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The Song of Achilles
The Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller | 2014 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.0 (10 Ratings)
Book Rating
<blockquote>"I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world."</blockquote>

The vivid imagery encapsulates you inside it's pages and it is a true testament to the ten years that Madeline Miller spent writing this modern day retelling of one of the most famous stories ever told.

I had seen people praising this book for a long time and only now got round to finally seeing what all of the fuss was about and let me just say that it is well worth it. I can't remember the last time that a book made me feel like this, so beautiful in plot and in prose that it leaves you hanging on every last word. The intricacy and delicacy of the language makes even the most gruesome and explicit of scenes dance on the page and imprint themselves into your mind and will likely remain with you long after you've read the final page (which in my mind is one of the most beautiful parts of the whole book).

My emotions were stolen from me at every stage there's not one part which didn't have some sort of pull on my heartstrings although each very different.

In summary, I could be stabbed 700 times in the stomach and it still wouldn't be as painful as the song of achilles. Well done Madeline Miller, well done.
  
Sleeping with a Psychopath
Sleeping with a Psychopath
Carolyn Woods | 2021 | Art, Photography & Fashion, Biography, Crime
7
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Fast paced true story
Contains spoilers, click to show
So this is a biography of a woman who was completely fooled by a fraudster called Mark Acklom. She was happily living alone in a rented cottage, looking for a house to buy after selling her previous home. She worked in an upmarket clothes shop and had £850,000 from the house sale.
One day a handsome charming man comes in to the shop and sweeps her off her feet, claiming to be a millionaire with property, planes and a job in MI6 which is top secret. Within a couple of days he is promising her the world but claims that he cannot be a proper couple for 18 months until he can complete his current contract. He tells her he is involved in goings on in Syria, claims to have been shot, the stories get wilder and wilder! In the meantime he also has a "cashflow problem" and asks her to pay for everything and he will pay her back.
You do start off thinking "how did she fall for all this blather? It's so totally untrue." But she is not a stupid person. Her friends and family don't like him, but she has fallen head over heels and won't listen.
It is a fast paced book, and I really wanted to know how she got out of the situation.
You really don't know what is going on in other peoples' lives do you???

(Disclaimer: I won a free copy of this book from ReadersFirst for an honest review)