Roaring Girls by Holly Kyte

Roaring Girls: The forgotten feminists of British history by Holly Kyte

Published in the UK by HQ on the 28th November 2019.

One of my 2019 New Release Challenge reads

How I got this book:

Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Roaring Girl was loud when she should be quiet, disruptive when she should be submissive, sexual when she should be pure, ‘masculine’ when she should be ‘feminine’.

Meet the unsung heroines of British history who refused to play by the rules.

Roaring Girls tells the game-changing life stories of eight formidable women whose grit, determination and radical unconventionality saw them defy the odds to forge their own paths.

From the notorious cross-dressing thief Mary Frith in the seventeenth century to rebel slave Mary Prince and adventurer, industrialist and LGBT trailblazer Anne Lister in the nineteenth, these diverse characters redefined what a woman could be and what she could do in pre-twentieth-century Britain.

Bold, inspiring and powerfully written, Roaring Girls tells the electrifying histories of women who, despite every effort to suppress them, dared to be extraordinary.

I love books which link and advance ideas and concepts I have already discovered through previous works so Roaring Girls was a perfect read for me. Holly Kyte's eight chosen women include (arguably) Britain's first science fiction author Margaret Cavendish who was brought to my attention through Monster, She Wrote and whose novel The Blazing World I went on to read, and Antiguan slave Mary Prince whose autobiography, The History of Mary Prince, I've also read. Kyte also tells the stories of Mary Frith, Mary Astell, Charlotte Charke, Hannah Snell, Anne Lister and Caroline Norton. I had vaguely heard a couple of these names before, but knew little of their lives or importance to women's history and was eager to learn.

Kyte gives well researched biographies of each of these women, exploring how the lives they led were considered outrageous and scandalous in their times, and showing how their influence had a profound effect on women's lives in the centuries to follow them. She writes in a lively and engaging style so Roaring Girls is actually quite the page-turner! I was interested in her cautions to see each woman in the context of the times in which she lived. Certainly, in several cases, their words or actions have problematic aspects when viewed from a twenty-first century perspective. However we interpret them today, these women were often intensely disliked by their peers, female as well as male. I was reminded of Zeba Talkhani's thoughts on her experience of female misogyny and how it is often women who cannot or will not oppose patriarchal systems themselves who are the most destructive towards their sisters who do threaten the status quo. Kyte shows us that this is nothing new.

As Kyte says, it is important for women today to remember our forebears' fights and to ensure these early feminists maintain their place in our history. The stories we tell ourselves and our children inform our understanding of the world. If we want to live in a balanced and tolerant society, we need to ensure all women's lives are portrayed in these stories, not just a narrow view of us as demure, submissive ornaments. We Need New Stories showed me just how shockingly wide the gaps are and Roaring Girls is an excellent resource to help fill them in.

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	What would  Anne Lister do?  pin by Power Up Pins in London, England Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

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Cold Fear by Mads Peder Nordbo

Cold Fear by Mads Peder Nordbo

First published in Danish as Kold Angst by Politikens Forlag in 2018. English language translation by Charlotte Barslund published by Text Publishing in October 2019.

One of my 2019 New Release Challenge reads

How I got this book:

Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

When Danish Journalist Matthew Cave’s half-sister Arnaq disappears, leaving behind only a trail of blood, he realises they are both pawns in a game of life and death.

As a young US soldier stationed in Greenland, their father took part in a secret experiment with deadly consequences. Accused of murder, he was forced into hiding.

Desperate to discover the link between these two disappearances, Matthew is joined by Tupaarnaq, a young Inuit woman, who returns to Nuuk to help her only friend—and to settle a few scores of her own.

But, as things begin to unravel, Matthew begins to wonder: Is the father he has been searching for his entire life actually a cold-blooded murderer? And is Tupaarnaq really who he thinks she is?

Cold Fear is the second of two new sequels I was looking forward to this month. You might already know how underwhelmed I was with Daughter Of The Tigris which is Muhsin Al-Ramli's follow up to The President's Gardens. Well, unfortunately I found Cold Fear to be even more disappointing! I'd rated its predecessor, The Girl Without Skin, as a 4-star thriller, but it seemed to me that all the aspects I'd appreciated in that novel were glaringly absent from this one. I did just about manage to read through to the end, all the time hoping for a glimpse of Nordbo's previous style.

