WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Taking on a World of Words. Anyone can take part and it is a great way of sharing what you have just finished reading, what you are currently reading and what is next on the TBR.
Links are provided for books already published – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases (at no extra cost to you!)
What have you recently finished reading?
It has been a slow reading week – I have several books on the go but don’t seem to have finished many!
I did read ‘The Watchful Neighbour’ by Debbie Viggiano which is for a blog tour in December with Rachel’s Random Resources. It’s a pacey psychological thriller about a young woman who worries that her Neighbourhood Watch representative is a bit too…watchful! My review will follow on the blog.
I also decided to DNF two books this week – not a decision I take lightly but life is too short to read books you don’t like, I think.
What are you reading now?
I’m still working my way through the NetGalley backlog with the help of the supportive Twitter group led by Emandherbooks. I’ve made more progress in Laura Purcell’s ‘The Shape of Darkness’ which I really like – even if it keeps being put on the back burner for blog tour books!
I’m also still reading ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier with the bunch at TheWriteReads. I am enjoying it but am quite frustrated at the narrator who I just keep willing to stand up for herself!
I’m also reading ‘Banking on Murder’ by J D Whitelaw for a blog tour for Red Dog Press. This is a (so far) cosy crime novel about a detective agency set up by three sisters. It’s cheery and lively and I’m enjoying it so far – review to follow in December.
What do you think you will read next?
I’ve finally got my act together and decided which of my NetGalley books and other proofs I am most excited about reading – these will be my next books. You can see my list of these books – ones that I am anticipating most from the 2021 crop – here.
Header photo with thanks to Tetiana Padurets for sharing their work on Unsplash.
Welcome to my stop on the Damp Pebbles blog tour for ‘The Wrong Sort to Die’ by Paula Harmon. This engaging and lively historical mystery was published by January Press in paperback and digital formats on 30th May 2020.
Book Blurb:
June 1910.
Fighting her corner in a man’s world, Dr Margaret Demeray works as a pathologist in a London hospital for the poor. Suppressing her worry that she’s breaching confidentiality, Margaret gives a stranger called Fox information about a dead down-and-out, in the hope he’ll use it to raise awareness of bad working conditions.
But when a second man appears to die the same way, Margaret starts to wonder why the enigmatic Fox keeps turning up to ask ever more complex questions.
She decides to work alone, uncertain of his motives and wary of her attraction to him. Once she starts investigating however, her home is burgled, she’s attacked in broad daylight and a close friend becomes distant. Fox offers the chance to forge an alliance, saying he knows why the men have died but needs her to find out what is killing them and who is behind it.
Yet how come the closer she gets to him the more danger she faces? And how can a memory she’d buried possibly be linked to the deaths?
Margaret must discover the truth before someone – known or unknown – silences her for good.
My Review:
I love a good mystery book. I also love historical fiction. Furthermore, I love a sassy and strong female protagonist, especially those pushing at societal boundaries, so choosing to read this book was a no-brainer for me!
I really loved the character of Dr Margaret Demeray who works as a pathologist in a London hospital for the poor – this was unknown for women at this time and it seemed a regular occurrence in the novel that men visited the hospital expecting to meet a male Doctor – it was frustrating to both Margaret and me that she was often treated as a nurse or some kind of helper!
When the death of what appears to be a rough-sleeper is brought to Margaret’s attention, she investigates his lungs for signs of disease as was common among those suffering poverty in London. However, she is mystified to find signs of another issue, almost a kind of poisoning of the tissue, and worries that it is caused by working conditions.
When another body is discovered with the same signs, Dr Margaret Demeray becomes embroiled in a mystery that proves dangerous to her personally. Her only ally seems to be a man called Fox, about whom she knows nothing other than he helps her out and keeps digging for information.
As Margaret is led into ever-more perilous situations, I couldn’t wait to turn the pages and race through the book to find out what happened. I really liked the fact that – although she faces some real danger – Margaret is a heroine that rarely needs saving by a man! Instead, she is tough and makes considered and thoughtful decisions – and she can see off an attacker if needed!
The plot is well-paced and the clues gradually begin to add up to something that is much beyond Margaret’s expectations. As the events of the novel began to race towards a denouement, I had everything crossed for Margaret! I wasn’t sure how the strands of the story would come together but they do – and well.
