lit-crits

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“Reading Sign” (2010s) ◈ Paper meets power lines in white silhouette

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(2022) Rape Culture and Female Resistance in Late Medieval Literature, Sarah Baechle, Carissa M. Harris & Elizaveta Strakhov. 05/04/2025 - 13/04/2025

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 6.5/10

Favourite quote? Didn't have one, but my favourite chapters were "Dismembered Memories: Philomela in Chaucer and Gower" and "Legendary Resistance: Critiquing Rape Culture in Virgin Martyr Passions"

I unfortunately did not enjoy reading this, not because of the subject matter but because of the way it was written. Arguably, there is no good or engaging way to write about rape but yeah. The chapters that focussed on literary rules and practices was particularly hard to get through, it was a lot of jargon that wasn't explained so went right over my head and I couldn't tell you a thing that I read.

I did enjoy reading about Lucretia (who's story/myth I already knew about) and Philomela (who was entirely new to me) and how people throughout the ages viewed these women and their stories. Hagiography is always something I want to read more about, so reading the chapter about St. Winifred and her well was interesting and I have added her shrine to a list of places I want to visit.

The thing I was most excited about with this book was reading the full-length translated pastourelles (Old French poetic form of a "love"/rape poem, usually includes a socially elite man and a peasant shepherdess) that were used in various chapters of the book. These poems are shown in their Old English version alongside the translation, however only some parts of the poem are translated which made things so difficult to comprehend. I'm not sure why they didn't just translate them word for word.

Overall, it was educational (I know all about the cultural and historical impacts of pastourelles now) but quite a hard read. Might be more enjoyable for someone who knows literary jargon and poetry?

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Happy National Library Week!! A great time to ask everyone you know if they have a library card.

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(2005) Tyneside: A History of Newcastle and Gateshead from Earliest Times, Alistair Moffat & George Rosie. 13/03/2025 - 02/04/2025

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 8/10

Favourite quote: None, favourite chapter was "The River Dragon 1066 - 1513"

This is going to be a long review! Picked this up at the Mitchell Library, can't believe it took me so long to actually go. I actually learned a whole lot from this book and it was a really enjoyable read!

First thing it explains is Doggerland, which was an area of land in Northern Europe during the last glacial period that gradually became an island, then became completely submerged and is now somewhere in the North Sea. When it became an island it rang alongside the East coast of Britain and there is evidence that settlers from Doggerland landed in Newcastle and the surrounding areas. Apparently if you stood on a beach in the East at the time, you'd be able to see Doggerland clearly on the horizon.

At some point in time, there was a series of underwater earthquake/landslides (now called the Storegga Slides) which essentially caused a GIANT tsunami that flooded Doggerland and Britain (and probably elsewhere, it just isn't mentioned in this book). What is crazy to me is that Moffat and Rosie say that this tsunami literally shifted whole parts of the bottom of the North Sea - they give an example of deep sea sand being found during building works on Castle Street in Inverness, I have been here and it is wild to imagine that the whole area was flooded. They also write that the North Sea actually makes sound, it hums and we can't hear it without the use of technology - scientists still don't know why it hums or how.

It then moves onto the Roman occupation period, which I already knew quite a lot about but it was interesting to read more about Wallsend in particular (where I grew up) and just how much Newcastle was/is identified by this Roman occupation and Hadrian's Wall. People often think that the Wall was created to fend off the Scots, but that isn't entirely true - it was initially created as a set boundary of the Roman Empire because Emperor Hadrian was particularly worried about the Empire expanding beyond it's capacities. The book goes on to say that the Romans directly caused the establishment of the oldest national flag in Britain, the red dragon of Wales, by importing Sarmatian troops that charged into battle carrying a mounted wooden dragon head that had red fabric draping behind it.

The book talks about Bede, who was born and lived in Jarrow - which I am genuinely ashamed I didn't know until now. Bede is considered to be Britain's first ever historian and his writings are incredibly important sources to historians. He was very particular about his dates, and used the B.C./A.D. system - Moffat & Rosie argue he is a big reason this dating system is used in Europe today. Very cool to think that me and Bede are from the same part of the world!

