Book Review | This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub …time travel with heart

June 10, 2022June 1, 2022 Jess // Comfort Reads Book BlogLeave a comment

June 10th, 2022

Hi Readers

I never know how to feel about time travel. I always feel it’s too quirky and complicated. I’m not sure what made me pick up an entire book about it, but I’m glad I did.

Alice Stern isn’t ready to turn forty. She thought she’d have more time to figure it all out. Above all, she thought she’d have more time with her father, Leonard – but he’s lying in a hospital bed and Alice isn’t sure if she’ll hear his voice again.

When she falls asleep outside their old apartment on the night before her birthday, she’s surprised to be greeted the next morning by a much younger Leonard, with a sixteenth birthday card for a teenage Alice who, far from clinging to her youth, is hurtling towards adulthood . . .

Alice soon discovers how she got back here, to 1996 and her sixteenth birthday, and realises she can keep on coming, whenever she chooses.

But faced each time with different versions of her life, and the consequences of her decisions, it’s on her not to lose sight of what she wants most . . .

This reminded me of a few things. About Time, The Midnight Library. It’s a time travel novel with heart, focusing on relationships and life rather than the time travel aspect itself. The balance between science-fiction and contemporary may not work for everyone.

Some will think the time travel element is flawed and unbelievable. But I like how Straub was able to explore Alice’s life choices through. What happens to Alice is a lot of peoples fantasy. To go back with the knowledge of hindsight.

I loved that Straub decided to focus on a father/daughter relationship rather than a romantic one. It makes this book heartbreakingly touching and emotional, and I really felt attatched to these characters. The hospital scenes at the beginning were especially well written.

‘Alice saw it now: all her life, she’d thought of death as the single moment, the heart stopping, the final breathe, but now she knew that it could be much more like giving birth, with nine months of preperation. Her father was heavily pregnant with death, and there was little to do but wait.’

It went down routes I wasn’t expecting, and Alice made choices that didn’t feel wholly in character. But it’s beginning and ending was beautiful. This book was funny and moving, and this was my first Emma Straub book, but it won’t be my last.

Thanks For Reading,
Jess X

Book Review | Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

June 3, 2022June 1, 2022 Jess // Comfort Reads Book Blog2 Comments

June 3rd, 2022

Hi Readers!

I’ve given this book a few reads now, and it’s still my least favourite Jane Austen and the only one that ever feels like a struggle to read.

Taken from the poverty of her parents’ home in Portsmouth, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with her cousin Edmund as her sole ally.

During her uncle’s absence in Antigua, the Crawford’s arrive in the neighbourhood bringing with them the glamour of London life and a reckless taste for flirtation.

Mansfield Park is considered Jane Austen’s first mature work and, with its quiet heroine and subtle examination of social position and moral integrity, one of her most profound.

Mansfield Park is the third novel Austen published after Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, and it just doesn’t have the same intrigue or excitement as it’s predecesor’s. The main flaw for me lies in it’s two main characters.

Mansfield Park becomes the home of Fanny Price after she is taken in by her Aunt and Uncle to relieve her mother of the burden of having too many children to care for. Fanny as a child feels out of place, careful not to make the wrong move for fear of annoying or disrupting her relatives. She doesn’t feel she quite belongs. Perhaps that’s why she’s such a meek, dull character.

Her cousin Edmund, who is just as unexciting, tries his best to help her settle which eventually leads to Fanny falling in love with him. Now, I know Austen knows how to write a romance. But this one was bland and icky and I was not rooting for them. Even after finishing it, I wasn’t convinced.

In terms of social themes, this is the most interesting of Austen’s books however. Fanny comes from a poor family with parents who have too many children they can care for. Fanny’s mother married ‘beneath her,’ and paid the price by being cast aside by her family and finding herself married to a drunk sailor. I think this book shows us what Austen’s view of the lower classes were and it isn’t favourable.

But it still some of her wit and humour comes through, and there were certainly some entertaining moments. I’ve seen some people have said Fanny’s character is actually a satire of the ‘perfect, angelistic romantic heroine’ and I do think it would be quite interesting to read the book in that light. I should have learnt by now never to take Austen seriously.

