BOOKS

Accursed publishers and their introductions (this is a different type of introduction to the one that caused me to rant about the Pelosi biography - this is where the author himself talks about the writing of the story). Just as I never watch those programs where they show you how a movie was made, I can't stand introductions to books. I want to be fully immersed in the world and imagine it's basically real. Then there's another very annoying thing about this book. Every single chapter begins with some quote from Shakespeare or Greek tragedy or whatever which I find to be extremely pretentious in a book where the chapters are very short and it's a admittedly beautiful, book about rabbits but a book about rabbits nonetheless. OK, now I've got that rant out of the way, I do still love this book but I really don't want to talk aboiut it because I prefer to stick with my memory of the movie, looking out over those foggy fields the next day, wishing I was a rabbit 🤗 🐇 🤗

It’s impossible not to think of Ye Wenjie, the scientist whose experiences of that period led her to contact the aliens in The Dark Forest. What she witnessed convinced her that humanity might be beyond saving, and that outside intervention or annihilation could be preferable to what humans do to one another. But for me, it wasn't the 2 words alpha centauri that kept on coming to my mind, it was the two words 'term limits'. The mind boggles as to how these countries like China and Russia who between Stalin and Mao have two of the most devastatingly murderous humans in the history of our species have both now voted to abolish term limits for their leaders, thus paving the way AGAIN for lifelong dictators.

Bitterness, revenge, ruin, unrequited love, class, greed, addiction, pain... that pretty much ticks every single box I need to keep me interested😂. I really really implore you to read this book ( preferably listen to the audio with Joanne froggart which was actually an award-winning narration.) 

This book is bloody hilarious, it's also very bloody. It reminds me of Karina at school, the vegetarian who would always tell us when we ate a hot dog about what was in it. Abercrombie's book is full of gristle and bone and snouts and guts and squishy things and exploding things ( by the way this is book 2 of a series of three so don't go buying the wrong one first.) You will come to know and love the line "say one thing about Logen Ninefingers, say that he's..." like an old friend. I don't think I've ever encountered such excellent use of a recurring line... You wait for it, you hear it, and then you laugh your ass off.  

Sometimes I lie in bed at night trying to work out why the Greeks were so clever. Yes, I know, I need to get out more. But, basically, these guys had already realised one of the fundamental problems with religion: if there is all sorts of religions in the world they can't all be right. Even today, billions of people around the world can't seem to deal with this blatant contradiction. This leaves them with two possibilities: either God presents himself in different ways to different cultures, which means that God's cool with human sacrifice and cannibalism... or you just have 'faith' that your God is the one true God. The quotation marks there might give you some idea of what I think of that.

OK it may seem like I'm about to contradict myself, but just because I like books doesn't mean I'm an 'intellectual'. The reason I didn't like this book was because it had that sort of rarefied, self-serious reverence for cleverness that's very cringe. Their devotion to ancient Greek which in theory I should admire as an aspiration, rang false to me. It's not a bad book ( and I really liked The Goldfinch which is why I went back to read this one) I just found personally something a bit off and... a word which I hate but I'm going to use anyway... pretentious.

let me just run you through something you probably know but perhaps haven't fully considered: Mary Shelley was 18 when she wrote Frankenstein. It's not necessary to say anything else.

Chanel was the daughter of a minor nobleman who had fallen on hard times. That's what she told people anyway, but the reality was that her mother died and her father abandoned her and she was raised an orphan in a charitable institution. It's very curious how any famous person these days would kill for an origin story like that, but in those days it was shameful to come from such lowly origins. So Chanel simply did what any sensible person would do: she lied magnificently, wore the lie like one of her own little black dresses, and let the aristocrats who actually did inherit their wealth spend their entire lives wondering why they seemed so dreadfully dull by comparison.

  I suppose I'd better explain the title. I don't know, I think it's something to do with a vague feeling that I should be seeking inspiration from women who combine an exemplary domestic matrimonial situation with professional excellence (she has 5 kids and was leader of the House of Representatives. I have neither. Anyway, the problem with  this exceedingly dull biography is that it lacks tension and a gruelling ascension, meaning it just reads like an excellent CV. And anyway, things got off to a bad start because this book began with the cardinal sin of telling me what is going to happen. Yes, I know she's a public figure but there's still lots of things I don't know about the story so don't start in your introduction telling me everything. Sorry Molly, but this belongs to that rare category of books I just could't finish.

This book shows the power of a title because I bought it purely based on the title. Unfortunately, though, the actual book didn't deliver quite so well. The main character is just not a nice person and she mirrors the exhausting way people today weaponize their grief/trauma/ADHD etc, to dodge accountability. Oh God I better shut up there or I'll just continue the amazingly good job I do of making myself unpopular.