#booktag — Public Fediverse posts

Quirky insights into lost worlds: Ex Libris book plates

Passionate devotees of books from throughout history share a common thread with all of us modern-day bibiophiles, they longed to celebrate their books and mark their ownership with an Ex Libris book plate.

Ever since Pharaonic Egypt, marking one’s ownership of a book has been a thing. Ex Libris bookplates showcase the taste, values of their owner, along with how they see themselves. They are a fascinating mirror onto the aesthetic styles and cultural mores of the eras when they were made.

Ancient pharaohs and their early book plates

The concept of marking books with ownership dates back to ancient Egypt. Pharaoh Amenhotep III, who reigned in the 14th century BC, had an extensive library where each scroll bore a unique identifier/stamp signifying royal possession.

These early ownership marks, though not bookplates in the modern sense, were the precursors to ex libris, highlighting the timeless human desire to mark ownership and protect literary treasures. This practice reflects the early recognition of books as valuable assets worth safeguarding.

https://youtu.be/GwGlnn0wa3E

The dawn of Ex Libris

The earliest known ex libris bookplates emerged in 15th-century Germany, coinciding with the birth of the Gutenburg printing press and a burgeoning literary culture. One of the earliest known bookplates belonged to Johannes Knabensberg, also known as Igler, around 1480. His design featured a playful hedgehog and an equally playful and cheeky Latin inscription

“Hanns Igler das dich ein Igel küsst,” translating to “Hanns Igler wishes you to be kissed by a hedgehog”

This charming illustration encapsulated the essence of early bookplates, showing the personality of the owner and their creative flair.

These bookplates were often pasted inside the front cover of books, serving as both a practical tool for identification and a blank canvas for personal expression.

Ex Libris evolution and artistry

Once the printing press democratised book ownership, books expanded beyond monasteries and exclusive libraries of the nobility.

Wealthy merchants used them as a mark of their growing prestige and status. Bookplates evolved from symbolising practical ownership to marks into statements of personal taste and social status.

The rise of humanism and the Renaissance spurred a newfound appreciation for art, prompting book owners to commission renowned artists and engravers to design their bookplates. These designs ranged from intricate heraldic emblems to elaborate illustrations depicting scenes from mythology, nature, or personal interests.

The artistry involved in creating these bookplates transformed them into collectible treasures, often passed down through generations as family heirlooms.

Bookplates became a way for individuals to express their intellectual pursuits, values and beliefs, artistic sensibilities, and social roles.

The bookplate of Charles Dickens, featuring a portrait of himself and elements reflecting his literary works, provides a glimpse into the author’s self-perception and the era he lived in (The British Museum, 2024).

The extravagant heraldry found in the bookplates of European nobility speaks to the importance of lineage and status in their lives. There is so much history and psychology packed into such small artefacts that a lot of analysis can be undertaken about them.

A symbol of your love of books

Since the dawn of civilisation, books have engendered strong feelings of passion and possession. If you have a collection of books that you don’t ever intend on parting with, maybe consider getting a customised book plate that tells your own personal story. There are makers and artists specialising in bookplates on Etsy if you want to check them out, look up customised book plates next time you’re on there.

References

Oatman-Stanford, H. (2015, October 13). When book lovers guarded their prized possessions with tiny artworks. Collectors Weekly. https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/when-book-lovers-guarded-their-prized-possessions-with-tiny-artworks/

British Museum. (n.d.). Bookplate of Hans Igler (Johannes Knabensperg), a hedgehog walking to the left, with a flowering plant in its mouth; a scroll above printed with Gothic lettering: ‘hanns Igler das dich ein igel ku[e]s.’ The British Museum Collection Online. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_Franks-German-1786

Norman, J. (n.d.). The earliest bookplates, or ex-libris: 1391 to 1353 BCE. History of Information. https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=3185

Roos, D. (2019, August 28). 7 ways the printing press changed the world. History. https://www.history.com/news/printing-press-renaissance

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Book Review: Oddbody by Rose Keating

Rose Keating’s debut short story collection, Oddbody features macabre body horror tales with funny, dark and unexpected twists and turns.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Genre: Simon & Schuster

Publisher: Short Stories, Horror, Literary Fiction, Speculative Fiction

Review in one word: Macabre

The title Oddbody is a strong signal about what lies between the covers as this collection of short stories: macabre body horror with funny and unexpected twists and turns. In the title story, a woman navigates a codependent relationship with a ghost. In “Squirm,” a daughter must tend to her father who is a man-sized squishy worm devouring himself from the inside out. If this sounds super weird…well it really is…but in a fascinating kind of way I can guarantee you!

