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rhubarbspages

@rhubarbspages

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~my reading journal
📖 den & cujo
36/26

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I am absolutely LOVING the lighting in our kitchen right now, autumn makes the afternoon light so special 🥺 featuring what was my current read last week but I was still worn out from my reading challenge last month & needed something a bit different - I just KNOW I will love this book when I get back to it in the future 🫶 by @rhubarbspages

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a day ago

the last two mornings in a row have looked very similar - pancakes for breakfast, mixed puzzles to wake up my brain, and some spooky reading with stephen (and rhubarb!) 🐕 loving how the autumn light comes through the kitchen windows at the moment 🥹🥹 by @rhubarbspages

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3 days ago

my autumn hopefuls stack 🍂 (the maggie one is the vanishing act of esme lennox) by @rhubarbspages

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5 days ago

it’s a bit on the later side but here’s my wrap-up for last month - the month of my fundraiser for Teenage Cancer Trust! ⭐️

my goal was to read 2000 pages and raise money for the charity, and while I didn’t quite get the page count I aimed for, I’m still proud of myself for reading so much and especially for raising money for charity. in an email update from TCT, a total of over £120,000 was raised from this challenge alone! and I’m so glad I joined in with this effort 🫶

swipe for a bunch of mini reviews on everything I read and listened to last month - did any of these ratings surprise you?

happy reading 📖🫶

#teenagecancertrust #teenagecancertrustchallenges #septembertbr #bookish #reading by @rhubarbspages

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9 days ago

soldier sailor by claire kilroy

after reading a few books outside of my comfort zone, and while in the middle of another book outside of my comfort zone, I decided I needed something a bit more me. borrowed the audiobook of this one to listen to while cleaning the house & immediately fell in love with the writing and how easy it was to feel the love seeping out of the words.

soldier sailor is a love letter from a mum to her young child, about her first few months navigating the rocky road of motherhood and the emotional, physical and mental strains that come with this journey

it’s raw, real, heartbreaking and full of devotion; a heartfelt story about real people and real lives, so an easy decision to rate this 5⭐️. would love the chance to read more from this author 🫶 by @rhubarbspages

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18 days ago

what I read this summer 🌞

compared to last summer I’d say this is a huge improvement, especially to my physical tbr (even though only 5 of these were actually on my tbr last summer 🫣 but still!)

this summer was full of a range of reads, including some new releases, award winners, and big chunky books that I either loved or didn’t feel ready for

the 2 dnfs on this list aren’t a reflection of the books, just that it wasn’t the right time for me to read them! I do aim to get back to priory of the orange tree & life before man some time in the future 🙂‍↕️

and I’ve seen a lot more of audiobooks on my currently reading/read list this year which has been a great way to pass time at work, while cleaning, or going on extra long walks with rhubarb 🦮🐾

my autumn reading list looks pretty positive already, with 5 books already read so far this month towards my fundraising challenge (link in bio for more information and ways to support!) so I’m excited to do another wrap up like this at the start of our winter months ☃️

what was your favourite read of this summer? by @rhubarbspages

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24 days ago

the seventh son & cat’s eye (double review)

I picked a really interesting combo of books to read together this week - one I’ve been buddy reading for nearly a year (363 days to be exact) and one I impulsively borrowed from the library to listen to while on night shifts.

reading both at the same time have really helped me to specify what it is that I like and dislike in a book. following my obsession over the morning star last month, I’ve really started to get into more ‘no plot just vibes’ books or where we have a hint of a plot but we mostly just talk about people. cat’s eye is a lovely example of this, a kind of bildungsroman following a woman in the 40s-80s. I especially love Atwood’s brash narrative voice, a voice I wanted to hear more of after finishing oryx & crake on monday. 4⭐️

a poor example of ‘no plot just vibes’ is sebastian faulks’ seventh son. there was a plot idea for sure, but the only way I can describe this book is as if it was planned out in bullet points, the bullet points were slightly expanded on into sentences, and those sentences were squished together to create this book. squished is the right word too, because the pacing of this book is just so fast we don’t get the chance to sit with the plot points or characters or how they feel during this dramatic event.

without spoiling the ending, if you want to read seventh son (I would not recommend it), don’t read past part 3. nothing is gained other than a sick feeling in your stomach, and a wild plot twist that makes no sense, is unnecessary and downright disgusting, comes out of nowhere and sweeps you into the sea. I described this book as “godforsaken” when ranting about it after I threw the book on the ground, I think this is an accurate adjective to use. also unethical & profane. 1⭐️ by @rhubarbspages

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a month ago

my three course meal book list 🍖🥦🧁

inspired by @stevenjreese, these are the books I would pick to fill my belly (brain) with things I love and things to challenge me

>>

entree 🍖 astonishing splashes of colour by clare morrall

the entree is a book that:
1. is a genre or vibe you like
2. is critically acclaimed

morrall’s book has life and a bit of psychology in it; conversations about motherhood and living with synaesthesia, a condition where emotions can be seen as colours. it was also shortlisted for the booker prize in 2003 🏅

veggies 🥦 shuggie bain by douglas stuart

the veggies book is something…
1. you wouldn’t typically read
2. that’s a bit challenging
3. critically acclaimed

shuggie bain seems like something that would be up my street but the heavy political topics & scottish setting seem like they would push my out of my normal reading comfort zone - only as these are two things I normally don’t seem to read much about! but I have heard millions of good things about this book of stuart’s, which is no surprise because it won the booker prize in 2020 🏆

dessert 🧁 broken country by clare leslie hall

this is a book that is just everything I would devour in a book. there are no other rules to a dessert book, other than it being something you’re obsessed with, to finish off the three book meal

reading the blurb, broken country seems filled with drama and I get on really well with a thriller/literary fiction combination of a novel - there’s something to solve and lives to be introduced to and I could see myself sitting down and finishing this in an afternoon 🛋️ by @rhubarbspages

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a month ago

oryx and crake by margaret atwood

a man is trapped in a dream and advancing technologies, along with the smartest brains, help to finally create something that betters the human race & solves many of our global issues. or does it? how much is too much, and how far is too far?

