Tag Archives: Contemporary Fiction

My Favourite Irish Authors

Happy St Patrick’s Day! I thought today would be a perfect opportunity to highlight some of my favourite Irish authors, some of whom I’ve probably already mentioned before.

After the Silence by Louise O’Neill

By now I’m sure I’ve mentioned Louise O’Neill’s work numerous times, but there was no way I could put together a list of titles by Irish authors and not include her. Although I would recommend any of her novels, I’ve chosen to include After the Silence in this list, as her most recent release.

After the Silence takes place on a small Irish island, twenty years after the unsolved murder of Nessa Crowley. A documentary team arrive to investigate the mystery around her death and everyone struggles to keep the past in the past.

Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan

If you hadn’t heard of Naoise Dolan before, then you probably have now. Her breakout novel, Exciting Times, was recently longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and it’s easy to see why. Exciting Times is modern love story, filled with social commentary and written with a razor sharp wit.

Ava is a young TEFL teacher in Hong Kong and is torn between her relationship with emotionally distant Julian and Edith, who listens but makes her feel too much. Will she be able to move beyond seeing relationships as a power game? See my full review here.

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney experienced an overwhelming amount of success last year, after the popularity of the BBC adaptation of her novel, Normal People. However, you may have missed her earlier novel, Conversations with Friends. It is a highly intelligent novel about to ex-girlfriends who become entangled with a wealthy married couple. If you love Normal People, then definitely check this out.

Grown Ups by Marian Keyes

The queen of Irish fiction, Marian Keyes, has a wealth a work to pick from, but it’s her most recent novel that I’ve chosen to include. I listened to the audiobook of Grown Ups last summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. Keyes manages to tackle hugely important issues, such as eating disorders, whilst maintaining a light-hearted feel to her book.

Let me know who your favourite authors and titles are, I’m always looking for more recommendations! And follow this blog for updates every time I post.

Weekly Reading: 14th March 2021

We’ve reached the end of another week which means it’s time for another review of my weekly reading. This has been a good week for reading as I read 2 excellent books, several newsletters and a textbook for my MA.

This week there was no doubt about what would take the top spot:

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo!

This book was a birthday gift which turned out to be just what I needed this week.  The book is written in narrative verse which makes it both beatiful and easy-to-read. It is told from the perspective of Xiomara, a 15-year-old girl dealing with her family conflict by writing slam poetry.

This is beautiful story that takes on what it is to be a teenager with no control, trying to figure out who you are whilst you are forced into the wrong box.

This Week’s Runner Up….Memorial by Bryan Washington

This week I’ve also read Memorial by Bryan Washington. I read it to write a reader report for a freelance literary reader position that I’ve applied for. This means I read this very attentively, really considering my thoughts and feelings as I’m reading. I have a much better understanding of my opinion of the book after reading this way so I hope to approach books like this more often.

Honourable Mention: Leena Norm’s Newsletter

I recently signed up to Lenna Norm’s weekly newsletter and I’ve been really enjoying it. She’s worked in publishing and makes content about the industry and books, so subscribing to her newsletter has been a real joy. Check out her youtube channel here and her instagram here

I hope you enjoyed having a look at my weekly reading, follow my blog to get updates every time I post.

2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist

The 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist has just been announced and it includes some incredibles books. I thought I would run through which ones I’ve read (and my thoughts), which are on my tbr and which ones have been brought to my attention.

Read:

  • Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan

I first read Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan last summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. It follows Ava, a, Irish 22 year old TEFL teacher in Hong Kong, as she meets Julian, an English banker who likes to spend money on her. Then Julian goes to London and Ava meets Edith, who actually listens to her. Ava’s two worlds collide when Julian announces his return to Hong Kong. I found this novel strongly reminiscient of Sally Rooney’s work and thoroughly enjoyed it. Read my full review here.