“Pineapple” introduces a woman who makes the startling choice to have feather wings surgically attached to her back. In “Eggshells,” a waitress gives birth to an egg during her breakfast shift. These narratives are weird, fun, playful forms of body horror that anyone who loves weird fiction will savour and really love. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book quite like this, and it’s a unique and fresh take on the weird that draws me in here.

The overarching theme of Oddbody is the body itself—as a corporeal site of horror, desire, transformation, and liberation. Keating puts a powerful lens on the body anxieties that women and men have and she’s brutally honest and creepy in a way about it all. The stories are vividly rendered and enjoyable. I found this collection to be masterfully crafted, funny and so much fun to read! I would highly recommend you read it.

Rose Keating is a writer from Waterford, Ireland. She is a recipient of the Curtis Brown Prize and the Marian Keyes Young Writer Award. This collection Oddbody is a bold and surreal descent into a strange netherworld with characters who are grotesque, strange and the tender all at once. I highly recommend this collection if you want to disappear into strange corporeal places you never imagined existed!

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Book Review: Shady Hollow by Juneau Black

Wind in the Willows meets Sherlock Holmes in this delightful cosy mystery novel, the first in the series. It’s set in a forest village inhabited by larger-than-life woodland creatures with quirky personalities and a vividly rendered plot to sink your teeth into.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Genre: Fiction, Cosy Mystery, Detective, Animals, Fantasy

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday

Review in one word: Delightful

The Shady Hollow series by Juneau Black is a delightful blend of cosy mystery and woodland whimsy, set in a forest village inhabited by woodland animals. At the heart of the series is Vera Vixen, an intrepid fox reporter with a keen nose for uncovering secrets beneath the town’s tranquil surface.

The stories blends the timbre of an Agatha Christie style whodunnit with gentle humour and charming interspecies and anthropomorphic relationships between animals. Juneau Black is the pen name of authors Jocelyn Cole and Sharon Nagel, two friends and booksellers from Milwaukee who created the series out of a shared love for mysteries, animals, and stories with heart, cosiness and warmth.

The first in the series is Shady Hollow, a charming village nestled deep in a woodland. In this enchanting place, woodland creatures sip coffee, eat pumpkin pie and whisper gossip. At first glance, this is an idyllic forest community—until a grumpy old toad is found mysteriously murdered. Enter Vera Vixen, the village’s sharp-eyed reporter with a nose for both news and unravelling mysteries. As the first dead body in recent memory sends shockwaves through the sleepy town, Vera digs beneath the mossy surface of Shady Hollow to uncover tangled motives and murky pasts.

The anthropomorphic cast of animals are larger than life and stay with you for long afterwards. Owls, moose, bears, mice, beavers and foxes—each are brimming with quirks and vivid personalities that make this tale feel both timeless and fresh.

Shady Hollow is a pure delight and once I started reading this book I couldn’t stop, it was delightfully addictive. So find yourself a mossy corner, pour yourself a nice brew and savour the wholesome pleasure of this incredible mystery series. I wholeheartedly recommend this you won’t regret it and will be hankering quick-smart for the rest of the series!

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Book Review: The Maid by Nita Prose

The Maid is a heartwarming and sharply observed cosy mystery novel that feels like a gigantic warm hug and a hot mug of cocoa. The story invites you into the world of Molly Gray, a twenty-something hotel maid who has suffered many set backs in her young life but who nonetheless takes immense pride in her work.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Genre: Cosy mystery, feel good fiction.

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Review in one word: Perfection

The Maid is a heartwarming and sharply observed cosy mystery novel that feels like a gigantic warm hug and a hot mug of cocoa. The story invites you into the world of Molly Gray, a twenty-something hotel maid who has suffered many set backs in her young life but who nonetheless takes immense pride in her work.

