racism isn't a problem here because it doesn't look exactly like that what we see in American culture, news, and anti-racist literature. American civil rights history often eclipses the UK one. The UK absolutely does have racism and a rich civil rights history and Eddo-Lodge does well to introduce many contemporary examples across England that should shake up newcomers to the topic. My favourite quote on this subject: "Faced with collective forgetting, we must fight to remember".
Ultimately, although I personally didn't find the way it was written very engaging, I have learnt more and I greatly value how accessible the book is, I genuinely think it will engage a wider audience that we need to become engaged in anti-racism. The author recognises that racism is structural, that structures are made out of people and thus are an amplification of personal prejudices. I have hope that this book starts that process by challenging and educating the UK population on our personal prejudices.
Content Warnings
Minor: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, Classism
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
'The Red Deal: Idigenous action to save our Earth' is the manifesto that every single person should be backing. I'd recommend reading this to anyone vaguely interested in the Green New Deal.
Written by The Red Nation and published by Common Motions, this is the pinnacle of intersectionality of the social justice movement. It is a living document, ever growing, and it unflinchingly calls out the necessary actions humanity needs to take immediately to combat the climate crisis. The Red Deal builds upon and joins up previously existing ideas and struggles. It is more ambitious, inspiring, and comprehensive in scope than the Green New Deal. I'll admit that I found the first third more challenging because I am not American and have less exposure to those systems, however the occupation problems highlighted affect us all. The actions of modern day colonial imperial USA affects us all, as the book explains. I am convinced that pushing to adopt The Red Deal will benefit climate activism, and ultimately, our way of life relating to each other and our environment.
An overview of chapters:
Written by The Red Nation and published by Common Motions, this is the pinnacle of intersectionality of the social justice movement. It is a living document, ever growing, and it unflinchingly calls out the necessary actions humanity needs to take immediately to combat the climate crisis. The Red Deal builds upon and joins up previously existing ideas and struggles. It is more ambitious, inspiring, and comprehensive in scope than the Green New Deal. I'll admit that I found the first third more challenging because I am not American and have less exposure to those systems, however the occupation problems highlighted affect us all. The actions of modern day colonial imperial USA affects us all, as the book explains. I am convinced that pushing to adopt The Red Deal will benefit climate activism, and ultimately, our way of life relating to each other and our environment.
An overview of chapters:
- Introduction (do not skip this, even if you're familiar with intersectional activism, it's shocking and informative. I particularly liked the caretaking economy section)
- Part I - Divest (Defunding the police, ending violence, abolishing the carceral system, imperialism, and occupation everywhere)
- Part II - Heal our bodies (Reinvesting in our common humanity; housing, education, health, transportation and infrastructure, food, clean air water land, ending of sexual violence)
- Part III - Heal our planet (Reinvesting in our common future; clean energy, protection and restoration of natural resources and enviornments, sustainable agriculture, enforcement of treaty rights and other agreements).
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I'm giving this the same rating as the first book. Fire and Ice continues the story where we left off in 'Warriors: Into the Wild' and keeps up with the same pace and adventure. There is continuation of old storylines, the introduction of new ones, and plenty of character development. I'm still enjoying reading about the cat clan world and I'll definitely continue reading the series. I still recommend this to young readers! :)
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
The title may be misleading for some people, this is a book compiling some of Greta Thunberg's speeches. Read consecutively the speeches do get repetitive. However, each speech itself is passionate, informative, and vitally important. I hope any one of them can inspire a new person to take up climate activism.
My favourite speeches:
My favourite speeches:
- Can you hear me? - this was a PERFECT address to the UK Houses of Parliament in 2019. The speech is tailored to the UK, it's consise and brutal and I love it.
- The world is waking up - the famous 'how dare you!' speech. It is clear and damning.
funny
lighthearted
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Holly Golightly (travelling) is often quoted as the original vintage 'Manic Pixie Dream Girl'. Definition: She "exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures". I do believe this is largely true, Holly's exuberent and playful life definitely balances out the male writer/narrator's lacklustre attitude. However, the novella does take efforts to show that Holly does have layers, she is a person rather than a sexualised plaything despite others (especially men) not seeing that in her. For example, she has survived abuse, she is courageous enough to do what she wants to do, not others,' she admits that she has no close friends, and she realises too late that her closest bond is with her adopted cat, she is looking for a place where she feels safe and at home e.g. how Tiffany's makes her feel.
