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What it Feels Like For a Girl
What it Feels Like For a Girl
Paris Lees | 2021 | Biography, LGBTQ+
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I’m so glad I’ve read this book. This is the story of Byron: from the age of 13 he knew that he wanted to get away from his hometown of Hucknall in Nottinghamshire, where he was called a “poof” at school and beaten up.

Byron becomes a rent boy, meets new friends at a bar who, he discovers, want the same things out of life as him: he wants to be a woman, and he feels that is what he was supposed to have been.

“Hedonistic” is the word that describes Byron’s life at this time. Until, that is, it all comes tumbling down. One very stupid act lands Byron in jail. But it’s what he does with this time in jail that really counts. And he decides to turn his life around.

I loved this. I enjoyed reading it in the Hucknall vernacular (it reminded me of my dad’s accent in Lincolnshire)and the chapter headings were spot on (all titles from songs at that time). And I felt so much for the young Byron - sad that his family didn’t seem to understand or care for him (other than his grandmother); sad that he couldn’t live as he wanted to and had no guidance to keep him safe. In fact he was lucky that he didn’t end up murdered or overdosed. It’s such an emotional book.
Highly recommended.
  
Boy, was that violent - if this was a movie, it would probably be given an '18' (or 'R'estricted, for those Americans out there) rating, not just for the blood, guts and gore, but also for the - occassional - nudity, and the not-so-occassional language.

Actually a collection of 5 different short stories, I can't say how true to history these are as I'm not a Norse scholar. I also found the vernacular a bit off-putting (were swear-words the same in the early Medieval Period as they are now? Really??), with the art-style (and plot) in some of the stories were better than in others. Talking of stories, this contains the following:

[b]Lindisfarne[/b]: depicting an early Viking raid on the monastery of the same name
[b]The Shield Maidens[/b]: in which three Viking women hold off hordes of the Saxons
[b]Sven the Returned[/b]: in which Sven returns to his homeland to claim his inheritance, having previously run away and joined the Byzantine Varangian Guard
[b]Thor's daughter[/b]: in which a clan leader is murdered and his land sold to a rival leader but his 14 year old daughter takes up his mantle and leads an army against the encroaching Vikings
[b]The Cross & The Hammer[/b]: Set in Ireland, this is more-or-less a murder mystery in which the central character is trying to track down the person(s) responsible for a spate of killings.
  
Preciso Me Encontrar by Cartola
Preciso Me Encontrar by Cartola
1989 | Singer-Songwriter
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Cartola is a salty, classic samba character from Rio who I don’t think a lot of people outside of Brazil really know about. I only found out about him through someone I know who married a Brazilian woman and he got super-deep into Samba and its history. “Brazilian music has always been a part of what Grizzly Bear do, especially Tropicalia records, Marcos Valle and Gilberto Gil. All of that stuff has been part of our vocabulary since our early years and in the last couple of years after Shields, I started discovering and getting into straight-up Samba. It isn’t trying to be psychedelic, blast anything open or trying to be crazy, it hits you right in the heart and does exactly what it’s supposed to do. “It’s not trying to blow your mind or anything, it’s just doing what people do in a Samba and it communicates so much. I know a little Portuguese, I don’t speak it well enough to know exactly what he’s saying but you can still feel the vibe and emotion of the song without knowing the words. There’s something so great about music that’s so straight-up in its own vernacular, that’s is exactly what this is and it’s just killing it. “‘Preciso Me Encontrar’ is my favourite track on the record and it’s such a good example of what that music does so well, it’s really honest, as honest as you could possibly be, there’s absolutely zero pretention going on and it’s played beautifully."

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