Tag: Books

  • Review: Hag-Seed – Margaret Atwood

    Review: Hag-Seed – Margaret Atwood

    In October 2017 I was lucky enough to hear Margaret Atwood speak and to get a book signed. While Atwood was finishing off her interview my mum ran off to buy a few books for us to get signed. Since I had already read Oryx and Crake I landed with Hag-Seed, a recent Atwood book that had somehow completely passed me by when it was published. I had never even heard of it and googled it while we queued. It’s a re-telling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Groovy, I thought.

    Now I’ve finally read it, I’m so glad this is the book I have signed. I will be recommending it to everyone, Shakespeare and Atwood fans or not. Hag-Seed follows the vengeful Felix (or Mr Duke) as he puts on Shakespearean plays in a local prison, all in the hopes of getting his own back on his former colleagues (now national politicians). The layers in Hag-Seed are intense, especially when you consider the layers of The Tempest. It is essentially a novel of a play of a play of a play. There might even be another few plays in there.

    Not only is it a fascinating contemporary re-imagination of The Tempest, Hag-Seed also provides some provocative observations about criminal justice systems, parental grief and, (obviously, it’s Atwood) gender. Towards the end there’s a moment involving a few puppets, and I couldn’t help but get some Angela Carter’s The Magic Toyshop vibes – I would love to know if that was intentional or not.

    Since reading The Handmaid’s Tale at high school, I have considered myself an Atwood fan, but as I’ve mentioned before I have actually struggled with some of her other books, like Oryx and Crake and Lady Oracle. The easy-nature of Hag-Seed was so refreshing and enjoyable, plus I think it’s amazing how it doesn’t even sound like the voice I usually expect to hear from Atwood. I find it really fascinating how so many diverse voices and stories can come from one writer – I hope that is something I might one day achieve myself.

    Buy Hag-Seed and other books from Wordery by using my affiliate link.

  • Reading Resolutions 2018

    Reading Resolutions 2018

    And so we’ve come full circle. A year ago on New Year’s Eve, I posted the first blog on Fictitiously Hilary, titled “Reading Resolutions”. I recapped what I read in 2017 (a whopping 42 books) and I set my reading resolutions for the year. One of these resolutions was to blog about what I’m reading, why I’m reading it and what I think about it. While #Periodically appeared in the spring and took a section of this blog in a very different, very vaginal direction, I like to think I’ve relished this first resolution.

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    Full circle – get it? If you know, you know.

    So what about numbers then. My resolution for 2017 was to read 36 books, including 12 books in French. As I mentioned in my earlier blog this week, I am somehow on my 60th book of 2017!  However… I’m really disappointed that I didn’t stay true to the French resolution. While in the last few months I’ve honed in on it, between exams and travelling I really let my French literature habits slip, meaning I have only read 8 books in French this year. Reading Harry Potter in French has really relit that spark, so I hope it’s something I can address in 2018. (Side note: I have been watching Mystère du Lac on All4, does that make up for my shoddy reading efforts?)

    2018 Resolutions

    The first resolution I have had in my mind for some months now and I’m really determined to put it in motion. While the convenience of Amazon and Waterstones is undeniable, I would really like to support more independent booksellers and to buy second hand where possible. So with that in mind, my first resolution for 2018 is to primarily buy books from independent bookshops, charity shops and book fairs. I only want to use the mainstream booksellers when absolutely necessary (i.e. I have vouchers, or there’s an unavoidable difference in price). Not only is this going to be a great way to support indy businesses and charities, it should get me adventuring a bit more. I’m really excited about this, so I’ll let you know how I get on. I also have a huge TBR pile after Christmas so technically I shouldn’t need to buy any books for a while.

    Numbers wise I don’t know what to suggest. Is it realistically possible for me to surpass 60 in 2018? I assume my current uphill reading rate is bound to plateau at some point? I guess there’s only one way to find out, so let’s just aim for 65 and see what happens. I want to keep my French reading goals ambitious but realistic and I’ll admit I’m not entirely sure how to do that. Since I never reached it, I’m going to say 12 again and make a bigger effort to read at least one French book a month. Hold me to this one please, I clearly need inspiration mid-year.

    The final resolution is something I touched upon in a recent blog post, Non Fiction Reads 2017; to diversify my non fiction reads in 2018. My fiction has always been a little broader but there’s no harm in expanding what I read there too – open your world to different books and you’ll open your mind to a different world, right?

    Happy New Year folks! Thanks for sticking around for so long, especially when many of you are here for books and all I give you is uteruses! I have some writing related news too, so look out for a blog about my writing resolutions soon. In the meantime, I’m trying desperately hard to be welcomed into the Bookstagram universe, so take a look at my Instagram if you enjoy (un)aesthetically pleasing pictures of books and a closer look at my Christmas book haul and 2017 reads. Here’s to a bigger and better second year of book blogging!