Thanks For Reading,
Jess X

book blog · Book Review

Book Review | Something Wilder by Christina Lauren… a Summer romance I didn’t know I needed

May 25, 2022May 25, 2022 Jess // Comfort Reads Book Blog4 Comments

May 25th, 2022

Hi Readers!

Christina Lauren has really been hit or miss for me so far, and requesting this book on netgalley was really done on a whim. I need to follow my whim’s more often!

Lily has never forgotten the man that got away . . . but she certainly hasn’t forgiven him either!

As the daughter of a notorious treasure hunter, Lily makes ends meet using her father’s coveted hand-drawn maps, guiding tourists on fake treasure hunts through the canyons of Utah. When the man she once loved walks back into her life with a motley crew of friends, ready to hit the trails, Lily can’t believe her eyes. Frankly, she’d like to take him out into the wilderness – and leave him there.

Leo wants nothing more than to reconnect with his first and only love. Unfortunately, Lily is all business: it’s never going to happen. But when the trip goes horribly and hilariously wrong, the group wonders if maybe the legend of the hidden treasure wasn’t a gimmick after all. Alone under the stars in the isolated and dangerous mazes of the Canyonlands, Leo and Lily must decide whether they’ll risk their lives, and their hearts, on the adventure of a lifetime . . .

Something Wilder is a second chance romance set in Western America. After a short lived romance on a ranch, Lily and Leo are pulled apart and their fairytale future ends before it even begun. But 10 years later they meet again on a Summer camping adventure Leo doesn’t know Lily runs.

This book almost felt like a cinematic experience. It was like watching a high budget rom com, with Hollywood stars as the leads, unfolding before my eyes. It had the most beautiful locations, the funniest lines, and took turns I was not expecting.

Something Wilder really keeps you on your toes. When you think you know where the story’s going, it soon steers you in the opposite direction. I was so hooked.

Every character was incredible with huge amounts of personality. And just when you’re thinking ‘why is this character here?’ or ‘this feels too much like a coincidence’, everything clicks into place.

This book has everything I never knew I needed in a Summer read. There’s an adorable romance, yes, and I was absolutely rooting for these two characters. But it also has mystery, suspense, clues and puzzles, hunting for treasure, camping, bonfires, even horses!

This is definitely the type of book you want to go in knowing the least about it. So get your hands on it as soon as you can! Trust me, you won’t be disappointed!

Thanks For Reading,
Jess X

book blog · Book Review

Book Review | Grown Ups by Marian Keyes

May 18, 2022May 13, 2022 Jess // Comfort Reads Book Blog1 Comment

May 18th, 2022

Hi Readers!

This was my first Marian Keyes and I thought it would be a good place to start as it’s the one I’ve seen the most people read. But unfortunately it’s left me doubting whether I’ll ever pick anything of hers up again.

They’re a glamorous family, the Caseys. Johnny Casey, his two brothers Ed and Liam, their beautiful, talented wives and all their kids spend a lot of time together–birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, weekends away. And they’re a happy family. Johnny’s wife, Jessie–who has the most money–insists on it. Under the surface, though, conditions are murkier.

While some people clash, other people like each other far too much . . . Still, everything manages to stay under control–that is, until Ed’s wife, Cara, gets a concussion and can’t keep her thoughts or opinions to herself. One careless remark at Johnny’s birthday party, with the entire family present, and Cara starts spilling all their secrets.

As everything unravels, each of the adults finds themselves wondering if it’s–finally–the time to grow up.

But I really wasn’t expecting this to end up as a two star read after the first chapter, where we’re introduced to the stars of this family saga at a dinner party, and get a glimpse of everyones personalities, relationships and possible tensions. It started so strong, but I couldn’t bring myself to care for any of the characters, and it became a struggle to complete.

I just found this quite boring. It dragged, I wasn’t fully engaged, and I know it’s a long book but it felt long. It was a task to finish and I was quite glad when it was over.