  • The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

I absolutely adored The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett when I read it last year. The novel spans 5 decades, from the 1950s to the 1990s, following the lives of twin sisters, and their daughters, who take very different paths in life. This novel explores issues of race, sexuality, identity and the controversial topic of passing. I would definitely recommend this book and I am thrilled it has been nominated. See my fully review here.

My To Be Read:

The following titles are the nominations that I want to prioritise reading. I’m hoping to read at least a couple of them before the shortlist is announced on April 28th. Ideally I would read them all, but even I know that’s probably too ambitious.

  • Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

Detransition, Baby has been on my radar for a while now, having seen a lot of positive things about it. It deals with issues of sexuality, gender and forming an unconventional family. Read all about on the Women’s Prize for Ficiton website.

  • Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

I can’t count how many times I’ve almost bought this book and it’s not quite made the cut. I definitely regret that now. Small Pleasures is set in 1957, following reporter Jean Swinney as she attempts to unravel the truth behind a claim of a virgin birth. Find out more here.

  • Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

Whenever I’m on the Waterstones website (which is too often), Burnt Sugar is a common recommendation. But for a reason I can’t explain, I was never compelled to read it, even after it was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. However, I have decided to listen to the universe and accept that this is a book I should read. It is described as a poison love story between mothers and daughters, find out why here.

  • Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

I was vaguely aware of this title before the longlist announcement but I hadn’t taken the time to find out more about it. Now that I’ve looked into it more, it’s definitely on my tbr list. It’s a story of immigration, the opioid crisis and life in modern America. Read about it here.

  • Luster by Raven Leilani

I’ll hold my hands up to not knowing about this book until the longlist came out and it was all over twitter. However, after reading the blurb I knew I wanted to read it (plus the cover is gorgeous). It follows Edie, as she is thrust into a world of white suburbia and the life of a family with an adopted black daughter. The full description can be found here.

Undecided:

The below titles on the longlist are ones I haven’t made up my mind about yet. That’s not to say that I won’t read them or I don’t think they are worthy of a nomination. I simply haven’t been pushed to read them yet, whereas the ones mentioned above I know I want to read.

  • Because of You by Dawn French
  • Consent by Annabel Lyon
  • How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps her House by Cherie Jones
  • No One is Talking about This by Patricia Lockwood
  • Nothing but Blue Sky by Kathleen MacMahon
  • Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
  • Summer by Ali Smith
  • The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig
  • Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller

Let me know your thoughts on the Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist this year. Are there any you aren’t impressed by? Or any titles you wish had made the cut?

And keep an eye out for the shortlist announcement on April 28th.

September 2020 Round Up

So life’s been slightly crazy and I may have been a little absent for the last month but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading so here’s another monthly round up.

Grown Ups (Audiobook)

  • Author: Marian Keyes
  • Publisher: Michael Joseph, 2020
  • Summary: The Casey’s are a glamourous family that spend a lot of time together. And they’re a happy family…at least on the surface. But when Cara, Ed Casey’s wife, bumps her head and can’t keep her mouth shut, the many family secrets start to unravel.
  • Rating: 3/5

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race (Audiobook)

  • Author: Reni Eddo-Lodge
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Circus, 2017
  • Summary: Awar-winning jouranlist, Reni Eddo-Lodge, offers an illuminating and necessary exploration of what it is to be black in Britain today.
  • Rating: 4/5

My Dark Vanessa

  • Author: Kate Elizabeth Russell
  • Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2020
  • Summary: In this original novel, a 15-year-old girl has what she understand as a loving, sexually awakening relationship with her teacher. However, years later, in a post-Me-too era, she is 32 and he has been accused of sexually abusing another former student, forcing Vanessa to confront it for what it was, and redefine what she thought was a great love story as abuse.
  • Rating: 4/5

The Graduate

  • Author: Charles Webb
  • Publisher: Penguin Books, 1999
  • Summary: The iconic novel of how college graduate, Benjamine Braddock, returns home feeling disillusioned with his future and starts an affair with his parents’ friend; Mrs Robinson.
  • Rating: 3/5