Bede also calls Newcastle "Ad Murum" meaning "at the wall", there is also evidence of an earlier name of "Gwawl" - which is Old Welsh for "wall", so Newcastle as a city/settlement has historically been tied to Hadrian's Wall running through it. I'm not sure if Carlisle has a similar history, with it being the city on the other end of the Hadrian's Wall. Another, unrelated, etymological fact I learned is that modern day "salary" comes from the Latin "salarium" for salt, which is what Rome occasionally paid it's troops as a wage. "Northumberland" comes from "Northanhymbre" which meant "those who live North of the river Humber."

In later periods of history, the river Tyne became known as the "River Dragon" because of it's twists and turns that sailors were not keen to navigate. Despite this, Newcastle and the surrounding areas only grew like they did because of the Tyne and the industrial capabilities that came with it. Ship building became a huge industry in Newcastle, along with mining, and these industries are pretty much non-existent in the city now. The book is written in 2005, and the authors discuss the economic downturn of Newcastle, and how it went from a once proud working class city to one of genuine poverty. Moffat and Rosie write about a Newcastle City Council plan to turn the economy around by 2020, but obviously we know now that covid happened and any economic growth would have been stunted if not undone. Honestly, the book kind of ends with a sad note of describing the area as poor, rife with anti-social behaviour and a severe lack of opportunities.

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(2017) Cnut: 1016 - 1035, Ryan Lavelle. 13/03/2025

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 6/10

Favourite quote: "You are subject to me, as the land on which I am sitting is mine, and no one has resisted my overlordship with impunity. I command you, therefore, not to rise on my land, nor to presume to wet the clothing or limbs of your master."

Short little book about Cnut, an early Viking turned English king. Not really got much to say about this one, it was written really well for a history book and wasn't a slog to get through. My favourite bit of the book, and aspect of the history of Cnut in general, was that he was reported to have challenged the tide from coming in (due to him being king of the realm) and was apparently very humiliated when it came in and soaked his clothes. Another thing to note was that he was a Christian king, but had two wives which was a practice the Church frowned upon.

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(2005) The British Museum: Medieval Love Poetry, John Cherry. 05/03/2025 - 06/03/2025

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 8/10

Favourite quote: "The Chatelaine of Vergi" was my favourite, followed by "Sir Gawain & The Green Knight."

Cute as hell short book, technically a gift-book so doesn't really have any historical analysis but still really enjoyable read. Had lots of illustrations of medieval romance scenes and pictures of inscribed jewellery people would have worn. One piece that really stuck out to me was a gold ring, carved with the image of a women leading a squirrel on a leash.

Cherry argues that "courtly romance" as a term wasn't actually coined and used until the 19th century, so the people in these courtly romances at the time wouldn't have actually called it that. He argues that this chivalric tradition came about due to a larger population of unmarried knights compared to the smaller population of eligible noble women, these chivalric traditions were not present in the lower social classes (or at least there is no evidence of this to date.) It's not discussed in the book, but chivalry is undoubtedly tied to the Crusades, and like I mentioned before the Church created these unifying events and standards of behaviour due to a lot of noble in-fighting (which was, a fair portion of the time, caused by the desire for women). Knights were discouraged from abducting women and therefore causing wars, now they had to be chivalric and woo the woman they wanted.

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(1985) Medieval Households, David Herlihy. 24/02/2025 - 05/03/2025

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 7.5/10

Favourite quote: Didn't have one, but the chapter on households in late classical antiquity was my favourite.

Going through a real non-fiction phase, all the books I have on my list currently are history and philosophy books. This book was one I've been wanting to get my hands on for a while and it was really interesting but a bit of a slog to get through.

I feel like this was probably written for a specialised audience, but the writing style might also just be different because of the year? It was pretty heavy on stats and numbers too, which I didn't love but I understand why Herlihy presented his research that way.

I knew essentially nothing about medieval households before reading this book, and there was a lot that went against my assumptions. First thing is early Christian views towards marriage were mixed, but some views actually opposed marriage and urged women to avoid it for their own wellbeing. St. Jerome argues marriage is inferior to being a widow and especially inferior to remaining an unmarried virgin, and his only praise of marriage is that it generates virgins through procreation. St. Leander straight up says that men just abuse the women they marry and any sensible woman would avoid men and marriages, so she can keep her own bodily autonomy. Secondly, there are multiple instances of religious abortion mentioned in various stories of Saints, one being St. Kieran makes "the sign of the cross on the womb" of a woman who was raped and causes "the womb to empty." The Church also had to ban polygyny and discourage concubinage because rich men were hoarding all of the available women (of all social classes) due to their wealth, Herlihy called it resource polygyny, and the poorer men were left with no women to marry which was causing violence and unrest. Unrelated to this book, but the Church has a history of changing laws or creating unifying events to stop it's people from in-fighting - a glaring example of this are the Crusades, caused by nobles fighting each other incessantly.