It's fun reading about Holly's life, but also sad. There were many moments where I empathised with her, unfortunately having used some of her tactics myself. I have not seen the film, but I gather the book is slightly different. Despite having some dated terms/ideas, I would still recommend reading the book.
House of Flowers
I enjoyed this short story just as much. Themes of friendship and family, different types of love, subtle explroation of matriachy, revenge, folk lore, and difficult decisions.
A Diamond Guitar
A bittersweet short story. I was invested in Mr Schaeffer as a character and found the description of how he lived harmoniously in the prison farm insightful and quite devastating. When Tico Feo played his guitar and momentarily brightened up the lives of the prisoners, but then "They did not notice that afterwards there was a deeper sadness than there had ever been" because they were reminded of the beauty and joy they had become accustomed to without.
A Christmas Memory
Perhaps the most sad of the collection, a beautful story of a friendship across generations and the simple pleasures they have whilst experiencing severe poverty. The memory concentrates of the tradition of the characters making annual Christmas cakes for friends and strangers/people they admire. I was surprised by how much this story touched me.
Giving the collection an overall rating of 3.75
Holly Golightly (travelling) is often quoted as the original vintage 'Manic Pixie Dream Girl'. Definition: She "exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures". I do believe this is largely true, Holly's exuberent and playful life definitely balances out the male writer/narrator's lacklustre attitude. However, the novella does take efforts to show that Holly does have layers, she is a person rather than a sexualised plaything despite others (especially men) not seeing that in her. For example, she has survived abuse, she is courageous enough to do what she wants to do, not others,' she admits that she has no close friends, and she realises too late that her closest bond is with her adopted cat, she is looking for a place where she feels safe and at home e.g. how Tiffany's makes her feel.
It's fun reading about Holly's life, but also sad. There were many moments where I empathised with her, unfortunately having used some of her tactics myself. I have not seen the film, but I gather the book is slightly different. Despite having some dated terms/ideas, I would still recommend reading the book.
House of Flowers
I enjoyed this short story just as much. Themes of friendship and family, different types of love, subtle explroation of matriachy, revenge, folk lore, and difficult decisions.
A Diamond Guitar
A bittersweet short story. I was invested in Mr Schaeffer as a character and found the description of how he lived harmoniously in the prison farm insightful and quite devastating. When Tico Feo played his guitar and momentarily brightened up the lives of the prisoners, but then "They did not notice that afterwards there was a deeper sadness than there had ever been" because they were reminded of the beauty and joy they had become accustomed to without.
A Christmas Memory
Perhaps the most sad of the collection, a beautful story of a friendship across generations and the simple pleasures they have whilst experiencing severe poverty. The memory concentrates of the tradition of the characters making annual Christmas cakes for friends and strangers/people they admire. I was surprised by how much this story touched me.
Giving the collection an overall rating of 3.75
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This sequel is a very different tone to the first in the Dune series. Dune Messiah is shorter, less adventurous, more ponderous and philosophical and builds upon the world in different ways to expected, i.e. it introduced new characters (Bene Tleilax) and technologies (Ghola) rather than focusing on the ecology of Dune or the mechanics of the Jihad.
Overall, I'll admit I didn't really enjoy reading this until the last third or so where the plot started to pick up. I think Paul's philosophical musings are imporant to the story (and interesting!) but they were presented opaquely and were repetitive. I think Herbert could have done a little better making this aspect more engaging and accessible to readers. I'm glad I slogged on because I enjoy the Dune world and I'm interested in completing the original trilogy.
Themes I think Herbert was trying to convey: fate vs personal free will/choice, the dangers of heroism (both from the hero's point of view and the hero's followers), the role and dangers of religion in society, religion vs law as controllers of a population, war and poverty as political tools, regret.
Quotes I found interesting:
Overall, I'll admit I didn't really enjoy reading this until the last third or so where the plot started to pick up. I think Paul's philosophical musings are imporant to the story (and interesting!) but they were presented opaquely and were repetitive. I think Herbert could have done a little better making this aspect more engaging and accessible to readers. I'm glad I slogged on because I enjoy the Dune world and I'm interested in completing the original trilogy.
