Abigail

Complainy

Revisado: 07-21-24

I’m not a particular fan of Paloma’s music, but I remember enjoying her camaraderie with Noel Fielding and her adorable quirkiness and colourful outfits on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, and i listened her account of her journey to have her first daughter on the Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast. I was going through an infertility journey of my own, and drank in all she said. As a new mother now, I bought this book to hear more about Paloma’s motherhood journey. My main impressions after finishing it are that she complains a lot about how hard pregnancy, birth and caring for children is (though she does emphasise often how much she loves her girls), and how hard it is to be a single mother in particular. She never adequately explains why she chose to end her relationship. It comes across that being with a younger man was fun while child-free and relatively young herself, but that after children arrived, she really would have preferred someone more practically and financially supportive - a better provider. She hardly ever admitted her own shortcomings, and was defensive of her own fairly selfish behaviour. She kind of came across as a bit spoiled and hard to identify with, I guess. I hope she is happy with her choices.

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Katherine is refreshing

Revisado: 07-21-24

I don’t usually like Katherine’s comedy much. I sort of tolerate her as a guest on panel shows like Mock The Week and Big Fat Quiz, and don’t watch her standup at all, but found myself really enjoying her podcast, Telling Everybody Everything because I enjoy hearing about her family life and experience as a mother and wife, and find her advice to listeners who write in to the show genuine and insightful - wise, even. That is what made me buy this book. It’s light and enjoyable, and interesting to hear a bit about her early life in Sarnia, arrival in Great Britain, birth of her daughter Violet, comedy career beginnings, and finally reuniting with and marrying Bobby K. She has a few interesting little insights into a friend, Jimmy Carr’s personality, that I haven’t seen on screen, too. Definitely a more enjoyable life account than Milf by Paloma Faith which I listened to just before this (which was mostly complaining about how hard life, and being a mother is).

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My favourite Georgette story

Revisado: 10-01-23

Love the Talisman Ring narrative. Very light and fun. The narrator did a good job with the different characters’ voices. I was a bit disappointed with his portrayal of Sarah Thane, though. He didn’t portray her lively sense of humour, and didn’t put the right emphasis on her words.

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“Not only the does emperor have no clothes; he’s wearing the empress’ bikini”

Revisado: 09-25-23

Funny, witty, and the most topical book I’ve read. It felt so refreshing. Well done, Peachy!

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Not as good as Ruby series, but light and enjoyable listen

Revisado: 07-16-23

I bought the three books in the silver series because I really enjoyed the Ruby trilogy by Kerstin Gier, also read by Marisa Carlin.

I’ve just finished the series, and here are my thoughts on it.

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW









Interesting premise: Liv and her friends are able to interact in a dream world while sleeping, where their actions have real world consequences. Things got a bit convoluted at times, though.

Not a biggie, but I enjoy Marisa Carlin’s narration, and thought she did a good American accent, but I prefer listening to her UK accent as in the Ruby series.

This series had its own version of Gossip Girl: the Secrecy Blog, which provided an amusing commentary for the school age characters’ lives. The school friend characters like Persephone and Emily were entertaining.

The supernatural/demonic aspect to the story was basically just a red herring. I kept wondering to the end of the third book of the demon would turn out to be real, but it wasn’t. I was relieved, as that aspect of the story was a bit too creepy for me.

The main nemesis of the story, Arthur’s rage and viciousness seemed inexplicable to me. I get that there had to be an bad guy for conflict in the story, but he didn’t seem to have sufficient motivations for being as horrid as he was.

As for Liv, the protagonist’s, love interest: I found Henry not super interesting. I liked Grayson more, and kept hoping he and Liv would get together!

I was sort of expecting a twist of some kind towards the end of the book series, but there wasn’t one. The bad guy was who we thought it was, and so were the good guys. I did wonder if Henry would suddenly turn out to be the baddie, because he seemed too perfect that it was suspicious.

Overall, not as good as the Ruby trilogy (which I really loved), but a light and wholesome read!

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Not as good as Ruby series, but quite enjoyable

Revisado: 07-16-23

I bought the three books in the silver series because I really enjoyed the Ruby trilogy by Kerstin Gier, also read by Marisa Carlin.

I’ve just finished the series, and here are my thoughts on it.

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW









Interesting premise: Liv and her friends being able to interact in a dream world while sleeping, where their actions have real world consequences. Things got a bit convoluted at times, though.

