Review: Emboldened

Title: Emboldened

Author: Belinda Alexandra

Publisher: 26th April 2023 by Affirm Press

Pages: 268 pages

Genre: biography, memoir, history

Rating: 4.5 cups

Synopsis:

How do you begin your life again when you've lost everything you've worked for and your dreams have been shattered?

That was the question beloved Australian author Belinda Alexandra faced one freezing winter night when she ran from her home in terror, clutching only her wallet, her phone and her latest manuscript on a USB stick.

To pull herself up from rock bottom, Belinda drew strength from the real life women who had inspired her bestselling historical fiction: her mother, Tatiana Morosoff, a White Russian who had fled a home more than once due to wars and revolutions; Virginia Hall, an American who lost her leg in an accident but went on to become one of the most revered Allied agents in World War II France; Carmen Amaya, who despite being born into abject poverty in Barcelona rose to become the greatest Flamenco dancer of all time; Edna Walling, who lost her own dream home in a freak fire but created garden designs that made her one of Australia's most celebrated landscape designers.

They were women who had faced seemingly insurmountable challenges and found ways to forge ahead on their own terms.

In a compelling and exquisite blend of memoir and history, Belinda shows readers that, no matter what challenge they might be facing, there is always the possibility of building a bold life full of meaning again from the ashes.

My Thoughts

Belinda Alexandra has many fans who follow her wonderful historical fiction stories. Emboldened sees Belinda embolden herself, moving into the field of nonfiction, offering a wonderful discourse on finding strength and courage in the face of adversity. Belinda recounts factual tales inclusive of personal recounts, to drawing inspiration from some key female figures from history. 

‘Goals can help us focus and bring us satisfaction when we achieve them, but they don't embolden us the way a true sense of purpose does.’

Emboldened is therefore part family memoir as Belinda tells the tale from her grandparents and mother and how they came to inspire her. She also includes inspiration from the American spy Virginia Hall, Carmen Amaya a famous flamenco dancer and Edna Walling and Australian landscape artist. Belinda looks at these personal life stories through the sectional themes of Reliance, Purpose, Passion and Connection. Personally, I found the recount of her personal family history incredibly engaging with regards to their migration from Russia to Australia via China and an internment camp. 

Belinda alludes to, without going into detail, her own experiences of trauma and how the above stories provided strength, determination and resilience. She uses the stories as a foundation of how to move forward in overcoming great stress and life changing experiences. Emboldened is an uplifting book drawing inspiration from the past on how some have dealt with adversity. It is beautifully written that is sure to inspire and hopefully embolden its readers. 

‘Life is a bumpy ride. The struggles are real and sometimes relentless. But the journey can ultimately be a beautiful and rich one. And overcoming the struggles are what will make it worthwhile. You already have everything inside you that you need to live life courageously and boldly.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: A Question of Age

Title: A Question of Age

Author: Jacinta Parson

Publisher: 7th September 2022 by ABC Books & HarperCollins Australia

Pages: 266 pages

Genre: nonfiction, women, biography

My Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

A beautifully written, searing and powerful examination of women and ageing that you will not be able to put down: intense, compelling, poetic, raging.

Warning: this is not a self-help book. Or, a helpful book, necessarily. No one really needs 'help' with ageing. It will happen no matter what we do. Neither is it a book to guide you through these stages of ageing. This book will not ask you to love your lines. Or to post on social media that you feel privileged to age. This book is, instead, a howl of rage.

Grappling with ageing is one of the most confronting elements of being a woman. When we become invisible, when we lose our sexual currency, when we lose that elasticity in our skin, when our bodies soften and change, when our perceived 'value' to society dramatically falls, when our notion of self-worth takes a radical shift.

What do we do when our outside self doesn't match our inside self? That old woman staring back at her reflection in the mirror doesn't understand why she feels so young. So how do we adjust our perceptions of getting older? What does it mean to age as a woman? How do we adjust our thinking about being in the world? What is our currency now?

Jacinta believes that midlife is a crucial reckoning with despair and hope, a time when you are naked in the centre of the world and no-one notices or perhaps cares to look. Midlife is a time when you take stock – to look back and understand how you were made as a woman, and to look forward into the future, to see how you might unmake yourself to live the life that perhaps you should be living.

A Question of Age is incendiary, raging and raw, but also compassionate, insightful and powerfully energising. It is a book for every woman looking in the mirror thinking she no longer recognises herself. It is a book for our times.