Cold Fear is all about its violent action scenes, most of which are graphically vicious. Male characters rush about being generally nasty to each other, but without sufficient depth to the character portrayals or much of a coherent narrative I struggled to understand their motivations or reasoning. Women only exist to be abused and even Tupaarnaq - a strong enigmatic female role in the first novel - is now reduced to an object for Matthew to continually leer at.

I would still recommend reading The Girl Without Skin, but as a standalone novel without continuing on to Cold Fear.

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	Retro Greenland  metal plaque by B M Framer in the UK Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

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Me and the Japanese Beauty Standards by Tomomi Tsuchio

Me and the Japanese Beauty Standards
by Tomomi Tsuchio

First written in Japanese. English language translation by Angelli Angara and Tomomi Tsuchio self published in America in July 2019.

One of my 2019 New Release Challenge reads

How I got this book:

Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ever feel like you’re not enough? That no matter what you do it seems that you always fall short in society’s expectations of you in terms of looks? How about your relationships? Does it seem that insecurities get the best of you? 
The author of this book, Tomomi Tsuchio, went through the same battle and fought that journey. Today, she stands strong yet vulnerable, sharing her most intimate stories in finding herself.

You will feel as if you are not alone. This book will help to show you that the insecurities, struggles, mistakes, and shames we face in life are expected things, that we all go through. It is not about being perfect! It is about being YOU!!!! 
You will understand that the beauty we see on TV, in magazines, and on social media is not the only kind of beauty. 
You will learn how essential it is to know who you are. If you are struggling in with relationships, self-love or just the trials of life, this book may provide a bit of advice to help you through the hard times. 

Tomomi Tsuchio's very personal memoir, Me and the Japanese Beauty Standards, tells of her emotional journey from low self-esteem, bullying and bulimia, to her current life as a successful personal trainer in her own gym. This is a short book so Tsuchio doesn't go into great detail on how this transformation came about, rather she gives general advice on spotting how outside social pressures affect our ability to accurately view ourselves. It is much easier to allow negative comparisons with cultural standards or magazine models to cloud our judgement than it is to appreciate our individual beauty.

I was interested to learn how beauty standards change according to the opinions of different countries, or even within the same country in the case of somewhere as large as America. I could also empathise with Tsuchio's maturing view of herself as she approaches the age of forty. At only a few years older myself, I have found a similar acceptance of my own appearance as I have aged. Some of this is, of course, learning to present ourselves to our best advantage, but also - and more importantly - it's realising that confidence and self belief actually have a far greater effect on attractiveness than even the most expensive of makeup items or surgeries! Thank you to Tomomi Tsuchio for opening her heart in this memoir and allowing her experiences to reassure and help women the world over.

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	Positive Affirmation Cards by Flora Collection in London, England Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

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Snowfall at Moonglow by Deborah Garner + #Giveaway

Snowfall at Moonglow by Deborah Garner
Published in America by Cranberry Cove Press on the 22nd November 2019.

One of my 2019 New Release Challenge reads and a Book With Vegan Characters
I am linking this post up with November's Foodies Read at Based On A True Story


Add Snowfall At Moonglow to your Goodreads

Each holiday season, new and returning guests gather in the small town of Timberton, Montana, to celebrate Christmas at the Timberton Hotel. Resident artist and chef Mist’s unique way of offering exceptional cuisine, exquisite décor, and a touch of the unexpected, has a way of bringing visitors and local townsfolk together in heartfelt camaraderie.

As this year’s guests arrive with hopes of a white Christmas, unseasonably warm weather hints at a less-than-wintery wonderland. But whether the snow falls or not, one thing is certain: with Mist around, there's bound to be a little magic. No one ever leaves Timberton without renewed hope for the future. 

*Cookie recipes included!

Read my reviews of the earlier books in this series:

Mistletoe At Moonglow

Silver Bells At Moonglow

Gingerbread At Moonglow

Nutcracker Sweets At Moonglow

I'm feeling particularly Christmassy right now even though it is still only November and that's because I have just finished reading Deborah Garner's newest annual Timberton novella, Snowfall At Moonglow. This series has become one of my eagerly anticipated Christmas traditions and I am delighted to be able to tell you how much I enjoyed visiting Mist, Betty and all the regulars again. This year it initially looks as though the seasonal atmosphere might be marred by a lack of snow as the Montana town is experiencing an unseasonably warm December. But of course the weather wouldn't dare to defy Mist's plans for her guests so everything is picture perfect before long!