One horrific thing I learned is that they were writing about, and concerned with, overpopulation and general strain on the Earth caused by humans in A.D. 200??? Concerned to the point they were discouraging marriages and sex. In all those years we have apparently not learned a thing.

There was an interesting bit too about population control and contraception in the 12th and 15th centuries but I honestly got a bit lost at this point, so don't think I grasped it fully. Basically, Herlihy is arguing richer women/families were more likely to have less children/control their fertility compared to rural families who needed the children for future labour.

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(2008) The Penguin Book of Classical Myths, Jenny March. 09/02/2025 - 15/02/2025

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 9/10

Favourite quote: Didn't have one, but my favourite chapter was "Dangerous Women"

Book of classical (Greek & Roman) myths, includes the creation myths. Honestly has such a wide range and coverage of myths, it is fantastic. Considering the content she was working with, March does a really good job of making it all clear and concise, and I was not bored for one second reading it.

I knew a lot of the myths before hand, like Orpheus and Eurydices for example, but I also learned a lot of new stuff. Like how the constellations we have today have roots in these myths, and how certain words and objects were created by gods - Pan creating the pan pipes, Hermes created the lyre etc. Daedalus (not a god) was supposedly the creator of the first ever dance floor!

Herakles (Greek name of Hercules, which is the Latin version) turns out to be an ass. I'd only ever seen the Disney movie which obviously idolises him, but yeah he is a bit of a twat in his myths. He was/is seen as some amazing Greek hero, and his death was brought about (accidentally, depending on which variation you believe) by his wife, a common theme in these myths- women are the downfall of great men. This is especially seen with Hera, goddess of marriage and wife/queen of Zeus. She is very much villainized as a jealous, scorned woman but she wouldn't be that way if Zeus was loyal to her and their marriage.

There was a lot of pseudo-history too, with the discussion of the Trojan War and the founding of Rome. Fun fact about the myth of Romulus, Remus, and the she-wolf: "she-wolf" in Latin is the same/very similar to the word for "whore", so historians have argued that the brothers were actually suckled and raised by the wife of the shepherd who found them, and that the original writers were just hostile towards women.

Overall, I really loved reading this and I can see myself reading it again for sure. Would recommend!

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(2024) Butter, Asako Yuzuki. 02/02/2025 - 04/02/2025

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 8/10

Favourite quote: "There are two things I simply cannot tolerate: feminists and margarine."

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Bought this for myself to celebrate getting a job and then put off reading it for months, heard nothing but good things about this.

It was good and different from what I expected. For me, the last third of the book (chapter ten/eleven onwards) was a bit disconnected from the rest and it lost me a bit. It went in a direction that didn't totally make sense to me? I liked the ending though and thought it all wrapped up nicely, with Rika learning to accept help when she needs it and finding community so she doesn't end up like her dad.

Growing up as a fat person who experienced misogyny, the comments on Rika's weight gain made me genuinely seethe to the point I had to put the book down, and remember that I'm just reading and not actually experiencing these comments. Her character was written fantastically and you went on a journey with her as she developed her self-confidence, and unpacked her trauma and internal misogyny, and that was cool. I did think her and Reiko's relationship was going to be more than close friends, especially with Reiko having the intrusive thought of "I wish Rika was a man" but I've seen valid arguments that their relationship could just be showcasing female friendships in non-Western cultures and was never intended to be seen as romantic. I will say Reiko's character didn't really fit with me, I thought the jump to her being a bit of a distant friend to concerned friend to seemingly obsessive and jealous over Rika and her relationship with Kajii was a bit wild, and the narrative switch to her perspective confused me a bit.

Maybe this is me completely missing the point, and being a bit stubborn in my views, but I wish Reiko and Ryōsuke had explicitly gotten a divorce. I didn't have any sympathy for Ryōsuke (or any of the men in this book honestly). The excessive self-pity of lonely men in this book was hauntingly similar to real life conversations I have had with men I barely knew, made me uncomfortable reading it and in real life situations. If I'm being completely honest (and totally self-indulgent) I wanted Rika to go completely off the rails and enter some fucked up relationship with Kajii, for Reiko to then be like that's crazy and also I love you actually? But that would make Butter a totally different kind of book, and I understand why it did not end up that way.

