The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes - Review

I bought this book back in April when I visited a children's and YA book shop in Retford when I was in the area with friends. My friend Sam had given us all a £10 book token so we all bought books, which was actually delightful. I got three books in total, I have already red Trigger by C G Moore but haven't read the third one yet. That's by Rainbow Rowell, I haven't read anything by her in forever!

I didn't like this book as much as I was hoping to, which was a shame. Maybe it just wasn't for me. That's fine! The main character is Yamilet, Yami to her friends, who lives in Arizona with her mum and her younger brother Cesar. Cesar is in the same school year as Yami, although he's a little bit younger. Their dad lives in Mexico - he was deported like six years ago and can't come back to the United States. Yami talks to him often but she misses him a lot. 

Yami is gay and used to have a crush on her best friend, Bianca. However, when she came out to Bianca, Bianca reacted badly and outed her to a couple of mutual friends. Meanwhile, Cesar was getting into lots of fights in school so he is moving to a Catholic school a longer drive away, on a scholarship. Yami also decides to go, mostly because then she can hide her sexuality, but also to keep an eye on her brother. She has to find a job in order to help pay for her tuition and help her mother out. She eventually starts to sell her mother's Mexican beaded jewellery and makes it herself, which I did think was a good storyline. 

At school she firstly meets three girls who turn out to be proper mean girls, and she soon distances herself from them. She is one of the only students of colour at the school, and she is much poorer than most of the other students. She meets Bo, who is Chinese, adopted by a white couple, and who is one of the only outwardly queer students at the school too. Yami soon develops a crush on her, but she is trying so hard to be straight at her new school! 

She thinks her religious mother won't accept her if she comes out, so she's determined to not let her mum know. But this drives a massive wedge between them, of course. Cesar gets detention straight away at the new school so Yami has to worry about him, too. She has a lot going on, and I did feel really sorry for her. But I also felt like Yami was a bit of a passive player in her own life. She lets other people ride over her wishes too much which annoyed me. I can't fully empathise with her plight around coming out to her parents, but I did like mostly what happened here. Cesar is a really interesting character and I would have liked more of his story but I also don't want to give spoilers as I'm really glad I didn't have any when I went into it. 

Overall, I'm giving this three out of five because I liked it well enough but I thought it had problems in parts, and I didn't love it. I would definitely read something else by the same author though. 

Sorry I haven't published anything her for ages, I was away on holiday and was a little bit behind in blogging before I went. I will catch up! 

The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng - Review

This was the June choice for my book club and I wasn't sure how I would like it. It's a really long book and I think it is a bit long in places, but it is an epic story so it did have a lot of story to tell. Rosa chose it and she's pretty new to our book club and hasn't chosen a book before so it was really interesting that she chose this. I can't wait to see what everyone else thought about it next week - well, after this post will go live, but I'm writing this before of course. 

So, the protagonist of the book is Philip. He is half Chinese and half English. He is brought up in Malaya by his English father and three older half siblings after his mother dies. His father owns a factory in Georgetown, on the island of Penang. He has rubber plantations and other business interests. It is the 1930s when Philip is young. War breaks out in 1939, of course, when Philip is about eighteen. 

But at the beginning of the book it's 1995, fifty years after the end of World War Two and Philip is invited to celebrate that with other people. He still lives in his parental home, Istana, where he grew up. He still works for his father's company and is now the ownder. He is somewhat distrusted in the local area because of his history. A woman called Michiko turns up at his house. She knows Endo, a Japanese man who taught Philip martial arts when he was a teenager, and for whom Philip worked during the war. He rented a small island from the family and his home is still there. He was a government employee. Michiko wants to know all about his life. She knew Endo too, when they were young. More of her history comes out but I won't spoil that because it was so interesting. 

Now, of course I knew that Japan was an enemy to the Allies in WWII and that it was allied with Germany and Italy, but I really don't know much of the history otherwise. I will assume that a lot of the history in this book is true; the author probably did plenty of research. The British are portrayed as having left Malaya undefended as soon as war broke out, and the Japanese took over and occupied the area. Endo's role obviously became more important Philip started working for him. Some people then saw him as a collaborator but it is more complicated than that. 

Philip felt like he wasn't part of his family because he had a different mother and was mixed race unlike his siblings. They are Edward, William, and Isabel. He does get to know William and Isabel more throughout the book, but they have complicated relationships. 

As for Endo - Philip really kind of worships him? I think there's some sexual overtones too between them. Endo teaches him martial arts but also how not to fight and not to be drawn into fighting. How to go zen. It's stuff that Philip will need for the rest of his life. I liked this part of it a lot, but I don't feel like we knew Endo enough. 

I liked Philip a lot and wanted what was best for him. He has a tough life and makes difficult decisions, not always for the right reasons. I'm giving this four out of five. 