I could particularly identify with the story in Snowfall At Moonglow this year because not only does the annual cookie exchange take centre stage for a while (and lots of recipes are included for us readers to bake up later), but also two of the hotel's guests are vegans! I loved how Garner has Mist intersperse vegan dishes with omnivore ones especially when they are so well received and enjoyed by everyone. There certainly is more to veganism than lettuce and reading about Mist's breakfast tofu scramble reminded me that I hadn't made that for myself in ages. Guess what my brunch was today?!

I did feel as though perhaps we didn't get to know the new guests as well as we had done in previous years and I would have liked to know more about Allison and Kinsley's history. However I loved losing myself in the build-up to Christmas at the Timberton Hotel with all that this involves. It almost feels like a home from home - although do Americans really not pull crackers at Christmas? Where do you all get your miniature sewing kits from if not out of a cracker?!

Thank you to Deborah Garner for this lovely seasonal tale. I'm going to put our Christmas music playlist on now and veganise a couple of those tempting cookie recipes!

Meet the author

Deborah Garner is an accomplished travel writer with a passion for back roads and secret hideaways. Born and raised in California, she studied in France before returning to the U.S. to attend UCLA. After stints in graduate school and teaching, she attempted to clone herself for decades by founding and running a dance and performing arts center, designing and manufacturing clothing and accessories, and tackling both spreadsheets and display racks for corporate retail management. Her passions include photography, hiking and animal rescue. She speaks five languages, some substantially better than others. She now divides her time between California and Wyoming, dragging one human and two canines along whenever possible.

Author links: 
Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Pinterest ~ Goodreads

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	Marzipan Snowmen  edible vegan sculptures by Marzipops in Michigan, USA Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

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Daughter of the Tigris by Muhsin Al-Ramli

Daughter of the Tigris by Muhsin Al-Ramli

First published in Arabic in November 2019. English language translation by Luke Leafgren published in the UK by MacLehose Press on the 14th November 2019.

One of my 2019 New Release Challenge reads and a Book With A Vegetarian Character

How I got this book:

Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

On the sixth day of Ramadan, in a land without bananas, Qisma leaves for Baghdad with her husband-to-be to find the body of her father. But in the bloodiest year of a bloody war, how will she find one body among thousands?

For Tariq, this is more than just a marriage of convenience: the beautiful, urbane Qisma must be his, body and soul. But can a sheikh steeped in genteel tradition share a tranquil bed with a modern Iraqi woman?

The President has been deposed, and the garden of Iraq is full of presidents who will stop at nothing to take his place. Qisma is afraid - afraid for her son, afraid that it is only a matter of time before her father's murderers come for her.

The only way to survive is to take a slice of Iraq for herself. But ambition is the most dangerous drug of all, and it could just seal Qisma's fate.

I was impressed by Muhsin Al-Ramli's novel, The President's Gardens, when I read it in 2017 so eagerly requested a review copy of its sequel, Daughter Of The Tigris. Unfortunately I could not see that Daughter Of The Tigris repeated the gripping storytelling of the first novel so I have ended up being quite disappointed with it. Al-Ramli centres his tale around the political and financial carving up of Iraq's assets and infrastructure in the years following the war and focuses on Tariq and Qisma, a couple who married for convenience and who, during the course of the novel, forge ahead with attempts to secure their own slice of success and power.

Daughter Of The Tigris does start out well, but I felt that the characterisations swiftly ran out of steam. Even Tariq and Qisma felt two-dimensional and I soon got weary with many of their conversations being summarised to readers. Their establishment of an anodyne political party gets repetitive and I am sorry to say that I was often bored by this story. I feel my lack of connection with the narrative was due to excessive telling, rather than showing, because this is a writing style which doesn't really work for me. It's a shame because I could understand important points that Al-Ramli wanted to make about Iraq's social and political situation. I would still highly recommend readers to The President's Gardens, but sadly I am only lukewarmly enthusiastic about Daughter Of The Tigris.

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	Pebble Heart Necklace by Sognoametista in Alice Castello, Italy Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

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Lake Like a Mirror by Ho Sok Fong

Lake Like a Mirror by Ho Sok Fong

First published in Chinese by Aquarius Publishing in Taiwan in 2014. English language translation by Natascha Bruce published in the UK by Granta Books on the 7th November 2019.