You know how you read a fantasy book and can sometimes criticise it for too much world building. This book had the contemporary equivilant to too much world building. But I suppose I would call it character building. I love feeling like I know my characters but Keyes wanted to show us every meeting of every couple, there’s quite a few of them and it was a bit much.

Even with their flaws, none felt whole or real because there was just too much of it. And maybe that was my problem. There’s too much. Too many characters, plots, side plots, tensions, issues, secrets. Honestly it was hard to keep up with the characters and all that was going on with them, and was so confusing as moments.

A bit of a disappointing read because I know so many love Marian Keyes. I’m not opposed to reading her again though because I want to feel the love too.

Thanks For Reading,
Jess X

book blog · Book Review

Book Review | Virginia Woolf by Hermione Lee

May 16, 2022May 13, 2022 Jess // Comfort Reads Book Blog1 Comment

May 16th, 2022

Hi Readers!

So I’ve been really enjoying my non-fiction this year, and I think I’ve discovered a new love for literary non-fiction.

While Virginia Woolf–one of our century’s most brilliant and mercurial writers–has had no shortage of biographers, none has seemed as naturally suited to the task as Hermione Lee. Subscribing to Virginia Woolf’s own belief in the fluidity and elusiveness of identity, Lee comes at her subject from a multitude of perspectives, producing a richly layered portrait of the writer and the woman that leaves all of her complexities and contradictions intact.

Such issues as sexual abuse, mental illness, and suicide are brought into balance with the immensity of her literary achievement, her heroic commitment to her work, her generosity and wit, and her sanity and strength.

This was an incredibly detailed, well-researched biography. It’s admiring, but also a balanced and fair telling of one of the literary greats of the 20th century. Lee doesn’t put Woolf up on a pedistal and forget that she was a flawed human being, and she treats Woolf’s mental health factually and sensitively.

Learning about her life has left me with so much more understanding of her novels. How her relationships and surroundings influenced them, why she wrote them, and the impact they had on her. This book is filled with insights into her books and what is clear is Woolf put so much of herself into her writing. Her pain, grief, joy and hopes are all immortalised.

“Thoby haunted her: she perpetually remembered and reimagine him. She wrote three versions of him in over twenty years, as ‘Jacob’ in Jacob’s Room, as ‘Percival’ in The Waves, and as himself in her Sketch of the Past.”

There’s a reason so many of her books are set around the sea, during the Summer, on the hottest days of London. All of these things had a significence to her and would eventually work their way into her novels.

“Her diary, like her essays and stories and novels, blurs the lines between history, biography and fiction.”

She lived during one of the most exciting times in British literature, and I loved learning about her famous literary friends, the Hogarth press she ran with her husband (I had no idea she owned the house that published all of her books!), her romances and her (slightly half-hearted) political endeavors.

“Virginia Woolf and her contemporaries were poised on the edge of revolution.”

You don’t have to have read Woolf to enjoy this book (although there are a lot of references to Three Guiness, The Waves, The Lighthouse, Orlando, Mrs Dalloway and, of course, A Room of One’s Own). It’s also just an interesting look into a writer born a Victorian and growing into a modernist, living through two world wars, going through immense amounts of loss and battling with her mental illness all her adult life.

“Books are a school for character, she (Woolf) argues, because they change (like people) as we read them, and change us as we read. Books read us.”

What got me, was her unawareness of just how incredible her writing was. Multiple times Lee shared quotes from diary entries and letters where Woolf said her writing was ‘nothing’, “she couldn’t do anything right or anything useful”, she felt she was wasting her time. Despite her successes, she still had moments of self-doubt. Well, if only she could see how her works have stood the test of time.

And of course, her self-doubt could have been part of her mental health problems. It’s a known fact she died by suicide, but from the very beginning of adulthood depression and suicidal thoughts plagued her mind, and writing was an especially strong trigger for it. There’s a lot of references to suicide and depression, but I thought Lee handled it carefully “Virginia was a sane woman who had an illness”and it was very interesting to see how these were delt with by doctors in the early 20th century. Very interesting…

“Everything suddenly became unreal; I was suspended; I could not step across the puddle; I tried to touch something… the whole world became unreal.”