My Thoughts

Something drew me to this book and it became the book I needed to read …. HAD to read. I cannot convey how much I needed to read these words. If I could buy a copy and place it into the hands of every woman I know I would - from my teenage daughter to my elderly mother. All I can say is that this is a MUST read. My review will not be able to do it justice, but here goes ….

This is a first person exploration of the many challenges that arise being female and, in particular, ageing in our society. It is honest - at times brutally so - yet so life affirming with words every woman NEEDS to hear. It’s about acknowledging and witnessing a change in one’s life into, not just another stage of phase, but something completely new. Ageing - something we are taught to be terrified of even though, as the years creep by, we really feel not that different on the inside than we did decades ago. It is SO confirming to feel a sense of positivity about entering this stage of life and looking back to reflect upon all that has come before that led you to this point in your life. For some it might be about undoing all that was done over a lifetime in order to finally live the life that is suited to you best. 

Still we feel the need to go down with a fight, a rage almost. Yet this could be a rage based upon all we have been told about ageing. What if that line of thinking were to change? 

‘Unlike the transition from girl to woman, moving into an older body is about the act of disrobing, undressing from the identity we had spent our lifetimes forming … This time is about removing a layer of skin so that you are rubbed raw in readiness to start the process of beginning again.’

This book challenges you to take the blinkers off and encourages you - No! - demands that you now see yourself in a new and better light. ‘There must be a middle point you can cross that changes the meaning of your journey’ so that it's not just a downhill run to the ultimate finishing line. Instead midlife should be a time of reflection and contemplation.

‘I understood that ageing and this moment of midlife would only be about renewal if I was prepared to lose it all so that I might find myself again. That the moments of firsts might return if I was prepared to see myself reflected back as something new.

To see myself again for the first time.

This book is not just about ageing - it is this and so much more. That is why I would give it to my teenage daughter to read so her journey could somehow be better, insightful and wishfully smoother. This book taught me to understand that ageing is not only a privilege but something that was really important and rejuvenating to do. 

‘ Is time the element we need to combat if we hope to be free of our ageing? Do we need to spend more of our lives not looking, not counting, not assessing ourselves against the concepts that time imposes on our lives? … When we are finally forced to understand that our bodies will break, we can no longer hide from the truth-telling of our own mortality. What seems so horrifying is nothing but a beautiful twist, but at this point it is impossible to see it that way.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: This Is Not A Book About Benedict Cumberbatch

Title: This Is Not A Book About Benedict Cumberbatch

Author: Tabitha Carvan

Publisher: 2nd March 2022 by HarperCollins Publishers Australia

Pages: 280 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: nonfiction, self help, biography, feminism

My Rating:  4 cups

Synopsis:

If you feel that sense that there is something missing from your life, some gap between who you are on the inside and who you are on the outside - then this is the book for you.

This is, as the title says, not actually a book about Benedict Cumberbatch.

In fact, it's a book about women and what we love, about what happens to women's passions after we leave adolescence and how the space for joy in our lives is squeezed ever smaller as we age, and why. More importantly, it's about what happens if you subvert that narrative and simply love something like you used to.

Drawing upon her personal experience of unexpectedly falling for the British actor Benedict Cumberbatch while stuck at home with two young children, Carvan challenges the reader to stop instinctively resisting the possibility of experiencing pleasure. Hers is clarion rallying cry: find your thing, whatever it may be, and love it like your life depends on it.

Funny, intelligent, transporting and liberating, this book is a total joy.

My Thoughts

‘If … I told you it was okay, not everything needs to be about making meaning, that not everything has to be justifiable as a good use of your time or mind - then, could you let … your body find its way towards loving what it loves? And what would that look like for you? It’s not that easy.’

Okay … you got me. With an intriguing title like that who wouldn’t pick it up! Tabitha takes her obsession with Benedict Cumberbatch to investigate how the reality of life for women - family, job etc etc - can take away from who you once were and rob you of some of the joys to be found in this world. 

‘You should indulge in things which refresh your spirit or make you laugh or make you feel something.” She sighs. “People deserve indulgences. I wish they could do more. I tell them, ‘Go somewhere! Do something! Feel something! Anything!’

