I am in love with Sweden. It’s so similar in wet weather to Wales, & as green & glorious. Stockholm is an amazing city & I love hearing the wealth of languages as we travel Europe, although I’m now acutely aware of how little I understand the languages in these Northern European countries.
I’ve had a difficult relationship with language & place identity. Because of a chaotic, transient upbringing nothing gives me anxiety more than the question, ‘where are you from?’
Knowing ‘who I am’ had to come before I could even begin to answer ‘where I’m from’, & still it’s taken a long time for me to answer.
My (great) grandparents were economic migrants from across the British Isles to north Wales & just across the border in England. We’re English-speaking Welsh borderlands people.
Truly understanding the country of my birth meant educating myself on the deliberate dismantling of Welsh language & culture by English oppressors, & so I learned Welsh, embraced the beautiful minority culture that I shared a landmass with.
Did I then go too far?
English, my first language, is that of oppressors, colonisers, & slave owners, but perhaps I began to take too much responsibility for that; maybe my connection to the very language in which I write & think & dream, that is the language of my ancestors & grandchildren, became disjointed as this schism deepened.
I turned to creating literature as a way to explore this dichotomous life, employing narrative arcs in The MthR Trilogy to navigate through themes of language & place.
I emerge from that piece of writing a different woman, someone who has made peace with herself, & her mother tongue; someone who can acknowledge the difficult history of the English language while still embracing this gorgeous international linguistic kaleidoscopic form of communication spoken by so many.

#amwriting #languages #ddwyieithog #themthrtrilogy #poetlife #writing #books #indiepublishing #bookthoughts

There's so many who are horrified by Patrick Bateman and most of the people around him, and yet large swaths of the population have way more in common with them than they'd ever want to believe, admit or care about.

Maybe that's what was missed in the ending, the message was for lots of ppl and it won't mean anything because they are just like Patrick and or his friends, acquaintances & or vast majority of his colleagues. #AmericanPsycho #BretEastonEllis #MaryHarron #BookThoughts #MovieThoughts

#Book 17: A History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel from #TorDotCom

A fascinating book that mixes #history with #ScienceFiction First in a trilogy: I'm recommending.

More thoughts on @thestorygraph if you care to read

#reading #SFF #bookstodon #BookThoughts @bookstodon

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/7b522fe2-b116-4acd-bda4-5d0b4ec0b783

#Book 16: Against the Currant by Olivia Matthews from #StMartin and #DreamscapeMedia

A fun first installment in a culinary cozy #mystery series set in Little Caribbean (Brooklyn). Loved the setting and the characters.

#BookThoughts on @thestorygraph if you care to see.

#fiction #audiobook #reading #bookstodon #BookReview @bookstodon @audiobooks #StoryGraph

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/f1be2fd7-8bff-4aae-9603-963dec78fe0f

#Book 15: VenCo by Cherie Dimaline from #WilliamMorrow and #HarperAudio

A road-trip adventure with a great mix of witches, magic, indigenous beliefs, and feminist power.

My thoughts on the #audiobook are on #StoryGraph if you care to look.

#SFF #fiction #reading #bookstodon #BookThoughts #BookReview @bookstodon @audiobooks

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/45498f41-03a4-4f04-a917-0baa70db7eb8

#Book 14: Regrets Only by Kieran Scott from #GalleryBooks and #SimonSchusterAudio

A solid, fun #mystery involving socially powerful women who send their children to public elementary school in a small town in Connecticut.

More on #Storygraph if you care to look. For my #Audiobook review, see #AudioFileMagazine

#fiction #BookReviews #BookThoughts @bookstodon @audiobooks

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/ff7d4117-e88f-459c-82f4-d8a55cdcdd79

#book 8: THE SNOW HARE by Paula Lichtarowicz (out next week from #LittleBrown )

This novel follows the fate of a Catholic Polish woman in the lead up to WWII and then after the Soviet invasion of Poland. A moving and heartbreaking story that gives us a different perspective on the war than we usually get.

Thoughts on #GoodReads if you care to look

#HistoricalFiction #BookThoughts #BookReview #Reading #Fiction #Bookstodon #audiobook @bookstodon @audiobooks

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5303385528

#reading #books #bookreview #bookthoughts #druidry #booksofmastadon https://adruidinthedesert.wordpress.com/2023/01/25/book-review-the-flowering-wand-rewilding-the-sacred-masculine/

#Book 7: An travel guide to inspire unique experiences, filled with gorgeous photos from around the world. Recommended for casual vacationers, serious adventurers, and armchair travelers alike. Out now from #Workman , who kindly sent me a review copy

More thoughts on #Storygraph, if you care to read.

