Prince Harry - Spare

 

Prince Harry - Spare 

4 ⭐

Genre: Memoir, Autobiography, Biography, Non-Fiction

Time: 15h 37mins

Narrator: Prince Harry 

Format: Audiobook

Publisher: Random House Audio/Audible  

Date Published: 10th January 2023 

 

Book Blurb: 

It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on.

For Harry, this is that story at last.

Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight.

At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn’t find true love.

Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . .

For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

My Review: 

I had to listen to this, as I have seen so many excerpts from it all over social media after its release. So, I gave it a go. I also wanted to hear Prince Harry’s side of the story and not just tabloids. Honestly, it was interesting, and I am glad I listened to it rather than read it. I feel like if I read it, I would have DNF’ed it halfway through, as it felt so long whilst I was listening to it. It was way too long. Surely some things could have been edited out, as there was so much repetition.

That said, I did enjoy parts of this book and it was refreshing to hear Prince’s POV on everything that has happened and take a glimpse into his childhood and growing up. I mean I can’t relate to anything in this book, as I am not rich or royal, but it was nice to see that he experiences just as many emotions as anyone else is. It was also interesting to read about the pressures of being royal and privileged, as well as having your life covered by media 24-7.

Overall: It was an interesting read. I don’t think I need to cover anything else, since this book was covered and scrutinised in bits by people. I enjoyed listening to it. I also enjoyed learning about Harry and seeing his POV. I do think, however, that it was a very long book that could have used more editing.  

About the Author:

Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, is a husband, father, humanitarian, military veteran, mental wellness advocate, and environmentalist. He resides in Santa Barbara, California, with his family and three dogs.

https://princeharrymemoir.com

Minoli Salgado - Twelve Cries From Home: In Search of Sri Lanka's Disappeared

Minoli Salgado - Twelve Cries From Home: In Search of Sri Lanka's Disappeared

4 ⭐

Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoirs, True Stories

Pages: 250

Format: Digital (Netgalley)

Publisher: Repeater Books

Date Published: 8th February 2022

Thank you to NetGalley and Repeater Books for e-arc of this book to read and review.

Book Blurb: 

Twelve Cries from Home speaks out against Sri Lanka's official silencing of war crimes, reclaiming the stories of survivors who insist on being heard.

Since August 2020, the intimidation of witnesses and journalists has surged in Sri Lanka. Twelve Cries from Home navigates the memories and stories of twelve war survivors, mostly women and relatives of the disappeared, who wished to have their stories retold so that a permanent record might be made, and so that those outside the country might understand their experiences.

The outcome of a journey across the island in late 2018 by writer and Professor of Literature Minoli Salgado, who was revisiting her ancestral home, Twelve Cries from Home is deeply-layered and localised work of travelling witness. It returns to the concept of home as a place of belonging and security, which is a lost ideal for most, and uses a Sri Lankan measure of distance - the call, or hoowa - to ask how we might attend to stories that are difficult to tell and to hear.

Exploring the bitter complexity of war by presenting stories from four regions of Sri Lanka, it reveals the complex network of relationships between the agents of conflict and their victims, as well as the blurred boundary between victims and perpetrators, the role of informers and the process of ethical repair after traumatic experience.

Twelve Cries from Home offers a rare glimpse into a country subject to enforced self-censorship, allowing us to take stock of social and political developments in Sri Lanka and what has and has not been achieved in light of the transitional justice mechanisms promised to the UN.

My Review: 

This book took me quite a long time to read, mainly because I had to take breaks every so often as the topics discussed in this book are at points very hard to read. This book is the account of different people, who all lived and lost loved ones through the Sri Lankan war. The author interviews them all around the island of Colombo and each interview is filled with pain, harsh realities, losses, and heartbreaks, but also hope for a better future and love.

This book is a very important read and I am glad I read it. I also learned so much about Sri Lanka and the war that raged there for decades. Before reading this book, I wasn’t familiar with it as much, but reading this book made me look into the war and Sri Lankan history more and to educate myself. It is a hard book to read, but at the same time it is powerful and it gave a voice to people who otherwise not be heard.