One of my 2019 New Release Challenge reads and one of my WorldReads from Malaysia

How I got this book:

Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

By an author described by critics as 'the most accomplished Malaysian writer, full stop'. Lake Like a Mirror is a scintillating exploration of the lives of women buffeted by powers beyond their control. Squeezing themselves between the gaps of rabid urbanisation, patriarchal structures and a theocratic government, these women find their lives twisted in disturbing ways.

In precise and disquieting prose, Ho Sok Fong draws her readers into a richly atmospheric world of naked sleepwalkers in a rehabilitation centre for wayward Muslims, mysterious wooden boxes, gossip in unlicensed hairdressers, hotels with amnesiac guests, and poetry classes with accidentally charged politics - a world that is peopled with the ghosts of unsaid words, unmanaged desires and uncertain statuses, surreal and utterly true.

In this season of excellent short story collections, I am delighted to have received a copy of Ho Sok Fong's newly translated work, Lake Like A Mirror. There are nine accomplished tales in this book, each focusing on the lives of women in modern day Malaysia in an insightful yet wonderfully surreal way. I loved Fong's prose style and ideas. Even when a couple of the stories were so surreal that I couldn't quite keep a hold of the thread all the way through, I could still appreciate her vivid and concise creation of scenes, and her fascinating characters.

I learned what happened to a woman swamped by the detritus of other people's lives, and how greatly a teacher feared denunciation for a carelessly chosen poem in her classroom. I'm still not exactly sure what was in the wooden trunk, but I loved the setting of its elderly owner's junk shop, and the predicament of thwarted Aminah trapped in a correctional centre is heartbreaking. Fong depicts places and situations which, on the face of them, are very different to those I experience in my daily life, yet I could always understand and empathise with her protagonists. These women live in a society where the odds often seem overwhelmingly stacked against them, yet they find ways to carry on and, occasionally, to triumph! If you're a short story reader, particularly one who appreciates unusual setups and opaque depths, Lake Like A Mirror will be a worthwhile addition to your TBR list.

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	Deer Painting by Dina Farris Appel Art in California, USA Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

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Frankie: The Woman Who Saved Millions from Thalidomide by James Essinger & Sandra Koutzenko

Frankie: The Woman Who Saved Millions from Thalidomide by James Essinger and Sandra Koutzenko
Published by The History Press on the 3rd June 2019.

One of my 2019 New Release Challenge reads


Add Frankie to your Goodreads

Thalidomide: patented in Germany as a non-toxic cure-all for sleeplessness and morning sickness. A wonder drug with no side-effects.
We know differently now.

Today, thalidomide is a byword for tragedy and drug reform – a sign of what happens when things aren’t done ‘the right way’. But when it was released in the 1950s, it was the best thing since penicillin – something that doctors were encouraged to prescribe to all of their patients. Nobody could anticipate what it actually did: induce sleeping, prevent morning sickness, and drastically harm unborn children.
But, whilst thalidomide rampaged and ravaged throughout most of the West, it never reached the United States. It landed on the desk of Dr Frances Kelsey, and there it stayed as she battled hierarchy, patriarchy, and the Establishment in an effort to prove that it was dangerous. Frankie is her story.

Frankie is the second of James Essinger's biographies that I have read recently (the first being Charles And Ada) and I appreciate these opportunities to learn more about the lives of important women of science. It turns out scientific history is not quite so male dominated as I had previously believed and, yes, I do recognise the irony of a male author opening my eyes to this! Together with Sandra Koutsenko, Essinger has written a fascinating biography of Dr Frances Kelsey, a woman recognised for her dedication and perseverance in America and whom I now feel should be far more widely known!

I remember in my childhood that a man with very short arms, one of the thalidomide babies from some twenty years previously, lived just along the road from my family. Therefore I was aware of the aftermath of this medical disaster from quite an early age, but it wasn't until I read Frankie that I realised just how much I didn't know about how it came about and, most shockingly, how many years passed before thalidomide's destructive effects were recognised. It's probably a sad sign of the times that I wasn't particularly surprised by the drug companies' lack of care or sense of responsibility at any point though.

