January 9 2020

Catch and Kill, by Ronan Farrow

Catch and Kill, by Ronan Farrow

Catch and Kill, by Ronan Farrow

TitleCatch and Kill: Lies, spies, and a conspiracy to protect predators
Author: Ronan Farrow
Genre/ issues: Non-fiction, investigative reporting, #MeToo.

I don’t usually leave the office for a lunch break – I’ll grab some food and sit at my desk. But today, I was so close to the end of this compelling book that I took myself to the park across the road and found myself crying though the last few traumatic chapters. It’s tough going, this tale of predation and sexual assault, made tougher because we all know someone whose been through something like this. The #MeToo era has brought so many stories to light, but so many more still fester.
It’s a big call, but I’m gonna say it – this is one of the most compelling and powerful pieces of non-fiction I’ve read. Ronan Farrow’s style of weaving personal and professional narration is brilliant, despite what I will say is one of the worst attempts at an Australian accent I’ve heard in an audiobook. I’m glad to have finally read this, and I’m glad there are men like him in the world, willing to stand up for what is right, and women who have the courage to fight through the institutional and societal mire to speak out their truth. Because, as Farrow says, “in the end the courage of women can’t be stamped out, and stories, the big ones, the true ones, can be caught but never killed.”

#TamaraReads #2020readingchallenge  3/52

Happy reading,

Tamara

January 5 2020

The Deathless Girls, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

TitleThe Deathless Girls
Author: Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Genre/ issues: Gothic, feminist, rewriting classic fiction.

This is my current #TBR shelf. Yesterday I needed a new book to start and grabbed a couple to check out, and Tayla picked one for me based purely on the cover. And what a cracker of a book it was! So much so that I stayed up until about 2am finishing it.

The #BellatrixBooks project by Hachette provides leading female authors the opportunity to give voice to women of the past and present who have a million stories that are untold, mis-told or unheard. The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave is the story of Dracula’s brides, relegated in Stoker’s novel to sensual stake fodder but depicted here as strong, complex and utterly fascinating. Not just a vampire story, this book examines class, race, family and destiny, and delves deeply into the questions of what you’d do for the ones you love. My only criticism (and it’s a minor one!) is that it feels a little brief – the pace of the novel is cracking, and there were a few points where I felt like a little expository monologueing could have been expanded into a chapter that I’d have loved to sink my teeth into (pun intended). I love it when a work read turns out to be also a really great holiday read!

#TamaraReads #2020readingchallenge 2/52

Happy reading,

Tamara

January 4 2020

The Fowl Twins, by Eoin Colfer

The Fowls Twins, by Eioin Colfer

The Fowls Twins, by Eioin Colfer

Title: The Fowl Twins
Author: Eoin Colfer
Genre/ issues: Action adventure. Mystery. Suspense. Fantasy characters reimagined. Precocious kids doing precocious things.

The official blurb for this book reads:

“One week after their eleventh birthday, the Fowl twins–scientist Myles, and Beckett, the force of nature–are left in the care of house security (NANNI) for a single night. In that time they befriend a troll who has clawed his way through the earth’s crust to the surface. Unfortunately for the troll, he is being chased by a nefarious nobleman and an interrogating nun, who both need the magical creature for their own gain, as well as a fairy-in-training who has been assigned to protect him.

The boys and their new troll best friend escape and go on the run. Along the way they get shot at, kidnapped, buried, arrested, threatened, killed (temporarily), and discover that the strongest bond in the world is not the one forged by covalent electrons in adjacent atoms, but the one that exists between a pair of twins.”

If you’re familiar with the world of Artemis Fowl, then you’ll know what you’re getting into with this new series about Artemis’ younger siblings. I loved the original books, and this is a great new addition to the world in which fairies are an organised covert military force, and kids (at least the Fowls, anyway) have serious technological and political smarts. The Fowl Twins is as smart and funny as its predecessors, in is a cracking read for anyone who loves a good twist on traditional fairy lore. I’m looking forward to what comes next for The Regrettables!

#TamaraReads #2020readingchallenge 1/52

Happy reading,

Tamara