Title: Lyrics Alley Author: Leila Aboulela Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one) My Bookshelves:Contemporary Pace: Slow Format: Novel Year: 2010
Lyrics Alley is one of those books that I’ll read again and again. There is so much going on that I found it impossible to keep up with every minutiae. And, in some books, like Lyrics Alley, I love this fact.
To be fair, even after reading this, I did look up a synopsis just to get my head further around the details of this novel. As much as I enjoyed it and found it to be wonderfully written, I did spend most of my time reading this trying to figure out if I’d missed something. And, honestly, I think that I did.
There are some books on my shelf that I consider great and genuine literature. This is one of those. It’s a read that I would read to expand my brain, not for a bit of diversion. Which means that although I plan to read this again in the future, it’ll be awhile before I feel like my brain is capable of absorbing all of the information.
16 modern fiction superstars shine a startling light on the romance and pain of the infamous literary pair Heathcliff and Cathy.
Short stories to stir the heart and awaken vital conversation about love.
Sixteen stories inspired by Wuthering Heights.
In Terminus a young woman hides in an empty Brighton hotel; in Thicker Than Blood a man sits in a hot tub stalking his newly-married love on social media; and in A Bird Half-Eaten an amateur boxer prepares for a match.
A woman recalls the Heathcliffs I Have Known and the physical danger she has borne at their hands; in Anima a child and a fox are unified in one startling moment of violence; and in One Letter Different two teenagers walk the moors and face up to their respective buried secrets.
Curated by Kate Mosse and commissioned for Emily Brontë’s bicentenary year in 2018, these fresh, modern stories pulse with the raw beauty and pain of love and are as timely as they are illuminating.
I did enjoy this collection, but not as much as I had hoped. Probably because I bought this before reading Wuthering Heights. Which I then hated. So although this collection went a long way towards helping me to understand just why people love the classic so much. I still didn’t really love the obsessive, twisted romance that really features throughout all of these. The darkness that is completely overwhelming and more than a little difficult to understand.
Taking an incredibly rich classic, one that has stood the
tests of time and creating different storylines and modern perspectives on it is
an impressive feat. Collecting all of these stories together in one great collection
was thoroughly enjoyable. It definitely gave me a whole new perspective on the classic.
And made me want to give it a go for a second time… maybe in a year or two when
I’m a little more mellow, and less likely to hate on Heathcliff and Cathy so
passionately…
Title: Amulet and Feathers Author: Leila Aboulela In: I Am Heathcliff (Kate Mosse) Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect) My Bookshelves:Family, Middle East Dates read: 26th April 2019 Pace: Slow Format: Short story Publisher: Borough Press Year: 2018 5th sentence, 74th page: He asked me to set a sum for my bride-price.
She’s on a journey to avenge her father’s death. But sometimes the ways in which you get revenge aren’t quite what they seem…
I’m really not sure why this is in a collection of stories based on Wuthering Heights. It’s a great short story, don’t get me wrong, but I’m struggling to make that connection to the gothic classic that I’ve been able to make with most of the other stories in this series. Amulet and Feathers had a great sense of dignity and an incredibly fun storyline to it.
I like the idea of a young woman setting out to avenge her father’s death. The ghostly visitations in her dreams and her determination to right a wrong are admirable. But, it’s the message about revenge and vengeance that is delivered at the end that is what I love the most. It’s both sweet and poignant, sad and happy. A great short story that made me have faith in the I Am Heathcliff collection again.
Earth and Skye 