I am a little conflicted with this book. I was not sure whether to read it or not … undecided for the longest time. Eventually I took the plunge and ultimately was glad I did as I walked away affirmed and with many pearls of wisdom, joy bubbles and affirmations. Yet, I am here to say, this is most definitely a book about Benedict Cumberbatch. Now, whilst I like Benedict and find his work to be of the highest calibre, the constant mention (and I get it … he is symbolic as one example of what women of a certain age *cough … splutter* may embrace *figuratively speaking … although I am sure this author would like it otherwise*) it just became a bit too much at times.

‘I did not follow a route determined by the things I loved; the things I loved were determined by the route, my graduation from one life stage to the next. Which is why falling in love with Benedict Cumberbatch didn’t feel natural or unsurprising at all. It felt like a step backwards, in the very wrong direction.’

That has to be put to one side if you are to truly enjoy the many colours of this book -  part memoir, part pop culture, part passion pursuit, part art dissertation on feminism.What this most definitely is a book about, is women. Why is it we often lose that spark along life’s journey and how to stand proud and embrace whatever our passions may be at any age. Here! Here! I fully support the key message that this book offers and I am ever so happy someone stood up and proclaimed “it’s okay!”

‘… motherhood is. The “shattering” is what the writer Sarah Manguso calls it in her Harper’s essay about writing and mothering: the “disintegration of the self, after which the original form is quite gone.’

So, the main message, find your thing! Embrace it! Squeeze every last drop out of it for life is too short to do otherwise. This book affirms that it’s okay to get ‘obsessed’, ‘carried away’, ‘ridiculous at your age’ or worried about what others may think. Tabitha’s book encourages you to recognise and find your lost spark and then build it into a great big fire that will lead you to joy and fulfilment. 

‘I’m desperate for you to know that it’s worth it. Finding your thing, I mean. Feeling a spark of something, and instead of instinctively dousing it, fanning the flames.’

Women need more in their lives than the usual work and family. They need to play! If you feel that this may be something you have been unsure of or forgotten how to do, then this book is sure to both encourage and congratulate all manner of joyful pursuits at any age. Wise and witty - are you up for the challenge?

‘I need to recast myself in this story as someone who is doing what she wants, because she’s just as entitled to it as anyone else. And who should have started a lot sooner.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Barbizon

Title: The Barbizon

Author: Paulina Bren

Publisher: 3rd March 2021 by Hachette Australia

Pages: 290 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: nonfiction, history, feminism, New York, biography

My Rating: 4 cups

Synopsis:

From award-winning author Paulina Bren comes the first history of New York’s most famous residential hotel—The Barbizon—and the remarkable women who lived there.

The Barbizon tells the story of New York’s most glamorous women-only hotel, and the women—both famous and ordinary—who passed through its doors. World War I had liberated women from home and hearth, setting them on the path to political enfranchisement and gainful employment. Arriving in New York to work in the dazzling new skyscrapers, they did not want to stay in uncomfortable boarding houses; they wanted what men already had—exclusive residential hotels that catered to their needs, with daily maid service, cultural programs, workout rooms, and private dining.

The Barbizon would become the most famous residential hotel of them all, welcoming everyone from aspiring actresses, dancers, and fashion models to seamstresses, secretaries, and nurses. The Barbizon’s residents read like a who’s who: Titanic survivor Molly Brown; actresses Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford, Grace Kelly, Tippi Hedron, Liza Minelli, Ali McGraw, Jaclyn Smith, and Phylicia Rashad; writers Sylvia Plath, Joan Didion, Diane Johnson, Gael Greene, and Meg Wolitzer; and so many more. But before they were household names, they were among the young women arriving at the Barbizon with a suitcase, and hope.

Beautifully written and impeccably researched, The Barbizon weaves together a tale that has, until now, never been told. It is an epic story of women’s ambition in the 20th century. The Barbizon Hotel offered its residents a room of their own and air to breathe, unfettered from family obligations and expectations. It gave women a chance to remake themselves however they pleased. No place had existed like it before, or has since.

My Thoughts

‘The Barbizon tells the story of New York’s most famous women’s hotel from its construction in 1927 to its eventual conversion into multimillion-dollar condominiums in 2007. It is at once a history of the singular women who passed through its doors, a history of Manhattan through the twentieth century, and a forgotten story of women’s ambition.’

The appeal of this book for anyone interested in women's history is strong - and it delivers. With the freedom women gained through WWI and then the strong movement of the 1920s, many flocked to NYC to follow their dreams - but where could they safely stay? The Barbizon Hotel was built to fill this void and over its many years, housed quite the array of in/famous women. The author does a wonderful job in researching to highlight not only the history of this legendary hotel but also important milestones that occurred in women’s history. 

