#FlareCorona by @RedmondPoetry

Against a constellation of solar weather events and evolving pandemic, Jeannine Hall Gailey’s Flare, Corona paints a self-portrait of the layered ways that we prevail and persevere through illness and natural disaster.

Gailey deftly juxtaposes odd solar and weather events with the medical disasters occurring inside her own brain and body— we follow her through a false-alarm terminal cancer diagnosis, a real diagnosis of MS, and finally the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The solar flare and corona of an eclipse becomes the neural lesions in her own personal “flare,” which she probes with both honesty and humour. While the collection features harbingers of calamity, visitations of wolves, blood moons, apocalypses, and plagues, at the centre of it all are the poet’s attempts to navigate a fraught medical system, dealing with a series of challenging medical revelations, some of which are mirages and others that are all too real. 

In Flare, Corona, Jeannine Hall Gailey is incandescent and tender-hearted, gracefully insistent on teaching us all of the ways that we can live, all of the ways in which we can refuse to do anything but to brilliantly and stubbornly survive.

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As a child I was radiant.

The land grew irradiated corn and roses,

tomatoes large and abundant.

– IRRADIATE

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(@boaeditions, 9 May 2023, e-book, 100 pages, #ARC from @PoeticBookTours, #BlogTour 30 May)

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I really enjoyed Flare, Corona. This is my first time reading the poet. I liked the range of subjects the poems cover, some more personal than others. The collection contains a large section of poems about the pandemic. I’ve read other poems about the pandemic and even written some and these are among the best. The poems in this collection are well-written, engaging, and powerful. I especially liked Self-Portrait as a Murder Mystery, Reading Portents on the Summer Solstice, Under A Blood Moon I Get My Brain Scanned and To Survive So Many Disasters.  

4/5

The Tiger Mom’s Tale by @lynliaobutler

Lexa Thomas has never quite fit in. Having grown up in a family of blondes while more closely resembling Constance Wu, she’s neither white enough nor Asian enough. Visiting her father in Taiwan as a child, Lexa thought she’d finally found a place where she belonged. But that was years ago, and even there, some never truly considered her to be a part of the family.

When her estranged father dies unexpectedly, leaving the fate of his Taiwanese family in Lexa’s hands, she is faced with the choice to return to Taiwan and claim her place in her heritage . . . or leave her Taiwanese family to lose their home for good. Armed with the advice of two half-sisters (one American and the other Taiwanese, who can’t stand each other), a mother who has re-evaluated her sexuality, a man whose kisses make her walk into walls, and her self-deprecating humour, Lexa finds the courage to leave the comfort of New York City to finally confront the person who drove her away all those decades ago.

With fond memories of eating through food markets in Taiwan and forming a bond with a sister she never knew she had, Lexa unravels the truth of that last fateful summer and realizes she must stand up for herself and open her heart to forgiveness or allow the repercussions of her family’s choices to forever dictate the path of her life.

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Alexa Thomas had just bitten into a sesame ball when her mother told her she was in love with a woman.

– 1

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(Books on Tape, 6 July 2021, audiobook, 9 hrs, borrowed from Glasgow Libraries via BorrowBox)

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I really enjoyed The Tiger Mom’s Tale. This is a powerful, well-written, engaging tale about family and the complex relationships between people. It’s also a book about the enduring power of love and secrets. I found this an engrossing read. Lexa is a great character, and the author does a brilliant job of making me feel empathy for her. The relationships between the characters are complex which makes the book compelling. I thought it was great.

4/5

The Winterfell Stone by Susanna Scott

A mystical Standing Stone from the dawn of time.

An art teacher who has taken a year off to find peace in the Yorkshire Dales.

A frumpy librarian looking for the love that has eluded her all her life.

An aristocratic professor of archaeology on a mission to save the Stone.

A journey from the Winter darkness to the warmth of Summer.

Annie hopes to find the peace she craves in the village of Winterfell but gets off to a bad start with the professor, Kit Courtney, who is more good-looking than any professor has the right to be. Yet her involvement in the friendly community and the welcome from her lovely neighbours convinces her that this was a good move, even if she does get snowed in not long after her arrival.