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

  • Author: Maggie O’Farrell
  • Publisher: Headline Review, 2013
  • Summary: In the middle of tending to her vintage clothing shop and avoiding her married boyfriend, Iris Lockhart receives a phone call informing her that a great-aunt, Esme Lennox, whom she’s never heard of, is being released from Cauldstone Psychiatric Hospital, where she’s spent the last 60 years of her life.
  • Rating: 5/5

Olive

Emma Gannon

I saw Olive floating around book Twitter for a while and will admit to completely falling for the cover and being more drawn in by that than anything else. I guess sometimes I really do judge a book by it’s cover and so huge credit to the cover designer of Olive. However, once I started reading the novel I was immediately captivated.

Olive centres a group of four female friends who have known each other since childhood but are now in their mid-thirties, and three of them are either mothers or are on the journey to becoming mothers. This leaves the titular character, Olive, feeling isolated as a result her recent conclusion that she did not want to have children and the subsequent end to her relationship with her partner of 9 years.

By comparison, of Olive’s closest frinds, one is married with three young children, one is married and about to give birth to her first child and one is suffering from endometriosis and going through the rigorous process of IVF treatment.

As someone who has very mixed feelings around the prospect of motherhood and the process of becoming a parent, I really enjoyed this book because it considered aspects of the choice to not have children that I had not previously considered. As a 21-year-old the decision of whether to become a mother is purely a personal one that I have a lot of time to consider and don’t need to worry about for the next 10 years. However, I had never thought about the aspect of not choosing to have children that would differentiate you from those in your life who do choose to have them.

This is brilliantly dealt with in the book because at no point do you feel like any of the characters have done anything wrong. Each character is dealing with vastly different issues in their personal lives that make it very difficult for them to relate to each other. Olive is going through an incredibly difficult break up and struggling with the choice not to have children and just wants to talk to her friends about it but it’s impossible to talk about not wanting children with a friend who is desperately trying to have kids and in the midst of invasive IVF treatment.

The main conflict of the book is found in Olive’s friends finding her self-centred and overly focussed on the idea that having children is simply terrible (which is obviously not what you want to hear if you have kids). However, because we read the book from Olive’s perspective, and likely because I am somewhat sympathetic to Olive’s feelings towards motherhood, I did not find her either selfish or too critical . I think that the style of writing plays a role in achieving this as we spend a lot of time reading about Olive’s thoughts, with less time on interations between her and her friends, who are currently very busy with children, and only a minimal sense for how the dynamic between them has changed. This leads us to sympathise with all the characters, and simply highlights the difficulty of your life diverging from those of your friends rather than making any comment on whether or not a person ought to have children.

Overall, I would consider this an excellent novel for any young person wrestling with the question of whether to have children or facing the prospect of their life diverging from those of their friends and would definitely recommend it. This is an enjoyable book which makes for a fairly easy read that you can’t put down.

Little Fires Everywhere

Celeste Ng

I was recently prompted to read Little Fires Everywhere after watching the trailer for the TV show. I was intrigued by the concept but knew I wanted to read the book first and I am so glad that I did.

The novel centres around two families living in 1990s Shaker Heights, Ohio, who are brought together through they’re children. However, the matriarchs each take vastly different approaches to parenting. Mrs Richardson is committed to the rules, believing that if everyone simply conforms to the right way of doing things then there will be a perfect community, whereas Mia is an artist who has moved from place to place with her daughter, Pearl, living how she wants to and never staying in one place for too long.

This unspoken conflict between Mia and Mrs Richardson ultimately comes to a head in a custody dispute between family friends of the Richardson’s and a co-worker of Mia’s. After Bebe hits rock bottom and doesn’t know where to turn she leaves her baby at a fire station, where a social worker is called and the baby ends up being placed with the McCulloughs, who have been trying have a baby for almost a decade. Once Bebe finally receives the help she needs she desperately wants her baby back and so beings the tense custody battle and the catalyst for the downfall of Mia and Mrs Richardson’s relationship.

