wordsofclover's Reviews (2.16k)

If you ever wanted a lead story centered around a smoking, drinking, cursing character similar to Derry Girls' Michelle, Factory Girls is one for you.

It's 1994 and in Northern Ireland, truce talks are around the corner meaning a flurry of revenge attacks on either side before the guns are put down. Maeve is 18 years old, and waiting to find out if her school results will allow her to attend journalism school in London - she's desperate to leave her family home, still shadowed by the death of her sister some years earlier, and she and her friends get jobs in the local factory to save up during the summer. For the first time, Maeve has a semblance of an independent life, and also works and somewhat socialises with the town Protestants which is a learning curve in itself.

This is a fantastic, entertaining book that hits so many great spots while at the same time carrying off a youthful, hopeful energy about it. The atmosphere and moment in time of Northern Ireland in the early 90s - the fear, the fatigue as well as the disbelief that the fighting could finally be nearing its end. Maeve is a hardened character who despite her age has had to live through some horrible times from experiencing bombings, and deaths, and hearing about new violent crimes almost every day of her life. But she also has youth on her side, and that hopefulness that college in London will lead to bigger and better things. We also see stark comparisons between Maeve's childhood and family home circumstances in comparison to her friend Aoife whose family are wealthy and Aoife will always have a different, easier trajectory in life than Maeve.

The factory scenes were really vibrant and interesting to read from the creepy, handsy boss Andy Strawbridge to the hierarchy among the women from Mary to Marilyn and Mabel, and that's without taking religion into account as one of the only workplaces to hire both Catholics and Protestants to work the factory floor together. The relationship and tension between the two sides ebbed and flowed depending on outside news, and also how close it was to the Twelfth and marching season.

I think this book highlighted what life was like in a small Irish town in Northern Ireland in the 90s really well, and Michelle Gallen is able to bring drinking, cursing, horny young women to life in a great way - giving them stories, conviction and depth all while making sure they have a hell of a good time. 

The Glass Hotel is a story that spans over decades as we follow a group of people, many of whom are unconnected except for one vital thing - a Ponzi scheme run by a man called Jonathan Alkaitis. The story follows Vincent, who becomes Jonathan's wife (but not wife) before his downfall, and who then disappeared from a ship at sea years later. We also follow Paul, Vincent's troubled older half-brother and a variety of other people connected to Alkaitis; people in on the money-making scheme as well as those who were ruined because of it.

I have read Sea of Tranquility, the author's most recent book at the time of writing, and I had heard it had connections via some characters to The Glass Hotel. So it was exciting in a way to read this, and see Paul and meet Vincent properly, as well as knowing that the world of The Glass Hotel is also that of Sea of Tranquility meaning moon living, deadly flu pandemics and time travel are all possibilities in this world and none of the characters know it yet.

I enjoyed this as a quiet story, as almost snapshots of people's lives who were all affected by a greedy man who wanted to make money - while at the same time, the greedy man himself Alkaitis isn't necessarily a huge villain of a character. There is melancholy and sadness in this book as many of the characters in it are touched by loss or death in some way - be it a person, or a loss at a future way of living such as Leon, and Walter. And there's also the ongoing mystery of what happened to Vincent when she disappeared off the ship, and whose mother years earlier also disappeared at sea.

The writing in this is beautiful and lyrical, with character that feel real and vulnerable which is what I know Emily St John Mandel exceeds at.

While I'm not sure if this is a story that will stay with me for a long time, I did enjoy reading it.

Neuroscientist Gregory Burns put his love for dogs, and his questions about their behaviour to work when he decided to embark on a project examining the brains of dogs under an MRI scanner to see what he could find out about how it all worked in comparison to the brains of humans.

This book looks at the driving forces behind the actions of dogs, whether it be food, love of an owner or a combination of both, as well as taking turns at looking at other animals in the natural world from sea lions, dolphins and Tasmanian Devils. Burns even gets to handle a 100-year-old brain of a creature thought to have gone extinct in the 1900s.

As a dog lover and an animal/nature lover I really enjoyed this book and I found the topic really interesting. Thanks to a glance at other reviews before I picked the book up, I knew not to expect the book to be all about dogs, though the start and end are both focused on the author's work with dogs. I think it's very unfair to review this book poorly because of the 'lack' of dogs in it - as dogs are the author's love and interest in dogs is the driving force behind the project before he begins to explore other animals. I think the book is really well written and engaging - I particularly loved learning more about sea lions, and how clever they are and the training methods used to see how they used their brains - as well as the domoic acid poisoning which I had never heard of before.

I also loved learning more about the thylacine which, while a very sad story maintains a small bit of hope that perhaps there are more out there, just hiding away from the humans who persecuted them for years.

CW at the end of this book for mentions of animal cruelty and animals being harmed for the 'benefits' of science/science experimentation. I really appreciate and respect Gregory Burns for telling the story that clearly haunts him, from when he was in medical school and as part of lab work, had to experiment different drugs on dogs before killing them. You can feel the shame, pain and regret from the author and even though the story was hard to read, I respected him for sharing it and not hiding away from the continuous cruelty of animals within the world of science. And I really loved and appreciated how he shared how they gave the dogs within the MRI training a choice on if they wanted to go into the scanner, and there were some who despite training wouldn't do it and didn't have to.

All in all, an enjoyable nature-focused non fiction that I really liked reading! 

When Summer Hartwell - a twenty-six year old librarian still living with her neurotic, overbearing parents - gets a chance to escape from them for a little while on a holiday cruise, she's determined to seize the moment, explore all her opportunities and find herself a husband so she can escape the parental home at last. But things don't go to plan when Summer ends up having to share a cabin with her brother's best friend and business partner, Graham, who weirdly seems to like spending time with her and her parents.

This was a silly, funny closed door romance that, like all of Beth LaBonte's books do, delivered some seasonal atmosphere, and honestly made me love my family even more than I do because thank god they are not like Summer's parents. Good god.

While the parents are definitely the funny factor in this book from Summer's mom's reactions to pretty much everything, and her dad's passive - dare I say creepiness - but his will to rebel a little as well away from his suffocating wife, there are times it's downright painful to read about them and I just found Summer a little bit pathetic for putting up with it for so long. She treated her parents like they were in their eighties, and they in turn treated her like she was 13 years old. And while her dad is funny, her mom is basically a full on Karen and extremely unpleasant in her shriekiness most of the time.

I did however really like Graham because girl, if a man as good looking, nice and rich as that is happy to spend all that time with your crazy folks, yes please god marry him. I'm looking forward to the next two books to see how Summer, Graham and the parents all deal with upcoming marriages and babies and it will certainly be a good time.