Libby's Bookshelf

  THE SHADOW KING by MAAZA MENGISTE Booker Prize Longlist  #2 This historical novel deserves its place on every literary longlist in the country. There were times when I didn’t feel worthy enough to read this book - I felt it should have been read by someone far more intelligent than I. However, it wasn’t pretentious at all. It just made me want to be that more intelligent person. This book follows a cast of characters and the part they played in the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. As the reader we see from all points of view, and while it is normally very easy to recognise the good guys from the bad guys, this writer purposely blurred those lines because - let’s be honest - there’s no such thing as goodies and baddies. In this case, Mengiste tried to get us to understand that people don’t see themselves as the bad guys - they see themselves as doing what needs to be done. We may not agree with their reasons or methods but to them it makes perfect sense. I think it’s goo...

A THOUSAND SHIPS by NATALIE HAYNES I understand some of the muddled reviews on this book now. These days it’s very difficult to read a myth retelling and not instantly compare it to Madeline Miller. I was doing just that and I was enjoying this book. I found that it repeated a lot of the things and ideas that I’d already read about. And then I stopped myself and realised: that’s because it’s a retelling! Anyway, once I stopped comparing it and thinking about it as a story in its own right, I really began to enjoy it. The stories of Troy and The Iliad and Orestes (and maybe some others) are told here from the points of view of the women, similar to Silence of the Girls. I loved all of the strong female characters and I loved how the stories moved quite swiftly. The writing style is very easy to follow, which is kind of the writer because I’m sure her work in translating and researching was anything but easy! Well anyway, I enjoyed it.

DEAR IJAEWELE: A FEMINIST MANIFESTO IN FIFTEEN SUGGESTIONS by CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE Another brilliant step-by-step guide to feminism from Adichie. This one is perfect for parents who want to raise their children as feminists (who wouldn’t?!) I strongly recommend this book to all parents. I am not a parent myself but I still found value in this, so I also recommend this to anyone who has any contact with children.

THE EIGHTH LIFE by NINO HARATISCHVILI I have been reading this book for a month (since  @scribe_uk  started their read-along) and in that time these characters have become part of my life. I feel like I have lived with their stories for so long that I have become part of their family. This book is the definition of epic. It is 944 pages long (the longest book I’ve ever read) and it spans over 100 years of Georgian history; living under Tsar rule, WWI, The October Revolution, Lenin, Stalin, WWII, all the way up to the fall of the Soviet Union and 2007 political demonstrations. In that time I relearned my intrigue for Soviet history, I fell in love with the Jashi and Eristravi families and I craved chocolate more than ever before. If you haven’t read this then you probably should and if you have read this, please comment with your favourite character(s). I think mine would have to be Christine or Stasia or Kitty. But honestly I loved them all and all their stories. I don’t think...

SWIMMING HOME by DEBORAH LEVY Picture this: a villa in France, a heatwave, two middle aged couples; one rich, one bankrupt, one teenage daughter, one dirty swimming pool, some guns, some poems, the French Riviera and an unwelcome (oft naked) guest. Intrigued yet? I thought this book was brilliant. I enjoyed reading it so much! It reminded me of Hot Milk by Levy and also The Accidental by Ali Smith. I got all the French villa vibes.

THE LONG SONG by ANDREA LEVY Right. Bear with me. This is a difficult one to review. The reason for that is because at times I really disliked this book - worse: I found it boring. However, at other times I was completely gripped and in love with the characters and their journeys. Sigh. Alas, my overall reading experience was not a positive one. I wanted to DNF many times but my enjoyment of the “good bits” prevented me from doing so. So, the story is about Jamaica slightly before, during and after the end of slavery. The main character is July and she is the daughter of a slave and a white man; the product of rape. She works for an Englishman and his sister in their plantation house. Alongside that storyline, we have the present day, wherein a woman named July is writing this story under the watchful eye of her son Thomas. I found that Thomas was an irrelevant character in the present day as was the entire present-day storyline. Maybe I missed the point. What I found interesting was l...

BONJOUR TRISTESSE by FRACOISE SAGAN French Literature at its finest. There are actually two novels in this book and Bonjour Tristesse is the first and that is the one I’ll review first. The novella (100 pages) takes place over a summer on the French Riviera. Cecile and her father have rented the villa for two months to escape from the heat of Paris. Her widowed father brings with him his young and beautiful mistress, but then another guest turns up... The star of this book, though, is the setting. The French Riviera. The beach. The glistening ocean. The sailing. The sex. The sun. The wine. The cigarettes. The sadness that only comes with being seventeen and in love, or not in love. I just can’t get over the fact that the author was 18 when she wrote this. A CERTAIN SMILE  by FRACOISE SAGAN Well, well, well, I had no idea that I could love the second novella more than the first. What an exquisite story. I felt like I was reading a French Sally Rooney. It is very much like Conversati...