The story at the centre of the novel was what primarily caught my attention as it allows for exploration of the intersection between motherhood and socio-economic circumstances. This book considers how we as a society punish mothers simply because they have less money or struggle from social difficulties, such as being a single mother or an immigrant. If a mother feels unable to care for her child and abandons them, at what point does that become an irreversible decisions?

Finally, I think part of the brilliance of this novel is also found in how well Ng writes about Shaker Heights. On the surface, Shaker Heights seems like an idyllic place to live, where everyone has a nice house and every child goes to a good school, but the more I found out about it, the uneasier I became. The way Ng was able to create a building tension around seemingly harmless aspects of the community was very impressive. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the bins being kept at the back of the house, rather than the front, but every time a little rule like this is mentioned I was left feeling slightly more unsettled. This ever-present tension meant I couldn’t put the book down, always on the edge of my seat, waiting to find out what was going to happen.

This book is well-written with a simple story of motherhoos at its heart that still keeps you turning the pages, desperate to find out what will happen next. I would definitely recommend this book.

The Vanishing Half

Brit Bennett

This incredible novel spans from the 1950s to the 1990s, exploring issues of race, sexuality, identity and the controversial topic of passing. The book centres around the small fictional town of Mallard in Louisiana where the citizens are African Americans are light-skinned and ‘refuse to be treated like negroes.’ This is the town where identical twins, Stella and Desiree Vignes, are born and the town that they run away from when they are 16 years old. Cut to 15 years later and Desiree returns to Mallard with a dark-skinned daughter in tow and hasn’t seen or heard of Stella in almost as long, ever since Stella left without a word and started living her life as a white woman.

The best part of this novel is the pacing and natural change between characters. The pacing perfectly balances pushing forward the narrative and always leaving you wanting more. The interplay of character perspectives afford you the opportunity to empathise with and relate to each of the characters in a unique way because you gain genuine insight into their life and how they’ve ended up the position they have. This is particularly important when it comes to Stella’s story. When we are introduced to Stella she is living in as a white woman in a a gated community that is facing the prospect of an African American couple moving into one of the houses. And Stella is the loudest protester of this.

Bennet’s exploration of Stella’s complicated emotions around race and the decisions she’s made in order to pass as white and benefit off her caucasian features. For Stella, being white offers the indisputable opportunity to have a better life; an oppotunity she can’t say no to as a fragile 16 year old forced to drop out of school to clean houses. However, we meet a version of Stella that lives in fear of being found out, desperately trying to keep her secrets and distancing herself from everyone around her as a result.

Bennet has written a beautiful story exploring the complexity of racism and the value of lightness among African Americans which brings together a fascinating plot and charming language in a truly incredible novel. This book asks many questions of identity; what it means feel part of a community, what it takes to distance yourself from where you came from and whether that’s even possible.

Difficult Women

Roxane Gay

Difficult Women is a collection of short stories by Roxane Gay that I recently read for the 2020 Reading Rush and I loved it.

Going into this book, I wasn’t sure what I was going to think of it because on the one hand I love Roxane Gay’s writing but on the other I haven’t read many short stories and was unsure how I would found it. This meant I was pleasantly surprised when I enjoyed it so much I finished it in a matter of days.

The brilliance of these short stories is completely down to Gay’s incredible ability to portray women from such varied backgrounds and experiences. Despite being only one person, Gay is somehow able to write about these different women in a beautiful and truly insightful way. These stories give us excerpts of women’s lives; how they live, how they are treated and how they feel. We are given stories of women who live lives of poverty and of privilege, in loving and loveless relationships, however Gay does place a focus on the abuse and violence women can face.

Not only does Gay write about varied examples of violence experienced by women but also how different women cope with violence, how they use it, and how it impacts their lives going foward even once when it is no longer an immediate threat to them. Some of the most interesting stories focus on women who choose to put themselves in harmful or violent situations because they cannot cope with the reality of their lives and believe that they deserve to be treated as though they are nothing.

