Tom's treasures of fiction, poetry, literature and more...

Hello all. Here I am on this wonderful bank holiday Monday in May. Now I am going to be celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community all month long. But you might be asking yourself what LGBTQIA+ actually stands for? Or maybe you are unfamiliar with some parts of the acronym? It is a good job that I am here! This is what each part of the acronym means... L: The 'L' refers to Lesbian. This is often someone identifying a woman who has attraction to other women, namely only women. However, some non-binary may choose to identify with this label and that is valid. For some non-binary people they might feel more feminine in their own gender identity. They may also consider their relationship as lesbian. It is not up to anyone to judge them on how they choose to label themselves. The reason the 'L' comes first in the acronym is because during the AIDs pandemic of the 1980s, it was lesbian women caring for gay men who were going through an extremely tough time. G: The 'G' as I br...

Welcome to May everyone. As a new month arrives, I have a new author of the month. I also have a new theme of the month. Now next month is Pride month where the LGBTQIA+ community come together more than ever. I do believe pride and solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ is something for all year round. Anyway, because of this the theme of the month for May and June is LGBTQIA+. With that as the theme, I decided to pick an author who is openly a lesbian and wrote a novel about a trans character. That author is Jackie Kay and the novel is her only novel, Trumpet  (1988). I am looking forwards to reading more Jackie Kay this month and highlighting the significance in inclusivity and why the LGBTQIA+ community deserves to be thought of all year round, not just in June. Further to this, I going to end my blog posts with my pronouns as well because I do it for emails the same as others. I just thought it made sense. It never hurt anyone... Here is to May everyone! Until next time, Thomas (They/th...

As we draw closer to the end of April, I am hear to let you in on what I have been reading across the month... 1: Some of me Poems  (1976) by Pam Ayres. I kickstarted off my reading and reviewing in April with my first Pam Ayres book. As she has been author of the month, I picked her first collection Some of me Poems  (1976) to read and have a review that you can look at from the beginning of the month. 2: My French... I do it, I do not stop. I am continually working on my French lessons in a bid to master the language. These of course including reading tasks so I do reading often (in French and English). 3: Bus timetables. Where I live there have been a number of timetable changes and I am have browsing through all the new timetables to see what changes (again), improvements (unlikely) and reductions (as per) that there would be. I did also come across a brand new 24 hour bus route, though not for my area. It seems that Metrobus are going to be running a new 24 hour bus route...

For today's blog post I am reviewing Pam Ayres' children's book Hattie the Hare  (2024). Now it is a nice book with beautiful illustrations by Nicola O'Byrne. The colourful and intricate illustrations alone could capture the attention of children. Then we have the story itself. The story is rather special I find, offering information about hares as it goes on. But the facts are not given in a boring, factual manner. The story is fascinating with rhymes that are perfectly created. Ayres is keeping children engaged too by avoiding words too complex for them to comprehend. What makes the story even better is how she has included facts about hares at the back, which provides a learning element for children. It is good to have books that can be educational and that can children can also enjoy. Pam Ayres here has written a great book, which I believe ticks all the right boxes for a book being aimed at children. It is sweet and informative without being likely to create boredo...

Hi all, today's post was going to be a review of a book I recently read however I just found out the author recently used the word 'Woke' to describe modern feminism. I am gutted because 'woke' is normally used as an insult to those wanting justice, fairness and equality for all. This is something I thought the author would have supported but clearly I was wrong. All I can see is that I am glad the book of hers that I picked up only cost me 50p from out the front of a charity shop. The funny thing is that I finished the book off this week, ignoring all the books I wanted to read and only found out about her comments after I had finished it and after I had typed up my review. I am gutted to have found that out because there are enough people on the right brandishing others as 'woke' all too often. I do not find it an insult as such because to me it just says that I have woken up and I value equality. But I am not going to review a book when the author makes a...

Hello all. For some reason, though I thought I had posted on Monday it is nowhere to be seen! Anyway today is World Earth day! Are you going to be out and about somewhere, especially somewhere where there is nature? I think sometimes we take this planet for granted but we need the planet with all the plants, animals and bodies of water such as oceans. Think how many people travel in a boat. If we ruined our oceans, then people would get stuck. Ferry companies would suffer financially and jobs would be lost if they could not carry on providing ferry journeys for people. Then we have all the plastic that people just chuck or leave on beaches. Seagulls can access this and this can cause them harm. I know people might argue they are pests, but seriously... Is it a crime to be concerned about one type of animal suffering? If you take out an entire species because of what the human race has been doing, is doing and continues to do then that could affect the ecosystem and have an impact on ot...