Overall: It is a hard read, full of pain, and suffering, but also hope and love. It’s people’s accounts of how their lost their loved ones and family members, as well as how they suffered themselves during war years. I think it is a very important read, albeit not a light one. I am glad I picked up this book and educated myself more about Sri Lanka and its history, as well as the recent war, through the accounts of those who lived through it. 

This review was first published on NetGalley: https://www.netgalley.co.uk/book/247157/review/959200

About the Author: 

Minoli Salgado is a Sri Lankan writer and academic based in the United Kingdom who was born in Malaysia and educated mainly in England. She has written extensively on migrant studies and diasporic literature and is the author of the critically acclaimed work Writing Sri Lanka. She also writes fiction and poetry, and her debut novel A Little Dust on the Eyes won the inaugural SI Leeds Literary Prize.

https://minolisalgado.com/about/

Carolyn Hays - A Girlhood: Letter to My Transgender Daughter

Carolyn Hays - A Girlhood: Letter to My Transgender Daughter

3.5⭐

Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir, LGBTQIA+

Pages: 336

Format: Paperback Proof 

Publisher: Picador Books 

Date Published: 

 

Huge thank you to Picador Books for sending me a proof copy of this book to read and review. 

Book Blurb: 

When Carolyn Hays’s child made clear to the family that they were all wrong, he was not a boy, but, in fact, a girl, the Hays shifted pronouns, adopted a nickname and encouraged her to dress as she felt comfortable. One ordinary day, a caseworker from the Department of Children and Families knocked on their door to investigate an anonymous complaint about the upbringing of their transgender child. It was this threat that instilled in them a deep-seated fear for their child’s safety in the Republican state they called home. And so they uprooted their lives to the more trans-accepting Northeast United States, though they were never far from the hate and fear resting at the nation’s core.

Intimate, lyrical and thought-provoking, A Girlhood is an ode to Hays’s brilliant, brave child, as well as a cathartic revisit of the pain of the past. It tells of the brutal truths of being trans, of the sacrificial nature of motherhood, and of the lengths a family will go to shield their youngest from the cruel realities of the world. Hays asks us all to love better, for children everywhere who are enduring injustice and prejudice just as they begin to understand themselves. A Girlhood is a celebration of difference, a plea for empathy, and a hope for a better future, but moreover, it is a love letter to a child who has always known herself and is waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.

My Review: 

I am glad that I read this book, as it opened my eyes to a lot of the problems that the transgender community face in the USA, especially in the southern states of the USA. However, I also need to say that I don’t think I am the target audience for this, thus some of the things in this book, like being a parent, how to parent, and how to accept your transgender child weren’t aimed at me, since I am not a parent. Although, I think this book is an important read and I think that it should be read by as many people as possible for awareness, understanding and educational purposes.

Carolyn Hays, under a pen name, wrote this book as a letter to her transgender daughter, who is now a teen, to show how much she learned as a parent of a transgender child, the mistakes that she made and the love that she has for her daughter. In the book, Hays shares her pain of her daughter not being accepted by most, her deep thoughts and the celebration of her daughter.  

This book is really powerful, but at times was quite hard and emotional to read too, whilst at times being a bit too slow and repetitive. I wish there was more covered about the experiences of the daughter, rather than just the experience of the mother since the book was a letter to her daughter.

I also found some of the facts, statistics and claims, especially about religion, that the author made weren’t followed up or explained in more depth, or even a footnote for readers to be able to see where the information is coming from.

Overall: Although I am not the target audience for this book, I enjoyed reading it as it opened my eyes to a lot of issues and problems that the transgender community face, especially in the south of the USA. I was also glad to learn more about LGBTQ history, which was mixed into the narrative of this book.

About the Author:

Carolyn Hays is an award-winning, critically acclaimed, bestselling author who has chosen to publish to A Girlhood: Letter to My Transgender Daughter under a pen name to protect the privacy of her family. Her previous books have been listed as New York Times Notable Books of the Year and Kirkus’s Best Fiction of the Year, and have been translated widely. She’s written for National Public Radio and the Washington Post.

https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/carolyn-hays/42198

Nona Fernandez - Voyager: Constellations Of Memory

Nona Fernandez - Voyager: Constellations Of Memory  

5 ⭐

Genre: Memoir, Non-Fiction, Latin American Literature, Translated Literature 

Translated by: Natasha Wimmer  

Original Title: Mapa de Las Lenguas 

Original Language: Spanish 

Pages: 126

Format: Paperback 

Publisher: Daunt Books Publishing 

Date Published: 21st February 2023

Huge Thank You to Daunt Books Publishing for a copy. 

