angelayoung's reviews
334 reviews

Potiki by Patricia Grace

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dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Potiki was first published in 1986 but I - in my ignorance - hadn't heard of Patricia Grace until I went to New Zealand in 2019 and asked, in a bookshop, for recommendations of fiction by NZ authors. This is a devastating story - or stories - about the ruin wreaked by white people on Maori communities and our lack of connectoin with the land and its riches and how we cannot - without severe repercussions - tear up the earth and plunder it and force Maori people to move from the land that they never think of as 'theirs' but with which they have the kind of profound connection and for which they have a respect and reverence that we've lost. These losses mean we think it's just fine to develop resorts and drive roads through Maori communities to do so. But this is also a story of resistance and hope: it ends with a sense, a feeling (and in the Maori language) that the ancestors will protect the earth and its people through its living people, as long as they relearn - in our case - the language and the ways of connection and cease the language and the ways of destruction.
How to Keep Well in Wartime by Jody Cooksley

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emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

In 1943 the British governmnent's Ministry of Information issued a booklet called How to Keep Well in Wartime. It provided advice on such things as diet and good sleep, keeping active and hygenic, and, of course, keeping  well. Jody Cooksley has given one of her two main characters, Jim, responsibility for writing this publication and her other main character, a 1990s young woman, Emily, the responsibility of finding out who Jim is after an accident that results in a coma.

The juxtaposition of the two narratives, which reach back as far as World War One and as far forward as 1994, gives How to Keep Well in Wartime a timely tension, and the little clues that link the stories made me feel like a delighted amateur detective as I noticed them and connected the stories. The novel centres on a tin of photographs and memorabilia that Emily finds in Jim's house - after he's taken to hospital - which provides the illustration on the cover of the book and which was inspired by the author's husband's Great Uncle Jim's tin - a tin that has remained a real-life family mystery; a tin whose mysteries Cooksley reveals in the course of her novel. Here's an extract from the beginning of Emily's story:

The tin is filled with photographs and papers; orders of service from weddings and funerals; ... several news clippings ... a set of medals ... . But mostly the tin is filled wth photographs. ... The same faces appear again and again. I wonder how someone with all those faces in a tin can end up alone. Is it that easy for people to drop out of your life, one by one? Is this how I will be?

The novel explores the connections between these people and how and why they did (or didn't) end up alone. Cooksley's evocation of the two different periods in British history is beautifully observed and the heartbreak caused by not speaking up (a character trait  embodied by many British people throughout the twentieth century) informs the plot. I urge you to speak up at your local bookshop and ask for a copy.
Three's A Crowd by Simon Booker

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emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

There is much gorgeous wit in this book about one out-of-work actor (female) and 'two rather lovely men' in a not-at-all conventional love triangle. I laughed a lot, but Booker also writes about serious things: one of the characters has OCD and is plagued by CAPITAL-LETTER THOUGHTS; another is struggling with his musical-writing career and the self-doubt that inevitably comes with creative work, so this novel doesn't rely on wit alone. The ending is poignant and has a satisfying circularity and the novel is (mostly) set in London where I live: the delightful familiarity of the work of one of the characters (think public transport) grounded the novel in the city I love. It's written from the point of view of four characters. Here's the youngest male, on love and its trials: Love should come with a health warning, like cigarettes. Love may cause inability to think clearly. Do not love while using heavy machinery. Love may lead to loss of appetite and sleep. Love may lead to poor judgement. I recommend finding yourself a copy of Three's A Crowd and judging for yourself.
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This is a LONG novel, too long in my opinion, and I was surprised that
the great circle flight doesn't happen till near the end.
Still I did read to the end because the theme of people disappearing or dying without warning, never to be found again, filters through the novel, warning us gently of what's to come and intriguing me (even if there were parts that stalled these discoveries for far too long). And obviously, the theme of flight in all its forms is intriguing: why people fly, why they want to disappear, what are they fleeing / flying from? And the feistiness and determination, and the loneliness and ostracisation of both the main female characters is portrayed beautifully, believably and heart-breakingly ... you want them to succeed but also, if it's what they decide they want, you want them never to be found again. 
The Good Ally by Nova Reid

