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ClareR (5726 KP) rated Cunning Women in Books

May 15, 2021  
Cunning Women
Cunning Women
Elizabeth Lee | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Cunning Women is everything I love about historical fiction.
I’m on a bit of a 17th century bender at the moment, and witches seem to crop up frequently. Basically, if you were female, didn’t have a man about the place (preferably one you were married to) and knew things other than washing, cleaning and popping out babies, you risked being accused of witchcraft. Add to that a birthmark, and/ or an opinion or two, AND not going to church regularly, then you might as well start picking your own stake out.

Sarah and her mother, brother and little sister, all live in a hamlet abandoned after all the inhabitants died of plague, known as the Plague Village. They have no money and little income after the death of Sarah’s father, and what money they do have comes from selling potions, small spells and begging. They’re outcasts, and there’s an atmosphere of dank, dark poverty in where they live and what they wear. They are avoided by pretty much everyone in the village - it seems to be a really lonely existence.

Then comes a spark of hope when Sarah meets the local farmer’s son, Daniel. He lives a very different life: one of open spaces, plenty of food, light and comfort. He’s treated poorly by his father and a farm hand, but he’s never hungry, and his living conditions are so much better than those of the Haworth family.

This is a story that feels so raw and real. You just know that it’s not going to be a happy ending. How can it? DOn’t get me wrong - I rather like endings that are unresolved or just plain unpleasant (weird, I know), but the youth of these protagonists had me hoping throughout for a better life for them.

Ahh, the 17th century - great to read about, but I’ve never been so glad to have been born in the 1970’s!

This is a really enjoyable, heartfelt historical fiction novel, and I’m so pleased that I got the chance to read it. Many thanks to Windmill Books for providing me with an e-arc through NetGalley.
  
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ClareR (5726 KP) rated The Four Winds in Books

Feb 28, 2021  
The Four Winds
The Four Winds
Kristin Hannah | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Four Winds is about one woman’s determination to keep her family safe in extremely difficult circumstances. It was a tough, emotional read - and I couldn’t put it down.
It’s a period of history that I know little about. I mean, I’ve watched films set in this period where people live on ramshackle farms, or in shanty-type towns, and I knew that it was something to do with the Great Depression. This book describes the side of the story of a family of farmers who lived in the Dust Bowl of Texas.
Elsa lives with her husband, children and his parents on a farm in Texas. Two children later and with the farm failing, Elsa’s husband leaves them to pursue a better life - on his own. Elsa struggles on with her in-laws and children, determined to give Loreda and Ant (her children) a home where they feel loved. But when Ant nearly dies from dust pneumonia, and the farm fails completely, they make plans to leave for California. Elsa reluctantly leaves her in-laws behind (they refuse to leave their farm), because it’s the only way to save Ant.
California isn’t the promised land of milk and honey. They arrive with little money, nowhere to stay, and Californians don’t want to help them. In fact they believe ‘Okeys’ are feckless, lazy, dirty; they refuse to house or employ them. Elsa’s only choice is to live in a tent in an encampment where poverty and typhoid are rife.
I admired Elsa’s tenacity - she works tirelessly for little money to feed her children. It’s a story of one woman’s survival and her need to protect her family.
I didn’t know anything about the Dust Bowl before I read this. I’d heard the term, but I didn’t know about the dust storms, animals dying after being filled up with dust, and people dying from dust pneumonia. This sounds like an exaggerated story, doesn’t it? But it’s not. None of this was unusual.
The Four Winds is a hard, yet compelling read. This is only the third Kristin Hannah book I’ve read, and it won’t be my last!
Many thanks to St Martin’s Press for my e-copy.
  
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ClareR (5726 KP) rated The Searcher in Books

Nov 15, 2020  
The Searcher
The Searcher
Tana French | 2020 | Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences, Romance
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Searcher is, much like the Wych Elm, a slow burner. This is always a positive where I’m concerned. It gave me the opportunity to look around the Irish village of Ardnekalty, get to know the inhabitants, what the countryside and the landscape looked like (beautiful, by the way)and above all, to build a full picture of Cal Hooper and Trey.

As in most small villages, word of a new, exotic inhabitant spreads fast, and this is why Trey turns up on Cal’s doorstep. He wants Cal to help him find his older brother, Brendan, who has disappeared. The local police seem to be completely disinterested - mainly due to the family’s reputation. It seems to be no surprise to people that Trey’s 19 year old brother would want to leave the small village. With the family’s reputation being that of ‘wasters’ who live on the poverty line (or probably below it), it strikes people as unremarkable that he would leave to try and make his life better elsewhere. But Trey doesn’t believe this. He believes that he has been kidnapped, and he wants Cal to find him. The problem is that Cal just doesn’t want to get involved. He has left the Chicago police force because of the frustration he feels at not making a difference. And this decency is what ends up drawing him in to helping Trey.

It did surprise me that Cal becomes involved with Trey, and he clearly realises that such a relationship could be seen as problematic. He makes the effort to keep Trey’s presence a secret from his nosy neighbour, Mart. The fact that everyone seemed to know everyone else’s business did create a claustrophobic atmosphere, almost a touch of horror especially as the book progresses.

This also touches on some of the current issues in the USA surrounding policing and BLM protests, so it does make this a very current novel. I have to say though, that the end of the book came as a complete surprise to me, and left me feeling ultimately disappointed in the characters. It didn’t make me like the book any less though!

Many thanks to Penguin UK and NetGalley for my copy of this book to read and review.
  
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Justin Hawkins recommended Powerage by AC/DC in Music (curated)

 
Powerage by AC/DC
Powerage by AC/DC
1978 | Metal, Rock
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I think that most people got into AC/DC because of Back In Black and that happened to me as well, but I really wanted to explore the Bon years because Highway To Hell was a great album too. So I wanted to go back from there. I loved all of it actually. I was completely obsessed with AC/DC for a long time in fact, but the one album that really for me was head and shoulders above the rest was Powerage. It’s got songs like ‘Down Payment Blues’ and songs that people would say, ”Oh that’s my favourite AC/DC song”, because they’re trying to be cool and try and talk about their poverty and their roots and that sort of stuff, but it shows that it has a deeper poetry to it – the fact that people want to think of Powerage that way. For me it’s also got the best Angus solo of all of them. It’s on ‘Up To My Neck In You’. It goes on for ages and it’s essentially the same solo twice, but played a bit harder the second time around. It’s really good: him using proper dynamics. He has a lot of phrases that he often goes to, but it’s just the way he uses them on that solo that makes it really special. I’m definitely a Bon enthusiast. I went to Fremantle near Perth in Australia to visit his grave. I’d never been to visit any famous graves before, and we only did it because we were in Australia and had the day off, but you have an expectation of what you’re going to see tribute-wise from other people that had gone to visit it. And there was one guy had written something that had really stayed with me. You can imagine that it’s sort of like a pilgrimage out of town – there’s nothing really around the graveyard. And there’s a bench on the concrete and you can just imagine this guy there with a Sharpie going, “hmmm, now what can I say that really sums up my feelings at this point?” And he had just put: “Love your work Bon.” Ha ha, it was really powerful."

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