Tag: book-reviews

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Is Big Apple, a place to find and remake yourselves 

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A young woman from India feels the pull from Lady Liberty’s lifted torch in New York Harbour and crosses the globe to make a new life, although she knows the path won’t be straightforward but also that the Big Apple is the place to support and nurture her dreams. Kay Sohini, raised in the suburbs of Kolkata and given an English education, reading Jack Kerouac, Joan Didion and Alison Bechdel and dreamt always of New York. When she finally moved to the city, leaving behind an abusive relationship. Sohini refuses to look away from the city’s flaws, from the damage … Continue reading Is Big Apple, a place to find and remake yourselves 

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Finding new love

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Marine and Michael, two protagonist find themselves together on a 190-mile  coast-to-coast walking trail across northern England, after being brought together through a mutual friend. A love story develops between the two divorcees as they battle the great British weather to find their way home, finding new love and second chances along the way, exploring the relationships in a way that reflects real life and the search for human connection.  At first Marine is interested in another group member, Conrad, but as he soon drops out along with the others, leaving Marine and Michael to continue to walk together, starting from … Continue reading Finding new love

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Elizabeth Nunez who explored the legacy of colonialism dies aged 80

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Elizabeth Nunez (80), a Trinidad-born writer whose novels explored the legacy of colonialism and the immigrant’s longing for home – while making fun a American academia and New York City’s publishing world – died of a stroke on Friday at her home in Brooklyn. Elizabeth Ann Nunez was born on Feb 18 1944, in Port of Spain, the capital city of Trinidad and Tobago, one of 11 chidren of Una Magdalena (Arneaud) Nunez and Waldo Everette Nunez. Her father was a Junior officer in the ministry of labor: who late become the commissioner of labor, and then an executive at … Continue reading Elizabeth Nunez who explored the legacy of colonialism dies aged 80

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Focus on real-life injustice

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John Grisham the master of legal thriller teams up with Jim McCloskey, who has dedicated his life to exonerating innocent people, to uncover stories that shine an astonishing light on miscarriages of justice. Joe Bryan suffered the unbearable tragedy of his wife’s murder, only to be tried and found guilty of the crime himself – despite being 120 miles away at the time of the murder. Clarence Brandley spent nine years in Death Row, coming to within six days of execution, before new evidence emerged clearing him of all charges. The case of Norfolk Four, police and prosecutors continued to … Continue reading Focus on real-life injustice

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Paula’s vulnerability and strength that radiates energy and life

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Booker Prize-winning Roddy Doyle first introduced “ The woman who walked into doors’ a mid-90s TV show whose subsequent novels featured woman’s story  and the second of which is Paula Spencer. The initial response was relentless and polarised with some critics outraged by his representation of domestic abuse and sceptical that such grim phenomenon could exist in modern Ireland. At sixty-six, Paula Spencer – mother, grandmother, widow, addict, survivor – is finally living her life. A job at the dry cleaners she enjoys, a man – Joe – with whom she shares what she wants, friends who see her for who … Continue reading Paula’s vulnerability and strength that radiates energy and life

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OnlyFans and Sex satire

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Twenty-year-old Margo, child of a Hooter’s waitress and an ex-pro-wrestler, got money troubles, but she’s always known she’d have to make it on her own. When she finds herself pregnant by her college English professor, naïve and drifting – who is very keen not to be involved – she realizes she will need cash fast. She hadn’t thought through the consequences of having a baby- now  she’s lost her waitressing job and it looks unlikely she  will be able to afford her rent. Although Margo lacks in options she makes up for in ingenuity, and soon she has a plan. … Continue reading OnlyFans and Sex satire

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Abyss built on class and race, exploitation of domestic workers

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A young girl has died and the family’s maid is being interrogated.  She must tell the whole story before arriving the girl’s death. Estela came from the countryside, leaving her mother behind, to work for the señor and señora when their only child was born. They wanted a housemaid:”smart appearance, full time”, their  ad said. She wanted to make enough money to suppor her mother and return home. For seven years, Estela cleaner their laundry, wipe their floors, made their meals, kept their secrets, Witnessed their fights and frictions, raised their daughter. She heard the rats scrabbling in the ceiling, saw the looks … Continue reading Abyss built on class and race, exploitation of domestic workers

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Cursed by guilt, enchanted by the allure of mysticism

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Pemi Aguda who grew up in Lagos, a graduate of the writer’s programme at the University of Michigan, details magic and mayhem in the Lagos metropolis riven by crime, corruption and poverty, influenced by supernatural influences. In Ghostroots, unexplained powers which are both benign and malign, although their motivations are good but their impact is devastating, and in some cases act as messengers of divine retribution. The result of an environmental disarray, a place in which power cut are routine, masculinity is malevolent and pentecostal ministers hold sway with parables of salvation, as these ghosts, spirit jesters, unaccountable pestilences and … Continue reading Cursed by guilt, enchanted by the allure of mysticism

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Spectacular Opal’s Gene operation begins a new era for deaf

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In another trial at Addenbrooke’s NHS hospital, (Cambridge), Opal Sandy (18months) from Oxfordshire,  a girl completely deaf, after she was diagnosed with auditory neuropathy caused by disruption of nerve impulses going from her inner ear to the brain,  can now hear after having world-leading gene therapy.   A working copy of the fault gene that caused it  was delivered by infusion through a tube into her right ear during surgery last September. Within three months, her mum Joy 33, realised Opal could hear clapping. “ I thought it was a fluke, or something caught her eye, but I repeated it … Continue reading Spectacular Opal’s Gene operation begins a new era for deaf

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Eluded emotions

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In Sociopath,  confessions of a wife, mother and cat-choker having dark urges of stealing for thrills, joyrides, and gate-crashing at strangers’ funerals  – all a fascinating first-hand account of antisocial personality disorder. After the pencil attack she decided to steer clear of violence- not because she felt bad but because it attracted too much attention. She resolved  to finding ways of dealing with her anxiety that would allow her to fly beneath the radar. Named as the most anticipated book of 2024 by Vulture, LitHub, The Guardian, and Cosmopolitan. A fascinating and revelatory memoir revealing the author’s struggle to come to terms with … Continue reading Eluded emotions