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ClareR (5721 KP) rated The Pull of the Stars in Books

Nov 8, 2020  
The Pull of the Stars
The Pull of the Stars
Emma Donoghue | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book, and in particular the Audible version that I listened to, really pulled me into the world of 1918 Dublin. This isn’t a story for the faint-hearted. It’s really graphic and gory in a lot of places, and it portrayed just what life was like for women in Ireland at this time. Childbirth was portrayed as a punishment, babies being still born equally so. This was a time where it was normal for women in Ireland to birth baby after baby: on average ten.

Nurse Julia Power is unmarried at 30 and seems to be happy with that, as she sees women whose bodies are worn out from giving birth so many times and so closely together, women who have been abused by their fathers and forced to bear their children, women who have conceived their babies outside of marriage and will be forced to give them up - as well as young women who have been institutionalised from birth and forced to give up their lives to repay the nuns who raised them through free labour (Magdalene laundries). Like I said, this was no time to be a woman. The abuse and poor treatment of the women on the ward is alluded to, but never explicit.

Whilst most of the story takes place on the quarantined labour ward, we do get a glimpse in to the home life of Nurse Power, and it was interesting to see how the war had impacted on and affected her brother.

This is a beautifully told story packed full of heart. It may not have been my best move to read it during a pandemic, but nevertheless, I absolutely loved it.
  
40x40

Laura Doe (1350 KP) rated 56 Days in Books

Aug 20, 2021  
56 Days
56 Days
Catherine Ryan Howard | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
4.5 stars rounded down to 4.
Who would’ve thought that a book about lockdown would be something that I’d want to read and thoroughly enjoy just as things are getting back to normal after a year of lockdowns. But that is exactly what this book is!
We follow Oliver and Ciara through their whirlwind romance that’s starting just as COVID-19 is picking up pace in Dublin. They make the decision to move in together so that they can continue with their relationship during lockdown, but both of them are hiding a secret from their past.
The chapters go back and forward on Ciara’s timeline, Oliver’s timeline and then “today” when there are police officers at a scene of a murder. Although it sounds like it might be confusing going back and forth, it really isn’t too confusing and still pretty easy to follow.
There is a twist towards the end, that is sorted of hinted at, which then turns into another twist that I really didn’t see coming and had to read a few sentences a couple of times to realise what had happened. And everything is quite nicely tied up by the end of it.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book, the only thing I would have changed would have been some of the thought processes behind some of the actions towards the end of the book, but nothing major at all.
Thank you to Readers First for allowing me an advanced read of this book, and to Catherine Ryan Howard for writing it and for it being about something so relatable to us all.