In Frankie, Essinger and Koutsenko discuss the creation of thalidomide, its European marketing, and the fluke of chance which allocated its USA approval to Dr Frances Kelsey rather than to any other FDA official who might just have rubber stamped the application. They incorporate information from all around the world together with letters to and from the FDA, excerpts from Frankie's own memoir of the events, and later interviews and recollections to give an insightful and compelling account. This book certainly doesn't read like a dry history and, with the benefit of hindsight, I could understand just how important Frankie's careful deliberations were. It was nice to see her superiors exhibiting such good faith in her judgement too - especially in an era when women's intellectual powers weren't always so well recognised! 

I wish I had had the opportunity to read this biography thirty years ago when making my choice of study subjects at school! I think the very readable story would be as fascinating to teenage readers as it was to me, and younger me would have been so inspired by Frankie's example. (Older me is also inspired, but not enough to go back to school!) I am, however, now eagerly anticipating further books from Essinger and Koutzenko telling the stories of more should-already-be-famous women!

Meet the authors

JAMES ESSINGER is the author of non-fiction books that focus on STEM subjects and personalities, including Charles and Ada (The History Press) and Ada’s Algorithm (Gibson Square), the latter of which has been optioned for a film. He lives in Canterbury.

SANDRA KOUTZENKO is a bilingual writer whose work spans a variety of categories and topics, ranging from French poetry to English non-fiction, focusing on human nature and the conflict between its potential for greatness and its propensity for destruction.

Author links: 
The History Press Twitter ~ The History Press Instagram
James' Facebook ~ James' Twitter

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	Science Heroine  t-shirt by Periodic Tees in Alaska, USA Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

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The Tender Birds by Carole Giangrande + #Giveaway

The Tender Birds by Carole Giangrande
Published in Canada by Inanna Poetry And Fiction on the 10th October 2019.

One of my 2019 New Release Challenge reads

Add to Goodreads 

Matthew Reilly is a busy academic, a lonely priest haunted by secrets. Young Alison is the shy and devoted keeper of Daisy, a falcon which suffered an accident and can no longer fly. The three of them meet in a Boston parish, but Matt has forgotten a momentary but disturbing meetup with Alison, homeless eight years earlier in Toronto. Close to exhaustion, he's forced to reflect on what's become of his life, including the loss of a son that no one knew he'd fathered. Alison and Matt had a fateful encounter during her homeless period, but Matt doesn't connect that frail teenager with the healthy young woman she'd become. It's left to Alison to uncover Matt's past and for Matt to come to terms with it.


I don't tend to pick up much in the way of religious fiction so at first I wasn't sure how I would get on with The Tender Birds, a novel set within Catholic communities in Toronto and Boston. As it turns out, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and especially appreciated the sense of calm and tranquillity it created for me. I soon realised that, while several of the central characters practice their faith devoutly, the novel itself wasn't going to preach at me so I could focus on its themes and storylines instead.

Of the two main characters, Matthew and Alison, I actually found Alison's story to be the more compelling. Although my teenage years weren't as traumatic as hers, I could still strongly identify with some of her experiences and felt Giangrande's wrote of Alison's descent into homelessness in a knowledgeable and authentic way. I was reminded of Dennis Cardiff's powerful Toronto memoir, Gotta Find A Home, particularly during the Ravine scenes and when a group of homeless people gather in a local park. I was impressed how Giangrande put the issue of homelessness into such a central place in The Tender Birds, but without making me as a reader feel hectored on the subject. The most memorable moment for me was an almost throwaway remark about how Father Matt's church, St Bart's, rapidly lost parishioners when homeless people came into the church for Mass. Apparently their Christian charity didn't extend to worshipping in the same building and, although they live near enough, the lack of adequate shelter excluded homeless people from also being considered 'parishioners'. I've been pondering this paradox for quite some time!

I wasn't sure how I felt about Matthew. In several ways I found him quite an unsympathetic character. He is quick to judge others and often holds them to higher standards than he himself achieves. He also has problematic (for me) attitudes towards women and on homosexuality which he seems to consciously hide, but which escape from time to time. His complexity is wonderfully portrayed!

I wasn't so keen on the number of coincidental meetings and relationships which drove the storyline forward. There were just too many convenient coincidences for my tastes, but I think this was my only real negative for The Tender Birds. That aside, I am glad to have discovered Carole Giangrande's writing and am also intrigued by the way reading this novel made me feel. I don't know if it was the pacing or something in the writing style, but on finishing The Tender Birds I realised I felt unexpectedly relaxed and almost serene. Perhaps this whole novel is a prayer?