Another theme Lee follows is Woolf’s sexuality and what I loved to see was, despite censorship and laws, almost all of Woolf’s friends were gay or in gay relationships. They were also so open about it in conversations and letter corrispondants as well which I think is brilliant.

“She could not bear to catergorise herself as belonging to a group defined by its sexual behaviour (just as she didn’t want to think of herself as an ordinary ‘wife’ or as a writer of ‘novels’). She wanted to avoid all categories.

I now have the uncontrollable urge to reread all of her novels, starting at the beginning. There’s also a whole lot of non-fiction work by Woolf I had no idea was out there, so I’ll be looking to get my hands on them soon as well.

Thanks For Reading,
Jess X

book blog · Book Review

Book Review | Still Life by Sarah Winman

May 4, 2022May 6, 2022 Jess // Comfort Reads Book Blog1 Comment

May 3rd, 2022

Right after finishing this I was so close to giving it four stars, but I wasn’t sure and after giving it a few days I think it’s got to be three.

1944, Italy. As bombs fall around them, two strangers meet in the ruined wine cellar of a Tuscan villa and share an extraordinary evening.

Ulysses Temper is a young British soldier, Evelyn Skinner a 64-year-old art historian living life on her own terms. She has come to salvage paintings from the wreckage of war and relive memories of her youth when her heart was stolen by an Italian maid in a particular room with a view. Ulysses’ chance encounter with Evelyn will transform his life – and all those who love him back home in London – forever.

I wouldn’t have gotten through this book without the audiobook, which is funny because I honestly can’t remember the last time I’ve listened to an audiobook. But it was available to borrow from my library and I thought I’d give it a try because I was struggling with the tone of the book and characters. An audiobook was definitely the way to go and I really like that it was read by Sarah Winman herself.

Firstly, this book is funny! It’s a certain type of humour. Very dry, very British, but it had me cracking up and that’s a rare thing to find in a book I think. There’s also a lot about art and references to E.M. Forster, so this really could have been a new favourite for me. It just didn’t end up that way.

It spans a long period of time, from WWII, to the 1960’s, and then back again to early 20th century, but despite the amount it covers, there isn’t really a whole lot of plot to this book. It more just dips in and out of the this tight-knit group of characters from London at significant moments in their lives. Sometimes this works for me, but this time I just felt like I was reading the longest book ever. There were parts where I was really invested, and parts where I just felt bored.

But the characters are captivating and beautifully drawn out for us. You definitely get a sense of who they are, and they became so endearing to me. They’re odd and eccentric, and so full of love for one another.

For a lot of people I’m sure that would be enough, but I just thought this book lacked flow, which was probably due to the lack of plot. It’s felt quite blocky and bulky and it just didn’t draw me into the novel like I wanted it to.

Thanks For Reading,
Jess X

book blog · Book Review

Book Review | Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens…worth the hype

April 29, 2022May 10, 2022 Jess // Comfort Reads Book Blog2 Comments

April 28th, 2022

Hi Readers

I really struggled with my rating for this. I kept going back and forth between three and four stars, and I would definitely give it 3.5 if goodreads allowed. I decided to give it a bit of time and all of the good points have stuck in my mind more than the bad, so I’m going with four.

For years, rumours of the ‘Marsh Girl’ have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl.

But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life – until the unthinkable happens.

This really wasn’t what I was expecting. Where The Crawdads Sing is insanely popular now, and from the way I’d heard people talking about it, I was expecting a Ruth Ware type book. Something like The Girl On The Train or The Woman In The Window. In the end we get a hint of that, but it’s more comparable to something like To Kill A Mockingbird.

This book follows a ‘marsh girl’ growing up from a violent childhood to a lonely adulthood in 1960’s North Carolina. One thing that will always stick with me from this book is how much I fell in love with its main character. Kya is abandoned very early in the book by everyone she loves and is forced to survive on her own, but she does more than survive. She thrives. She’s incredibly strong and I was rooting for her the entire time.