‘Women did not come to the Barbizon to network, but that’s what they did anyway. They

helped each other find work, they talked over problems with one another, they applauded each other’s successes and gave solace to those with disappointment and heartbreak. They felt empowered just by being at the Barbizon.’

This was, for the most part, a fascinating read into women’s history - the birth of a ‘women only’ hotel at a time when they needed support to try and reach their dreams outside of the expected marriage only life. This book truly captures the double standards for men and women and how society treated them and the expectations attached to being a woman during this period.

‘Every time a woman walked down the street dressed for work ... she was a reminder of “compromised manhood.” By 1932, twenty-six states had made it illegal for married women to hold a job, and in the states where it was not mandatory to quit work upon marriage, it was still mandatory to disclose one’s impending married status because it was considered outrageous for a woman to be taking a job away from a “real” breadwinner. The Barbizon provided shelter from such denouncements. It was not just a residential hotel anymore; it was a safe harbor.’

Chapters were sequenced chronologically and also highlighted both the monetary/society status and colour issue - you were nearly always white and rich.  Highlights were also brought to famous women who stayed such as  Joan Didion, Grace Kelly and Sylvia Plath. Such an interesting look at society and culture of the 20th century, as well as the dynamic changes for women over this period. 

‘The Barbizon dollhouse might well have been full of young, beguiling beauties, but there was much more behind their attractive facades. Even if many of these young women would indeed

end up as wives and mothers back in the towns from which they had come, their goals while in New York were ... ambitious.’

The author went to great efforts through the use of interviews, letters, and books to bring to light the lifestyle of these young women - from their frustrations to achievements, from their success stories to their failures.  This book could have been boring but was deftly turned into a fascinating portrayal of the now famous building and the women who stayed there. The Barbizon provided  women with the independence they desired, a place where they could hope to discover their true selves away from societal demands. 

‘ ... a place where women went to reimagine themselves: and in the twentieth century, that was not about to go out of style.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Real J.R.R. Tolkien - The Man Who Created Middle-Earth

Title: The Real J.R.R. Tolkien - The Man Who Created Middle-Earth

Author: Jesse Xander

Publisher: 28th February 2021 by Pen & Sword White Owl

Pages: 136 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: nonfiction, biography

My Rating: 3 cups

Synopsis:

The Real JRR Tolkien: The Man Who Created Middle Earth is a comprehensive biography of the linguist and writer; taking the reader from his formative years of home-schooling, through the spires of Oxford, to his romance with his wife-to-be on the brink of war, and onwards into his phenomenal academic success and his creation of the seminal high fantasy world of Middle Earth. "The Real JRR Tolkien" delves into his influences, places, friendships, triumphs and tragedies, with particular emphasis on how his remarkable life and loves forged the worlds of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Using contemporary sources and comprehensive research, "The Real JRR Tolkien" offers a unique insight into the life and times of one of Britain's greatest authors, from cradle to grave to legacy.

My Thoughts

‘Over the twelve years Tolkien dedicated to writing The Lord of the Rings, so many influences came and went, and although revisions were made, the whole remained largely intact.’

Being a huge fan of Tolkien’s work, I had never really delved into much about the man himself. For a short book, it sure packed a punch in terms of detail and research. It was so enlightening to learn about the man who created such iconic works as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. 

‘There is much about The Lord of the Rings which speaks to the truly gargantuan task Tolkien imposed on himself in discovering this part of his world’s history. Not only the sweeping explorations of danger, grief and hope, but also in the minutiae. At one point he did a series of rewrites to make sure he had accurately charted the phases of the moon for the whole journey.’

This book covers from his birth until his death with some of the key influences in his life and ultimately his writing. The author is obviously a fan of Tolkien and that was evident through the passionate prose. At times, however, it read more like an academic essay as opposed to a biography and this made some sections rather heavy going.  Still, I learnt a great deal about his life and I acknowledge the author’s unbiased approach in delivering details that would appear unseemly eg. Tolkien’s probable racist views. 

‘Tolkien not only wrote imperfect characters, but he wrote from their imperfect perspective, reflecting the complexities of both our world and theirs.’