Unrelated to the content of the book, the actual cover and aesthetic of Butter is fantastic and when I first saw it I was immediately like I need to read this. Overall, I think it's an important read and it makes total sense to me why Yuzuki won Waterstones Book Of The Year 2024.

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(2023) The Deorhord: An Old English Bestiary, Hana Videen. 27/01/2025 - 31/01/2025

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 9.5/10

Favourite quote: Don't have one, enjoyed every chapter of this book equally!

Fantastic fantastic fantastic book, I am so glad I bought it when I was in London. Basically a historical analysis of various creatures found in actual bestiaries and historical texts, exploring why they were named a certain way and what connotations were attached to them. It was a really easy read, which is wild for a history book using words and phrases from a complicated looking extinct language. I learned A LOT and was surprised a good few times reading this. Right off the bat would really recommend this!

Shouldn't really come as a surprise but LOTR uses a lot of Old English words and takes a lot of inspiration from the language in general, Videen uses "middangeard = middle earth" as an example. Another one is Déagol, which means secret in Old English.

A lot of the connotations of the creatures made sense, like wolves being seen as bad but the panther being seen as overwhelmingly good and holy was wild to me. Apparently panthers were seen as actual depictions of God himself, and they were noted for their "sweet holy breath" that scares dragons away. Speaking of dragons, they were seen as minions and/or depictions of the devil (somewhat obvious), interestingly Saint Margaret was swallowed by a dragon and burst free from its belly by making the sign of the cross - she is now known as the patron saint of pregnant women, is the inherently evil dragon supposed to be the mother? Also, a dragon's mouth was seen as the gateway to Hell, so what is this implying if the dragon is supposed to be the birthing mother?

The term "crocodile tears" has apparently been a thing since AT LEAST the 13th century (WILD!) with crocodiles in the medieval period being known to be two-faced (sometimes literally) and deceitful. Whales were also seen as fundamentally evil, due to their greed and deceit (they were believed to pretend to be islands so they could eat sailors), this surprised me a bit, I wouldn't consider whales to be evil or violent. Same thing with swans, they were evil because they had white feathers that hid black skin, they also held their heads up proudly.

This book also taught me about Saint Christopher, who was part dog and there are tapestries, stained glass and paintings of him in this half-dog half-human form. He is a saint that is still popular to this day, although his half-dog origins are less well-known. Another thing I never knew was that "morgen-steorra" is Old English for morning star, which is another name for the devil - what is the connection with the weapon of the same name? (which is also my favourite medieval weapon lol)

Thinking about this from a historiographical point of view, a lot of the sources used in this book, if not all, are from England and Western Europe and have written these creatures to be in "Eastern lands" like "Indea"/India (which at this point was more of an idea instead of an actual geographical place, it was seen as some mystical fantasy land). Did the actual people living in these actual locations have their own form of bestiaries about these creatures? Did they have bestiaries for creatures only found in England? I don't know and everything I've read about this topic centres on England, France and Germany (mainly).

Videen also brings attention to the actual producers of the sources, the scribes and monks that would have translated them from Latin and Greek to Old English. They sometimes just made up their own words for creatures, resulting in random words that are not found in any other contexts (these words are called hapaxes!) - this would have been because of errors in translation, scribes just using their own imagination to add to pre-existing descriptions and also just because standardised spelling was not a thing at this point in time, people spelled things how they said and heard them.

There is one thing about this book that slightly irks me, and it doesn't have anything to do with the content of the book. The cover has illustrations of various creatures discussed within, with their Old English names underneath them. There is an illustration of a group of ants that does not have their name, it sticks out and is slightly annoying but that's probably just me being a bit weird about it.

LONG POST but overall, I loved this book if you couldn't tell and it is definitely worth a read!

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(1897) The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells. 23/01/2025 - 25/01/2025

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 8/10

Favourite quote: "I could see the sickly disorder of my room through them, though I closed my transparent eyelids."

This has been on my reading list for a decade at least, got it as a Christmas gift from my sister so finally got around to reading it. Was a big fan of Wells as a teenager and did a comparative essay on him and Mary Shelley as the founders of science fiction which I still think about to this day. Good first read of the new year!