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‘Meadow Cottage? It’s only down the road. I reckon you could walk, no problem. Case is on wheels is it?’

 The grey-haired, grizzled-looking taxi driver was looking through his horn-rimmed spectacles at Annie’s case and seeing a small, doll-size valise whereas she saw a large sea chest-size object.

– CHAPTER 1

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(Self-Published, 28 November 2011, e-book, 312 pages, borrowed from AmazonKindle via PrimeReading)

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I really enjoyed The Winterfell Stone. I liked Annie as a character. The author does a good job of creating her as a sympathetic character I couldn’t help rooting for. Her reasons for taking a break and hiding out in the Yorkshire Dales are never fully explained which makes her an even more compelling, interesting character. I also liked the way Annie becomes embroiled in the community who are very welcoming. This is a simple novel, and it could be argued that not a lot happens, but the book is full of love. I enjoyed it.

4/5

The Tattoo Murder by Akimitsu Takagi

Tokyo, 1947. At the first post-war meeting of the Edo Tattoo Society, Kinue Nomura reveals her full-body snake tattoo to rapturous applause. Days later she is gone. A dismembered corpse is discovered in the locked bathroom of her home, but her much-coveted body art is nowhere to be found.

Kinue’s horrified lover joins forces with the boy detective Kyosuke Kamizu to try to get to the bottom of the macabre crime, but similar deaths soon follow. Is someone being driven to murder by their lust for tattooed skin, and can they be stopped?

Set in a seedy Tokyo of bomb sites, dive bars and Yakuza gangs, The Tattoo Murder  is one of Japan’s most ingenious and legendary whodunits.

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It was the summer of 1947, and the citizens of Tokyo, already crushed with grief and shock over the loss of the war, were further debilitated by the languid heat

– 1

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(Pushkin Press, 6 October 2022, e-book, 384 pages, borrowed from Glasgow Libraries via BorrowBox)

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I really liked The Tattoo Murder. In many ways this is a typical detective novel come murder mystery. The book is a bit grimmer than similar titles with the strange, sinister violence of the murders. The pacing of the book is spot on as the police struggle to catch the madman before he kills again to cover his crimes and hide his identity. This book reminds me a lot of the investigations of Sherlock Holmes. I really enjoyed it.

4/5

Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis

It begins in a bar, like so many strange stories. The gods Hermes and Apollo argue about what would happen if animals had human intelligence, so they make a bet that leads them to grant consciousness and language to a group of dogs staying overnight at a veterinary clinic.

Suddenly capable of complex thought, the dogs escape and become a pack. They are torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old ‘dog’ ways, and those who embrace the change. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into unfamiliar territory, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles with new thoughts and feelings. Wily Benjy moves from home to home, Prince becomes a poet, and Majnoun forges a relationship with a kind couple that stops even the Fates in their tracks.

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One evening in Toronto, the gods Apollo and Hermes were at the Wheat Sheaf Tavern.

– 1: A WAGER

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(Serpent’s Tail, 5 November 2015, e-book, 175 pages, borrowed from Glasgow Libraries via OverDrive, #POPOSUGARReadingChallenge, a book with a pet character)

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I really enjoyed Fifteen Dogs. I’d no idea what the book was about before I read it and chose it a random as it fit the Popsugar prompt. I loved the concept of the book; the gods grant human intelligence to dogs on a whim and sit back to bask in the consequences. The book is quite dark at times, as one of the dogs Atticus and his weaker followers decide to get rid of some dogs they perceive as a threat. There are some lighter moments in the book as some of the dogs find happiness and love. I liked this book a lot.

4/5

Class Trip by Emmanuel Carrère

Little Nicolas is a delicate, timid schoolboy, with an excitable, if morbid imagination – the child of an overbearing father. So, two weeks away on the class trip is already enough to fill him with dread. But when a child goes missing, Nicolas’ mind turns to gruesome possibilities, impelling him to take up the role of detective – and edge closer to a truth more shocking than Nicolas’ worst fears.

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For a long time afterward – even now – Nicholas tried to remember the last words his father spoke to him.

