Cecily > Recent Status Updates

Typical Josipovici (if that's possible) and very good.
Review to come

As good as Crooked Cross, but different. I hope and presume Persephone Press will reissue the third and final volume next year.
Review to come.

An excellent antidote to two books imbued with misogyny and toxic masculinity.

Review to come.

Delightful - at first, but ultimately unpleasant.

Review to come.

The best of these were sublime. Even the least good were very good.

Review to come

A satisfying puzzle.

Review to come.

I loved this at first, including that it was unexpectedly funny, but I lost enthusiasm as it became more wrapped up in the narrator's relentless focus on her own angst, exacerbated by her religious faith.

Review to come

A compelling and well-written book, even if you know nothing of its provenance. When you do, it's extraordinarily insightful and prescient, especially now.

Review to come.

Lots to think about.
Review to come.

Irreverent comic take on the Old Testament.

Review to come.

Echoes of The Sense of an Ending, but in a different key.

Review to come.

Part 1 is called The Cliffhanger - and I read the whole book in one sitting!

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Not what, or how, I was expecting.
Very disappointing.
Review to come.

I have many emotions to digest after finishing this. 5* review to follow.

For the Notify box to be checked, you now have to use GR in a browser (not app) AND comment on the review in the newsfeed, or on the reviewer's profile page.
If you click through to the review page and comment, or try to check Notify, it won't 'stick'.

Halfway through, and already wishing it were longer.
I am captivated by the main characters, the situation, and especially the way it which the story is told: viscerally realistic, sweetly amusing, and somewhat surreal - all at the same time.

Very good, with lots to think about, albeit a little padded in places.

Review to come

Amusing but thought-provoking, and impressive for something written in 1972.

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Understated, light, and profound. Realistic but dreamy. Poignant, endearing, and moving. Brilliant.

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Stunning. Heart-breaking and not. Acceptance is key.
As the epigraph says:
“This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.”
(The final lines of TS Eliot’s “The Hollow Men”)

Review to come.

A fascinating and impressive woman who deserves to be more widely known. The book is well, and passionately, researched, too. But it read too much like a presentation than a book - perhaps because my first encounter with author and subject was an in-person talk.

Review to come.

Very good, which is impressive, given the essential political history that needs to be included, and the fact it's a man writing about the lives of women oppressed by religious patriarchy.

Review to come.

Not awful, but very disappointing after her 'Home Fire'.
Some good ideas, but executed in rather banal and unsubtle way. A competent beach read, bordering on YA.

Review to come.

Thoughtful, gentle, compelling, disturbing, hopeful.

Review to come.

Home Fire was brilliant, but at page 70 this is still something of a YA beach read, but Zahra and Maryam are still only 14, so fair enough. I hope it improves as they age.

A novel take on different approaches to marriage and issues of female emancipation and education. Very progressive for its day (1893), and also surprising because the male author focused on female characters.

Review to come.

Utterly wonderful in every way. 15 classic texts taught in schools, discussed and analysed, combining the author's memories of studying many of them, and teaching all of them. Warm reminiscence and great insight.

5* is not enough.
Review to come.

I'm loving this mix of literary analysis of well-loved books (most, but not all, of which I've read) and memoir of an English teacher.

Half-way through, and I think 5* may not be enough.

An interesting counterpoint to The Memory Police.

Review to come.

Perfection.