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Giving Hope: A Child's Journey Through a Pandemic
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Life was busy, exciting, normal - until, with one phone call, everything changed. Everything was...
Nonfiction Pandemic Picture Books Children School Family
Live Yet Another Day
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Book Watch
Leaving her home for the first time, Vibha embarks on the beginning of her adventure into adult...
romance women's fiction drama bookbuzz
We Are Chaos by Marilyn Manson
5.0
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Album
Marilyn Manson returns with his eleventh studio album 'We Are Chaos'. Co-produced by Manson and...
Charlotte (184 KP) rated A Plague Among Us (Mimi Goldman Chautauqua Mysteries #8) in Books
Oct 17, 2021
A fun and interesting read that hits close to home.
A Plague Amongst Us is the eighth in the series and it doesn't disappoint. Not only is it fresh and current - using the Covid-19 pandemic as a theme - but it also reminds us about human nature.
Full of twists and surprises you'll be kept guessing all the way through. Strong female main characters are always a plus and this definitely has those.
It would be great to see this turned into a TV series. I can easily see myself sat with my tea and biscuits just like I did when I read it.
A Plague Amongst Us is the eighth in the series and it doesn't disappoint. Not only is it fresh and current - using the Covid-19 pandemic as a theme - but it also reminds us about human nature.
Full of twists and surprises you'll be kept guessing all the way through. Strong female main characters are always a plus and this definitely has those.
It would be great to see this turned into a TV series. I can easily see myself sat with my tea and biscuits just like I did when I read it.
This novella really packs a punch - as all good novellas do!
It’s set in a world that we all know a little about. A Covid-19-type virus, except far more severe, breaks out and social panic ensues. Society goes ion to lockdown, hospitals are unable to cope with the sheer volume of cases, and the army is drafted in to keep order. Shops are looted, food is rationed, people die horrifically.
Edith Harkness looks back on her life as she prepares to enter the last stages of Long-Nonovirus. It’s a much more serious version of Long-Covid, where the affected person dies. Edith looks back on her life, from her childhood where she lives with her brain-damaged mother, to her years of study and consequent art prizes, and then her time in lockdown with her lover, a Bulgarian Turk.
It’s a book about love, sex, desire, illness, caring, family and grief. Those are some big topics for a slim book, but it’s beautifully told.
Now I need to read some more Sarah Hall books.
It’s set in a world that we all know a little about. A Covid-19-type virus, except far more severe, breaks out and social panic ensues. Society goes ion to lockdown, hospitals are unable to cope with the sheer volume of cases, and the army is drafted in to keep order. Shops are looted, food is rationed, people die horrifically.
Edith Harkness looks back on her life as she prepares to enter the last stages of Long-Nonovirus. It’s a much more serious version of Long-Covid, where the affected person dies. Edith looks back on her life, from her childhood where she lives with her brain-damaged mother, to her years of study and consequent art prizes, and then her time in lockdown with her lover, a Bulgarian Turk.
It’s a book about love, sex, desire, illness, caring, family and grief. Those are some big topics for a slim book, but it’s beautifully told.
Now I need to read some more Sarah Hall books.
ClareR (5542 KP) rated Many Different Kinds of Love: A Story of Life, Death and The NHS in Books
Apr 6, 2021
This is the story of Michael Rosen’s experience with Covid-19. How he became ill, then very ill, was hospitalised, put on a ventilator for 48 days, and his hard work back to good health - with complications included.
I can remember being really worried when Michael Rosen said he was feeling unwell last year, and even more so when it was reported that he had been taken in to hospital. There was that long period where I could only imagine how distressed his family must have been feeling.
This book documents it all. There are the diary entries from the carers whilst Michael Rosen was in an induced coma: the nurses, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists - all those from right across the NHS who helped him, turned him, talked to him, kept him clean and made sure that he heard from his family. They clearly did an amazing job, and this showed the sheer volume of people who cared for him.
