Ditch Memory by Todd Davis

Rating:

3.5 Stars

Themes:

Poetry

Thoughts:

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This was an interesting collection of poetry to read. The majority of the poems focus on the animal world and contextualising the human in the animal world like ‘The Taxidermist’s Daughter Retrieves a Head’ and ‘The Face of Jesus’. The few poems that are around human lives makes them even more touching like ‘Accident’ and ‘What I Know about the Last Lynching in Jeff Davis County’. I also really liked the nod to mining history and as someone who comes from a mining family I loved ‘Pit Ponies’.There’s also a great collection of new and published poems that introduces me to some of the older collections/books so I can get a taste for them and decide which collection to read next.

Favourite Quote:

The gills rake down the sides of his head, and the mouth opens like the tunnels we used before the coal companies

hauled in dozers and trucks to scrape away the mountain our grandparents had known. There was honor in riding

rail cars underground, something mythic as fathers said goodbye to their children and traveled away from the sun.

Comments

Shame-Sex Attraction by Lucas Wilson

Rating: 4 Stars Themes: Non-Fiction, LGBTQ+ Thoughts: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This is definitely a difficult read and it took me quite a while to get through it for that very reason. It is split up into 17 different peoples experiences with a foreword and afterword. It’s definitely an important read for many as these practices are still legal in many countries, including my own, and without knowledge of the damage of the practices many may not join in the protests or sign the petitions to try to get laws in place. As a member of the community myself I found some of these stories such as the ‘Sniffing the Gay Away’ and ‘Convert’ especially difficult to read and reminded me just how lucky I was to have such a supportive and loving community around me. I appreciated that the afterword highlighted the limitations of the collection such as having little to no religious, geographical or racial diversity but that they did try to ga...

Mint and Murder by Carly Winter

Rating: Stars Themes: Short Story, Cosy Mystery Thoughts: Thoughts: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. I had to read this book, seeing it was available, after reading Pipers Piping and Puppies last year. I did read it as a standalone (it’s not the first time I’ve read a series out of order and likely won’t be the last) I managed to follow along fine although I’m sure I’d have understood the relationship dynamics better had I read it in the correct order. I found the story great and as for the mystery I was guessing myself right the way through until Sam figured it out. Sam is a strong female main character who feels worth investing in so I may have to go search some more of the Heywood Herbalist series out. I enjoyed seeing Sam interact with her friends as they had great chemistry and it felt real, and also really liked Sam’s interactions with Doug as it added another layer of humanity to her and reality to the town. I would love ...

Broken Glass by Sarah Kay

Rating: 3 Stars Themes: Poetry Thoughts: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This collection is mixed for me, some of the poems were really good and all were definitely emotive but I think so many poems on the Hamas attack and subsequent war which is highly politically charged a little difficult to tackle. Favourite Quote: "What good is it to open my heart when in the end, you will stab it in the back?"

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