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

 
When Claudia Rankine, a Black poet and playwright, was asked by a white man, after a reading from Citizen: An American Lyric (Rankine’s 2014 anthology about the collective effects of racism in our society) ‘What can I do for you? How can I help you?’ she replied ‘I think the question you should be asking is what you can do for you.’ The man said, ‘If that is how you answer questions, then no one will ask you anything.’ The originating impulse for Rankine’s play, The White Card, a distillation of racial divisions and an exploration of the invisibility of whiteness, came from this man’s question.  (Words above from Rankin’s article in the Soho Theatre’s programme for a recent production of The White Card.)  What Rankine said here (and, more recently, here and here) is that the problem with the man’s question is that it assumed that she was the one with a problem:
As if [when] a white person is not in the room, I can experience racism by myself.
For white people the question is not: How can we white people help Black people? It’s not: What can we white people do for Black people? The question is: What can we white people do to unearth and dismantle our own racism?
In her wise, clear, compassionate and comprehensive guide to white allyship, The Good Ally, Nova Reid shows us white people how we need to unlearn our racism. At the beginning of The Good Ally she sets out the four key stages to keep in our minds and our hearts as we aspire to become white allies. As we disrupt and dismantle our own racism we need to Listen. To Unlearn. To Re-Learn. And then, and only then, to take Responsive Action. And these stages will interconnect and recur throughout our antiracism work (which is, clearly, lifelong work).
But, as soon as The Good Ally arrived, I leapt ahead to Chapter 11: Brokering Change, Action and Advocacy. I wanted to find out what I could do, just like the man who asked Claudia Rankine what he could do. But I hadn’t begun to understand my own racism and the impact it has on Black people. Thankfully, Nova was lightyears ahead of me. In the second sentence of Chapter 11 she writes:
If you’ve found your way here without reading the rest of the book, I see you. Please don’t undermine antiracism work or the labour it has taken to create this resource by trying to skip ahead. And please don’t underestimate the unintentional harm you will continue to inflict on others by not doing this work properly.
I went straight back to the beginning and began to read. And now I know The Good Ally will remain my guide to white allyship for the rest of my life. I’ll refer to it again and again and again. Its wise words will ring in my head and help me when I, inevitably, get it wrong. But now I’ve seen my own racism I can’t unsee it. Now I know that even though I’m not an overt, screaming-abuse racist, still I’m racist, because I was born with white skin, because I learned racism as a white child, because I have all the privileges that go with living inside white skin. (I read The Good Ally with a zoom group, and listening to other white people’s learnings and fears, recognitions and intentions enormously deepened the experience, helped us collectively take responsbility for our racism and we will remain accountable to each other for our responsive actions.)
There’s nothing in the least justified or natural or scientific or true or right about racism and anti-Blackness: they’re inventions of white people to maintain power, white supremacy. But these inventions, these lies, took hold and, over the centuries, racist attitudes and anti-Black behaviours have saturated the psyches of white people. Nova Reid’s book gives us white people much to listen to as we dismantle our racism. Much to question ourselves about and to unlearn. Much to discover and to re-learn and, at the end, many possible ways of and prompts for taking responsive action.
Resmaa Menakem says we live in a racial pigmentocracy. We do. But why on this good earth should the colour of a person’s skin give or refuse access to good housing, healthcare, education, financial security, work, mental welfare, emotional welfare ... every single aspect of human life? Clearly it should not, and never should have. The Good Ally gracefully shows us white people just how urgent it is to unlearn our racism so everyone has a chance of living in an equitable society, side by side. 
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I love The Island of Missing Trees. it is tender, informative (about Cyprus and the Turkish - Greek divisions and civil war), beautifully written and full of imagination ... including the fact that one of the narrators is a Fig Tree (and the Fig Tree's final transformation is heart-warming as well as heart-breaking). The novel has just made the Costa Novel shortlist - may it win, I feel it truly deserves to. 
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

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dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Open Water is a poem or a song or an incantation or all three: it certainly cast a spell on me. The repeated sentences at the beginnings of paragraphs give the novel a musical rhythm, but they also highlight the different events and feelings that follow each identical opening sentence. The novel is a poignant and poignantly honest love story about the ways we hide what we feel from the very person we want to tell how we feel - but it's also a reminder to White folk that Black folk, particularly young Black men, are still not safe from the police on our streets. Not safe from unwarranted racist police harassment, and not safe from death without cause, at the hands of the police. Young Black men, this novel shows us, are also not safe from the fear and trauma that racist police behaviour inevitably fills them with. Open Water pleads with us, through its dramatic situations, to live the lives we long to live and - if we're White, as I am - it also pleads with us to understand just how much racism there still is in our country, racism that must be undone. Yes, I did say our country. I am British and this novel is written by a young Black British man and set in south-east London, not in America.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The Hate U Give was published before George Floyd's murder - the time when I truly woke up to racism and its horrors, its insidiously subtle microaggressions and to becoming an antiracist. But if that hadn't happened I think The Hate U Give would have given me a gigantic push in the antiracism direction. Angie Thomas's honesty about the racism her protagonist, Starr Carter, faces and her struggles to speak the truth about an overtly murderous racist act drew me in and opened my eyes. And the brilliant thing that Thomas does is that Starr is not only a character you immediately sympathise with, but she's also funny. The Hate U Give is classified as YA: i recommend it for anyone.
The Book of Evidence by John Banville

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

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dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Many people know the first and last lines of this classic: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ... and ... It is a far far better thing that I do ... . But I had no idea how funny Dickens could be. He's an acute observer of human nature, his readers know this, but his humour-in-observation was a revelation. For instance, at the trial of Charles Darnay, near the beginning, the Attorney-General informs the jury that the prisoner before them, Though young in years, was old in the treasonable practices which claimed the forfeit of his life. Many instances of the prisoner's treasonable practices are noted, including: That ... the prisoner had ... been in the habit of passing and repassing between France and England on secret business of which he could give no honest account.

But then, according to the Attorney-General, the person testifying against Darnay can show proof that: 

The prisoner [was] already engaged in these pernicious missions within a few weeks before the date of the very first action fought between the British troops and the Americans. That, for these reasons the jury, being a loyal jury (as he [the AG] knew they were), and being a responsible jury (as they knew they were), must positively find the prisoner guilty, and make an end of him, whether they liked it or not. That they never could lay their heads upon their pillows; that they never could tolerate the idea of their wives laying their heads upon their pillows; that they could never endure the notion of their children laying their heads upon their pillows; in short, that there never more could be, for them or theirs, any laying of heads upon pillows at all, unless the prisoner's head was taken off.