Always Remember Your Name by Andra and Tatiana Bucci

Rating:

5 Stars

Themes:

Memoir, Holocaust

Thoughts:

This book is so enlightening seeing the sisters journey for so long. The first half of the book covers before the war and their experiences in the concentration camps. It’s interesting that the block leader took enough of a liking to them to ultimately save their lives but it’s such a shame they couldn’t save Sergio as we can feel the guilt and regret that left them carrying their own lives. I enjoyed learning of their time in Lingfield as a Brit I had no idea of the place but I think I’ll be looking further into it now, especially knowing of the work Anna Freud does and that it was a project of hers. It’s great that they were able to get a happy reunion despite thinking their parents dead as most of the books I’ve read there was no such luck and it was great to see the other side since I know some families did have some members survive. I think the ending was so important, especially since it was translated in 2020 so was written earlier but their ending message applied so well to the Ukraine war which had started by the publishing date and also many more occurrences in the world occurring today too.

Favourite Quote:

“She asks him to leave the children- take the adults but not the children. What fault do little children have? As if they, the adults, had ever had any fault.”

Comments

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 ...

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...

Porn is Not Sex Ed! by Jessica Melendez

Rating: 3 Stars Themes: Non-Fiction, Young Adult Thoughts: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. In the age of lessening sex education this book could be a great tool to help bridge the gap. I appreciate the talk to an adult bits that can encourage children to start to have conversations that are important but they often think are cringy. The note to trusted adults bit at the end is great too and there’s quite a few useful activities to help the messages really sink in. Some of the points here such as fetishisation and body image are really important ones that I never learned that young (which could be the reason I had such poor body image as a teen) and for the most part the book talks to kids on their level although some areas may feel a little immaturely worded for older teens. With thanks to Hachette UK and Netgalley for my advanced digital copy of this book.

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