Molly’s life is orderly and predictable—just the way she likes it. She thrives on cleanliness, structure, and the clear rules of her job at the prestigious Regency Grand Hotel. But Molly also sees the world a little differently from most people, although never spelt out it is clear she is neurodivergent. Social interactions are often confusing, metaphors baffle her, and she sometimes misreads the intentions of others. Yet she is deeply sincere, unfailingly polite, and guided by a strong moral compass. As a character she is deeply vulnerable and good-hearted and I felt like I wanted to protect her from the scheming duplicity of the people around her.

When Molly discovers one of the hotel’s wealthy guests dead in his suite, her life is thrown into chaos. Due to her unusual behaviour and inability to read social cues in the same way others do, she becomes an unwitting part of a police investigation. This is not only a cosy mystery but a journey of self-discovery for Molly and despite the murder at its core, there is a sense of the story being more comforting than chilling.

There are many threads running throughout this book of humanity, warmth, humour, and kindness. The novel shines in its portrayal of Molly’s inner world—her thoughts, struggles, and triumphs. While Molly may appear naive to others, her unique way of seeing the world allows her to piece together clues others miss.

Themes of loneliness, societal invisibility, and finding one’s chosen family run beneath the surface, making this an uplifting and emotional read. You are reminded of the silent, unspoken and too-often overlooked dignity and beauty of cleanliness, and what a maid does to ‘return a room to a state of perfection’ – as Molly would say.

This is a deeply moving, comforting and cosy mystery without the gore and cynicism of so much detective fiction (just how I like it). A bit like Miss Marple combined with Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. You may find yourself falling in love with the character of Molly the Maid as I did, I highly recommend this!

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Book Review: Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen

Dependency is the third and final volume of Tove Ditlevsen’s masterful Copenhagen Trilogy, a searing work of autofiction that chronicles a life marked by artistic ambition, potent writing talent, vulnerability and addiction.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Genre: Memoir, Autofiction, Classics, Non-fiction

Publisher: Penguin Classics

Review in one word: Heart-rending

Dependency finds Tove as a young woman in her twenties, having achieved her childhood dream of becoming a published poet. She is married to the much older and influential editor, Viggo F. Møller, a relationship that provides stability but stifles her youth and passion. The narrative follows Tove as she navigates the literary circles of Copenhagen, feeling like an outsider while yearning for connection with artists her own age.

The trajectory of the book is a harrowing descent into depression, addiction and malaise. If that sounds like a heavy book to read, well in many ways it should be, however Ditlevsen manages to captivate your heart and attention with her vulnerable, curious and raw real self, and having a glimpse into this world – it’s hard to put this book down!

The memoir is a stark and moving recollection of how she found creative and emotional dependency on one man – her first stifling marriage to Viggo, a short but fiery relationship with a university student and then a deeply disturbing marriage to a sadistic doctor with mental problems who gets her hooked on opiods as a way to control her and make her dependent upon him.

If you have ever known someone who has fallen into addiction, this book might be triggering for you. I found this memoir to be sad but fascinating, like watching a car crash in slow motion.

Ditlevsen has cultivated a raw and unrelenting narrative of her body and mind as colonised territory. This is an absorbing and deeply powerful and timeless memoir and it is little wonder that Ditlevsen’s trilogy is considered a classic in Scandinavia.

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Book Review: King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes

Virginie Despentes’ King Kong Theory is a fierce and foundational text of modern feminism, a Molotov cocktail in book form. Part memoir, part punk manifesto, it is a raw, unapologetic, and deeply personal exploration of gender, power, and sexuality in our modern world.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Genre: Non-fiction, Memoir, Essays, Feminism

Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK, 2020), The Feminist Press (US, 2010)

Review in one word: Joyful

Originally published in French in 2006, this classic feminist work is now available in English. Despentes is a punk iconoclast, rebel writer and confrontational filmmaker. Arguably her most famous book is her first novel Baise-Moi, was later adapted for the screen. She is the author of more than fifteen works, including the acclaimed Vernon Subutex trilogy. Always seeing life from the outskirts, Despentes draws from her own experience as a former sex worker and rape survivor for her scathing and excoriating analysis of surviving in a world mired in misogyny and misandry.

Far from being depressing in nature, this book is irreverant, hillarious and cheeky in its analysis of our world.

There’s a whole range of taboos that are exploded in this book. As she states in the explosive opening, “from the realms of the ugly, for the ugly, the old, the bull dykes, the frigid, the unfucked, the unfuckable, the hysterics, the freaks, all those excluded from the great meat market of female flesh”.

