#gameofthronesreadathon

[stumblingabroadwithabagofbooks]

⭐️ BOOK REVIEW ⭐️ “What you do to children matters. And they might never forget.” Happy Monday everyone! Over the weekend I finished Toni Morrison’s “God Help the Child.” The novella is a quick read focusing on Bride, now a young woman who reflects on her childhood and fighting for her mother to show her affection. Her mother, Sweetness, distances herself from Bride to “teach her life lessons” because Bride is blue-black or very dark skinned whereas Sweetness is lighter skinned. This causes Bride to make choices in an attempt to gain her mother’s love. I love Morrison’s books 💗 her writing style and the way she describes emotions and the setting always pulls me in. This was one of her darker books that I’ve read with a lot of descriptions of pedophilia/molestation so I would suggest not reading it if you don’t do well with darker books. I wish the story was longer because I felt like the characters fell a little flat and wanted to see how things ended up as there were also a couple of loose ends. Overall I enjoyed the book for addressing difficult topics like overcoming childhood trauma, neglect, and race. I will give the full list of triggers in my stories and CW/TW highlights on my profile. Overall I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 This book also fit for my #readingwomenchallenge and its the 3rd book for Team Castle Black #gameofthronesreadathon hosted by @whatjasread 👑 #Qotd have you read any books by Toni Morrison? #evavsthealgorithm https://www.instagram.com/p/B7QewUTA_rN/?igshid=1ssj5dk8di2su

[stumblingabroadwithabagofbooks]

⭐️ REVIEW ⭐️ I finished my second book for the #gameofthronesreadathon hosted by @whatjasread and the first for the #readingwomenchallenge 💪🏻 Goodbye To All That is an anthology by different writers who loved New York City but ultimately struggled and left it. The anthology is inspired by Joan Didion’s book of the same title, following her own love affair with the city that never sleeps. Some writers came back, some grew up there and eventually left but overall, most of the stories were the same. It got repetitive and eventually I was rushing towards the end just to finish it. • • I really didn’t like the writing structure and style of Currency by Eliza Albert- it was annoying and that was the first one I skimmed. I also didn’t enjoy So Long Suckers by Rebecca Wolff. Marcy Dermansky’s essay, Maybe I loved you was my favorite as she now lives in Germany and I felt a connection to how she described living in a foreign country where she doesn’t speak the language and thinks maybe she did love New York but maybe she didn't. She just knows she misses her loved ones and is homesick (which is exactly how I feel). Other than the two I absolutely couldn’t stand and this single gem, the rest just blended together into one blob. • • It’s hard to rate an anthology especially when the stories are about the lives of others. So with that in mind, I give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of 5. It wasn’t the worst I’ve read but it was also underwhelming. #qotd do you read anthologies? What’s your favorite one? #evavsthealgorithm https://www.instagram.com/p/B7G0IoBg8jp/?igshid=pjz2mlo3gi6u

[stumblingabroadwithabagofbooks]

“Is that what everyone expects my life to be, simply a good influence on my important husband? I may be only twenty-three years old to Winston’s thirty-four, without the education, accomplishments, or nobility of my intended, but my life will not serve solely as the invisible source of ‘sympathy and devotion’ for my husband. Indeed, I want to write my own chapter.” Happy #publishingday to Lady Clementine by @authormariebenedict And a big thank you to @netgalley and @sourcebooks for the eARC 🎉 I loved hearing about Clementine Churchill and her resolve to make history rather than be a shadow standing by her husband’s side. I was pulled in right away and interested to learn more about her as the only thing I knew was that she was married to Winston Churchill. I enjoyed learning about her and seeing her as a pioneer of being a political wife. Rather than stay silent at dinner parties, she engaged in political debates with the men which was unheard of for women as it was considered unladylike at the time. She helped to advocate for better air raid shelters and jobs for women during WWII. • • The novel also shows the darker side of their marriage and Winston. He’s normally seen as this conquering giant due to his prime ministership during WWII, but I really like how the author acknowledges how problematic Churchill actually was with some of his views. • • I felt sympfor Clementine as she dealt with the loss of siblings and her own children, depression/anxiety (or as it was called for women back then “a nervous condition”), and marital troubles. • • Writing reminds of classical British literature like Charlotte Brontë. I did get a little frustrated with some of the language and use of big words like “lasciviousness” but maybe I’m just stupid 😂 • • She’s a strong, complex, progressive woman who I’ve come to admire very much through this fictionalized story of her adult life. It was a great first book of the decade and fit my historical fiction prompt for the #GameofThronesReadathon hosted by @whatjasreads 👑 and it also worked for two prompts, for #20readsin2020 hosted by @evavstheworld and @iirasbooks ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 #qotd what’s the first book you’ve read this year? https://www.instagram.com/p/B7BL_CUAPuR/?igshid=oisr698fn4hr

[stumblingabroadwithabagofbooks]

❄️ January #tbrstack ❄️ My first planned TBR of the year! These books are for 4 different reading challenges; the #GameofThronesReadathon starting January 6, #tbrproject2020 #20readsin2020 and the #readingwomenchallenge2020 The challenges will help me read more of the books I already own and make a huge dent in my unread books at home! My full TBR list is different genres and all are physical books except for one which I received from #netgalley • • 📖 God Help the Child 📖 Lady Clementine (ebook) 📖 Goodbye to All That 📖Rebel of the Sands #qotd what books do you plan on reading this month? #evavsthealgorithm https://www.instagram.com/p/B6x5S4ZgVRD/?igshid=nxrkzilppsdw