It was a bit different from what I was expecting but I loved it, and picked it up kinda knowing I would. I had seen a bunch of Japanese art about the invisible man, so thought Wells had maybe adapted from an older original tale, but as far as I can tell Wells' invisible man and the Japanese "invisible avenger" are similar but separate things. The actual plot of the book was great, if not a bit silly, but my favourite part was the detail in which Griffin (the actual invisible man) described how his invisibility worked and the numerous downsides of it I never even considered. Like, when he closes his eyes he can still see everything because his eyelids are transparent, he can't eat food publicly because it floats inside of him till it is digested, he can't travel in rain, snow or fog because it creates an outline of his body, he had to essentially relearn the location and use of his limbs because he can't see them. A creepy detail too is that the iris of his eyes never went fully invisible and were always faintly visible, actually kind of horrific!

Griffin is an interesting character too, like he is in a bad situation and we as readers might have some sympathy for him, but Wells' writes him as an evil and alien creature who is a selfish ass so you genuinely don't feel sorry for him at all - even when he is essentially mobbed to death.

Unrelated to the content of the book but the copy I read had a little article about Wells and his renown as the father of science fiction. I had no idea he (according to this article) coined "time machine" and the idea of time travel via it??

Overall, would definitely recommend this book and Wells in general. I do enjoy his work!

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(2019) Daisy Jones & The Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid. 22/12/2024 - 26/12/2024

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 6/10

Favourite quote: “Passion is...it's fire. And fire is great, man. But we're made of water. Water is how we keep living. Water is what we need to survive.”

Book swap. Finished this ages ago but my keyboard is very broken so I've avoided going on my PC :(

I remember liking this more than I thought I would, it's not something I would pick for myself to read but it said a few interesting things about love! Don't really have much to say other than that.

Overall would recommend! Need to get back to updating this regularly.

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(2013) And The Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini. 21/11/2024 - 23/11/2024

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 8/10

Favourite quote: “All my life, she gave to me a shovel and said, fill these holes inside of me, Pari.”

Book swap. Have been in a HUGE reading slump, had this for a while but put off reading it but I actually really enjoyed it once I started. This was written like a collection of short stories from different characters, with one main plot point being the connecting event and I really liked this writing style. I'd normally jump to "this character is an ass, this character is good" etc but I really feel like you can't take that view with this book. All of the characters are well developed, and have all experienced some kind of brutal trauma that shapes the way they act, and although some of them do objectively bad things you can't paint them as bad people.

I came into this book knowing that it was going to wreck me a bit emotionally, and it did but not at the times I was expecting? The bit that broke my heart was chapter 8/Markos' chapter and he only plays a small part in the overarching narrative. The very last chapter was emotional too, with it tying up the story and bringing certain characters together but yeah chapter 8 really got me. Overall, a beautifully written book that I definitely recommend reading if you're in the right headspace for it!

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(2020) A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, Hank Green. 17/10/2024 - 21/10/2024

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 6/10

Favourite quote: "You know where you came from, but you don't know why you exist. I've got that flipped: I have no idea who built me or sent me here, but I do know exactly what I'm for"

Book swap! Finished reading this a while ago but have not had the motivation to write a review. Liked this one much better than the first, which is apparently a controversial opinion. The ending seemed very rushed, with everything spiralling towards a very anti-climactic conclusion. Again, this might just be me being a hater but I did not like that there was a bit of a focus on Maya's lived experience as a well off black woman - written by a white man. Aside from that, I really liked the plot again and there was some clever writing techniques that I caught onto. One being that April's chapters were a lot more subdued and not attention seeking, reflecting that her "death" has changed her and she is trying to be a better person - I really liked this. I thought the moral story of the book was interesting too, money/capitalism/greed is bad and is the whole reason humanity is at risk in the book but money also saves the world (albeit it is common people pooling money together that saves the world). I did not catch onto One being Carl's brother at all, so that was a genuine twist. I love the idea of Carl and his brother, alien consciousness/infections that were made to regulate humanity - we still don't know who made them. Carl possessing a monkey was funny and I like the fact he become more human as the plot advanced, was a nice touch. Overall, would recommend!