#reading #BookThoughts #BookReview #Bookstodon #travelbooks #nonfiction @bookstodon

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/d6ba2b67-67d6-4069-bb9f-653c78534c89

#Book 6: A fun middle-grade #mystery set on a fictitious island in Lake Erie (Ohio). The first of a new series out last Feb. from #PixelAndInk

The book is both a well-plotted puzzle and a look at how a young girl comes to terms with what life has thrown at her. Recommended. More thoughts on #GoodReads if you care to look.

#fiction #reading #BookThoughts #BookReview #Bookstodon #MiddleGrade @bookstodon

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5286947815

#book 5: THE BLACKHOUSE by Carole Johnstone (out now from #Scribner )

An uneven Gothic mystery/thriller set in the Outer Hebrides. Descriptions of the setting were nicely done, but plot & pacing didn't always flow.

The #audiobook was very well done. For more on audiobook see my review in #AudioFileMagazine ; for more thoughts in general, click #StoryGraph link below

#Gothic #mystery #reading #BookThoughts #BookReview #Bookstodon @bookstodon @audiobooks

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/1cf82abc-f0a0-4b34-928d-d0d7840473bd

#book 3 for the year: THIS OTHER EDEN by Paul Harding (out soon from #WWNorton )

This character study is based on a dark moment in Maine history: the 1912 forced evacuation of the mixed-race inhabitants of Malaga Island.

For my thoughts on the #audiobook see my upcoming review at #AudioFileMagazine For my general thoughts, see #goodreads

#HistoricalFiction #fiction #reading #BookThoughts #BookReview @bookstodon @audiobooks #Bookstodon

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5258099755

I’ve been putting some thought into it, and I think my favorite #book I read this year is
Emily Austin’s Everyone in this Room Will Someday Be Dead

https://bookwyrm.social/book/258196/s/everyone-in-this-room-will-someday-be-dead

For me, it was such a spot-on depiction of #mentalHealth collapse, the closest representation I’ve found to what it feels like, while also being surprisingly light and readable.

#bookThoughts #bookstodon #endOfYearReflections

Squeezed in another #book for 2022 -- This is 103 for the year: The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal is tons of fun. It's #ScienceFiction meets #MurderMystery with great characters and a solid plot. Thanks to #Tor for the review copy

More thoughts on #StoryGraph if you care to look

#Bookstodon @bookstodon #reading #books #BookThoughts #BookReview

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/c1cb5a32-b58d-4287-991a-0c02ac6300a4

#Book 102 of the year: Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch, from #DelReyBooks

The 2nd entry in this fabulous fantasy/mystery series set in an alternative contemporary London has Constable Peter Grant solving a series of gruesome murders tied to the city's jazz scene. These are very adult books w/ good humor & lots of action. Outstanding #audiobooks

More thoughts on GoodReads

#reading #bookthoughts #bookreview #audiobook @audiobooks #Bookstodon @bookstodon

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5184197038

#Book 101 of the year: EXILES by Jane Harper, out in the US in Jan. from #FlatironBooks

This third installment in the Aaron Falk series is set in South Australia's wine country and involves two cold cases and changes in Falk's life. Don't-miss series.

My thoughts are on GoodReads, if you care to take a look. My review of the #audiobook will be published by #AudioFileMagazine

#reading #mystery #books @bookstodon #Bookstodon #bookThoughts #BookReview

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5184154448

Finished All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham, a #thriller that should come with a trigger warning because it involves a missing baby.

The story was well done, tho some aspects were a bit of a stretch. It comes out in Jan. from #MinotaurBooks

The #audiobook was nicely performed by Karissa Vacker.

More thoughts on #GoodReads if you care to look.

#bookstodon @bookstodon @audiobooks #Bookthoughts #bookreview #fiction

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5164752169

Finished the #audiobook of Peter Geye's The Ski Jumpers. He's an amazing writer and never disappoints. My random thoughts are on Goodreads, if you care to take a look.

#Bookthoughts #bookreview #reading #books #bookstodon @bookstodon @audiobooks #audiobooks

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5153413027

If you're supporting the HarperCollins strike, it's okay to buy and read their books. This supports their authors. Just hold off publishing your reviews until after a fair contract has been signed.

@bookstodon @audiobooks #reading #bookstodon #audiobooks #HarperCollins #books #Bookthoughts #bookreview

#Bookthoughts : The Resemblance by Lauren Nossett was an okay mystery/thriller that takes a look at the darker side of fraternities and Greek life on U.S. university campuses. The issues were well presented, but the police detective wasn't always believable.

The #audiobook was nicely performed by Siskia Maarleveld.

If you're interested, I wrote more on #GoodReads

#bookreview #mysteries #thriller #reading #books #bookstodon @bookstodon

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5133375616