Book Blurb: 

A startling book-length essay, at once grand and intimate, from National Book Award finalist Nona Fernández.

Voyager begins with Nona Fernández accompanying her elderly mother to the doctor to seek an explanation for her frequent falls and inability to remember what preceded them. As the author stares at the image of her mother’s brain scan, it occurs to her that the electrical signals shown on the screen resemble the night sky.

Inspired by the mission of the Voyager spacecrafts, Fernández begins a process of observation and documentation. She describes a recent trip to the remote Atacama desert—one of the world’s best spots for astronomical observation—to join people who, like her, hope to dispel the mythologized history of Chile’s new democracy. Weaving together the story of her mother’s illness with story of her country and of the cosmos itself, Fernández braids astronomy and astrology, neuroscience and memory, family history and national history into this brief but intensely imagined autobiographical essay. Scrutinizing the mechanisms of personal, civic, and stellar memory, she insists on preserving the truth of what we’ve seen and experienced and finding ways to recover what people and countries often prefer to forget.

In Voyager, Fernández finds a new container for her profound and surreal reckonings with the past. One of the great chroniclers of our day, she has written a rich and resonant book.

My Review: 

This book is something else! So beautiful and lyrical! Honestly, I wish I could give it the whole constellation of stars and not just a mere 5 stars. The writing is just superb and hits just the right heartstrings at the right times. I even cried reading this...that’s how impactful and beautiful Fernandez's words are!

Memoir in a book-length essay about constellations in the sky, the cosmos, the meaning of life, memories and much more. Fernandez also touches on her mother’s illness, mythologised history of Chile’s new democracy, the importance to remember the past and people who are lost but not completely gone from our memories and from the stars.

I loved how Fernandez managed to link all of the topics that don’t seem to fit with each other, so perfectly together, as well as making the reader think outside the box. I adore her lyrical writing and making this memoir flow through the galaxy-like spacecraft that is step-by-step opening of all the secrets about our humans and Earth's beginnings. This book definitely made me think a lot about myself, my own perceptions and my own memories. Honestly, it just makes you think deeply about everything, as well as question your own mind.

Overall: It is so hard to put into words how amazing this book is and how touching it is to read those lyrical and beautifully crafted words. Honestly, you need to pick this book up yourself to explore its true brilliance. Loved it so much!

About the Author: 

Nona Fernández was born in Santiago, Chile. She is an actress and writer and has published two plays, a collection of short stories, and six novels, including Space Invaders and The Twilight Zone, which was awarded the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize. Space Invaders was also longlisted for the 2019 National Book Awards for Translated Literature. The Twilight Zone was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature. 

https://dauntbookspublishing.co.uk/authors/nona-fernandez

Viola Davis - Finding Me

Viola Davis - Finding Me 

5⭐

Genre: Memoir, Biography, Autobiography, Non-Fiction 

Pages: 304

Format: Hardback 

Publisher: Coronet, Hodder & Stoughton 

Date Published: 26th April 2022

 

Huge thank you to Tandem Collective UK and Hodder & Stoughton for sending me this book to read and review. 

Book Blurb: 

Finding Me is Viola Davis' story, in her own words, and spans her incredible, inspiring life, from her coming-of-age in Rhode Island to her present day. Hers is a story of overcoming, a true hero's journey. Deeply personal, brutally honest, and riveting, Finding Me is a timeless and spellbinding memoir that will capture hearts and minds around the globe.

IN MY BOOK, YOU WILL MEET a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life-changing decision to stop running forever. This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose but also my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.

As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. We are forced to reinvent them to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So I wrote this for anyone running through life untethered, desperate and clawing their way through murky memories, trying to get to some form of self-love. For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be . . . you.

Finding Me is a deep reflection, a promise, and a love letter of sorts to self. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.

