suggsygirl's reviews
1033 reviews

I absolutely love Gillian Anderson but as much as I would like it to be, this book isn't about her. I enjoyed reading other women's fantasies and while there were some I considered pretty weird in terms of the details, most of them were fairly normal and showed that women are as diverse in their sexual needs as men. It made me sad that so many women fantasised about feel loved, or safe, or variations on the theme of seen, but after the first few they did get a tiny bit same-y. I don't think adding that nationality of the person or how much money they make added anything to the book to be honest, it wasn't like there was a correlation between poor people and really freaky fantasies or anything so I'm not entirely sure why that was included. Anyway I enjoyed reading it and I recommend it especially to women who might feel guilt or shame about their sexual fantasies.

I think Trevor is funny and I've heard some of his material about racism and I know he hosts some kind of late night American talk show that I've never seen but that's the extent of my knowledge. My knowledge of South Africa is equally poor. I have met a few white South Africans who moved to the UK and I know one white South African who still lives there but that is it. I had vague notions of how apartheid worked but no real knowledge. I really enjoyed this book. Trevor's mother is an amazing person and the whole book made me smile and get upset and rageful and laugh and all of the emotions all at once. I absolutely cannot believe what happened to his mother and that the man who did it had absolutely nothing happen to him. The chapter about Hitler made me laugh and also think about the difference between genocides that happen on different continents and to different races and our attitudes to them. I highly recommend this book if you want to learn and appreciate how comfortable your life is.  

I enjoyed this because it's not a part of history I'm particularly familiar with and it didn't go down the route of ignoring history and just giving a romance novel with a historical backdrop. There is romance in it but also grief and betrayal and family tensions. I think it's part of a series and I have read the other book too but I don't think you need to to enjoy this. 

I'll be super honest. I couldn't give a shit about birds or birdwatching. The only reason I have read this book is that I'm currently obsessed with Alex Horne (otherwise known as the Taskmaster's Assistant and Creator of Taskmaster). Having said that, I wouldn't give a crap book a good review just because I'm all of a flutter for the author (see what I did there). I really enjoyed this book. I didn't think I would, I thought even Alex Horne can't make birdwatching exciting and do you know what, he doesn't. This book isn't actually about birdwatching it's about obsession and what drives them (the irony) and about family and relationships. It made me feel all soft and fuzzy and warm towards both Alex and Rachel (his poor wife - which I muttered more than once on reading this) but also about Alex's dad. I thought it was a great book and I look forward to reading his others.

I enjoyed this book at first but then it essentially stayed the same the entire way through. We don't definitively find out what happened to the central character's mother. We are introduced to some flawed characters but their flaws are never really explored. I know that a central theme of the book is I guess ennui and being in limbo and scared to make decisions but that just frustrated me. The book just wasn't for me but I've loved her other books.