It’s a really moving book. I read much of this with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. And of course there were the funny bits, as there always is with Michael Rosen.
I’m just so glad he made it. This book is going on the Keeper Shelf, because this will be a book that we will all look back on in years to come, when memories of Covid-19 start to dim.
I can remember being really worried when Michael Rosen said he was feeling unwell last year, and even more so when it was reported that he had been taken in to hospital. There was that long period where I could only imagine how distressed his family must have been feeling.
This book documents it all. There are the diary entries from the carers whilst Michael Rosen was in an induced coma: the nurses, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists - all those from right across the NHS who helped him, turned him, talked to him, kept him clean and made sure that he heard from his family. They clearly did an amazing job, and this showed the sheer volume of people who cared for him.
It’s a really moving book. I read much of this with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. And of course there were the funny bits, as there always is with Michael Rosen.
I’m just so glad he made it. This book is going on the Keeper Shelf, because this will be a book that we will all look back on in years to come, when memories of Covid-19 start to dim.
saheffernan (157 KP) rated Dry in Books
Mar 28, 2020
Reading this during the 2020 CoVid-19 Pandemic gave me a different crisis to think about. The characters were teenagers which means they made some dumb choices but it stuck to that the whole way through. Were they changed in the end yes, but only in the ways you'd expect teenagers to be they didn't suddenly become super wise and I liked that. The story kept me engaged and the suspense hit at the right points. The ending did seem to come a little fast I feel like a few more pages could have wrapped things up a little better but it doesn't take away from the story still a decent ending.
BO BURNHAM: INSIDE (2021)
Movie
Bo Burnham: Inside is a 2021 American special written, directed, filmed, edited by, and starring Bo...
ClareR (5542 KP) rated The sentence in Books
May 1, 2022
I don’t envy whoever has to narrow down the books on the Women’s Prize 2022 from the long list to the shortlist this year. The books I’ve read so far I’ve enjoyed all equally.
The Sentence is, amongst other things, a book about books. It’s also a book about Tookie, who works in a bookshop and is haunted by a deceased customer. Tookie has a colourful past, which involves imprisonment after it was discovered she had smuggled drugs over county lines, strapped to the corpse of a friends boyfriend. She didn’t know about the drugs, but she certainly knew about the dead body! Prison gave her plenty of time to read, and she leaves prison with a huge knowledge of literature.
On release Tookie gets a job in a Native American bookshop, and marries the Police officer who arrested her. Like her, he is also Native American.
This is a book of two halves: before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. The ghost of the customer, Flora, remains in the bookshop for most of the book, whilst Minneapolis sees a lot of important things going on: the death of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter marches, the Covid-19 epidemic, isolation from friends and family, illness, near death experiences and the importance of heritage.
I loved this book. Like I’ve said, I’m just glad that I won’t have to decide the Women’s Prize winner. I still have some books to read from the long list, which I still want to read even though the shortlist has been announced - so watch this space!
The Sentence is, amongst other things, a book about books. It’s also a book about Tookie, who works in a bookshop and is haunted by a deceased customer. Tookie has a colourful past, which involves imprisonment after it was discovered she had smuggled drugs over county lines, strapped to the corpse of a friends boyfriend. She didn’t know about the drugs, but she certainly knew about the dead body! Prison gave her plenty of time to read, and she leaves prison with a huge knowledge of literature.
On release Tookie gets a job in a Native American bookshop, and marries the Police officer who arrested her. Like her, he is also Native American.
This is a book of two halves: before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. The ghost of the customer, Flora, remains in the bookshop for most of the book, whilst Minneapolis sees a lot of important things going on: the death of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter marches, the Covid-19 epidemic, isolation from friends and family, illness, near death experiences and the importance of heritage.
I loved this book. Like I’ve said, I’m just glad that I won’t have to decide the Women’s Prize winner. I still have some books to read from the long list, which I still want to read even though the shortlist has been announced - so watch this space!