Emma's Bookish Lifestyle

Normal People By: Sally Rooney Rating 3* Connell and Marianne grew up in rural Caricklea in Ireland.  They come from different worlds when they meet in school and their lives collide.  Despite the social barriers of school a connection develops between them that follows them to their University years in Dublin and well into their futures. This book is my first from author Sally Rooney and I was uncertain if this would appeal to me as her writing has been deemed the "Millenial Voice".  I can honestly say that the writing style was light and easy to read however, felt that the political inferences only seemed to be for effect and didn't really have any relevance to the context of the plot or the characters personalities. The story I believe was intended as a modern love story but sadly, I believe that is a matter of view point as I feel the characters from very early on had an unhealthy relationship which infact developed into a more toxic dependancy based a...

Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss My rating: 5 of 5 stars This darkly poignant and compelling novella draws you in from the first pages and holds you to the very end. The tale of Sylvie and her summer's experience with her family and small group of university student's opens her not only to the experience of iron age living but to the devastating climax of her time living as an iron age villager. There are trigger warnings for violence in this book however, these are delicately handled and Sarah Moss had an almost lyrical way of writing that both draws you in to the surroundings and it's modern connection to times now past. At times Sylvie is portrayed as just a teenager desperately seeking normality and yet at times darkly mirrors the demise of an iron age sacrifice. This book is so far one of the best books of my year and I cannot recommend it highly enough. View all my reviews

An Ocean of Minutes  by Thea Lim The premise of this book is that the US has been hit by a deadly flu pandemic. Its 1981 and Frank has caught the virus and his girlfriend Polly is left with the difficult choice of risking everything, leaving him and taking a leap of faith into the future. With the use of time travel, there are some trying to thwart the virus, but this comes at a high cost.  Polly must sign up for a one-way-trip to the future and has to work of the cost of the trip to enable Frank to receive the lifesaving treatment he needs. Polly arranges to meet Frank in Galveston, Texas of the future when she arrives in 1993.  Unbeknownst to Polly there has been an administrative error and she is re-routed to 1998 and Frank is not at the meeting point. This book is based around dual timelines, introducing the couple of Frank and Polly to us in 1979 when they first meet and begin their relationship together, alongside the alternative future G...

   How Much the Heart Can Hold: Seven Stories on Love by Carys Bray My rating: 1 of 5 stars  Despite reading 5 of the stories contained within this 7 story collection, I was unfortunately unable to finish and put the book aside. Now I would like to say from the outset that if from the title you are expecting romantic stories this is not the case, the premise behind this book is that each of the seven stories are written around the Greek terms for different forms of love. I however, did go in with my eye's open but was disappointed to find two dimensional characters, un-relatable and selfish characters and a female character with pretty much no self respect. There are two stories I enjoyed, the first was relating to the love one has for oneself, this felt extremely of the moment on a valid and relatable subject. The characters were emotive and I was invested in the story they were telling. The shining light however, in this collection, from those that I...

As part of my Kindle Prime account I am able to select a free e-book each month from a selection of titles and genres, most of these are new to me and enable me to experience and expand my reading experience. I have not read a great deal of books classed as Literary fiction so when I read and was intrigued by the synopsis below, this was my choice for September. "Set against a layered Manhattan landscape,  The Special Power of Restoring Lost Things  explores a fractured family through the alternating perspectives of the mother, father, and brother of a young woman during the aftermath of her disappearance. A year of silent but collective anguish culminates in the fateful thirty hours after a body with a striking resemblance to hers is found, and we see her buttoned-up Upper West Side family spiral in different, dangerous directions: Her mother, Carol, nearly comatose by day, comes alive at night in a vigilante-like attempt to track down her daughter’s killer. Her bro...

Hangover Square is a darkly comic book based in the seedy and fog bound world of Earls Court's public houses and cheap lodgings during the lead up to WWII containing a small cast of boozing philosophers, immortalising the tone of that generation in the style of Patrick Hamiltons writing. Character Synopsis George Harvey Bon e George is a big built, kind hearted wastrel who is obsessed with the lovely Netta Longdon.  It is apparent early on that George is suffering from an undiagnosed mental illness of Schizophrenia whereby he comes in and out of his normal and fugue states with a "click" throughout the story. During these times it is apparent he is more conscious of the way Netta and her entourage treat him and during these episodes tells us his various plans to kill Netta Longdon. This murderous mindset initially appears in his fugue state however, as the plot continues and his mental health diminishes it is well written and clearly apparent that his tw...