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(2018) An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Hank Green. 07/10/2024 - 16/10/2024

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 5/10

Favourite quote: "Just because someone has power over you doesn’t mean they’re going to use it to hurt you. People who believe that tend to either be: people who have been victims of that sort of behaviour, or people who, if given power, will use it to hurt you."

Book swap, not something I would normally read. Unfortunately going to be a bit of a hater with this one! I do not like April and I know that is the whole point she is a terrible person, but I mean I do not like the way she was designed as a character, and I do not like that this character was created by a man. I don't need to read any more men writing teen girls/young women as the quirky, bi, manic pixie dream girl stereotype. Maybe I'm taking it too seriously, maybe (definitely) I'm not the intended audience, but the stereotype screamed to me from the literal first page and did not let up once.

Despite this, I do think the actual plot is fantastic. It is so catching and throughout the book I genuinely had no idea what the fuck was going to happen, which was great. Impressive considering this was Green's first shot at a book. I won't spoil the plot because I think it really is worth reading for yourself, and the book itself is relatively (???) new but yeah it's good.

At the time of writing this, I'm about a third of the way through the sequel which I am enjoying significantly more so far - the plot is also the key strength so far for me. Will leave my thoughts there for now as I will be reviewing it properly once I've finished.

Overall, not really my cup of tea and I don't think I'm the intended audience. Credit where credit is due, the plot is great.

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(2007) For One More Day, Mitch Albom. 23/09/2024

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 6.5/10

Favourite quote: "So," she said, moving away, "now you know how badly someone wanted you, Charley. Children forget that sometimes. They think of themselves as a burden instead of a wish granted." (The way I SOBBED AT THIS)

Another book from Albom, didn't read this one as a teen but I think my mam did and must have told me about it because I vaguely remembered the plot. This one hit A Lot harder than "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" in terms of emotional response to the plot and the characters. Chick/Charley is an ASSHOLE, I know we are supposed to feel sorry for him by the end of the book because he lays his soul bare and he tried to off himself but he was nothing but awful to his endlessly loving mam and chose her over his borderline evil dad throughout his entire life, and was shitty towards his wife too. Also, Leonard (Chick's dad) is a horrible horrible horrible man. He makes Chick pick between being a mommy's boy or a daddy's boy when he is a child (he picks his dad), he instils his own dreams and ambitions of being a baseball star into his son to the point where Chick lies & abandons his elderly mam on her birthday to go to a baseball game for "networking", he cheats on his wife to the point of having a whole other family, he chooses this 2nd family over his 1st and THEN abandons his 2nd family!!!! Posey (Chick's mam) is a wonderful woman, who went through so much being a divorced single mam to 2 kids. I know she literally isn't real but god DAMN she did not deserve the shit the men in her life put her through!!

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(2004) The Five People You Meet In Heaven, Mitch Albom. 23/09/2024

First time reading? No

Rating: 6.5/10

Favourite quote: "I figure it's like in the Bible, the Adam and Eve deal?" the Captain said. "Adam's first night on earth? When he lays down to sleep? He thinks it's all over, right? He doesn't know what sleep is. His eyes are closing and he thinks he's leaving this world, right? Only he isn't. He wakes up the next morning and he has a fresh new world to work with, but he has something else, too. He has his yesterday."

Read this as a teenager and it absolutely OBLITERATED me, I remember being in hysterics for hours after finishing it. Did not have that reaction this time around, didn't really have any emotional reaction until the last two chapters/people Eddie meets in Heaven. I didn't actually remember much of the plot so it was nice to get all of the plot twists again. Marguerite's chapter had me crying, but anything to do with lost love really gets me so it makes sense. The bit about her and Eddie failing to ever adopt a child was brutal and made Tala's chapter/the ending of the book really emotional. Eddie never managed to become a dad in his life-time, and he lives in a constant shadow of believing he potentially killed a child during the war (which it is revealed at the end, he did - it is Tala) but then at the end of the book it's shown he has basically spent his entire life being a guardian to children through his job as a maintenance worker at Ruby Pier. It's great writing, and a great way to give closure to the main character who has spent the entire book feeling worthless in his life's achievements and hating that he has worked at this pier for so long. Overall, I am glad I read it again and would recommend Albom's books in general.

Not really relevant to my review but this book, and Albom's other work "Tuesdays With Morrie", really remind me of my mam. The only reason I am even reading this again is because of her giving her copy to me when I last visited.