AvidBards
Books

Giving Jane Austen a Chance

How many times have you heard something along the lines of “Jane Austen’s books are girly”, or met people that believe Austen’s books are only geared towards female readers? If you haven’t heard such a thing, then consider yourself lucky, because I’ve heard it too many times. The problem with making such a sweeping generalization is that it gives a completely false and reductive summarization Austen’s works, as well as fostering toxic sexist notions (eg. that it would be emasculating for a male to read Austen). In actuality, Jane Austen has written some of the most feminist-fuelled, challenging, satirical, and…

View Post
Books

15 Beautifully Aesthetic Bookshelves

For avid readers, there are very few sites as aesthetically pleasing as a full bookshelf. One of my favourite things about bookshelves is that regardless of the books themselves on the shelves, the way a bookshelf is organised is very telling of someone’s personality. From messy shelves, to colour coordinated, to alphabetically arranged, they’re something beautiful in all of them. I’ve recently been considering changing up my bookshelf organisation and was just awed by the incredible inspiration pictures I was finding, so I decided to round them up so that for anyone else who is bookshelf obsessed, you could also…

View Post
Books

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Ponderings about Social Media

I have been drawn to re-reading some of the classics lately and one that I decided on was the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. And this time, I decided to go with the audiobook version of it read by Richard Armitage. For those of you unfamiliar with the novella, the story follows a lawyer by the name of Gabriel Utterson who comes to hear of a violent man Mr. Hyde committing a series of heinous crimes and is somehow under the protection of the highly respectable Dr. Jekyll. As the story unfolds, we…

View Post
Reflections

Choosing the Perfect Plane Novel

I travel a lot. Generally speaking, I’m on a plane every month or so. Whether it be long haul or short haul flights, I spend a decent amount of time per year in the air. So for me, it is extremely important that this time is actually meaningful. Now, I will openly tell you, I am not the most fond of flying. In fact, that is a pretty big understatement. I hate it. The claustrophobic feeling of being stuck in a box for a number of hours without any fresh air, knowing that at any moment you could plummet to…

View Post
Books

Unpacking Race in “Americanah”

“I only became black when I came to America” says Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche’s protagonist, Ifemelu, of her latest novel Americanah (2014). This line stuck with me long after putting down this incredible book, which brought to light some of the complexities of race. Adiche has made multiple headlines in recent years with her unapologetic approach to race and gender issues, namely ignorance surrounding those issues. Most recently was her clapback to a French interviewer asking if libraries existed in Nigeria. So, it is inevitable that this same unapologetic attitude would appear in her writing, particularly so in Americanah. As a…

View Post
Reflections

“Call Me By Your Name”: Film & Book Comparison

A book and film comparison of the critically lauded story, “Call Me By Your Name.”

View Post

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Where to next?