Not a biggie, but I enjoy Marisa Carlin’s narration, and thought she did a good American accent, but I prefer listening to her UK accent as in the Ruby series.

This series had its own version of Gossip Girl: the Secrecy Blog, which providing an amusing commentary for the school age characters’ lives.

The supernatural/demonic aspect to the story was basically just a red herring. I kept wondering to the end of the third book of the demon would turn out to be real, but it wasn’t.

The main nemesis of the story: Arthur’s rage and viciousness seemed inexplicable to me. I get that there had to be an bad guy for conflict in the story, but he didn’t seem to have sufficient motivations for being as horrid as he was.

As for Liv, the protagonist’s, love interest: I found Henry not super interesting. I liked Grayson more, and kept hoping he and Liv would get together!

I was sort of expecting a twist of some kind towards the end of the book series, but there wasn’t one. The bad guy was who we thought it was, and so were the good guys.

Overall, not as good as the Ruby trilogy (which I really loved), but a light and wholesome read.

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Insightful, relevant, compulsory reading for all modern women

Revisado: 04-18-23

I bought this book because I had heard Mary Harrington being interviewed by Louise Perry, and was interested to know more.

Her language is more academic than Perry’s in her book, and I think I will have to relisten at least once more because a lot of it went over my head. Nevertheless, her writing is impressive, and she has a lot of important thoughts to share on modern culture, what it’s like being a ‘reactive feminist’, as well as a woman and mother in todays world. Totally fascinating. I will certainly follow anything Mary does going forward. She is an important voice currently, with a finger very much on the pulse of the current culture.

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Narration was annoying

Revisado: 02-02-20

I had to stop listening early on because the narrators sounded like Americans trying to hard to to do clipped British accents. This made the dialogue hard to listen to, as it didn’t sound natural. The voice of Mr John Dashwood sounded like he was reading off a page - no expression.

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What an absolute MESS of a life

Revisado: 06-26-19

I genuinely enjoyed reading this book, even though it was a heart breaking read at several points, and I became really engrossed in Rachaele’s story written in her own words. Her story feels so real and raw.

Rachaele’s frank depiction of her life from age 5 when her mother inexplicably left to the current day is nothing short of tragic. SO much pain!!

I felt so sad for her, and ALL the children in the story (herself, her siblings, and her children and step-children) who were victims of adults and their selfish and destructive behaviour.

I did try to remain uncritical, and to refrain from judging a woman who had clearly gone through the absolute ringer.

But I couldn’t help but think: what an absolute MESS of a life.

Couldn’t she maybe have taken more responsibility for her decisions and behaviours? It felt almost like wilful self-sabotage at times. Especially as she had innocent and vulnerable children to think of; not just herself.

It feels like we get quite a one-sided view of her situation. Does she just have really bad luck? Is she just a martyr to all life throws at her? She makes it sound like the whole town seemingly turned on her and her policeman boyfriend for no reason. Maybe they saw her as a troubled homewrecker, getting her claws into yet another man? She has four children to three different fathers, and a really unstable track record. I find it hard to believe that the family would just get attacked from all sides for no reason.

She kind of glosses over all the drama which happens around them, such as her partner (now husband) being ARRESTED BY HIS OWN COLLEAGUES - like its normal or something. And the incestuous bedswapping going on among partners and ex-partners sounds like something off a tv show.

She seems to be the common denominator among all this drama. She herself says it’s hard to explain how her life seems to go from one shit storm to another.

I just feel so sorry for her poor children growing up in this quagmire of all the fighting and screaming and instability and all the different partners moving in and out of their parents’ lives.

I do genuinely feel for this poor woman, and I’m glad she seems happy in her life now.

These are just my thoughts and impressions on the story.

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Just not the same without Katherine Kellgren narrating

Revisado: 05-04-19

I bought the book and began listening with an open mind, prepared to enjoy this new narrator after the passing of Katherine Kellgren who narrated all the previous books.

But I found this narrator’s style too annoying to enjoy the story much.

What grated on me most was that she mispronounced words. Every time she laid the emphasis on the wrong part ‘Ranoch Castle”, my teeth were set on edge.

I also felt she didn’t get the characters personalities quite right.

Did she not do her homework and listen to the previous audiobooks? I big mistake I feel.

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