Smashbomb

"I think my husband was friends with or had worked with her or something and then I downloaded the record on iTunes. It might have been the first time I downloaded anything on iTunes. I was like, "Woah, she's fucking killer." I think it's cool how she wears her influences on her sleeve the way LCD Soundsystem does. Why is it that when women are open about their influences people are like, "Oh, you're copying that person", but when men do it it just shows that they have such a good record collection and how awesome they are? I thought, "She's so cool, she doesn't give a shit." Her sound is amazing and her voice is so good. She just put out a new record that's great called 99¢ but I chose Santogold for this because that record has the song 'Creator' that is really important to me. When I would get down in the dumps, I'd put it on and it made me feel like a million bucks. She was my inspiration. That song was the song that got me through really bad times of feeling very unconfident as a singer and as a performer after I'd had four or five years off, and thinking, "Will I ever be able to come back to it?" and, "Looking back at what I've done, did any of it mean anything?" I was listening to 'Creator' and she feels so confident about the fact that she's an important artist in that song. It was very inspirational and made me feel, "I'm an important artist too!" Now I have to listen to her every time I'm cracking up."

Source

Kudos

ClareR (5991 KP) rated The Wolf in the Whale in Books

Aug 18, 2019

The Wolf in the Whale

Jordanna Max Brodsky | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics, Science Fiction/Fantasy

9.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

I think I inhaled The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky, I read it in only two sittings!

Omat lives in 1000AD, a young Inuit Shaman, and neither male nor female (actually, she took on her fathers soul at birth and is raised as a boy - a hunter and a shaman). There is loads of detail about how life was lived by the Inuit at the beginning of the last century(and I loved this detail), and I learnt so much about their spiritual lives, their Gods and the expectations of men and women. When Omat menstruates for the first time, it heralds the end of her life as a man and a shaman. She is married off to another Inuit who is passing through and promises to help her tribe. The thing is, he has two other wives, and he’s just not a nice person. When a group of Vikings wipe out the group of Inuit that she has married in to, Omat survives and realises that they have captured her cousin. She vows to find and free him. On her journey, she rescues three wolfdogs and saves the life of a Viking who reluctantly joins her on her quest.

I was so immersed in this wonderful story. I loved the style it was written in, I loved Omat’s voice. The magic and beliefs were fascinating, and my heart was in my mouth during the hunting scenes (men catching and killing huge Caribou and whales using flint weapons!). And the ending was just right.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this wonderful book to read and review honestly.