Themes I think Herbert was trying to convey: fate vs personal free will/choice, the dangers of heroism (both from the hero's point of view and the hero's followers), the role and dangers of religion in society, religion vs law as controllers of a population, war and poverty as political tools, regret.
Quotes I found interesting:
"A creature who has spent his life creating one particular representation of selfdom will die rather than become the antithesis of that representation"
"They're trained to believe, not to know. Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous."
"I was chosen...Perhaps at birth, certainly before I had much say in it. I was chosen"
"Then un-choose".
"Truth suffers from too much analysis"
"If prescience alone existed and did everything, Sire, it would annihilate itself. Nothing but prescience? Where would it be applied except to its own degenerating movements?"
"There's always the human situation" Paul agreed.
"People always expect the worst of the rich and powerful, Sire. It is said one can always tell an aristocrat: he reveals only those of his vices which will make him popular."
"There are many degrees of sight and many degrees of blindness".
"People aren't concerned with love; it's too disordered. They prefer depotism. Too much freedom breeds chaos. We can't have that, can we. How do you make depotism loveable?"
"Possession of second sight has the tendency to make one a dangerous fatalist."
"If you want something to worship, then worship life - all life, every last crawling bit of it! We're all in this beauty together!"
"There are problems in this universe for which there are no answers".
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Short stories fall into three categories for me. 1) Self contained, 2) a satisfying/interesting snippet suggesting at a wider world/story, and 3) a snippet that suggests at a wider world/story and could realistically be expanded into a full novella or novel.
I read all types, I find types 1 and 2 the most common, and I tend to prefer reading type 2. Glitch is one of the rare short stories that fall into type 3. I read this as an audiobook, within the half an hour it took to complete I was fully engaged, there was solid character building of the main protagonists (Sam) and the robot (Max), and story development. The idea of sentience is old school Isaac Assimov, but I loved the fresh way it was introduced and framed. I could see this being an interesting novella and I hope Hugh Howey writes more sci-fi short stories.
I read all types, I find types 1 and 2 the most common, and I tend to prefer reading type 2. Glitch is one of the rare short stories that fall into type 3. I read this as an audiobook, within the half an hour it took to complete I was fully engaged, there was solid character building of the main protagonists (Sam) and the robot (Max), and story development. The idea of
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was a friend's choice for our book club. He's a big fan of Stephen King, whereas I find his works hit and miss. This was more miss than hit, not because it's a badly written book or not enjoyable, but because it's very much what to expect of this genre, there was nothing novel or surprising for me. If this story wasn't written by King, I don't think people would rave about it so much. The storyline is predictable and the writing is average. As with most of King's longer works it's adventurous and maybe has too much unecessary detail, but it's easy enough to read.
I was drawn in at the start following Tim, then it flipped to follow the child protagonist Luke and it took me some time to reinvest. I'm not convinced making him a child genius actually helped serve the character and story themes, but acted more as a plot device so King could shoehorn in convenient facts that wouldn't come up organically otherwise. From the heavy referencing to Nazi concentration camps I suspect King is trying to introduce the same questions of horrors and amorality to a different audience (abuse of power, authority, utilitarianism, scientific advancement through non-consent etc.). The largest threatthat their torture was preventing the 'end of the world' didn't land for me at all and was rushed/not adequately explored in my opinion.
I'm sure King fans will love this, for more casual readers enjoy it for what it is; don't expect too much.
I was drawn in at the start following Tim, then it flipped to follow the child protagonist Luke and it took me some time to reinvest. I'm not convinced making him a child genius actually helped serve the character and story themes, but acted more as a plot device so King could shoehorn in convenient facts that wouldn't come up organically otherwise. From the heavy referencing to Nazi concentration camps I suspect King is trying to introduce the same questions of horrors and amorality to a different audience (abuse of power, authority, utilitarianism, scientific advancement through non-consent etc.). The largest threat
I'm sure King fans will love this, for more casual readers enjoy it for what it is; don't expect too much.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Torture, Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail