women Archives - The Quick and the Read

Book Review: ‘Mrs Porter Calling’ by A. J. Pearce

This is the third book in the Emmy Lake series, following on from ‘Dear Mrs Bird’ and ‘Yours Cheerfully’. This is a series that is charming, cheerful and funny – even as the realities of World War II continue to have their impact on the characters’ lives.

Thanks to NetGalley for my opportunity to read this book and apologies for the late review.

In this third look at wartime Pimlico, we rejoin Emmy and her colleagues at the offices of Woman’s Friend, a publication packed with helpful tips on cooking, affordable fashion, and the general art of making do and getting by under rationing. One of the most popular sections is Emmy’s advice column, offering an invaluable lifeline to women trapped by their domestic situations, wartime problems or overwhelming worries. When a new owner takes over the publication (the titular Mrs Porter), Emmy and the team have to fight for the things that make their magazine unique and treasured by its readership.

Book Review: ‘Etta Lemon: The Woman Who Saved The Birds’ by Tessa Boase

I’ll admit that I came to this book for perhaps strange reasons – I’d heard that it was originally published as ‘Mrs Pankhurst’s Purple Feather: Fashion, Fury and Feminism’ and that sounded right up my street. I didn’t know who Etta Lemon was, but I settled in for a good read about suffragettes and their fancy outfits.

It was kind of half what I expected, but all fascinating!

Non-Fiction Audiobook Recommendations

Regular visitors to my blog know that I’m an insomniac with an audiobook habit! Here’s some of the best I’ve listened to recently…

Blog Tour: ‘Hotbed’ by Joanna Scutts

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘Hotbed’ by Joanna Scutts, a fascinating look at (as it is subtitled) ‘Bohemian New York and the Secret Club that Sparked Modern Feminism’.

Thanks to Random Things Tours for my place on the tour and for my copy of the book in exchange for an honest review – opinions are all my own!

This book was published in hardback by Duckworth on 14th July, 2022.

Book Review: ‘Madwoman’ by Louisa Treger

Historical fiction with a strong female lead? The fictionalisation of a real-life journalistic sensation? Victorian-era New York? All of these things are exactly what brought me to this book – and I loved it!

Thanks to the author for providing me a copy for review. As always, opinions are my own.

(Audio)Book Review: ‘Square Haunting’ by Francesca Wade

Another book that I’m shamefully late in reading – but very glad that I did.

Thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review – I also bought a copy of the audiobook from Audible and so my review reflects my experiences of both.

This book centres on Mecklenburgh Square, an address in Bloomsbury, London that was home to five groundbreaking and fascinating women during the interwar years. It’s an interesting idea, that this little corner of London famous for its thinkers and writers, was the shared address of these brilliant women – even though they didn’t live there at the same time and were often resident at very different points in their lives. For all of them, Mecklenburgh Square proved to be the ‘room of one’s own’ (in Virgina Woolf’s words) that gave the women the freedom to develop their careers independently.

Blog Tour: ‘The Language of Food’ by Annabel Abbs

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘The Language of Food’ by Annabel Abbs, a fabulous historical novel out on 3rd February, 2022.

Thanks to Random Things Tours and Simon and Schuster for my place on the tour and my copy of the book for review. As always, opinions are entirely my own.

Book Review: ‘Dangerous Women’ by Hope Adams

This was a book that I was very excited about in 2021 but that – for reasons too dull to explain – got pushed down my reading pile.

I’m so glad I have remedied this now!

Book Review: ‘Pandora’s Jar’ by Natalie Haynes

I’ve had a life-long fascination with the Greek myths which probably stemmed from the (at the time terrifying) ‘Clash of the Titans’ film that made up a chunk of my 80s childhood – very much like Haynes herself, it turns out!

Nowadays, my job as an English teacher sees me teaching Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘The World’s Wife’ so I’ve become a lot more au fait with the details of the women in the ancient texts – especially Medusa, Penelope and Eurydice – which is what brought me to Haynes’ excellent book.

Book Review: ‘A Woman Made of Snow’ by Elisabeth Gifford

I love historical fiction, am utterly intrigued by the Arctic as a setting for a novel and am totally sold on duel timeline stories. It was clear before I even opened this book that it would tick a lot of boxes for me.

I just didn’t appreciate quite how many.

I loved everything about this book – the setting, the time periods, the gorgeous descriptive language, the characters, the mystery. Everything!