August Wrap Up

Sep 3, 2020Sep 4, 2020 ~ Sophie @ Balivernes ~ 1 Comment

August has been a wonderful month for the very simple reason that I discovered audiobooks. Of course, I knew them and had listened to a couple of audiobooks before but this month, I properly fell in love with them. I borrow them from my library via the BorrowBox app and it’s absolutely amazing! I listen to them when I work, when I cook, or even when I was ill at some point this month. I also have an Audible membership because I had a little discount, but I’m still not sure whether I’ll keep it when I’m back to paying full price. Anyway, all this rambling to say that I’ve read a lot more in August than ever before! Indeed, I’ve read EIGHT books this month! I’m very happy to have been able to surround me with so many wonderful stories this month, and I hope I will keep it up for the next few months.

Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

I had never read this short story before, but I loved the film by Tim Burton when I was little (definitely watched this at a very inappropriate age) and probably still do, to be honest. I don’t know if the problem was the narration (it was a Librivox recording) or the fact that I seem to struggle with classics audiobooks, but I just can’t remember much of it at all! Now, that’s not a good sign but I know I liked it, I just can’t remember the details… I will definitely need to actually read this in the future.

Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age

I wrote a review on this book, which you can find just here. The premise of this book was so good, but ultimately it was rather disappointing that it didn’t dive deeper into the issues it tackles. It’s still a nice book to read, though, so I would definitely recommend it!

Ian McEwan, The Cockroach

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Bill Nighy, which made the experience quite enjoyable! It’s a strange and surprising book because it imagines that cockroaches have become politicians and they completely change the British economy. I don’t know enough about economics or British politics to talk about this in details, but it was a fun read – very reminiscent of The Thick of It. However, I’m just not sure I will remember it in a year from now so I’m a little bit on the fence with this one. It’s clearly not a story that will stick with me.

Jessica Andrews, Saltwater

My review for this one is coming up tomorrow so I don’t want to talk about it too much, but I absolutely loved it. It’s a beautifully moving book, and I highly recommend it!

H. G. Wells, The Invisible Man

I’m a big fan of old horror films and stories but for some reasons, I had never read The Invisible Man before. I listened to a Librivox recording of it and just like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, I couldn’t get into the story. I wouldn’t want anyone to think I have a problem with Librivox, on the contrary I think it’s such an amazing resource and I really respect their work. I just reckon classics are difficult audiobooks for me, I feel more comfortable reading them. I will definitely try to read this one soon because I know I will absolutely love it.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

I mentioned my thoughts about this book in this article, but this one had never been my favourite in the series. I love the beginning and the ending, but find the middle a little too long. I am now reading the fifth book which is even longer, and I have such dreadful memories of struggling to read it when I was 11… Nearly 15 years later, and the struggle is still very much real!

Muriel Spark, The Girls of Slender Means

This was such an adorable little book. We follow a group of young women in the London of 1945, and their lives in their club for single professional women. This book will make you travel back in time, and almost make you feel like you are part of the club. I am always fascinated by the links between women and stories about women-only environments. I can’t quite put words on it but there is something so fascinating and powerful between women that I always love to read about it!

Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half

I intend to write a review on this one very soon so I will keep it short, but not very sweet I’m afraid. This is an amazing book that I would highly recommend to absolutely everyone. Yet, I read it when Jacob Blake was shot 7 times by police officers in front of his three children, and a very similar scene happens in The Vanishing Half. The two main characters witness the lynching of their dad when they’re little, and they can never understand why a group of white men decided to beat their father up and kill him. This created a real trauma for them, and they became aware and scared of the hatred white people could feel towards people like them. We need to look after our children by not attacking their parents for no reason. This has got to stop.

I hope that you will read lots of books that will make you think and reflect on various topics this month, like The Vanishing Half for instance! Happy reading 😊

Book Review: Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age (2019)

Aug 22, 2020 ~ Sophie @ Balivernes ~ 2 Comments

Such a Fun Age is Kiley Reid’s debut novel that was released with a loud bang at the end of last year. I’ve heard a lot of about this novel, and even more since it was longlisted for the Booker Prize a few weeks ago. I decided to get the audiobook as it’s the kind of book that’s really nice to listen to. It is read by Nicole Lewis on Audible, and I think she did a wonderful job narrating this story as she really gave life to the characters and really engrossed me with the novel.

Emira is a young black woman who’s still trying to figure out what she wants from life so she’s working two jobs, including babysitting the Chamberlains’ eldest daughter, Briar. The mum, Alix, became famous online for writing letters asking for free gifts (I think? I didn’t really get what exactly she was doing with those letters, but you get the gist of it) and is now writing a book about it. Her husband is a news anchor who experienced some backlash for making a very borderline racist comment on TV. For this reason, some teenagers threw eggs at the Chamberlains’s house one night and broke a window. Panicked, they called the police and asked Emira in emergency to take three-year-old Briar away from the house. Emira, who was about to go out and looks like she’s going to a party, takes the little girl to a supermarket to keep her busy for a little while. Unfortunately, a young black woman in a white middle class neighbourhood doesn’t go unnoticed and a middle-aged woman reports Emira to the store’s security – implying that she might have kidnapped the white little girl. Ensues a scandalous scene where Emira has to justify herself by finally calling Briar’s dad to come and explain the situation. The scene was filmed by a man called Kelley who encourages Emira to post the video online and get some justice for herself, but she refuses and has him to delete the video.

