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Whatchareadin (174 KP) rated Better Than I Know Myself in Books

Apr 3, 2019  
Better Than I Know Myself
Better Than I Know Myself
Virginia DeBerry | 2004
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Did you ever have a friend who was more like family? For Regina Foster, Jewel Prescott, and Carmen Webb this is exactly true. Better Than I Know Myself starts in the late 70's when the girls are seniors in high school and making the decision on where to go to college. Three different girls from three very different backgrounds. Jewel, a former child star. Regina, the daughter of two college educated parents and little sister to older brothers who had all attended and graduated from college. And Carmen whose parents had left her at a young age.

The story progresses through their meeting in New York at Barnard and continues through their graduation. Regina and Jewel were already roommates when they met Carmen at the university library. They all got stuck in an elevator together and as they say, "The rest is history." They lived together through the early 80's as they grew into women and started to become independent.
The book covers twenty years of friendship and sisterhood and all the trials and tribulations that entails.

This book made me laugh out loud and brought a tear or two to my eyes. It also made me want to get together with my closest girlfriends. This is a book that you have to read until the end.

I listened to this book through the iPod and Overdrive. The audio was read by Lisa Renee Pitts.
  
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ClareR (5674 KP) rated Our Hideous Progeny in Books

Aug 15, 2023  
Our Hideous Progeny
Our Hideous Progeny
C. E. McGill | 2023 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror, LGBTQ+, Science Fiction/Fantasy
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Our Hideous Progeny by C E McGill picks up the history of the Frankenstein’s where Mary Shelleys novel left off, give or take a generation. Except Mary in this story doesn’t know anything about her Great Uncle Victor. She does know that he went missing in the Artic in mysterious circumstances, but it’s not until she finds some letters that she learns the extent of his work.

Mary is a keen scientist, helping her husband Henry in his geological work. Without wealth and connections though, there is little they can do to really make their names in the field. So when she discovers Victor’s papers, she and her husband decide that there is only one thing to do. So they take themselves off to Henry’s old family home in Scotland to try and create a monster of their own.

Henry is a bit of an idiot though, and has managed to make himself some enemies, and one such turns up on the doorstep demanding money. When they explain to him what they’re doing, he demands to take part - and then things start to go wrong.

I really liked the female characters in this: Mary, and Henry’s reclusive and sickly sister, Maisie. They are determined (even in Maisie’s illness she isn’t a walkover) and intelligent. It was quite frustrating to see Mary treated so badly, whilst at the same time the men relied on her to do a lot of the work. It is her moral compass that grounds the endeavour, but to be fair, they don’t seem to listen to her much (of course, they know better!).

There’s a real sense of time and place in this - from the attitudes of the men towards the women, to the attitudes of the upper classes towards the lower. Horse and carriages, steam trains and bathing houses all entrenched the novel firmly in the Victorian age.

This really is a phenomenal read, and I loved it. There’s nothing like a strong female character or two having a go at the patriarchy to make my day!!