I would heartily recommend this to anyone who likes intelligent historical fiction with a crime and mystery element. This is no cosy crime – the diseased lungs and pathology put paid to that idea early on – but it is an engaging and lively novel with a heroine who is to be admired.
About Paula Harmon:
Paula Harmon writes chiefly but not only historical mysteries. Paula Harmon was born in North London to parents of English, Scottish and Irish descent. Perhaps feeling the need to add a Welsh connection, her father relocated the family every two years from country town to country town moving slowly westwards until they settled in South Wales when Paula was eight. She later graduated from Chichester University before making her home in Gloucestershire and then Dorset where she has lived since 2005.
She is a civil servant, married with two adult children. Paula started making up stories before she could write but didn’t take the plunge and do it seriously until 2015. Now she has several writing projects underway and wonders where the housework fairies are, because the house is a mess and she can’t think why.
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘The Chalet’ by Catherine Cooper. This blog tour is organised by Random Things Tours. The book was published on 12th November, 2020 by Harper Collins.
With thanks to the blog tour host, author and publisher, as well as NetGalley, for my free review copy.
From the Publisher:
Four friends. One luxury getaway.
The perfect murder.
‘I was gripped from start to finish’ CASS GREEN
FRENCH ALPS, 1998 Two young men ski into a blizzard… but only one returns.
20 YEARS LATER Four people connected to the missing man find themselves in that same resort.
Each has a secret.
Two may have blood on their hands. One is a killer-in-waiting. Someone knows what really happened that day.
And somebody will pay.
An exciting new debut for anyone who loves RUTH WARE, LUCY FOLEY, and C.L. TAYLOR.
My Review:
This felt like a strange book to be sitting down to at any time other than a bitter cold winter’s evening – a book set in a snowy ski resort and rooted in the treacherous conditions of a bitter blizzard!
Still, this was an engaging and pacy read that I devoured in one sitting – almost unheard of for me. It is really quite astounding that this is a debut novel from Catherine Cooper as it feels very assured.
The narrative moves between a tragedy in 1998 (when two brothers were lost in a snowstorm in the French Alps) and the modern day. Twenty years later, four friends hire a luxury chalet in the same French ski resort, but it soon becomes apparent that there are tensions under the surface and no-one is quite as they seem – and links back to the day the brothers got lost on the mountain begin to become evident.
Many of the characters are quite unpleasant, but this makes for an interesting and toxic environment and the luxury chalet soon becomes a claustrophobic nightmare.
The characters are all well developed and have their parts to play in the narrative. Ria seems to dislike her husband, Hugo, and keeps her secrets well hidden. Hugo is trying to impress an obnoxious client, Simon, and his downtrodden wife, Cass. Chalet girl, Millie, is trying to keep their holiday on track and chalet owner, Cameron, is there to promote his business. All these characters thrown together, each presenting their own stories through first person narration, make for a twisty and engrossing story as it becomes clear that someone is seeking revenge for the 1998 events.
This reads as a confidently plotted novel with plenty of twists and turns. I am genuinely surprised that it is a debut as the plot strands are so cleverly woven together and the range of narrative voices well-handled.
I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers as we do get to see the workings of the minds of various characters and what has brought them to the French Alps. As secrets are revealed and lies are told, you will want to carry on reading into the night!
About the Author:
CATHERINE COOPER is a freelance journalist writing for many national newspapers and magazines, specialising in travel. Most recently she has written several ski pieces for the Guardian and is currently compiling a 50 best family holidays round up for the Telegraph. She also makes regular appearances as a talking head on daytime TV. She lives in France with her husband and two teenage children, and is a keen skier.
Happy publication day to this beautiful piece of historical fiction!
Bridget Collins’ first book, ‘The Binding’ was one of my favourite books of last year, so I was very keen to get my hands on this one. I had literally no idea what to expect in terms of plot, but was hoping that it would be every bit as immersive and compelling as ‘The Binding’.
The story follows Leo Martin, a disgraced politician, who is sidelined from ‘The Party’ and sent back to his old university, Montverre. Here, he can continue his work on the ‘grand jeu’, a mysterious game that seems to have elements of music, mathematics and mysticism. The narrative follows him as he experiences life as a guest at the college and, in particular, his building of a relationship with the Magister Ludi, a teacher and ‘grand jeu’ expert.