My Review: 

What an amazing memoir! I already loved Viola Davis in How to Get Away with Murder but after reading this book, I realised how amazing of a human being she is. I now have such a deep admiration for her! 

In parts, it was so hard to read about her challenging childhood and all the traumas she experienced through her younger years, but what amazed me the most was Viola’s determination, resilience and strength. This memoir allowed me to get a glimpse into her personal life, from a traumatic childhood where she and her family didn’t have food to eat for days, to her struggling to belong in Julliard as a Black acting student…In this book, Viola also talks openly about the film and acting industry and how hard is to get to the top. For me, this memoir was sad, and shocking yet at the same time very inspiring. It was so interesting to read how honestly Viola talks about struggling to find self-love until later in adulthood and how she felt like she finally belonged when on the set of How to Get Away with Murder.

The memoir starts from the very beginning, Viola’s hard childhood which was filled with abuse, lack of food, poverty, racism, living without hot water and being in a house infested by rats…It wasn’t pretty but even little Viola had that strong determination and passion to get out of poverty and become something bigger. Over the years she pushed herself to achieve that, even though the path was not always easy or straight. She had to go through so many obstacles and with that also had to find herself, especially start loving herself. This memoir is full of successes, changes, failures, courage, resilience, strength, love, wisdom and determination. It displays the ugly and the pretty of Viola Davis’s life from her birth up until now.

Overall: It is the best memoir I have read this year. I now love Viola Davis even more! She is such an inspiration for strength and resilience. I think this book should be on everyone’s bookshelf or their TBR. I will be definitely revisiting this book, but this time in audio format as Viola narrates the book herself, which I think would bring out some parts of the book even further and have a bigger impact on the reader. It is such an intimate, honest and raw memoir that left such a significant impact on me. 

About the Author:

Viola Davis is the only Black actor to have achieved the “triple crown” of acting, winning an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony for her work in film, television, and the theater. The New York Times named Davis one of the ten greatest actors of the twenty-first century. In addition to her acting work, she is an acclaimed producer and philanthropist. 

https://twitter.com/violadavis

Rebecca Donner - All The Frequent Troubles of Our Days

Rebecca Donner - All The Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler. 

5⭐

Genre: History, Non-Fiction, Biography, WW2, Memoir

Pages: 562

Format: Paperback

Publisher:  Canongate 

Date Published: 4th August 2022

 

Big thanks to Canongate for sending me a copy of this book to read and review. 

Book Blurb: 

Born and raised in Milwaukee, Mildred Harnack was twenty-six when she enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Germany and witnessed the meteoric rise of the Nazi party. In 1932, she began holding secret meetings in her apartment — a small band of political activists that by 1940 had grown into the largest underground resistance group in Berlin. She recruited working-class Germans into the resistance, helped Jews escape, plotted acts of sabotage, and collaborated in writing leaflets that denounced Hitler and called for revolution. Her co-conspirators circulated through Berlin under the cover of night, slipping the leaflets into mailboxes, public restrooms, and phone booths.

When the first shots of the Second World War were fired, she became a spy, couriering top-secret intelligence to the Allies. On the eve of her escape to Sweden, she was ambushed by the Gestapo. At a Nazi military court, a panel of five judges sentenced her to six years at a prison camp, but Hitler overruled the decision and ordered her execution. On February 16, 1943, she was strapped to a guillotine and beheaded.

Historians identify Mildred Harnack as the only American in the leadership of the German resistance, yet her remarkable story has remained almost unknown until now.

Harnack’s great-great-niece Rebecca Donner draws on her extensive archival research in Germany, Russia, England, and the U.S. as well as newly uncovered documents in her family archive to produce this astonishing work of narrative nonfiction. Fusing elements of biography, real-life political thriller, and scholarly detective story, Donner brilliantly interweaves letters, diary entries, notes smuggled out of a Berlin prison, survivors’ testimony, and a trove of declassified intelligence documents into a powerful, epic story, reconstructing the moral courage of an enigmatic woman nearly erased by history.