Uncommon People by Miranda Sawyer - Audio Book Review

I had seen someone I follow reading this book and I thought it sounded interesting, so I found it on Spotify and started listening to it. I started in April and finished two months later. This is because I don't listen to audio books a lot - generally only when I'm in the car on the way to and from work once a week. But this was a good book to do that with, because I didn't need to remember much from previously as each chapter concentrated on a different song and band. It was good to dip in and out of. 

Miranda Sawyer is a journalist although I primarily know her as a talking head on different types of documentaries about music. She worked for Select magazine amongst others, and describes herself as more of a pop fan than anything else. But she was working for Select and Melody Maker in the mid nineties, when Britpop was at its height, and she met a lot of the bands involved. So she's the right person to tell this story for sure. 

At the beginning I felt like she wasn't used to reading things out loud because she sounded a bit stilted, but this improved as the book went on. She started with a brief explanation of 'Britpop' and how it came about. As she said, you don't realise you're living in a scene until it's almost over. She went a bit off piste with her choices towards the end, but I understood why and thought the choices that were made made a lot of sense. 

So, she chose one song from a bunch of bands and talked about that band in each chapter. For instance - Girls and Boys by Blur, Connection by Elastica, A Design for Life by the Manic Street Preachers. I was a fan (and occasionally still am) of a lot of the bands, and I knew most of the songs, so some of the information wasn't new to me. But I managed to learn a lot in each chapter - even the Manics chapter, and I was a huge Manics fan for most of my teenaged years. I really enjoyed learning even about the bands that I actively don't like, like The Verve. 

It was an engaging book and one that reminded me of my teens and made me want to listen to all that fun indie pop stuff of the mid nineties again. I might write a zine about the songs detailed, because I think they lend themselves to it and hey, someone already did the hard work for me. 

In all I'm giving it four out of five. Some of the diction did annoy me, and some parts became a bit repetitive simply because they talk about the same people. But I definitely recommend this whether you were there or not! 

The Lights of Shantinagar by Nidhi Arora - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for The Lights of Shantinagar by Nidhi Arora! It is a pleasure to welcome you here. Please do have a click around to see other reviews of mine. And don't forget to look at some other people's posts too! 

I was provided with an electronic copy of this book for review purposes but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

I loved the premise of this book, set as it is in modern India, so I eagerly signed up for the tour. I loved the family dynamics, although it is quite complex for such a short book. First of all there are the Kapoors. Mr and Mrs Kapoor have three sons - Om, who is married to Mahima, and has twin sons, Luv and Kush; Dev, who is married to Sumi, and Vivek, who is studying at a university miles and miles away. Sumi has only just moved into the house. She and Dev have not yet consumated their marriage - it's implied it was an arranged marriage so they are getting to know each other. Still, Dev is very supportive of his wife. She wants to apply for a PhD in quantum physics. Her father is also a physicist and it had always been her dream. She wants to impress him. She has less time for her mother and brother, Gyan. 

The house is cleaned by a woman called Pushpa. Her husband does ironing for a living in the local area. The Kapoors' house backs on to two others - one lived in by Mrs Banshal (I think) and her son, Dhruv. The other one is lived in by Maya and her three daughters.

Maya is a single mother after her husband left six years ago. Her daughters are teenagers/young women. The eldest, Neeti, is getting married. The middle one, Nalini, is very beautiful but really obsessed with studying and working. The youngest, Naina, has a lot put upon her, I think. All the girls have a bit of a time with their mother. She cooks and sells food in the local area. 

In the Kapoors' house things keep going missing and Mahima is going crazy over finding out what happened to them. She is trying to pin it on Pushpa but Sumi isn't sure that's right - but also she doesn't want suspicion to fall on her. She keeps meaning to do her application but isn't exactly sure of herself. There's a lot going on and the wedding is drawing closer. 

I really liked the book and all the characters and the way their lives intertwined in the way that lives of neighbours do. I'd really recommend the book. I'm giving it four out of five. I would definitely read something by the same author! 

I Bet You'd Look Good in a Coffin by Katy Brent - Review

I read the first Kitty Collins book in 2023 and reviewed it here. I liked it, so when I saw the second one in The Works or something I bought it for a few quid. It's been in my to be read basket for a while, and I finally picked it up right at the end of May. 

I'll say what I said before - some of this book is just plain satire, and it's very much a revenge story and maybe is supposed to empower women, and it's also not really a book of substance but it is very compelling reading. I compared her other book to a jam doughnut - not very good for you but it tastes nice occasionally. Do I think it's amazing literature? No. Will I read the next one? Absolutely. 

Kitty is turning thirty and she's celebrating with her boyfriend Charlie. She gets a beautiful diamond necklace from her mum, from whom she's estranged. Her mum lives in the South of France and sends Kitty a decent allowance each month, but they don't speak. Alongside the present is an invitation to her mum, Carmella's, wedding. To a man called Gabriel, who Kitty has never met and doesn't know. She isn't sure whether she will go or not. 