Alongside this, we read of Leo’s first stay at the school as a student when he built relationships with fellow scholars that continue to impact his present experiences.
As with ‘The Binding’, it’s so hard to do justice to the plot and characters as the whole book is so intricately crafted and it all slots together beautifully in the end – but it’s virtually impossible to describe as everything is linked! Collins has created a book which is so incisive on humanity and relationships, yet so difficult to pin down in other regards.
It is a historical novel in the same way ‘The Binding’ was – a sense of rich history, place and time, without it ever being made totally clear. Instead, the reader is left to put together the puzzle pieces – for my money, I think Montverre is in a (possibly imagined) European country and the historical markers (e.g. a reference to the Depression) make me think this is 1930s, although I really am not sure. It’s certainly rooted in reality, even if the reader is on constantly shifting sands in relation to understanding some elements – there are references to places and historical events throughout and the corruption of the country’s government reminded me of 1930s Germany – however, in this case, the persecution is of Christians. The ‘grand jeu’ itself is another mystery and one I still have no clear idea about.
However, none of this matters – as long as you are prepared to be swept along by the narrative. The novel centres on the theme of – surprise! – betrayal, but again this is multi-layered and there are many perceived and actual betrayals in the book. Again, the reader is on shifting sands as situations and motivations become clearer and sympathies shift.
Overall, I’d recommend this to anyone who loves historical fiction and dense, rich narratives. The only proviso is that you have to accept that not everything is clear – this is deliberate, but I know that some readers will find it uncomfortable. If you’re prepared to go with the flow, this is a glorious and immersive read.
With thanks to NetGalley for providing a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
You can buy a copy of this book using my affiliate link below – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases. You’re going to want a hard copy of this as it is BEAUTIFUL!
Header photo with thanks to Marius Masalar for sharing their work on Unsplash.
WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Taking on a World of Words. Anyone can take part and it is a great way of sharing what you have just finished reading, what you are currently reading and what is next on the TBR.
Links are provided for books already published/pre-orders – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases (at no extra cost to you!)
What have you recently finished reading?
I have finished reading ‘The Wrong Sort to Die’ by Paula Harmon, a historical mystery novel that is for a blog tour with Damp Pebbles. It’s an engaging story about a pioneering female pathologist in Edwardian London. My review will be on the blog tour next week.
Then I read ‘The Cousins’ by Karen McManus, a YA thriller, for a blog tour at the end of November with The Write Reads. This one is a twisty story of family lies and long-buried secrets in a small island community on Gull Cove Island in America.
Another blog tour book also turned up this week and I devoured it in one sitting! ‘How Love Actually Ruined Christmas (or Colourful Narcotics)’ by Gary Raymond is a hilarious skewering of the 2003 Richard Curtis film, ‘Love Actually’. It made me laugh so much and nod in agreement. My (extremely gushing) review will be on the blog later in the month as part of the Damp Pebbles tour.
What are you reading now?
I’ve joined a reading group on Twitter in order to (hopefully) knock through some of the NetGalley backlog – this was set up by the lovely Emandherbooks and is a supportive group of bloggers working on #NetGalleyNovember2020.
Due to them, I’ve made excellent in-roads to Laura Purcell’s ‘The Shape of Darkness’ which I am absolutely loving! It’s a historical, spooky, gothic tale involving spiritualism and murder – right up my street! This one will be published in January 2021.
I’m also reading ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier with the fabulous bunch at The Write Reads. It’s a book that (I’m ashamed to say) I’ve failed to read on two previous occasions but I’m making progress this time.
I’m still reading ‘Pandora’s Jar’ by Natalie Haynes. I’m enjoying it but can’t seem to make much progress as it is packed with ideas and interesting stuff. I keep having to put it down to digest bits!
Finally, I’m still working my way through the audiobook of Jasper Rees’ ‘Let’s Do It’, the biography of Victoria Wood that is read by so many famous voices. Although I love the narration, I am finding it quite slow going and – coming in at about 21 hours – I have a long way to go. I’m not sure I’m going to make it.
What do you think you will read next?
I’ve just taken on another blog tour for Damp Pebbles as there was a date that needed filling so my next read is ‘The Heat’, a crime novella by Sean O’Leary.
