What have I read this week?
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
This is a fantasy novel about three young women: a moneylender’s daughter, a peasant and the daughter of a duke. It’s a retelling of the miller’s daughter fairy tale (spinning straw into gold) and I think a couple of other fairy tales mixed in. I really enjoyed this.
Relative Fortunes (A Julia Kydd Novel Book 1) by Marlowe Benn
This is a novel set in the 1920s about a woman named Julia Kydd who is trying to find the truth behind the death of her friend’s sister. I quite enjoyed this and would probably read more in this series.
What You Did by Claire McGowan
This is a thriller about a woman called Ali whose best friend accuses her husband of rape. I didn’t really like it, because I didn’t particularly care about the characters.
The Black Unicorn by Audre Lorde
This is a book of poetry. This is the first book of hers I’ve read, and I liked it a lot. It really spoke to me.
Favourite poems:
The Black Unicorn; From the House of Yemanjá; Portrait; A Song for Many Movements; Brother Alvin; School Note; Therapy; Parting; Fog Report; Ghost; Artisan.
Favourite lines:
I have died too many deaths
that were not mine.
(Sequelae)So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive.
(A Litany for Survival)secret and patient
as the amused and ponderous elephants
catering to Hannibal’s ambition
as they swayed on their own way
home.
(Portrait)Our labor has become
more important
than our silence.
(A Song for Many Movements)I am bent
forever
wiping up blood
that should be
you.
(A Woman/Dirge for Wasted Children)And out of the ashes
and her range of vision
the executioners advance.
(Death Dance for a Poet)I do not know how many years I spent
trying to forget you
but I am afraid to think
how many years I will spend
trying to remember.
(Ghost)
Running Blind by M. J. Arlidge
This is a novella about new WPC Helen Grace, who gets involved in her first big case regarding the death of a young man. I didn’t particularly like this; it just didn’t work for me.