My Review: 

This book was amazing! So beautifully written and researched but so heart-wrenching and moving at the same time. It was one of the books that are just so hard to put down as it is written more like a novel rather than a biography. I also didn’t know much about Mildred Harnack but I am so glad I had a chance to read this book and her story. It was such an eye-opener for me. Such a great piece of non-fiction and going straight to the top of my non-fiction books read in 2022.

This story is about Mildred Harnack, an American woman who was at the heart of the German resistance movement against the Nazi regime during Hitler's rise to power and WW2. During this book, we follow Mildred’s life, which was brilliantly reconstructed from letters, people’s diaries, Mildred’s journals, and other historical documents. Readers follow Mildred’s story from her childhood in Milwaukee to her meeting her future husband Arvid, who is German. Then she moves to Germany with Arvid and starts her Ph.D. studies, alongside lecturing at the University of Berlin. However, as Hitler is slowly but surely rising to power through the 1930s, Mildred and Arvid find themselves losing their jobs, their freedom, and their old life. Thus, not seeing any other way, they both become very active figures in the German resistance against the Nazis. Mildred deeply intertwined in the resistance was leading double life, one being a good wife to a German and the second using leaflets, recruits, and the power of the written word to send a message to people about the true colors of the Nazi regime.

The whole book was so emotional but at the same time very interesting and eye-opening. Mildred although American fought for what she thought was right. Her efforts to help Jews, smuggle resistance leaflets, write articles against Nazis and Hitler, as well as, recruit people into the resistance were extraordinary but also very sad since it all did get her caught and executed. She didn’t use weapons and fear but she used words and truth to spread the message about the horrors of Hitler's Germany.

This book is a fascinating read and has it all, the horrors, the fights, the successes, and the losses of living in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. I strongly believe the beautiful writing just added a whole new atmosphere and made me as a reader feel like I am there and seeing events from the point of view of those different characters.

Overall: This book is definitely one of the best non-fiction books about WW2 I read. I am so glad I had a chance to read it and learn about such a brave, courageous, intelligent, and ambitious woman like Mildred Harnack. I believe that more people need to hear her story and thus will I recommend this book wholeheartedly if you are interested in WW2 and German resistance during the 1930s and 1940s. 

About the Author:

Rebecca Donner is the author of the instant New York Times bestseller All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days, published by Little, Brown. All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days won the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, the 2022 PEN /Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award, the 2022 Chautauqua Prize, and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and the Plutarch Award. All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days was also selected as a New York Times Critics’ Top Book of 2021, a New York Times Notable Book, and a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and was named one of the Best Books of 2021 by the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Publisher’s Weekly, and The Economist.

Rebecca Donner was recently awarded a 2022 Guggenheim fellowship. She was a 2018-19 fellow at the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the City University of New York, is a two-time Yaddo fellow, and has twice been awarded fellowships by the Ucross Foundation. She has also held residencies at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Vermont Studio Center. Donner is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and has taught at Wesleyan University, Columbia University, and Barnard College.

Born in Canada, Donner was educated at the University of California at Berkeley and Columbia University. She is the author of Sunset Terrace, a critically acclaimed novel, and Burnout, a graphic novel about eco-terrorism. Her essays, reportage, and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times and Bookforum.

https://www.rebeccadonner.com/rebecca-donner-bio

Adam Kay - This is Going to Hurt

Adam Kay - This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor 

4.5⭐

Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir, Autobiography, Medical, STEM, Humor.

Pages:  285

Format: Paperback 

Publisher: Picador 

Date Published: 7th September 2017 

Book Blurb: 

Welcome to the life of a junior doctor: 97-hour weeks, life and death decisions, a constant tsunami of bodily fluids, and the hospital parking meter earns more than you.

Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the NHS front line. Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, this diary is everything you wanted to know – and more than a few things you didn't – about life on and off the hospital ward.

My Review: 

I finished this book in like 3 hours and honestly, it made me chuckle and be grossed out and sad…basically the whole spectrum of emotions and more. I also wished it was longer. Nevertheless, it was such an interesting and important book, full of sometimes very dark yet funny British Humour. 