It sounds like an interesting premise, doesn’t it? I thought the whole book would be about this incident, but actually it’s more of a prop for the author to tackle topics such as performative allyship and the nanny/employer dynamic.

I especially like the latter aspect, which reminded a lot of Leila Slimani’s Lullaby which also portrays the struggle of a middle class woman to appear as normal and relatable to her employee. In both novels, the mother goes to incredible extents to hide her poshness and is constantly worried her nanny will judge her expenses as frivolous and ridiculous. I think it’s always a great dynamic to explore as a nanny is like a part of the family, except that she’s paid to be so.

And of course, with the class struggle comes the racial difference in Such a Fun Age, which really reminded me of Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. There’s also a question of monetary transaction in this book as well, and like Mrs Richardson for Mia, Alix has a strange fascination for Emira and she’s desperate to be friends with her to prove that she’s just like everyone else, that she’s a good person.

And what better way to show that you’re a good person than proving that you are not racist? If Kelley, the guy who filmed the supermarket scene, shows his support to black people by fighting alongside them and befriending them, Alix prefers to see herself as a generous employer whose duty is to protect her black employees from harm. If Alix’s behaviour is very obviously wrong, I don’t think Kelley’s is necessarily great either. He does seem to have a sort of fetish for black people and it doesn’t sound ok to me.

In this review so far, I’ve only talked about the white characters of the book. This is not me purposely ignoring Emira and the other black characters of the book, it is just that their voices are not as loud as Alix’s for instance. I really wish Emira’s presence had been amplified and that we had followed her more on her journey to figuring herself out. It’s something that’s very important to talk about because when you don’t come from the most privileged of backgrounds but are lucky enough to go to university, you have to do some extra work to know yourself and what you want out of life. I would have preferred to read about this, rather than Alix’s teenage problems and her privileged life. I would have loved to read about Emira’s vision of performative allyship, but she just felt flat and empty. I couldn’t see her personality shine through the text, apart from the last couple of chapters.

I think that so much more could have been done with this story, so I felt a little disappointed. However, I think Reid’s way of writing children is absolutely fantastic! Three-year old Briar is always interrupting conversations with strange and funny comments, as only children do, and she’s so lovely. She was my favourite character by far, and it’s so strange to think because she’s a toddler after all! Overall, I would recommend reading Such a Fun Age, but lower your expectations – I think mines were quite high, unfortunately.

The Sunday (or rather Monday) Post #3

Aug 17, 2020 ~ Sophie @ Balivernes ~ Leave a comment

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.
You can find the original post here.

Another HOT week where I’ve been begging for a good thunderstorm! It happened at the end of the week, and I have never been so happy.

I didn’t manage to post yesterday because we spent the weekend by the sea, which was very much needed! I live with my boyfriend in a small studio flat in London and we hadn’t seen nature since March (or had actual holidays for that matter), so it was really nice to escape from the city and smell the air of the sea. We went to Kent as it was not too far and not the most popular destination either – we certainly didn’t want to be stuck in super busy places! I had never been and I loved discovering a new part of England. Our Airbnb was heavenly and I will share a picture below, which will explain why I chose this specific one:

‘Leicester Villa’, in Ramsgate, if you fancy visiting Kent one day – I would highly recommend this stay, it was great!

Currently reading

Akala, Natives (2019) – still, I’m very much taking my time with this one.

This week I finished

Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age (2019)

Washington Irving, *The Legend of Sleepy Hollow* (1820)

Donovan – Season of the Witch (I think I’m desperately waiting for Halloween!)

Have a great week, everybody!

The Sunday Post #2

Aug 9, 2020 ~ Sophie @ Balivernes ~ Leave a comment

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.
You can find the original post here.

I complained about last week and I will complain again: it is HOT! I really don’t like hot weather, summer dresses are nice but I would rather be a little cold, thank you.

This week has been quite uneventful (as most weeks are these days)… I’m just waiting for our little weekend away next week! Here in the UK, the government has started a ‘eat out to help out scheme’ where you can get 50% off your meal at most restaurants if you eat in from Monday to Wednesday in August. We haven’t even thought about doing this because I heard that some restaurants were fully booked for the whole month because of that. I’m not sure I’m ready to eat in a very busy restaurant, yet.

We did have a little trip to Covent Garden yesterday, and it was less busy than usual so it felt a little bit nicer (although of course, it was still a little busy!). We bought some secondhand books and had an ice cream, it was quite lovely.