– 1

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(Vintage Digital, 6 August 2020, e-book, 151 pages, bought from AmazonKindle)

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I enjoyed Class Trip. The novella starts of innocently enough with Nicolas being dropped off late by his overbearing father. The boy’s excitement wavers a little as he realises he left his bag in his father’s car, but his father doesn’t come back with it, and nobody can get a hold of him. Things start to get dark as Nicolas becomes friends with a strange boy and sinister events threaten to upend the trip and Nicolas’s life. This is a compelling read.

4/5

The Strange Bird by @jeffvandermeer

The Strange Bird is a new kind of creature – she is part bird, part human, part many other things. But now the lab in which she was created is under siege and the scientists have turned on their animal creations.

But, even if she escapes, she cannot just soar in peace above the earth. The farther she flies, the deeper she finds herself in the orbit of the Company, a collapsed biotech firm that has populated the world with experiments both failed and successful: a pack of networked foxes, a giant predatory bear. But of the many creatures she encounters, it is the humans – all of them now simply scrambling to survive – who are the most insidious, who still see her as simply something to possess, to capture, to trade, to exploit. Never to understand, never to welcome home.

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The Strange Bird’s first thought was of a sky over an ocean she had never seen, in a place far from the fire-washed laboratory from which she emerged, cage smashed open but her wings, miraculous, unbroken.

– THE ESCAPE

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(4th Estate, 30 November 2017, e-book, 84 pages, bought from AmazonKindle)

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I really enjoyed The Strange Bird. This novella is a spin off from the novel Borne as the great bear features a few times. This is a strange and at times quite sad read. The bird only wants to survive and be free to do what she feels is in her nature. She’s denied this time and again by  a broken world, by creatures as strange as her but sinister as well and by human’s who can’t escape their nature. I didn’t want this novella to end.

4/5

#TheTwilightGarden by @saranishaadams

In a small pocket of London, between the houses of No.77 and No.79 Eastbourne Road, lies a neglected community garden.

Once a sanctuary for people when they needed it most, the garden’s gate is now firmly closed. And that’s exactly how Winston at No.79 likes it – anything to avoid his irritating new next-door neighbour.

But when a mystery parcel drops on Winston’s doormat – a curious bundle of photographs of a community garden, his garden, bursting with life years ago – a seed of an idea is planted . . .

Somewhere out there, a secret gardener made a decades-old promise to keep the community’s spirit alive. And now it’s time for The Twilight Garden to come out of hibernation . . .

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You’ll be pleased to know the garden is already tucking itself up for the autumn.

– PART 1, AUTUMN: FRIDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER 2018

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(HarperCollins, 8 June 2023, e-book, 400 pages, ARC from the publisher via NetGalley)

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I really enjoyed The Twilight Garden. I liked how the book moves between past and present, gradually revealing the links between the present and the past and the garden. I thought the strange letters sent to Winston and his neighbour which gradually encourage them to use the garden and bring it back to life were a nice touch. I also liked the fact that Winston and his new neighbour find common ground thanks to the garden after their frosty introduction. This is a compelling read about love, hope and friendship.

4/5

#RadicalLove by @NeilBlackmo

Welcome to England, 1809. London is a violent, intolerant city, exhausted by years of war, beset by soaring prices and political tensions. By day, John Church preaches on the radical possibilities of love to a multicultural, working-class congregation in Southwark. But by night, he crosses the river to the secret and glamorous world of a gay molly house on Vere Street, where ordinary men reinvent themselves as funny, flirtatious drag queens and rent boys cavort with labourers and princes alike. There, Church becomes the first minister to offer marriages between men, at enormous risk.

Everything changes when Church meets the unworldly and free-thinking Ned, part of a group of African activist abolitionists who attend his chapel. The two bond over their broken childhoods, and Church falls obsessively in love with Ned’s tender nature. In a fragile, colourful secret world under threat, Church’s love for Ned takes him to the edge of reason.

Based on the incredible true story of one of the most important events in queer history, Radical Love is a sensuous and prescient story about gender and sexuality, and how the most vulnerable survive in dangerous times.

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Know this of me: I was born to be Nothing, but I have turned into something.