This is Going to Hurt follows Adam Kay’s career as a junior doctor in the National Health Service from when he finishes his medical studies to when he quit the profession years later. The book is written as diary entries and each entry is from his real diaries, which he kept throughout his career as a junior doctor. Through these diary entries, we get a great glimpse and insight into his experiences as an obstetrician-gynaecologist, day-to-day emergencies, personal relationships, and hard and long hours. Most importantly his book doesn’t shy in displaying what is wrong with our National Health Services but at the same time shows that NHS are the ones that keep the country and people going, thus should be valued, cared for and protected at all costs.

I just wish I read it before watching the TV show, as I loved the TV show so much and although the book was brilliant it didn’t live up to the same expectation as the TV show did. Also, there were a few times during the book when Kay’s writing just didn’t work for me but I do believe it is because the book is written in this diary format. I still very much enjoyed the content of the book and the important messages that Adam Kay sends with this book. I also really enjoyed the fact that although Kay has seen in all, whilst being a doctor, he looks at it all with humour too, which was very refreshing to see and read. I would love to listen to the audiobook of this book as I believe I would definitely enjoy it more since it is narrated by the author.

Overall: Very interesting and important book, showing the realities of the NHS in sometimes a bit comedic and humorous way. Yet, this book sends so many important messages about how important the NHS is and how we need to take care of it and take care of people working in it. In this very rare case, I did prefer the TV adaptation of this book but I am glad I read the book too as it gave me a different perspective on what I have seen in the show. I would be reading Kay’s other books, especially if it's humour involved. 

About the Author:

Adam Kay is an award-winning comedian and writer. He previously worked for many years as a junior doctor. His first book "This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor" was a Sunday Times number one bestseller for over a year and has sold over two million copies. It has been translated into 37 languages and is a winner of four National Book Awards, including Book of the Year, and will be a major new comedy drama for the BBC.

His second book "Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas" was an instant Sunday Times number one bestseller and sold over 500,000 copies in its first few weeks.

"Dear NHS", edited by Adam Kay, was an instant Sunday Times number one with all profits donated to charity. 

https://www.adamkay.co.uk/

George Tomaziu - Spy Artist Prisoner

George Tomaziu - Spy Artist Prisoner (My Life in Romania Under Fascist and Communist Rule) 

5⭐

Genre: Memoir, Non-Fiction,  History, Biography  

Pages:  228

Format: Paperback 

Translated by: Jane Reid 

Original Language: French 

Publisher: Envelope Books 

Date Published: 3rd March 2022

Huge thank you to Envelope Books for the copy of this book to read and review. 

Book Blurb: 

The Romanian artist George Tomaziu expected to be imprisoned for monitoring German troop movements during the Second World War. He also expected that, after the war and his release, he might be honoured for fighting Fascism. Instead, the new Communist government sent him back to prison and stranded him there, for 13 years. This is his memoir.

My Review: 

My first book from Envelope Books and honestly it was one of the most interesting and eye-opening books I have read in a while! Not only the book cover design was so beautiful and fitting for this story, but also the memoir itself is so emotional, poignant and so raw.

I know quite a lot about the history of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in the Baltic countries but I didn’t know much about how Romania was involved in WW2 and how the country's political developments evolved after WW2. This book taught me so much and gave me great insight into the history and political changes before, through and after WW2 in Romania.

The book is a memoir written by George Tomaziu, a Romanian artist and it is his account of living under Fascist, Socialist and then Communist regimes. With his artistic nature, he loses all hope that his country will ever be free from Fascism during WW2, which prompts him to become a spy for the British Intelligence Services, sharing information about German movements across Romania. Years later just before the war finishes, he gets arrested for spying and sent to prison. However, his first time in prison under the Fascist regime is short-lived and he is released. Then political powers in Romania are suddenly changed and Tomaziu is arrested again but now under a Communist regime and sent for thirteen years to the hard labour Romanian gulag. The book follows his life through all these changes in political power, his life of being an artist and a spy and recounts his horrific time in the Romanian gulag.  

For me, the bit about his life in the gulag was just heart-wrenching and horrid. Tomaziu talks about physical and mental torture, hunger, malnutrition, and being treated like an animal and not a human being. He saw so many of his friends and cell mates die from the terrible conditions, torture and illnesses in the gulag. He also talked about how he managed to keep his humanity and faith alive in such horrible conditions. All of this is not a light read and some parts are very disturbing and dark but it is also an eye-opener into what happened inside the Iron Curtain countries. It is a very important read and account of real life and real atrocities that happened not too long ago.