I loved how this book explored loneliness and violence against women. I most of all loved it’s message about the importance of education and how words, literature, can make a person flourish.

“I wasn’t aware that words could hold so much. I didn’t know a sentence could be so full.”

The only thing that kept this book from becoming a new favourite was the atmosphere and build up of events. This book constantly toed the line between historical fiction and thriller, and whilst the ending definitely took it over the line, there was no build up of tension for me, no uncontrollable need to read on.

But in the end this was a pleasant surprise. I loved the setting, Kya, and the ending blew my little brain. I can’t wait to see what song this inspired Taylor Swift to write.

Thanks For Reading,
Jess X

book blog · Book Review

Book Review | The Bride Test by Helen Hoang…i love romance!

April 25, 2022April 25, 2022 Jess // Comfort Reads Book Blog3 Comments

April 25th, 2022

Hi Readers!

I am absolutely loving romance at the moment, and it feels like every time I read a new one, it becomes a new favourite.

Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions—like grief. And love. He thinks he’s defective. His family knows better—that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships, his mother takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride.

As a mixed-race girl living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, she can’t turn it down, thinking this could be the break her family needs. Seducing Khai, however, doesn’t go as planned. Esme’s lessons in love seem to be working…but only on herself. She’s hopelessly smitten with a man who’s convinced he can never return her affection.

With Esme’s time in the United States dwindling, Khai is forced to understand he’s been wrong all along. And there’s more than one way to love.

This is a sequel/companion novel to The Kiss Quotient, which I loved reading earlier this year. It follows Khai, a character we meet briefly in The Kiss Quotient, and Esme, a Vietnamese woman Khai’s mother wants him to marry.

I thought this was brilliant. Funny, addictive, fast-paced, slightly melodramatic, but I was here for all of it!

What I love about these books is that they’re romances with substance. They could be enjoyed for the cute scenes, the steamy scenes, the ‘finally!’ scenes. But there’s also the story of immigration, starting over, grabbing opportunities to better yourself and your life. Through Khai we also get autism representation and how it effects and impacts relationships. I love learning about Vietnamese culture, from food to language. It’s a romance with depth.

There’s a lot I could criticise if I wasn’t completely enthralled by it. But honestly, the things I’m sure some would see as faults; the pacing, the tropes, the miscommunication, I loved it all. I also loved how rushed the ending was, because it made it feel so comical. I couldn’t keep up with what was happening and it had me bursting with laughter revelation after revelation.

In fact this book had me grinning and laughing out loud so much! It was also emotionally impactful and completely unputdownable.

I loved this just as much as it’s predecesor. I love the way Hoang builds a story and I can not wait to read more by her!

Thanks For Reading,
Jess X

book blog · Book Review

Book Review | The Final Revival Of Opal And Nev by Dawnie Walton

April 18, 2022April 16, 2022 Jess // Comfort Reads Book Blog2 Comments

April 18th, 2022

Hi Reades!

So… do you ever read a book, look at other peoples ratings, and think ‘what is wrong with me?’

Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, a Black punk artist before her time. Despite her unconventional looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her one night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together.

In early seventies New York City, just as she’s finding her niche as part of a flamboyant and funky creative scene, a rival band signed to her label brandishes a Confederate flag at a promotional concert. Opal’s bold protest and the violence that ensues set off a chain of events that will not only change the lives of those she loves, but also be a deadly reminder that repercussions are always harsher for women, especially Black women, who dare to speak their truth.

Decades later, as Opal considers a 2016 reunion with Nev, music journalist S. Sunny Shelton seizes the chance to curate an oral history about her idols. Sunny thought she knew most of the stories leading up to the cult duo’s most politicized chapter, but as her interviews dig deeper, a nasty new allegation from an unexpected source threatens everything.

Firstly, there’s a lot about this book I appreciate. But the delivery didn’t work for me.