If you are a fan of Middle Earth and wish to learn more about the man behind the words, then you cannot go past Jesse Xander’s book. It is sure to provide fresh insights into the places, people and events that shaped the man that made the legend. 

‘Middle-Earth … what a spectacular legacy to leave. Not just a book, or a series of books, but a whole world, which has delighted people in the decades.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Details

Title: The Details on Love, Death and Reading

Author: Tegan Bennett Daylight

Publisher: 8th July 2020 by Simon & Schuster (Australia)

Pages: 200 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: non fiction, biography and memoir

My Rating: 2.5 cups

Synopsis:

A book about the connections we form with literature and each other

Tegan Bennett Daylight has led a life in books - as a writer, a teacher and a critic, but first and foremost as a reader. In this deeply insightful and intimate work, Daylight describes how her reading has nourished her life, and how life has informed her reading. In both, she shows us that it's the small points of connection - the details - that really matter: what we notice when someone close to us dies, when we give birth, when we make friends. In life's disasters and delights, the details are what we can share and compare and carry with us.

Daylight writes with invigorating candour and compassion about her mother's last days; her own experiences of childbearing and its aftermath (in her celebrated essay ‘Vagina'); her long admiration of Helen Garner and George Saunders; and her great loves and friendships. Each chapter is a revelation, and a celebration of how books offer not an escape from ‘real life' but a richer engagement with the business of living.

The result is a work that will truly deepen your relationship with books, and with other readers. The delight is in the details.

My Thoughts

‘A great book changes with you.’

I am so undecided on this book. Initially I was attracted by two things. Firstly the cover: that seemingly 1970s style vibe from the subject herself (could easily have been me) to the sepia tinge common of that era. Secondly, the synopsis speaks to all bibliophiles. Yet by the conclusion I was just not sold on it in many ways. Don’t get me wrong, Tegan has many worthwhile offerings here for contemplation but I found there was no flow to the book and I was not onboard with all she had to say. Yet, that can be a good thing right ... to push your boundaries?  Thus my overall indecision on the complexity that is this book. 

‘Literature isn’t, for me, a classroom, it is right at the centre of my life. I don’t ‘learn’ from it. It isn’t ‘good for me’. It isn’t work or study or a hobby. It is me. I think in lines from books I’ve read. It’s alive in me all the time, I’m helpless, it runs through me like a torrent.’

Tegan is a wonderful writer. Her prose is eloquent yet rugged with her insights into reading and writing evident for all. From her own life and career, to her reflections on other authors, she offers clear and insightful ideas. She expresses her great loves and great concerns when it comes to reading and writing. With a great variance in chapter topics there is something for everyone from family to famous authors. Her understanding on the technique of writing and her advice to her tertiary students demonstrates her great love of literature. She delves into great depth on particular authors  such as Saunders. 

‘If you are a reader like I am you will have become closely acquainted with more than one body of work. There’s something particular in the reading of one author’s entire oeuvre. Easy with Austen; less so with Dickens. I have read every book written by Jane Austen, Tim Winton, Helen Garner, David Malouf, Charlotte Wood, Jonathan Franzen, Kazuo Ishiguro, Alice Munro, James Wood, Alan Hollinghurst and George Saunders. In this way you enter into a lifelong conversation with the author. You watch their material change, their attitudes to it shifting. You learn how to read them.’

What I struggled with was the seemingly random selection of chapters and topics. It’s not that I expected a sequential tale but I found it to be disjointed overall in its approach. The common theme of reading was not strong enough to gel it all together in my opinion. Also being a teacher myself, I could relate to some of the aspects Tegan shone a light. However, I disagreed with other things, for example, her summation of young adult literature.

‘When I stood in front of a class I felt an excited kinship, and a sense of my enormous luck–to be there, right now, amongst young people, as their reading and writing took shape. I still feel lucky, because it’s a privilege to be next to young people at any stage of their lives. But sometimes, when I read their writing, I want to set up a howl of desolation. Their flimsy words scud across an empty landscape, a landscape unpopulated by all the books that came before. There’s no weight, there’s no texture, there’s no echo, there’s no depth.’

All up this is an interesting read for lovers of literature. Here you will find one reader/writer’s thoughts on the impact of a life of reading and how it holds your hand as you journey through life together.  

‘I want them to notice what a powerful tool literature is, to understand that it helps us to know ourselves and the society we live in. I want them to discover that if they learn to handle language they might not feel as though they’re worth nothing, have nothing to say.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.