Then it’s back to NetGalley and the brilliant ARCs vying for my attention! Top of the pile at the moment (but always subject to change) are these gems:
‘Hyde’ by Craig Russell – I loved ‘The Devil Aspect’, his previous novel, and cannot wait to immerse myself in Victorian Edinburgh with this one
‘The Dead of Winter’ by Nicola Upson – I love this detective series in which the sleuth is crime writer Josephine Tey and this is the latest
‘Lie Beside Me’ by Gytha Lodge – the latest instalment of another brilliant crime series and the blurb on this one is incredible!
‘Threadneedle’ by Cari Thomas – I’ve seen a lot about this book all over Twitter and it sounds magical
‘Nick’ by Michael Farris Smith – a novel focusing on the narrator of ‘The Great Gatsby’ before the events of that story
As always, thanks for reading and following my blog!
With thanks to the blog tour hosts, publishers, authors and NetGalley for providing me with the books in exchange for honest reviews. The only book not provided for free in this week’s round-up is ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier.
Header photo with thanks to Jessica Fadel for sharing their work on Unsplash.
This is the third book in the series featuring Leo Stanhope, a hospital porter turned journalist living with a big secret that could jeopardise everything he has worked for. This series, set in Victorian London, has been a treat from the beginning and this is another satisfying instalment.
This book will be published on 12th November, 2020.
This story follows Leo as he investigates a murder in a backstreet gaff, a low-rent wrestling venue packed with it’s own cast of tough men, dodgy management and street urchins looking for shelter. Leo, struggling to make his name on the front pages of the newspaper, writes an article that gets all the wrong sort of attention and finds himself caught up in something he cannot control or understand.
The story here is pacey and there are plenty of false turns and red herrings to keep readers guessing. The setting is appropriately seedy and the characters interesting.
What will appeal to readers returning to the series is the cast of Leo’s friends – Rosie and her pie shop, Alfie and Constance, Jacob and family, even the familiar Constable Pallett – who are all here.
This probably could be read as a stand alone novel, but I would really recommend that you start at the beginning of the series as there is so much to enjoy for lovers of historical fiction.
If you would like a copy of this book, please use my affiliate link below – thanks for supporting my blog! I’ve also added a link for ‘The House on Half Moon Street’ in case you wanted to start at the beginning of the series:
Header photo with thanks to SHOT for sharing their work on Unsplash.
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘The Phoenix Project’ by Michelle Kidd. This book was published on 5th October, 2018. The tour has been organised by Damp Pebbles Blog Tours.
This is the first book in the series featuring Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh – there are two further books in the series: ‘Seven Days’ (Book 2) and ‘The Fifteen’ (Book 3).
The Blurb
How long can the past remain buried?
A simple message in a local newspaper. A set of highly sensitive documents left in the back of a London black cab. Both events collide to cause Isabel Faraday’s life to be turned upside down. Growing up believing her parents died in a car crash when she was five, Isabel learns the shocking truth; a truth that places her own life in danger by simply being a Faraday. Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh of the Metropolitan Police races against time to save her, and at the same time unravels long forgotten secrets involving MI5, MI6, the KGB and NASA. Secrets that have lain dormant for twenty years. Secrets worth killing for. With kidnap, murder and suicides stretching across four continents, just what is the Phoenix Project?
The Phoenix Project is the first Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh novel.
If you like a gripping page turner, with plenty of surprising twists, buy The Phoenix Project today to discover its secrets.
My Review
I’ll admit that this book was slightly outside my usual genres – although I love a police procedural, this one looked a lot more like a thriller and on an international scale so I wasn’t sure what to expect.
However, from the first page, it became evident that I was in safe hands as the story was revealed – multiple characters, many locations and different time periods were dealt with confidently by the author and I sat back to enjoy the ride!
I don’t think it can be emphasised enough that the scale of this book is HUGE. As well as involving MI5, MI6, NASA, the KGB and the Metropolitan Police, the story shifts between countries. The plot is also complex and on a massive scale with even an element about space travel. Although the premise initially seems a little far-fetched, it is absolutely compelling as the plot is developed around it. Although this was not within my usual genres, I found myself being pulled along by the story.
One of the ways that this book stays pacey and fresh across nearly 500 pages is the twists. Wow, the twists! There were so many that I felt like I was being pulled in so many directions and absolutely raced through the book in order to work out what was truth among the various plot strands featuring spies, double crosses, liars, corruption and secrecy!