This is a very Daisy Jones style book, and although I wasn’t aware of the similarities before, it wasn’t long before I noticed them, so comparing the two was inevitable. I also think it had a certain Evelyn Hugoness to it as well with the interviewers connection to the singers, and I would be shocked if the author hadn’t been somewhat inspired by Reid’s two successes.

But this one has an obvious aim. To challenge racism. That message comes across clear and is done in an impactful way that makes this book worth reading for sure. I liked what it challenged, and I like the discussions it will start.

But the way it was done just left me feeling flat. The style really felt more like a magazine article than a novel, which may have been the authors intention, but came across for me as dry and created this wall between me and the story/characters.

The characters I also just never felt were real. Just to compare them again, Reid is able to create characters who felt so incredibly real I was googling their names just to make sure this band of this actress weren’t actually real people. Walton’s characters missed the mark for me as I feel like I never got to know them on a deep emotional level. I might have known where they were born, but I never felt I knew them.

This book will work for a lot of people, and again I appreciate the themes it explores so much. But the writing wasn’t for me.

Thanks For Reading,
Jess X

book blog · Book Review

Book Review | The Book Of Form And Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

April 14, 2022April 9, 2022 Jess // Comfort Reads Book Blog3 Comments

April 14th, 2022

Hi Readers!

I’m really struggling to determine my feelings about this book. Overall it wasn’t what I was expecting, and a lot of it I loved, but there were some things I didn’t love so much, which I’m disappointed about as this was one of my more anticipated reads from the Women’s Prize longlist.

When a book and a reader are meant for each other, both of them know it …

After the tragic death of his father, fourteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house and sound variously pleasant, angry or sad. Then his mother develops a hoarding problem, and the voices grow more clamorous. So Benny seeks refuge in the silence of a large public library. There he meets a mesmerising street artist with a smug pet ferret; a homeless philosopher-poet; and his very own Book, who narrates Benny’s life and teaches him to listen to the things that truly matter.

Blending unforgettable characters with jazz, climate change and our attachment to material possessions, this is classic Ruth Ozeki – bold, humane and heartbreaking.

This book started so strong for me. It begins with the death of Benny’s father, and over the grief sticken period Benny begins to hear the voices of objects. It goes on to explore the mental health of both Benny and his mother, their relationship which becomes more and more strained, and the relationship we have with objects and the material world.

Stories never start at the beginning, Benny. They differ from life in that regard. Life is lived from birth to death, from the beginning into an unknowable future. But stories are told in hindsight. Stories are life lived backward.

I realise now I really didn’t know what this book was before I started it. All I needed to know was that it was narrated by a book that the main character could hear and I thought that sounded amazing. That’s not really the focus of the book though, especially as you get further into it. I think I was expecting something that felt more like The Starless Sea, which I didn’t get. But of course that’s not the books fault.

So what did we get? A lot. And that’s perhaps one of the issues I had with it. It’s very ambitious in the amount of themes and topics it discusses and I could go on and on about them, but it made for a very long 500 page book that for me could have done with being cut down.

One theme Ozeki wrote in an impactful way was children’s mental health, how it’s handled, and the effect it has on parents. Benny’s story felt quite YA, coming-of-age, and gave me Perks Of Being the Wallflower vibes. I just didn’t connect with Benny the way I did Charlie because Benny is a much more flawed character who I at times struggled to sympathise with, especially later on in the book.

His mother however I found incredible. I really felt for her as she struggled to deal with the death of her husband and becoming a single parent. It was heartbreaking to see her trying to do the right thing for Benny, and his increasing distance from her. She also has her own mental health issues including hoarding of material objects which is how Ozeki explores out relationship with consumerism.

But the moments that I loved all came from the book talking about being a book. I could read a whole book of just that. There was one moment when the book was talking about how books are used to waiting for someone to pick them up, they know we live busy lives and have learnt to be patient, and they bide they’re time until we are ready for them. That moment spoke to my soul.

There’s a lot to love about this. I think my rating comes from my weird lack of connection to the story. For a book filled with so much emotion and turmoil, it never drew out any emotion from me.