#book club
The Kitchen House
By Kathleen Grissom
I didn’t want to read The Kitchen House. I loathed the idea of spending any time in a fictionalized world built around slavery and southern plantation living. But reader after reader praised the novel, so I downloaded the “preview” before splurging the $1.99 on a title I was determined not to like.
By the time I tore through the first few chapters, the limited time sale was over and the book was $11.99. I didn’t care. I bought it immediately so I wouldn’t have to stop.
The Kitchen House follows the story of Lavinia, an Irish immigrant suppressing a terrible past at the tender age of 7. Purchased by a Virginian plantation owner, she works and lives in the Kitchen House, the slave quarters that serves the “Big House.” With a name like Lavinia, I was concerned for her well-being from the get-go. (See Titus Andronicus; Season 2 of Downton Abbey). But Lavinia turns out to be plucky, curious and extremely loving.
Lavinia has a unique perspective as both an indentured servant to the Big House and as a white girl in the south. While the Kitchen House inhabitants become her family, the Big House tenants also have their eyes on her. And though she crosses many of the divides established as a result of slavery over her lifetime, in a way, she is the most isolated of all the characters. She doesn’t truly belong anywhere.
What’s interesting in my reluctance to read the book is that it directly mirrors Grissom’s reluctance to write it. While restoring a plantation tavern in Virginia, she happened upon a location in the plans called “Negro Hill.” It haunted her so much that one day journaling, a fictional story about its legacy poured onto her paper. Even Grissom herself was disturbed by the tale, but it, like the book’s heroine, was stubborn, and would not be altered.
The Kitchen House has heart smeared across every page. It’s laden with tears and tragedy, buoyed by stubborn determination and an inextinguishable need to survive. It hurts right below the sternum, like a punch to the gut that allows you to take bigger, fresher breaths.
The reluctant reader of a reluctant writer, it strikes me that perhaps the stories we avoid writing are the ones that most need to be written; and the stories we avoid reading may be the very ones we need to read the most.
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READS
August reads.
Countdown: This one makes sure you feel terrible about humanity in various ways.
Der Spieler: Reads a like D. wrote in the car on his way to work.
September reads.
We: A more poetic version of Brave New World
The Future of Humanity: I would have loooooved this book as a 12yrs old!
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Book Club Winter 2019: Little Women, Part One
This month on Patreon, we’re discussing Little Women! To kick things off, Morgan wrote about the book’s literary context and structure. Coming soon: gender! romance! capital times!
I’m halfway through my reread of this book now and… it may kill me. Can you believe that the women of the world have spent centuries obsessing over the book with, perhaps, the worst ending in all of literature? We are gluttons for punishment.
It is really wonderful though.
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Don’t worry, loser, I’ve got a nice fuzzy black sweater on under my coat. After all, it is the “sweater ladies’ book club” not the fur ladies book club. Still, I like how fur feels too- soft and luxurious, and it makes me feel big and powerful, especially when I’m with a short little man like you… how does it make you feel? Small? Inadequate? Even frightened and afraid of me perhaps? Well, that’s good, because you’re mine for until the next meeting, and I intend to use you to the fullest. And trust me, those feelings of inferiority that are running through your pea brain right now? That’s just your survival instinct kicking in, ensuring that you know you’d better be a very obedient submissive slave for me or you will suffer as never before. Now, come with me, listen carefully and don’t dawdle. Your service to be begins now.
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
So, I don’t usually read romance novels, and contemporary romance is a genre I tend to avoid. Not because I think they are badly written or anything, but I just don’t tend to pick them up when browsing for books.
but this year, I wanted to read more books which I normally wouldn’t, so when I saw this book in Tesco while i was put grocery shopping, I decided to pick it up and give it a go.
and I have to say, I quote enjoyed it. It was fast paced (I read it in one sitting!) It was fun, cute, and used the fake dating tropes really well, and did not take itself too seriously. The characters were relatable and lovable, and there were so many scenes where I could not stop smiling and giggling because of the awkward (and cute) situations Ahn put Olive and Adam in.
I liked that the setting was that of a university, with both characters being into STEM, as I have seen too many rom-coms set in the publishing world now, and I like this this went in a different direction.
My only issue would have been the sex scene? It just took me out of the flow of the story and felt awkward and a bit too much?
Overall, I would give the book 3.75 stars.
I finally read a Sally Rooney!
I decided to start with Normal People, as I was already familiar with the characters and they story (because I had watched the show) and I have to say, for all their communication problems, and their self sabotage, and their refusal to be happy, I quite liked the book! I get why the Connell and Marianne act they way they do, but I love them so much, I really wish they would allow themselves to be happy with each other and face the challenges life throws at them together. I would like to imagine a life for them where they get married, have a beautiful family, and get the life they really deserve!
(Can you tell I want all romances to have happy endings, with sunshine and rainbows and love and hugs )
Rooney is clearly a great writer, and I found her prose to be beautiful. I got through the book fairly quickly after I got used to her style, and I will definitely be reading A Conversation with Friends next!
I finally got around to reading The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak, and it did not disappoint! By now I know that Shafak’s writing style is something I really enjoy, so it was easy to slip back into her prose and let it carry me away on a journey through London and Cyprus.
This story really moved me in ways I didn’t quite expect it to. Tales of forbidden love are available in abundance, but the way it was written, in the backdrop of so much pain and unrest, I was not expecting it to hit me like it did.
I have the book 4.75 ⭐️ on StoryGraph. It’s definitely a must read and I can’t believe it took me so long to get to this one!
