Nineteen Minutes ~ Jodi Picoult

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Book Review, Books, Bullying, Fiction, Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes, Novel

“In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five….In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge.”

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult is a sensitive and honest portrayal of the causes and effects behind a high school shooting. It forces you to consider all angles of the tragedy and will challenge your preconceptions. As the event ripples across the community past scenes appear to question the truths and untruths of such a tragedy. It’s an honest, heart-breaking and thought provoking novel. It leaves you contemplating its issues long after reading it.

Bookworm’s Boudoir

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Books, Bookworm, Bookworm's Boudoir, Boudoir, Magazines, Photography, Reading

The Mitford Girls: Mary S. Lovell

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Biography, Books, Communism, Deborah Mitford, Diana Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, Fascism, Jessica Mitford, Mary S. Lovell, Nancy Mitford, Pamela Mitford, The Mitfprd Girls, Unity Mitford

The Mitfords were a remarkable and diverse family with lives that were played out very publicly during both world wars. The six sisters in particular generated much attention with their breeding, glamour and strongly conflicting political views. They created a public storm with their allegiances which were split far between Communism and Fascism. Notorious love lives and relationships with figures such Hitler, Oswald Mosley and the Churchills kept them in the news and in some cases even prison. This biography features mainly on the sisters, their choices and interaction with each other. A fascinating look at high society during the formative war years and its subsequent aftermath on the upper classes.

Subjective Subjectivity

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Books, Imagination, Opinions, Reviews, Subjectivity

Reading and reviewing books can be a strange business. Essentially its your own opinion and response to a piece of literature. How it affects you and makes you feel inside. What thoughts may follow from the ideas presented. Which images it pulls into your imagination. At least, that’s the enjoyment I hope to get from books. Sometimes we can love a book and never ever want it to end. Other times we can hate a piece of text and resent its use of our time. Yet will expressing our opinion affect others’ view of our intelligence or emotional depth? Even if it does should we even care? Well, vive la difference I say. What a tedious world if we all liked the same thing. So read it and weep I say, or not, after all its your choice n’est-ce pas!

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire: Amanda Foreman

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Amanda Foreman, Biography, Books, Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana, Review

A complex woman with more ideas and passion than her society would often permit. Whilst famous for her complicated love life this biography illustrates that there was so much more to the Duchess.  She was considered a leader in the fashion stakes often designing and implementing new trends. A subject of the paparazzi of her day via its voracious caricatures Georgiana was the subject of much ridicule and admiration. As a staunch supporter of the Whigs Party she generated much scandal as a woman who concerned herself with politics. Indeed she was believed to be the muse and inspiration for Sheridan’s play ‘School for Scandal’.  Amanda Foreman sensitively portrays a remarkable woman who lived a full and complex life.

Notes from an Exhibition: Patrick Gale

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Books, Fiction, Notes from an Exhibition, Patrick Gale, Reviews

A candid look at bipolar and its effect on the individual. It examines the side effects of medication and questions how it can alter a person’s perception and abilities. Whilst controlling the bipolar behaviour does it also dampen other sides of the personality? In this instance the main character feels less able to create artistically whilst on medication. However, forgoing her drugs leaves her vulnerable to the ravages of bipolar. A sensitive account of mental health, its challenges and its effects on both the person and their family.

 

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee: Rebecca Miller

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Books, Fiction, Rebecca Miller, Reviews, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Whilst I admired the reversed transition from respectable retirement back to the wildness of youth the remainder of the novel seemed disjointed. As though a series of short stories had been loosely pinned together to make a whole entity. Visually speaking it was quite visceral in places but despite this effect of realism I did have difficulty accepting all the extraordinary experiences within such a short narrative. After reading the novel I discovered that it is being adapted into a film by the author. I do wonder if this was a consideration whilst writing the novel as it did at times have the feel of a film treatment.

 

The 19th Wife: David Ebershoff

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Bookclub, Books, David Ebershoff, Novel, Polygamy, The 19th Wife

Recently I joined an all female book club with some very wonderful members. Their collective experience and intelligence is remarkable and I feel very honoured to be in their midst. This book will be my 3rd read with them.

The teaser: As a teenager Jordan was expelled from his family and religious community, a secretive Mormon offshoot sect. Now his father has been found shot dead in front of his computer, and one of his many wives – Jordan’s mother – is accused of the crime. Over a century earlier, Ann Eliza Young, the nineteenth wife of Brigham Young, Prophet and Leader of the Mormon Church, tells the sensational story of how her own parents were drawn into plural marriage, and how she herself battled for her freedom and escaped her powerful husband, to lead a crusade to end polygamy in the United States

The Luminous Life of Lily Aphrodite: Beatrice Colin

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Beatrice Colin, Books, Evocative, Lily Aphrodite, Luminous, Reviews

A beautifully written novel with the ever changing life of Lilly Aphrodite portrayed against the backdrop of a struggling Berlin before, during and after World War One. As evocative and enigmatic as the depicted Berlin cabarets and German silent cinema. Both worlds are shown in all their glory and grime with brutal honesty.

Humble Pie: Gordon Ramsay

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Books, Chef, Gordon Ramsay, Humble Pie, Memoir, Michelin

Whether you’re a foodie, fan or foe of the infamous Ramsay this is certainly worth reading. The crazy politics and machinations of those swanky chefs have to be read to be believed. This memoir is an open portrayal of an extremely tough childhood and some good to honest hard graft. You have to admire his tenacity and directness.