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Books

Stories about Women to Discover this International Women’s Day

Happy International Women’s Day! This blog is run by two women and for us, it is very important to constantly remember and shine the light on the amazing women artists who have been writing, directing, acting, singing, creating incredibly works of storytelling. Particularly when those stories have to do with other women. Women’s history has not always been the kindest, in fact for most of history, women found themselves in positions of want in comparison to the other sex. Strides have been made in the last century that work to alter that position, but there is still so much to…

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Books

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab Book Review

Have you ever had that moment when you’ve looked around you and asked yourself, “what if that didn’t exist?” or “what if things worked differently?” and you fall down the rabbit hole of imagining a whole different kind of world? Well, that is exactly what reading V. E. Schwab’s novel A Darker Shade of Magic did for me. A Darker Shade of Magic takes place in a world that holds multiple universes, four to be precise, and only those with magic can cross over into the other worlds. While so many things are different in each of the worlds, one…

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Reflections

“Harry Potter” and Each Volume Ranked

Recently, I’ve been on a nostalgia kick with the Harry Potter series. Though I do enjoy the movies, the books are so loaded with information that’s left out in the films that I always crave reading the books. Before I continue, I must warn: heavy spoilers below! If you grew up with the Harry Potter books, you’ll have had this debate with many of your friends: which ones are your favourites? Even though the series is all inherently linked together, the plotlines of each book are so distinctly different that it hearkens many different rankings amongst readers. So today, I…

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Books

Book Review – Normal People by Sally Rooney

Another book straight off the 2018 Man Booker long list, Sally Rooney, the author of Conversation with Friends, bring the long during and complex friendship between Connell and Marianne to life in Normal People. I had heard so many praises for Conversation with Friends over the years that when Rooney’s latest novel, and her first one since Conversation, came out I immediately knew I wanted to pick it up. Additionally, as a general rule, I am a huge fan of any and all popular guy/girl galls for the unpopular guy/girl. Not entirely sure why, but the dynamics and challenges that…

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Books

D. I. Jackman & D. S. Evans Audiobook Series Mini-Review

When it comes to thrillers and detective novels, I have always struggled to find ones that I enjoy. Particularly when it comes to thriller series. So much seems to become formulaic and eventually, incredibly predictable to the point that there is very little of interest left. And usually, this is completely separate from the way that the novel is written. It could be the best writing I’ve ever read and I will still find it difficult to enjoy. So when I first saw adverts for Joy Ellis’ D. I. Jackman & D. S. Evans series on audible, I was highly…

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Books

2018 Man Booker Prize Winner

Giving up the standards of literary prizes At the end of 2018, on October 16th, the 2018 Man Booker Prize was announced, and by a unanimous vote was awarded to Anna Burns for Milkman. Now you might be thinking that the end of February might be slightly late to talk about the award winner. And to be perfectly honest, I have been putting off this post. Simply because, while the novel received many praises, I could not and did not finish it. The experimental novel tells the story of an unnamed middle sister who is harassed by an older married…

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