Meet the author:

Carole Giangrande is the award-winning author of ten books, including the novella A Gardener on the Moon (winner of the 2010 Ken Klonsky Award) and the novel All That Is Solid Melts Into Air (2018 Independent Publishers Gold Medal for Literary Fiction). The Tender Birds is her fourth novel. She’s worked as a broadcast journalist for CBC Radio (Canada's public broadcaster), and her fiction, poetry, articles and reviews have appeared in literary journals and in Canada’s major newspapers. In her spare time, she loves exploring nature with her partner Brian, photographing birds and studying French.

Connect with the author:
Website  ~  Twitter  ~ Facebook

Enter the Giveaway!  

Win an autographed print or one of three ebook copies of The Tender Birds by Carole Giangrande (4 winners)
USA and Canada only.
(ends November 29, 2019)

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	Peregrine Falcon  giclee print by Brooke Connor Design in Colorado, USA Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

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Isolde by Irina Odoevtseva

Isolde by Irina Odoevtseva

First published in Russian in France in 1929. English language translation by Bryan Karetnyk and Irina Steinberg published by Pushkin Press on the 4th July 2019.

One of my 2019 New Release Challenge reads, my 1920s read for my 2019-20 Decade Challenge, and my Book Of The Month for November 2019

How I got this book:

Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The first English translation of a pioneering Russian writer: a hypnotically dark classic of love, deceit and wayward youth in Paris

Disaffected and restless, teenage siblings Liza and Nikolai are left to their own devices in Biarritz by their distant mother. When an English boy, Cromwell, sees Liza alone on a beach, he imagines she is the romantic beauty Isolde. Infatuated, he falls in with their group of Russian émigrés, introducing them to the escapist pleasures of nightlife, of champagne dinners and dancing in jazz bars.

Initially dazzled, Liza feels a growing sense of isolation and anxiety as the youths’ world closes in on itself and their darker drives begin to stir. Haunted by feverish memories of Russia, she plots to return to the homeland she hardly remembers.

Deemed scandalous on first publication for its unflinching depiction of nascent sexuality and wayward adolescence, Isolde is a startlingly fresh, disturbing portrait of a lost generation of Russian exiles, now in English for the first time.

First published in 1929, Irina Odoevtseva's then-shocking novel, Isolde, was republished by Pushkin Press in a new English translation this summer and I am thrilled to have had the chance to read this book. I loved the story which I thought felt very fresh and modern in its style even while it is also absolutely of its time. Odoevtseva was a Russian-Latvian emigrant exiled in France - just like her fictional Liza - and this sense of being apart from one's homeland is one of the major themes of the book. Odoevtseva also explores the shallow callousness of teenagers through the exploits of Liza and her elder brother Nikolai who are frequently bored, but able to cadge money and then left, fatefully, to their own devices. I could see elements of a French-style The Great Gatsby mixed up with Rebel Without A Cause!

I loved the characters of Liza and of her mother, Natasha, even though neither are actually particularly likeable characters. Liza is in her mid-teens and flips between precocious childishness and mimicking adult behaviour in a way which felt authentic. She is desperate for parental love and guidance, but Natasha cares only for herself and her own romantic entanglements, even going so far as to insist her children are orphaned cousins. Natasha's neglect forces aspect of adulthood onto her children way before they are mature enough to cope. I didn't think the male character portrayals were as fully developed, perhaps with the exception of gullible Bunny, but that made a refreshing change!

Odoevtseva caused outrage with Isolde in the late 1920s and I could easily see why, although the shock effect is muted when seen by present-day standards. She never veers into graphic description though and I appreciated the use of Liza's naivete which allows readers to understand the dark actions being carried out around the girl, while she herself is only belatedly aware. Isolde would certainly be suitable for New Adult audience and I hope this new translation rekindles popularity for the story. In my eyes, Isolde deserves to be a classic.

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	Isolde  mini ACEO  art print by Solo Cosmo in Texas, USA Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

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Humiliation by Paulina Flores

Humiliation by Paulina Flores

First published as Que verguenza in Spanish by Hueders in 2015. English language translation by Megan McDowell published by Oneworld Publications today, the 7th November 2019.

