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ClareR (5879 KP) rated Mother Mother in Books

May 4, 2021  
Mother Mother
Mother Mother
Annie Macmanus | 2021 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I have to admit to reading this book because I was curious. I’ve heard of Annie Mac on the radio, and I was intrigued. Oh, and I really liked the cover. This is often a reason why I choose a book: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It definitely worked this time.
I was sucked in to this books world, and became really emotionally invested in this story. Mary and her brother have such a hard upbringing, that what comes later seems inevitable. Regardless of this, Mary becomes a good mother. She does that thing that so many mother do, and gives up her sense of self, and her life revolves around her son, TJ. She has a job she enjoys, but she is a solitary figure. When she stops seeing her friend Louise after she finds out that she’s pregnant with TJ, there isn’t any mention of anyone else. I couldn’t help but feel that she must have been so lonely.
Mary clings on to her family, even though her father and brother probably don’t deserve her attention and love, and TJ takes advantage of her unquestioning love - like a typical teenager.
There are some pretty heavy, emotional parts in this, and I read the last few chapters through tears. I can’t believe that this is a debut - it’s so well written. It’s an easy book to recommend, and a tough book to read.
  
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Laura Doe (1350 KP) rated Viral in Books

Nov 7, 2021  
Viral
Viral
Helen FitzGerald | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This was a powerful quick read that I couldn’t put down.
It was interesting that a book has been written about a video going viral on the internet that the person who’s in it is mortified and ashamed about and didn’t post it herself. It follows the fall out with her family and her own struggles to come to terms with what has happened whilst waiting it out abroad before returning home to Scotland.
Su-Jin was adopted from Korea by a family in Scotland, who then found out that they were pregnant after years of trying not long after. We find out that Su-Jin struggled to find her place a lot of the time and wished that she wasn’t different to her family, and tried to make her parents proud by following all of the rules set out for her.
It is definitely thought provoking, the topics dealt with are racism, revenge porn and the most relevant at the moment is spiking drinks. It points out exactly how easy it is to accept a drink from a stranger in a bar, even when you know you shouldn’t, and the implications it can have.
It was sometimes quite predictable and sometimes a bit confusing with the timelines jumping in some chapters without it being explained or obvious.
A very interesting read about something that could happen to any of us at any point.
  
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Natasha Khan recommended Covers Record by Cat Power in Music (curated)

 
Covers Record by Cat Power
Covers Record by Cat Power
2000 | Rock, Singer-Songwriter
5.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I chose that because it made its biggest impact on me, because it was the first one I heard [of all of Cat Power's albums]. I remember hearing 'I Found A Reason', which was her Velvet Underground cover, on John Peel late at night when I was driving around and having a cigarette when I shouldn't have been. And I heard John Peel saying ""listen to this amazing release by Cat Power, 'I Found A Reason'"". I just remember hearing it and being like this is a woman I can love forever. I went to see her promote The Covers Record at this tiny gig at Bush Hall. She went on stage in front of maybe 100 people and then totally freaked out, then she was fine and she played some amazing songs and me and my boyfriend sat right at the front. We got to meet her and she just cuddled us: ""You sent such good vibes throughout the whole show, I was looking at you the whole time because was everybody else was so scary"", and I was just like ""I love you!"" So it was just interesting; the other reason I chose The Covers Record is because her interpretations of 'Wild Is The Wind' or 'Satisfaction', 'Sea Of Love', it's like picking out classic songs, like The Langley Schools Music Project, and turning them on their head. For me, in 'Wild Is The Wind', that song could be David Bowie's version, it's sad, it's quite mellow, but she's just distilled it down to one particular aspect, which is really heartbreaking, dark chords, really so minimal. I love doing covers myself. I love changing your whole take on them and exploring a completely different side and changing the arrangements, and the chords even, and changing the lyrics sometimes, it almost becomes a poem that you're putting to something different. I think she's a connoisseur at that and probably because she doesn't play amazing piano and guitar, she does really simple backing, but it becomes almost like this spoken word poem. When she performs, she pushes herself to the edge. The fact that she finds it so hard, you're living with her on the edge when you go to see her and sometimes it's frustrating and you get fed up with her, sometimes you're just willing her the whole way through and in love. I think it's really interesting, the emotions it brings up in the audience, how they deal with that - some people get really fucking angry and some people cry. I think it's like a really interesting psychological public experiment at some of her shows I've been to - I've been to maybe twenty of her shows, and sometimes it's a very uncomfortable, strange process, but it's like Andy Kaufman and stand-up comedians or public artists that just stage these really bizarre events and people's reactions to those. With most people, you go along, and they're there to put on a show and be competent and be amazing, and that's what people think they're paying for these days. We've said about the Langley Schools thing, she never grew out of that childlike weirdness; there's something about all of it that's unapologetic and being you, and if that presses people's buttons because they want you to be something else, they want you to carry them through, then I find that really interesting as well, what it does to the listener. What do you want from an album or a musician? What I want is to be taken to their rawest place. If that's uncomfortable sometimes, then that's cool. You just have to be with people and accept them."

Source
  
Nightbringers by The Black Dahlia Murder
Nightbringers by The Black Dahlia Murder
2017 | Metal
TBDM's Most Progressive Album to Date (2 more)
Dark, Poetic, Violent Lyrics
Aggressive, Frantic Pace
Lyrics are (Naturally) Hard to Understand (0 more)
The Black Dahlia Murder have always been at the forefront of American melodeath. Their lyrics are dark and horrifying, albeit poetic, their pace is crushing and their songs are oddly catchy. This new album has been a step forward since their relatively safer ventures in Ritual and Everblack, turning to a choral bent with some new themes to explore. Their track "Nightbringers" is a remarkably violent foray into the mind of a vampire who hates the church and the lyrics are as always violent and sometimes vile. Other standout tracks include "Matriarch," "Widowmaker" and "Catacomb Hecatomb."
  
Empires Fall (MidKnight Blue #2)
Empires Fall (MidKnight Blue #2)
Sherryl D. Hancock | 2017 | Crime, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Hancock continues the saga of Midnight and the F.O.R.S. gang as they try to take down one of the biggest cartel men. As usual the characters are deep and the plot flows with ease. You begin to see the fatal flaws of our hero's. I loved that we learned more about Joe Sinclair. Hancock creates a family within her chracters and sometimes you just want to reach into the book and smack some sense into them but I guess that is what makes them such strong personalities on paper. Not everyone can develop a person with words but Sherryl D. Hancock soes it with ease. I look forward to more of her books.