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    I find the administrative cross over to a new year very satisfying, just me?
  • 2017 Favourites

    2017 Favourites

    By some miracle, this year I have managed to read 60 books (I’m on my 60th as we speak and am gunning to get it finished before the New Year). I’m both impressed but not surprised that I managed 60 books this year. While I wrote a dissertation, graduated from university, started working and edited a newspaper at various points throughout the year, I also travelled for four weeks, had surgery and spent a large portion of time horizontal – I think they all balanced each other out. Rather than going through the entire list, this blog just highlights a few of my favourite reads from 2017.

    Favourite Non-Fiction

    In cased you missed it, Animal by Sara Pascoe was my favourite non-fiction read of the year. It’s funny, informative, heartfelt, dark and full of discussions of female sexuality. Can’t recommend it enough. I run through all my 2017 non-fiction reads in my last blog.

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    Favourite Classic

    I read Lolita this year and despite all its disturbing subject matter, it was a really beautiful book. I can’t pick it as my favourite though because that will only trigger yet another existential crisis about the difference between art and artist (of which 2017 has caused MANY). So with that in mind I’m going to pick Don Casmurro, which I read in Brazil, where the book is set and the writer, Machado de Assis, is from. I wasn’t really paying attention when I started reading it and it caught me off guard. One minute I was just having a read and the next I was totally transformed and hooked and weighed down by futility of the human condition (uhoh, another existential crisis is looming). I don’t have much experience with jealousy, but this book made me feel it in a really powerful way.

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    Favourite Play

    I’ve read a fair old amount of plays this year, both for my degree at the beginning of the year and for fun at the end. While Fleabag, the Vagina Monologues, and Tigerish Waters all blew me away with their own unique style, nothing has inspired me more this year than David Ive’s Venus in Fur. I was introduced to the book, play and film by a class and a brilliant lecturer. I wrote an assignment on it, which I did well in, only increasing my infatuation. Then, once I was freelance writer, Natalie Dormer only went and starred in the damn thing and I reviewed it at work. So not only do I have a lot of professional and academic interest in this play, I bloody love the thing too. I’m not sure my year would have been the same without it.

    Favourite Sci-Fi

    Ooh this is so hard to pick because I loved vN so much, and loved writing about it even more, but for the second year running I’m going to have to give it to Chris Beckett. The final instalment of the Dark Eden series, Daughter of Eden, is the only book this year to literally make my jaw drop. Seriously, whether you’re into sci-fi or not, I cannot recommend this series enough.

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    Favourite Contemporary Novel

    This one goes to the most transformative novel I read this year, Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This books picks you up and takes you from country to country, city to city, articulates a diaspora I may never myself experience and compels understanding. I’ve got some Adiche on the TBR shelf and I can’t wait to get stuck in.

    Favourite Comedy

    This one goes to the play that made me choke with laughter in bed – Fleabag. I wasn’t sure the humour would hit me given I’d already seen the BBC series, but nope, it got me good.

    Favourite Children’s Book

    I’ve re-read some of the Potter books this year but I’m excluding them from this… which leaves me with one children’s book. Good job I loved it. The Journey to River Sea was as enchanting as everyone said it was. A real adventure story in an already adventurous environment.

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    Favourite Mixed-Genre Book

    The formidable Tigerish Waters by Sophie Reilly. You can read my review here, and I hope you will buy a copy and read it yourself, it is astounding.

    Favourite Self-Published Book

    Does it count that I read my own book again this year if it’s limited circulation of self-publication is to me and me alone? Didn’t think so. In which case it goes to Richard Hopkin’s The Cincinnati Tin Trunk – a historical treasure hunt across America and Europe.

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    Favourite Book in French

    Despite having read Rebecca in French this year and my favourite Annie Ernaux, I’m going to give this category to the Harry Potter books I’ve read in French this year. It has been nothing but a delight having an already loved world transformed into another loved world and language.

    I do have a problem here though, the edition I’ve been reading seems to have been discontinued, meaning if I want to read them quickly I’m either going to have a mix matched collection or to pay waaay more than I can afford. Bookish people, help, what do I do in this situation?

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    Hilary’s Favourite Novel of 2017

    Last but not least is Daphne du Maurier’s Frenchman’s Creek. I love Rebecca so I was ready to love this one, but I got so much more than I bargained for. I just feel that the book was ahead of its time in lots of ways which made an already compelling book a delight to read. I wish I’d known about it a year ago, it could have been a really interesting addition to my dissertation.

    For full pictures of my 2017 reads head over to my Instagram: FictitiouslyHilary.