One of my 2019 New Release Challenge reads and featured in Cover Characteristics: Hands

How I got this book:

Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Pride and disgrace.
Nostalgia and revenge.
Tenderness and seduction.

From the dusty backstreets of Santiago and the sun-baked alleyways of impoverished fishing villages to the dark stairwells of urban apartment blocks, Paulina Flores paints an intimate picture of a world in which the shadow of humiliation, of delusion, seduction and sabotage, is never far away. This is a Chile we seldom see in fiction. 

With an exceptional eye for human fragility, with unfailing insight and extraordinary tenderness, Humiliation is a mesmerising collection from a rising star of South American literature, translated from the Spanish by Man Booker International Prize finalist Megan McDowell.

I've done well for Latin American short stories over the past few weeks with Humiliation by Paulina Flores being the third such collection I have reviewed. (In mid-October I reviewed The Scent Of Buenos Aires by Hebe Uhart and my A Dream Come True by Juan Carlos Onetti review will be blogged on Saturday.) Humiliation includes nine new stories, all of which are linked by the senses of humiliation, guilt or shame, and Flores has created a folorn cast of characters with whom I could easily empathise. I particularly felt for the unemployed father who found himself compelled to take his two young daughters on a seemingly never-ending round of job interviews because they couldn't be left at home alone. Flores' insights into her characters and their motivations make these stories wonderful to read because, even as I cringed at a child trying desperately to impress an older friend, or blushed for a woman spying on her adulterous neighbours, I could always understand exactly what had led these people to take these decisions.

What made some tales particularly interesting for me was seeing how characters' own perceptions of their actions differed with the passing of time, or the way in which their own understanding of themselves was in total contrast to that of their close friends and family. I loved how Flores is able to conjure up such depth to her stories within the space of just twenty or thirty pages. If short stories are a genre you appreciate reading, I would highly recommend adding this collection to your library.

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	Valparaiso art print by Macarena Ortega in Barcelona, Spain Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

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Waterdown by Anastasia Slabucho

Waterdown by Anastasia Slabucho

Published by AS Publishing on the 22nd September 2019.

One of my 2019 New Release Challenge reads

How I got this book:

Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Geo Spears thought her legacy would put her above humanity. She had created Fusion A.I., the superintelligence that saved mankind from itself. Poverty, pollution, crime and war—all gone. The solution was simple—people’s minds just had to be whitewashed… watered down.

By 2135, few human wants, wishes, instincts or memories remained. But this was also the year Geo Spears’ longevity treatment failed. She had weeks to live, at most. Cast out by Fusion and faced for the first time with mortality, her past betrayal of family becomes entangled with the present of those she learns to hold dear. Geo is confronted with the true cost of her A.I. creation. And the one remaining path to absolution.

My initial idea of Waterdown, gleaned from its cover art, was some kind of outer space adventure because I misinterpreted the light points as stars. Waterdown is actually set in a grim future incarnation of Los Angeles - a city where our present-day blights of pollution and crime have been almost consigned to history, but where one's life choices are significantly constrained by implanted artificial intelligence devices. I loved the idea of the 'choice' that Slabucho inflicts upon her characters. There are two spheres of human existence: Temporals lose much of their free choice and short term memory, but can experience human emotions and social interaction. Permanents have enhanced memory capacity and are immortal, but also live socially isolated lives. Neither, I thought, would be a good life for me!

Waterdown manages to be both exciting and thoughtful which is a difficult balance to maintain successfully. I liked Geo as a character - even though she is a basically unlikeable person! - and appreciated her internal struggles when she realises that her life's work isn't the great achievement she had always believed it to be. Her soul-searching makes for poignant moments, especially when linked to her childhood memories. This introspection is countered with Geo's need to atone for her mistakes and quickly. Slabucho gives readers lots of tension in her well-paced novel as Geo begins to walk on the dark side of her perfect society.

I think Slabucho's portrayals of the various interpersonal relationships were my high spot of Waterdown, although I also appreciated her visualisations of Los Angeles. Even the AI, Fusion, appears to have a personality, and supporting characters such as lively teenager Air add a good sense of levity to prevent Waterdown from becoming too serious a read. I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I enjoyed reading this novel and look forward to discovering more of Slabucho's work in the future.

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