Gay writes about the tragic experiences of women with both objectivity and compassion, creating women who may as well be living, breathing people that you cannot help but sympathise with. Reading this collection will only enhance your understanding of the complexity of what it means to be a women who faces abuse.

Exciting Times

Naoise Dolan

I’d been seeing this book everywhere and the cover is so beautiful that I decided to read it as part of the 2020 reading rush and I have a lot of mixed feelings about it. Ava is a 22 year old TEFL teacher in Hong Kong when she meets Julian, a rich English banker who likes to spend money on her and lets her move into his guest room. Then Julian goes to London and Ava meets Edith, who actually listens when she talks and openly cares about her. But when Julian announces he will be returning to the apartment in Hong Kong, Ava’s two worlds collide.

On the one hand, this novel captures what it is to be young and not know who you are or what you want with a healthy dash of social commentary thrown in, but on the other there were many instances where I was just deeply frustrated with Ava, the protagonist.

In this witty, debut novel, Ava views relationships as a power struggle, frequently proclaiming herself to be ‘good at men.’ In her mind, relationships are an emotionless transaction of other, often more material, goods (such as luxurious and deeply expensive apartments). She sees her relationship with Julian as a bizarre competition of who can seem the most disinterested in the other while they live together and have sex. Yet she also makes it her primary goal to get him to admit to having deeper feelings for her. In contrast, Ava relaxes around Edith and learns to trust in Edith’s feelings for her (even if she fails to understand the reason for them). It is Ava’s continued obsession with Julian after having met Edith that is so frustrating, because she is so clearly much happier with Edith (which she acknowledges multiple times).

However, Ava’s character is best summed up by a line in the book itself when Edith says to Ava ‘I don’t think you’re interested in having a nice life’ and this is often how Ava’s choices seem. She obsesses over what her thoughts and feelings say about her identity but never appears to question why she behaves in ways that she fundamentally disagrees with or stop her from being happy. She makes every action into a political statement but is never satisfied with the statements being made. My developing frustration with Ava as a result of this is likely why I felt a slight relief at Edith’s section of the book because someone finally calls Ava on her determination to be unhappy.

Overall, my enjoyment of the story but growing frustration at Ava’s character led to some mixed feelings about the novel. Although it is still a poignantly written assessment of class and sex and if you are fan of Sally Rooney then you will love Naoise Dolan and should absolutely read Exciting Times.

Reading Rush 2020

The End

So this year’s reading rush is over and read a total of 4 books in the space of a week, which is definitely more than I expected (even if it wasn’t quite a full 7). Below is a summary of what I read and what I thought of it, keep an eye out over the next couple of weeks for more thorough reviews of the books.

Exciting Times

  • Author: Naoise Dolan
  • Publisher: 2020, Weidenfeld and Nicolson
  • Summary: Ava is a poorly paid Irish TEFL teacher in Hong Kong when she meets Julian. Julian is a wealthy English banker who likes to spend money on her and lets her stay in his guest room. Then Julian goes back to London and Ava meets Edith who actually listens to her and openly cares. But what will happen when Julian announces he’ll be returning to Hong Kong?
  • Rating: 3/5

Before the Coffee gets Cold

  • Author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
  • Publisher: December 2015, Pan Macmillan
  • Summary: There’s a small cafe in Tokyo that offers its customers the chance to travel back in time, but they must finish finish the coffee before it gets cold.
  • Rating: 4/5

Difficult Women

  • Author: Roxane Gay
  • Publisher: 2017, Corsair
  • Summary: A collection of short stories exploring the nianced and varied experiences of women.
  • Rating: 5/5

The Vanishing Half

  • Author: Brit Bennet
  • Publisher: 2020, Dialogue Books
  • Summary: Once inseparable twin sisters grow up and choose to live in two very different worlds; one black, one white.
  • Rating 4/5