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

Hello to all the hes, shes theys and zies. I wanted to do an opinion piece on how and why I think Atwood's work can be useful to us in society. Take her 1985 classic  The Handmaid's Tale , when Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president, the novel rose in the bestseller charts as the handmaids were seen as figures of resistance against Trump's regimes targeting women. This tells us something about her work. Notice how Trump became president in 2017 until 2021, and his presidency caused a rise of interest in Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale . Then two years later The Testaments  (2019) was published, winning the Booker prize. There must have been a clear interest in a sequel all of a sudden because The Handmaid's Tale  was published in 1985. It took thirty-four years until we arrived at the sequel. Though her book also rose in prominence again, I think because of the book banning in the United States of America. Some people saw her book as "bad" or ...

It's me again... Your favourite book reviewer back with another Margaret Atwood book to review. This time I thought I would tuck into Atwood's 1988 novel Cat's Eye . This novel is gripped with spectral memories of the narrator's past, it is a bildungsroman. A bildungsroman is just a novel that goes through a character's life, from being a child, to growing up as a young person to becoming an adult. Great Expectations  (1861) by Charles Dickens is another example. Anyway, the narrator, Elaine is haunted by Cordelia who I will not give too much about her away. This novel threw me, many times. We had Elaine and her various friends. First we were introduced to Carol, then Grace and finally Cordelia. But it is Cordelia, who's presence is felt throughout the novel. The thing is, I cannot understand why. Without giving too much away, Cordelia was hardly being nice to Elaine and I just expected that as Elaine grew up that she would move on; that she would not have Corde...

 I am back again people firstly to apologise for not posting yesterday. I became unsure on what I was going to post. Originally I wanted to review The Handmaid's Tale  tv series, series 1. But I was unable to find somewhere I could watch it. I know it used to be on channel 4 although it is currently not available on there. The only place I found in the UK where it could be watched is Amazon and that will never happen. Their support for Israel and the thought of an extremely rich man, getting even richer (while workers suffer on such low wage) sickens me. I would not waste my money on that service. Anyway, I shall have a post up on Wednesday coming, with another one on Friday too. I want to post these and do already know what they are. There will be my end of the week post on what I have read this week, coming on Sunday of course alongside the other two. I hope you look forward to my future posts to come. In the mean time feel free to read or whatever else you do in life. You c...

  What I have read this week... I have decided to do a weekly post on Sundays, only a short one, just to inform you all what I have been reading that current week. When I do these little posts I will try to include everything I have read, even if it does not seem relevant to the general themes of my blog posts from within that week. This week has seen me read a little bit, though not much in the way of variety. 1: French! Yes I am still doing my French daily. I have done over a year without losing my record of days. 2: The Testaments (2019) by Margaret Atwood. I finished this awesome novel off at the beginning of the week. As you can see from my review, I thoroughly loved it. 3: Wonderbook  (2018) by Jeff Vandermeer. I got this book while in my final year at university and lately it has been insightful to me. I love reading bits and pieces of it at times. For me this is instrumental to anyone wanting to write anything considered within the realms of speculative fiction - fant...

Hi everyone, I hope you are all well. I am back once again to deliver my thoughts on yet another Margaret Atwood novel. This time I decided to dive into Margaret Atwood's The Testaments  (2019). After having re-read and reviewed The Handmaid's Tale  (1985), I thought it was only right to read the sequel book and review it. First of all I wanted to say how nervous I was at what was going to happen in this novel. The ending of The Handmaid's Tale  left me with fears over what had happened to the protagonist and I had so many unanswered questions. I thought The Testaments  would give all these answers and in some way they did. But there were finer details which had not been accounted for, stuff that I could not work out. That is not to say, I did not enjoy the book. Far from it! I loved The Testaments  and there are multiple reasons why. The most important is this gender divide and how things changed in Atwood's dystopia here. In the first book, the men had all the...

  What I have read this week... I have decided to do a weekly post on Sundays, only a short one, just to inform you all what I have been reading that current week. When I do these little posts I will try to include everything I have read, even if it does not seem relevant to the general themes of my blog posts from within that week. This week has seen me read a little bit, though not much in the way of variety. 1: French! Now first of all, I do daily lessons on my phone with French with an app and some of the tasks get me to read French. Lirez-vous Français anyone? 2: The Testaments  (2019) by Margaret Atwood. This is my latest Atwood text that I have been sinking my teeth into and I am yet to finish this book. I always knew at some point that I would read as of course it followed her 1985 bestseller  The Handmaid's Tale . 3: The National Trust Magazine. As a National Trust member, I love looking through the magazine to see if there is anything interesting. I also attempt...

Hello all, I wanted to post a review of the first ever Atwood text I read: The Handmaid's Tale  (1985). I fell that this novel is very significant at the moment, considering events that are occurring in the USA. This novel challenged ideas namely about sex and the differences between both man and woman. I noticed this the first time I read this at college for my English literature A-Level. That was necessary but I since read it again for pleasure. Considering all that has happened in the past years , especially in the U.S.A, I can understand why they made a T.V series of this book. I have not seen that yet as I am struggling to find it on any service except Amazon. Considering Amazon's support for Israel and the thought of a extremely rich man, getting even richer because of me, I decided I was not that  desperate. But this is not a blog about social politics, you want my authentic and honest book review. It was the vivid descriptions that made this book stand out to me. Right...