I was amazed by Tomaziu’s bravery and strength in times of torture, constant humiliation and hunger. He fought hard as he wanted to one day see his country free from Communism and the atrocities that came with it.

Overall:  Such an important book that everyone should read, especially to learn what happened behind the Iron Curtain and in Eastern Europe not too long ago. Especially this book is important in the light of current events that are happening in Eastern Europe and shows us whether we can learn from our history and people who lived through all the hard parts of it as George Tomaziu did. It is important to not forget the history and this book is a real and honest account that reminds us of the horrors of Fascism and Communism. Definitely, a book that I will not forget for a long time and I am so glad I had a chance to read it!

 

About the Author:

George (Gheorghe) Tomaziu was a Romanian painter, illustrator, memoirist and poet. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest. Spy Artist Prisoner is his memoir about living under the rule of Fascism and Communism in Romania before, during and after WW2. 

https://the-history-avenue.eu/2022/05/14/spy-artist-against-the-system-george-tomazius-life-in-communist-romania/

Camille Kouchner - The Familia Grande

Camille Kouchner - The Familia Grande  

4 ⭐

Genre:  Non-Fiction, Memoir, Cultural, Translated Literature, French Literature

Translated by: Adriana Hunter

Original Title: La Familia Grande 

Original Language: French 

Pages: 288 

Format: Paperback Proof Copy 

Publisher: Brazen / Octopus Publishing 

Date Published: 5th May 2022 (UK)

Massive thanks to Octopus Publishing for a copy of the book to read and review! 

Book Blurb: 

The shocking story of how incest and sexual abuse are ever-present at the highest levels of French society, even among the most glamorous, powerful, bohemian, left-wing intellectual Parisian élite.

A family's secret weighs on everyone...

THE FAMILIA GRANDE is a tender, groundbreaking and lacerating memoir written by a sister who could no longer remain silent...

Set in amongst the French intellectual elite in Paris and their lavender-scented estates in Provence, it tells a story of a corrosive secret that sits in a family for decades and ultimately razes it and the political, and literary elite that enabled its silence, to the ground.

Already an international bestseller, it has touched a nerve across the globe and has brought about a powerful reckoning of incest, and its far-reaching trauma.

The Familia Grande is a book of a generation.

My Review: 

Not going to lie, after I read this book, it took me a few weeks to be able to sit down and write a review about it. I just couldn’t find the right words as this memoir was absolutely shocking and heartbreaking.

The story follows Camille, who tells a story about her growing up surrounded by La Familia Grande, a family and friends of the family all at the top of the French Elite in the 1980s. The Familia Grande was not only her mother, an academic and French feminist activist but also her stepfather, who was also abusing and grooming his stepchildren. Her mother did not seem to care or see the abuse, as she was very open about sexuality and raised her children in a very over-sexualised environment.

The author tells her story of how her twin brother was sexually assaulted numerous times by their stepfather. Whilst she knew about it, she was afraid to tell anyone or say something mainly because, she craved her stepfather's love, as it was the only parental love she ever got. She never got any true motherly love from her mother, who was more bothered by hosting parties with the Familia Grande and later, after a family tragedy, holding herself as a prisoner in her grief. The author’s real father, instead of loving his children was more concerned with his new family. Thus, all it was left of Camille was her stepfather's love.

However, throughout the book, the author realises how much damage being silent has done to her and how much being abused had affected her brother and even ruined their relationship for a while. As she grows older, she pressurises her brother to speak out, as she also speaks out too.

This book is a lot to take in, as it deals with so much, including dysfunctional family, death, sexual assaults, family relationships, and incest, to name a few. It is also one of those books that are so hard to review.

Overall:  All I can say is that it is a very well-written memoir. I am glad I read it, although, I don’t think I would ever re-read it, as there were quite a few triggers. I really liked that very informal style, as it reads like a diary, which makes the story very authentic and real. The author poured her feelings and soul into this book and that’s why together with the topics explored it was hard to read at times. I highly recommend people read this book as it is a very personal and moving memoir, exploring the very personal lives of top-tier French elites in the 1980s and 1990s. Especially recommended if you are interested in French culture, politics and the elite, as this book did start a movement and a law change in France after being published. So definitely a very important book for educational purposes too. 