She has given up murdering but has found it hard to quit. She goes to a support group for angry women and gets incredibly angry about the ways in which women have been hurt and abused by men. She also can't stop herself from checking the social media of this incel/red pill bloke called Blaze Bundy. She literally can't stand him and she realises that he is threatening her. She is determined to find out who he is. 

Meanwhile Maisie is pregnant and Tor is seeing her therapist. Kitty is not happy about this so she goes off to meet him and threaten him a bit. She also hears at her support group that a famous TV presenter has groped the teenaged daughter of one of the attendees, so she goes off to meet him and ends up killing him. Because of course she does. She is in the middle of cleaning up when she gets an SOS from Charlie so has to rush home. 

Where there is no emergency, just a surprise party for Kitty's thirtieth! And her mother is there! And there's still a dead body that needs attending to! But then Kitty and Charlie have to head off to France for her mum's wedding and the presenter is merely 'missing'. Kitty has no chance to think about anything. 

A lot happens in this book and it was a bit hard to keep up at times. But I really did want Kitty to succeed and get some power over some terrible men too. I'm giving this four out of five. 

Vianne by Joanne Harris - Review

You may remember that I have read a lot of Joanne Harris' books and really like the Chocolat series. You can see some of my other reviews of her books here. When I heard there was a prequel to the series coming out, I had to order it straight away. And then I started it straight away too, because I was just so excited to read it. 

I read Chocolat way back almost twenty-five years ago when I was at sixth form college, on the recommendation of my French teacher, who was both my teacher of French and a teacher who WAS French, and I loved it, and made my parents both read it immediately. We then read all of Joanne's stuff as it came out. Five Quarters of the Orange remains one of my favourite books of all time. I've read the sequels to Chocolat and reviewed them here, so I would say to check them out.

This is a prequel, so it's Vianne's story before Anouk was born. She, then known as Sylviane Rochas, has been living in New York with her dying mother, Jeanne. Jeanne has died, and Vianne has scattered her ashes in the Hudson river and then used her last dollars to buy a flight to Marseille. It is August 1993. Vianne is pregnant with Anouk. 

She gets a job near La Bonne Mere cathedral, at a bistrot run and owned by a man called Louis. His wife, Margot, died in childbirth with their child, after a lot of miscarriages. Louis hasn't got over it. He has regulars at the bistrot, most of whom are quite as miserable as he is. Vianne gets a room there, and then a job. She has to learn to cook Margot's recipes, from her recipe book cum scrapbook that Louis lends to her. 

Vianne then also meets Guy and Mahmed. They are a couple, and they are about to open a chocolaterie. Guy is passionate about cacao and chocolate, but he is lying to his family in Toulouse, who think he is a pro bono lawyer. Vianne starts to learn about chocolate and how to temper it and make chocolates and how to use it in her magic. 

She ends up leaving Marseille, called by the wind, but things go awry and she ends up back there. She discovers a lot about her own past and a lot about the type of mother that she wants to be. 

Like all the Chocolat books, there's a mix of reality and some magic. Vianne consults her mother's tarot cards often; she can read people's colours and performs little spells often. I love this, it feels so real to the original books. The book is set in 1993 but it also really doesn't feel like that - it is timeless, which I love. I liked the backdrop of Marseille, a place that I've never been. It was all so French, which is one of the reasons I love Joanne's books so much. This is a worthy addition to the Chocolat story. I'm giving it five out of five. 

Five Have Plenty of Fun by Enid Blyton - Review

I read the second in this little boxset of Famous Five books straight after the first one, because I was just in the mood for something easy to read. Again, I really didn't remember this book, if I had ever read it before, so it was new to me. 

I will also say that I've really enjoyed the new series of The Famous Five that has been on the BBC recently. It's got George as a mixed race kid, and Uncle Quentin is less annoying than he is in the books. Anne was probably my favourite in the TV series. There was a new one at Christmas and it really felt like good Christmas viewing, nice and homely. So I would recommend that if you, like me, grew up on the Famous Five and would like some nostalgia. 

In this one, all five are at George's house for part of the holiday (these children as always on holiday!) and Uncle Quentin is going loopy at the thought of children in his house, as usual. He has got two scientist friends coming. They have been working on something to do with alternative energy and it's all very hush hush. One of them is an American, and some people threaten that they will kidnap his daughter, Berta, if he doesn't reveal some of the secret information. So he sends Berta to stay with the five. 

She is American and apparently says 'wunnerful' not 'wonderful' and she has a little poodle called Sally. George can't stand her. They disguise her to put any would be kidnappers off the scent. The five kids and two dogs spend a lot of time swimming etc, enjoying themselves. Quentin has to go to London so Aunt Fanny decides to go with him, of course, leaving the children with Joanna, the cook. Because that's sensible when there are kidnappers around. 

The five realise that someone is on Kirrin Island, possibly spying on them, so they head off there, of course. I thought the end of this book fizzled out a bit and didn't find it as satisfying as the previous ones, so I'm giving it three out of five.