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Books

“If Beale Street Could Talk” by James Baldwin: Mini-Review

The hype of African-American author James Baldwin has been rejuvenated in recent years, particularly as his 1974 novel If Beale Street Could Talk was adapted into a movie of the same name in 2019. Dealing with the young love between Tish and Fonny that must learn to survive in spite of the racist politics that keeps them apart, the novel feels very relevant to the current Black Lives Matter politics in the United States. Set in Harlem, NY in the early 1970s, Tish and Fonny have grown up together and have developed an intimate relationship between them. However, before they…

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Books

How to Pick a Book in a Bookstore

5 Tips to help you to avoid overspending on books All book-lovers know the feeling of intense panic that comes over them in the middle of a bookshop. You’re overwhelmed by all the choices and would much rather buy everything in the entire store than make a decision. I can definitely relate. In fact, at the time of writing this post, I am hiding out from my responsibilities in a cafe inside a bookstore. And while here, I was confronted with the typical desire to buy every book I see. For book lovers, it’s so easy to come up with…

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Books

‘After The Green Withered’ by Kristin Ward

The Importance of EcoLiterature Today’s post is an incredibly exciting one as I am reviewing a book part of a massive book tour organised by Twitter’sThe_WriteReads, a forum where book bloggers can support other bloggers through retweeting and commenting. Not only is this a great way to increase one’s exposure in the blogging world, TheWriteReads has created a community in which bloggers can exchange opinions and ideas freely and get recognition for the hard work they put in. And now, they can even take part in this #UltimateBlogTour and get to experience reading some amazing books they perhaps would not…

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Books

‘Sadie’ Audiobook Review

Finding an audiobook that I want to listen to is always a tricky business. Just like how I can be picky about the books I want to read, I have certain preferences when it comes to audiobooks. From the narrator to the genre there is a lot I consider before choosing an audiobook. Personally, I tend to find crime and detective stories to be the most engaging in audiobook form. I have talked about my love for the audiobooks of Joy Ellis’ “DI Jackman and DS Evans series” before. However, when it came to Courtney Summer’s Sadie it was not…

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Movies

‘Triple Frontier’ Reflection

At the beginning of March, Netflix released Triple Frontier, a film that has been in works since 2011, and has a star-studded cast including Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garret Hedlund and Pedro Pascal. In my regular weekend haze of swiping through the lists of recommended movies on Netflix I was intrigued by the trailer that showed off an exciting mix between a heist and action movie. So, obviously it was my choice for my next movie night. Before starting, I was bracing myself for yet another patriotic, pro-military Hollywood production, but I was happily surprised otherwise. The film…

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Reflections

Why I Don’t Use A Rating System Anymore

Something I see frequently in the world of book bloggers and media bloggers is the use of a rating system, ranging from stars, teacups and even dragons. When starting off this blog last year I thought it was such a great idea! It was a concise form of giving people a snapshot of how you felt about the work in question (which in our case could be book, film, TV show, or album). However, while this remains true, in recent months I have felt a resistance to rating my books. One reason for which is simply because I do not…

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