About the Author: 

Camille Kouchner was born in 1975 in Paris. She is the daughter of the late French writer and political scientist Évelyne Pisier and Bernard Kouchner, a co-founder of Doctors Without Borders. She is a lawyer and senior lecturer at the University of Paris with a specialization in labour, contract, and health law. The Familia Grande is her English debut.

https://www.hachette.co.uk/contributor/camille-kouchner/

Baek SeHee - I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki

  

Baek SeHee - I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki

5 ⭐

Genre: Biography, Memoir, Non-Fiction, Mental Health, Self-Care, Health, Mind and Body, Korean Literature

Translated by: Anton Hur 

Original Title: 죽고 싶지만 떡볶이는 먹고 싶어

Original Language: Korean 

Pages: 208

Format: eARC on NetGalley 

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK)

Date Published: 23rd June 2022

Huge Thank You to Bloomsbury UK and NetGalley UK for a copy of eARC to read and review! 

Book Blurb: 

Baek Se-Hee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her - what to call it? - depression? She feels persistently low, anxious, endlessly self-doubting, but also highly judgemental of others. She hides her feelings well at work and with friends; adept at performing the calmness, even ease, her lifestyle demands. The effort is exhausting, and overwhelming, and keeps her from forming deep relationships. This can't be normal.

But if she's so hopeless, why can she always summon a yen for her favourite street food, the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like?

Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist over a 12-week period, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions and harmful behaviours that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Part memoir, part self-help book, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki is a book to keep close and to reach for in times of darkness.

My Review: 

I really loved this book!  It is the first self-help book that I loved, actually enjoyed reading, and didn’t DNF’ed.

Firstly, it’s part memoir, featuring the author’s therapy sessions, where she is trying to find out why she is how she is, depressed, unhappy, with low self-esteem and always puts herself down. Secondly, it’s a part self-help book, where the author explains her mental health struggles without sugar-coating or glamorising it, whilst providing some explanation on different conditions and how it is possible to tackle them. The author also talks about how she is slowly overcoming her struggles, step by step and not always in a linear fashion, taking a few steps forward but in reality stumbling some ten steps backwards.

I love the honesty, the raw truth of mental health problems and how the author talks about her struggles, how she is not afraid to talk about her feelings too. I really liked how the book was so easy to read and felt really personal, like, I felt I was the one in the therapy room having the conversation with the therapist. I devoured this book in a few hours and would love to go back read it again and annotate, and add my thoughts (hopefully can do that once I get a physical copy when it's out). It was also so relatable, as most of the author’s struggles are so universal and some of us might face more than one in our everyday life.

This book is different but in such a good way, it stands out, as it's not your traditional ‘how to take care of your mental health’,  full of checklists and tips book. This book has a unique voice and true story, which makes it very raw and real, whilst teaching quite a lot about mental health from the perspective of our everyday life.

Overall:  I really think we need more books like this on mental health, as for me how the author bravely shared her feelings and thoughts on mental health conditions, made me think that more conversations like this need to happen in our communities and society to get over the stigma surrounding this subject. I can’t wait until it’s released, so I can buy a physical copy, re-read it and annotate it, and have it on my bookshelf to help me when I face hard moments in my life. It is translated so well, as writing just flows. It’s also so easy to understand, and there is some extra information provided, explaining Korean cultural nuances that the reader might not be familiar with.

Honestly, a book that is really worth a place on your bookshelf. 

This review was first published on NetGalley and can be found on:

https://www.netgalley.co.uk/book/252006/review/959200 

About the Author: 

Born in 1990, Baek SeHee studied creative writing at university before working for five years at a publishing house. For ten years, she received psychiatric treatment for dysthymia (persistent mild depression), which became the subject of her essays, and then I Want to Die, but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, books one and two. Her favourite food is tteokbokki, and she lives with her rescue dog Jaram.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/author/baek-sehee/