In the middle of all this is DI Jack MacIntosh – we mainly follow his investigation and so discover things alongside him. He is an interesting character with a bit of back-story and I’d be interested to see how he develops in the rest of the series.
Also thrown into the middle of the mix is Isabel Faraday, a young woman working in an art supplies store who believes that her parents were killed in a car crash when she was a child. She receives a message to meet her ex-boyfriend, Miles, one evening and becomes central to the plot as she – along with the reader – tries to make sense of the bewildering events. I really liked Isabel as a character because she was surprisingly tough in the face of adversity and some very odd circumstances.
This is a hugely ambitious novel and one that I enjoyed very much, although I did sometimes feel that the plot was the driving force of the novel – I would have liked a little more character development in places as sometimes motives were not so clear. However, this is a minor quibble only as the plot is so fast-paced and twisty that there is never a dull moment.
I’d recommend this to those who like thrillers with a political dimension – although there is a central police figure, this is far from being a police procedural in the traditional sense. Instead, the reader is thrown into a whirl of people, places, plot twists and embarks on a race through the pages in order to discover the truth.
About the Author
Michelle Kidd is a self-published author known for the Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh series of novels.
Michelle qualified as a lawyer in the early 1990s and spent the best part of ten years practising civil and criminal litigation.
But the dream to write books was never far from her mind and in 2008 she began writing the manuscript that would become the first DI Jack MacIntosh novel – The Phoenix Project. The book took eighteen months to write, but spent the next eight years gathering dust underneath the bed.
In 2018 Michelle self-published The Phoenix Project and had not looked back since. There are currently three DI Jack MacIntosh novels, with a fourth in progress.
Michelle works full time for the NHS and lives in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. She enjoys reading, wine and cats – not necessarily in that order.
Happy publication day to this quirky and lively retelling of the Greek myths!
I’m a big fan of the Greek myths so I couldn’t resist this retelling of the old stories with a new spin – highlighting just how problematic Zeus’ behaviour actually is! This is something I’d considered previously, but I really liked Susie Donkin’s take on the stories. Donkin is one of the writers behind ‘Horrible Histories’, the brilliantly funny and informative children’s TV series, so I knew I was in for a treat.
It’s worth saying that although Donkin may be known for writing for children, this is really an adults-only book! There’s a lot of swearing and some distinctly adult topics throughout.
The stories are told in a light-hearted, modern way and use our own society’s morals to provide commentaries on the original myths. Even the dicier moments – reflecting the fact that Zeus is a rapist – aren’t shied away from and the full list of his crimes are presented. In fact, all of the gods of Olympus are presented as petty, squabbling and quite unpleasant – which they absolutely are in the original stories too. These aren’t gods worth of respect and veneration, but ones that seem very human and very flawed.
The stories are told in a continuous narrative (although divided into chapters) so you get a good sense of the myths and the reasons for various things that happen (given the history between the gods and goddesses). It starts with Ouranos and Gaia, goes through the creation of the Olympian gods and then a range of the stories focused on them (not just Zeus). Some of the stories are well-known – for example, we hear of Medusa, Persephone and Zeus’ many infidelities – but there are others that I was much less familiar with. It holds together well as a book and not a fragmented set of stories.
This all sounds very serious, but Donkin tells the stories in a humorous way which is very entertaining and easy to read. While I didn’t always love the imagined conversations, I really loved the jokes which often riffed on something contemporary – the image of Zeus watching porn on his laptop, for example, or the references to Argos (newly without catalogue), plus the sly digs at certain incompetent blond/white haired leaders… There’s lots to enjoy and it is very amusing.
As already mentioned, some of the original stories do feature rape and other things that are absolutely unacceptable in our society. Donkin confronts this head-on with no excuses for the behaviour and uses it as more evidence that Zeus is – in her words – a dick. And he absolutely is!
I’d recommend this to anyone interested in the Greek myths. If you know the stories already, you’ll enjoy the comedic retelling and the jokes. If you don’t already know the stories, this is actually a pretty good – if extremely cynical and funny – overview of the Greek pantheon. Either way, it’s a fun read.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
If you’d like to buy a copy of this book, please use my affiliate link below – thank you for supporting my blog!
WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Taking on a World of Words. Anyone can take part and it is a great way of sharing what you have just finished reading, what you are currently reading and what is next on the TBR.
