Radical Reads & Social Justice
Whenever I travel around my home country of the UK, I'm always keeping my eyes open for the best independent bookshops to explore. However much I love regularly browsing my local favourites, there is just something special about entering a never-before-visited bookstore and discovering what it has to offer.
In 1980, Elise follows her lover Connie from London to LA, where Connie’s novel is being adapted into a major film. Their stormy love affair will leave its mark on the city. Three decades later, Rose is on the trail of the mother who left when she was a baby. The only clue she has is a book by elusive novelist Constance Holden, who may hold the key to why her mother left everything behind.
I think we can all agree that before starting book blogging, we had no idea how time-consuming it would turn out to be! As well as actually reading books and writing posts, there are social media platforms to manage, photos to take, websites to design and emails demanding responses. It's no wonder that many bloggers (myself among them!) have found themselves getting overwhelmed. Over four years of book blogging, I've developed a number of strategies focussed on keeping me sane above making my blog uber-successful! I thought I would collect these tips together into an ultimate guide to stress-free book blogging...
Hi everyone - I'm back!!! I took a hiatus for the past few months as things got pretty intense while I was finishing my English Literature degree. I've now submitted my last assignments and I'm really looking forward to getting back into book blogging, and catching up on all of your lovely posts!
For the first post of my return, I wanted to share the 10 most important things I learnt from studying literature...
For our December meeting, my book club had the theme 'Best of 2020' and voted on an award-winning book to read. We ended up choosing Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams which won the British Book Award - I loved it and you can read my review here! However, the time I spent trawling through different book award shortlists to put our poll together got me thinking - do book awards really matter?
Much of Ancient Greek culture, including its mythology, was derived from Ancient Egypt and other Afroasiatic civilisations, but this rich tapestry of influences has subsequently been whitewashed.
With this context in mind, I thought I would highlight 3 books by black women writers who reclaim Greek mythology and use it to illustrate the harrowing experiences of enslavement and racism.
I actually can't remember the last time I DNFed a book. In fairness, a lot of the books I read are for my degree modules so kind of require me to power through, but even when reading for pleasure I tend to cling on until the bitter end.
Over the years since I started blogging, I have noticed that so many other book bloggers aren't afraid to call it a day if they're not hooked after x number of chapters. This has got me thinking - could becoming a more ruthless DNFer improve my reading life?
Questioning the Canon: T.S. Eliot and Adrienne Rich
Questioning the Canon is a new feature in which I hope to bring to light lesser-known books about a certain issue, which can be read alongside or instead of infamous 'classics'. Today, I will be comparing the poetry of T.S. Eliot and Adrienne Rich...
Questioning the Canon is a new feature in which I hope to bring to light lesser-known books about a certain issue, which can be read alongside or instead of infamous 'classics'.
People are starting to discuss whether the authors we hold up as cultural icons - Shakespeare, Dickens, Wordsworth - should be accompanied by previously marginalised writers. Our idea of what constitutes 'great literature' is becoming broader.
This can only be a good thing, as it means more diversity and social representation in what we read!
As part of my English Literature degree, I am making a digital project that explores the relationship between literature and digital culture. My project is Resilient Verse, a website dedicated to audio recordings of women's poetry. Why not take a look?
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