“the tide of human desire, the desire for more and better, would overwhelm them. it would take control and drive events, as it had in every large change throughout history.”

oryx and crake is a speculative fiction, about a world gone wrong and how close we are to achieving that today. there’s a warning written under every line, behind every idea, that seems so clearly wrong on paper but it’s actually closer to reality than we think. and maybe it’s just being advertised to us in a certain way? speculative fiction is about the very possible future that we’re capable of, and even though the book was first published in 2003 we can see some ideas are still relevant today, which makes the story that little bit scarier

“it’s the fate of these words to be eaten by beetles”

>> review continues

we essentially have a 400 page conversation about the question “how much is too much, how far is too far?”. not new concepts but maybe ones that have progressed further than we have in today’s world already- the creation and manufacturing of new ways of growing food under the guise of it being organic (due to overpopulation and the decline of food quality and conditions to grow food in). the cross-breeding of animals and species in order to complete some task - whatever is the most genetically able to carry out a task. how far is too far?

this isn’t my first Atwood and it definitely won’t be my last - having read the handmaid’s tale in school, I learned to love Atwood’s blunt & ‘no frills’ writing. it’s one thing I loved about oryx and crake, the narrative voice. it is so addictive, and fits the sci-fi mood perfectly. harsh, brash, no beautiful descriptive writing - it’s cold hard truth, coping mechanisms, scavenging, and constantly thinking about what we could’ve done differently and where it all went wrong. flicking back to the quotes at the beginning of the story, we’re given a perfect quote for t by @rhubarbspages

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a month ago

⭐️ september reading challenge: progress update

I’ve challenged myself to read 2000 pages this month, and so far we’ve raised £37 for Teenage Cancer Trust! swipe for some more detail on what I’ve read in September 📚

if you’d like to donate to teenage cancer trust, you can find my fundraising link in my bio & please follow along for daily updates on my progress in this challenge!

happy reading 📖🫶

#teenagecancertrust #teenagecancertrustchallenges #septembertbr #bookish #reading by @rhubarbspages

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a month ago

solo date & reading update:

the vast majority of those who voted on my poll yesterday morning chose for me to take myself on a solo date out instead of having a chill day in, so I listened!

I spent some time mooching around charity shops for inspiration & settled in a coffee shop with a white chocolate matcha which was just as good as the last time I went 🥰

however I’ve been struggling to get into the vivisectors which was the next book in my fundraiser tbr this month. I ended up re-reading the 40 pages I’d read the night before, and carried on mooching instead.

I’m a huge mood reader so I wondered if the next book on my list would give me any more joy, and I’m so glad I did that because I’ve read 100 pages of oryx & crake today lol who’d have thunk it!

last night I also used my puzzle book a lot to take the pressure of the TBR off my shoulders, and snapped some pics of rhubarb on a new (to me) digital camera I picked up from one shop yesterday 📸🫶

back to reality (work) this evening, but I’ve packed oryx & crake in my bag for a bit of break time reading 🤭 what are you reading at the minute?? by @rhubarbspages

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a month ago

the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde

a man has a portrait painted of him, then becomes obsessed with staying young & beautiful forever, while his soul becomes more corrupt & evil.

“I think it is better to be beautiful than to be good”

I think overall this reading experience not only opened my eyes to gothic fiction as a genre (just in time for spooky season !! 👻), but I also put more pressure on myself during the review & reflection process and realised I wanted to dig deeper into the thoughts & feelings I have before, during, and after reading a book. so…

before reading, I was anxious about the older language I predicted coming across in this book, so I prepared myself by watching reviews. although this did spoil the main plot twists for me, I still enjoyed the process of learning how the plot unfolds & I was still shocked and nervous at all the right times!

during, I put a lot of energy into understanding the text, its surface level meaning and the context outside the scenes. on reflection, this meant I wasn’t as conscious of my opinions on the writing style, text itself, or the new genre I was exploring at the time

>> review continues

after, I felt accomplished in that I had ‘overcome’ a classic, a genre I historically have found difficult to read, but I also accomplished enjoying a new book! and I thought about different ways in which an author can inject and influence text with their own societal & cultural ideas. I do often have a very straightforward view with this - that the relationship between idea presented in text and author’s personal opinion is linear & direct. but is it not fiction? I feel like I need to use my imagination a bit more and not be so set on this idea

what I liked: the underlying sinister energy in the book & in dorian himself, it’s like his bad behaviour’s activated by lord henry & he slowly becomes a worse person as the book goes on. but he also knows he does bad things and regrets them but also tells himself he shouldn’t care. becomes more of the monster he sees in the portrait. is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? or is that who he is as a person? seems to switch between bad guy & guilt-riddled naive young man. dor by @rhubarbspages

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a month ago