Links are provided for books already published – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases (at no extra cost to you!)
What have you recently finished reading?
I finished my audiobook of ‘The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid’ which was written and read by Bill Bryson. I really enjoyed this autobiographical tale of Bryson’s childhood in Des Moines, Iowa, in the 1950s and would recommend it.
Then I read ‘The Devil and the Dark Water’ by Stuart Turton which I LOVED! It’s a dark and twisty tale of murder and mayhem on a ship travelling between the Dutch East Indies and Amsterdam in 1634. My review is here.
Lastly, I read ‘The Whole Truth’, the new DI Fawley book from Cara Hunter which is due out in March 2021. What starts as a he said/she said investigation into a sexual assault becomes something much more deadly for Fawley and his team. Review will follow in the blog nearer to the publication date.
What are you reading now?
I’m reading ‘The Wrong Sort to Die’ by Paula Harmon for a forthcoming blog tour. This is about a female doctor in 1910, a pioneering pathologist and one making her way in a man’s world. It’s also a mystery story so it is keeping me guessing!
I’m still reading ‘Pandora’s Jar’ by Natalie Haynes – I really like it but it has been pushed aside for various blog tour books. I’m currently reading about Helen of Troy and it is very interesting to hear a different perspective to usual as she is normally portrayed quite negatively.
I’ve started listening to the audiobook of ‘Let’s Do It’ by Jasper Rees, the biography of Victoria Wood. It’s engaging so far and interesting to hear about the more private side of Wood, the shy perfectionist, rather than her on-screen persona. The cast reading this are absolutely brilliant so I’m glad I went for the audio version.
What do you think you will read next?
I am about to read ‘The Cousins’ by Karen McManus for a blog tour with The Write Reads. I’m looking forward to this one as it is a standalone mystery about secrets within a family and sounds very tense!
I am also determined to get to the books that are top of my pile on Netgalley – ‘The Shape of Darkness’ by Laura Purcell and ‘Hyde’ by Craig Russell. I’m so looking forward to these two above all others. I’m determined to make a dent in the NetGalley backlog so that will be the focus of the next month or so.
So that’s another WWW Wednesday done! This year is flying by and I’m on the countdown to Christmas now…
Header photo with thanks to Alisa Anton for sharing her work on Unsplash.
As soon as I saw this title on Twitter, I knew I had to read this book! The subtitle – ‘Fairy Tales for Feminists’ – sounded perfect and I pre-ordered it.
In the flesh (so to speak), it’s a lovely little book and it would make a fantastic gift for the feminist in your life! The hardback has lovely neon pink illustrations and the book is packed with black and white pictures by illustrator Seobhan Hope.
Despite the title, the book covers more than just fairy tales – there are also sections on nursery rhymes, childhood films, children’s classics, and myths and legends. This makes the source material as diverse as The Famous Five, Tintin, Disney films, Arthurian legends and The Hobbit. As well as the aforementioned fairy tales, of course!
Each title or story gets a double page spread – usually one for the short snippets of text (often rhyming) and the other for the accompanying illustration.
This is a book that absolutely takes no prisoners – each of the chosen texts are skewered in turn for their dodgy messages about consent (or lack of!), female representation, the sexualisation of women, traditional gender roles and outdated moral codes. This is all done in a clever, light-touch way and the illustrations are brilliant at hammering home the messages.
If I had just one quibble about this book, it was that I wanted more! More texts, more digging in the stories, more detail – all would have been welcome. However, that isn’t the nature of this book; it does witty, pithy comment extremely well and leaves the reader to ponder on the detail.
In that sense, it is very thought-provoking. While I’d had some of the notions myself (who hasn’t felt slightly uncomfortable about ‘good little housewife’ Anne in ‘The Famous Five’?), I guess there are some things I just hadn’t noticed – the representation of women in Asterix, for example, or the total lack of women in loads of children’s books and films.
Although the approach is humorous and the book entertaining, it does pack a punch in terms of feminist messages. I’d recommend this as a great way to talk about feminist themes with teenagers (not too young – there are some slightly risqué ideas) or just for anyone who wants some food for thought on the stories and films that have become the fabric of our culture. And a laugh along the way, obviously!
If you would like a copy of this book, please use my affiliate link – I may earn commission on any purchases at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting my blog!