– CHAPTER ONE

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(Penguin, 1 June  2023, e-book, 320 pages, ARC from NetGalley)

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I really enjoyed Radical Love. The book is based on real events which makes it an even more compelling read. This is well-written, intense, and heart-breaking at times. John Church is a strange character, passionate, full of rage and contradiction. I didn’t like him much but couldn’t fully dislike him either. He initially escapes unscathed when a molly house is raided and says nothing when various people he calls ‘friends’ are charged under the indecency laws. He’s a coward. But his actions are understandable, given how gay people and the ‘molly’s’ were treated in 1809. I had a good time with this.

4/5

Komodo by @jeffvandermeer

An incendiary speculative fiction novelette from the NYT bestselling author of the Southern Reach trilogy. Meet your cast of characters: Angels and ghost frogs, trans dimensional komodo dragons and secret forces using luna moths for surveillance. Want to traverse space and time to avoid the komodos tracking your scent? All you have to do let yourself be devoured by a giant undead bear. Confused yet? You should be. But this is the secret world our nameless narrator has stumbled into, ever since being rescued by the angels from an exploding airplane. And she’ll make sense of it for you or die trying.

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Child, standing there in your flower dress considering me with those wide eyes while the band plays out in the courtyard… I’m going to tell you a story.

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(Cheeky Frawg, 12 August 2015, e-book, 29 pages, bought from AmazonKindle)

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I’ve became a fan of the author after falling in love with the Annihilation trilogy and have become quite obsessed, determined to read all of his books. I thoroughly enjoyed Komodo, bizarre, hilarious, and strange – in  good way. The story is narrated by someone unnamed telling his bizarre and almost unbelievable story to a faceless child. The narrator’s story is weird and involves angels and exploding airplanes and time-travelling komodos and a dead bear. I thought it was terrific.

4/5

Strange Meeting by @susanhillwriter

John Hilliard, a young subaltern returning to the Western Front after a brief period of sick leave back in England blind to the horrors of the trenches, finds his battalion tragically altered. His commanding officer finds escape in alcohol, there is a new adjutant and even Hilliard’s batman has been killed.

But there is David Barton. As yet untouched and unsullied by war, radiating charm and common sense, forever writing long letters to his family. Theirs is a strange meeting and a strange relationship: the coming together of opposites in the summer lull before the inevitable storm.

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He was afraid to go to sleep.

– PART ONE

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(Bolinda, 11 December 2014, audiobook, 6 hrs 47 mins, borrowed from Glasgow Libraries via BorrowBox)

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I really enjoyed Strange Meeting. I’m a huge fan of the author but had never heard of the book before I saw it was available to borrow. I’ve read some fiction set during WWI but none quite a powerful and intimate as this. At times I felt I was listening to a memoir because I felt so close to John and David. John and David and the friendship, even love they find in each other is the heart of this tragic, beautiful book. The author does not shield from the horror of war. This is a remarkable book

4/5

Psychopaths Anonymous by Will Carver

Maeve has everything. A high-powered job, a beautiful home, and a string of uncomplicated one-night encounters. She’s also an addict – a functioning alcoholic with a dependence on sex and an insatiable appetite for killing men.

When she can’t find a support group to share her obsession, she creates her own. And Psychopaths Anonymous is born. Friends of Maeve.

Now in a serious relationship, Maeve wants to keep the group a secret. But not everyone in the group adheres to the rules, and when a reckless member raises suspicions with the police, Maeve’s drinking spirals out of control. She needs to stop killing. She needs to close the group. But Maeve can’t seem to quit the things that are bad for her, including her new man …

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Jill is the fucking worst.

– PROLOGUE

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(Bolinda, 1 March 2012, audiobook, 9 hrs 35 mins, borrowed from Glasgow Libraries via BorrowBox)

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I loved Psychopaths Anonymous. I’m a fan of the author and was really looking forward to listening to this book. This is a very dark book. Maeve is evil and delightful. I loved her even though a part of me knew I shouldn’t. Sometimes, we like things that aren’t good for us. The book is also very funny. That’s the author’s thing; writing humour into very dark subject matter so it becomes entertaining and strangely relatable. I laughed a lot reading this even though I was horrified by Maeve’s behaviour and the behaviour of her friends. This is a delightful, dark, delicious romp.

5/5