The essays in this book are provocative, explosive and generous in their philosophical reach and insight. Despentes examines concepts of rape, prostitution, pornography and the myth of the ideal woman. She strongly rejects victimhood and refuses to apologise or explain her reasons for doing anything she has done.

The book shows its age in the discussion about the ultimate waif-like beauty of the 90’s – Kate Moss. Despentes joyfully aligns herself not with the unreachable ideal of Kate Moss but instead with the mythological monster – King Kong who is beyond male and beyond female. He is a potent symbol of polymorphic sexuality and raw power before he is captured and destroyed by society.

The overarching themes are of railing against oppressive forces of sexual and societal control in our world are refreshing and interesting. I particularly enjoyed the ethos so closely intertwined with rebelious culture, art and music which showed in her amazing Vernon Subutex series. Despentes argues for a “new punk feminism” that embraces and loves what society deems monstrous or unacceptable in women and any one else who feels marginalised.

She challenges the binary thinking that pits “good” women against “bad” ones, virgins against whores, and victims against aggressors. Her style is blistering, direct, and brutally honest, characterised by precisely phrased rage and a refusal to soften her message for the comfort of the reader.

Despentes’ tone is provocative, warm and unapologetic. King Kong Theory is an essential work that rejects polite discourse in favour of a raw truth about sex and power that is as uncomfortable, liberating and joyful. I cannot tell you how much this book means to me, it is foundational, liberating and life-changing in every way.

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Book Review: Endling by Maria Reva

Maria Reva’s debut novel, Endling is immensely ambitious and credit where credit is due this is a vast, sweeping novel that rocked me to my core in its first few chapters.

Rating: 🌟🌟

Genre: War fiction, Ukraine, Metafiction, Literary Fiction.

Publisher: Virago (Hachette UK)

Review in one word: Confounding

Goddamnit I really wanted to love this book so much…I really did.

All of the ingredients were there! A lone female protagonist who cares deeply for endangered mollusc species. Driving through Ukraine and looking to mate molluscs together to prevent them being “Endlings” in other words the final individuals of their species.

Maria Reva’s debut novel, Endling is immensely ambitious and credit where credit is due this is a vast, sweeping novel that rocked me to my core in its first few chapters.

It’s set against the harrowing backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yeva lives in a mobile laboratory, dedicating her solitary existence to collecting and sheltering endangered snails. Her most prized possession is Lefty, the last known individual of his species—an “endling”.

To fund her strange mission, Yeva works for a Canadian firm specialising in “romance tours” to Ukraine, a euphemism for the mail-order bride business. Through this work that Yeva crosses paths with two other women entangled in the romance industry: the stunning Nastia and her brilliant sister Sol, daughters of a famous feminist activist who has mysteriously vanished. Disheartened by her inability to save the snails and desperate for a way out, Yeva is drawn into Nastia’s audacious plan to abduct a dozen of the foreign men who have come to Kyiv in search of wives.

Endling tackles profoundly difficult themes of our time – war, extinction, the trafficking and exploitation of women and does this in a confronting and emotionally raw way.

There are self-conscious moments in this that I thought were totally unnecessary and cringey. The novel shifts back and forth in time in a jarring way and in some parts Reva herself narrates in the first person. This distracts from the story itself and slows it down massively. There’s also the not inconsequential thing of having 12 grown men jammed into a tiny van being driven around Ukraine for days to weeks at a time. Apparently none of the guys were aware of there being a war happening outside the van. Nobody mentions needing to go to the loo in the novel but this seemed like too much of an obvious omission. How on earth would this situation occur in reality?

I wanted so badly to love this novel but it seems to get bogged down in its own meta-narrative style. Hugely ambitious and filled with glorious moments of genius writing, I just wish Reva had made it simpler to follow and it would have been far more enjoyable.

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Some book stats for first quarter. 20 total 19 print 10 audio 2 nonfiction 18 fiction 2 indie 4 library Sci fi, fantasy, classic lit, lit, thriller, mystery romantasy, historic lit. A nice spread. 1/3 #booksky #booktag

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:oafgjhtd5qvbw4xmr4q5yyl3/post/3mjtsia72lv2u

Book Review: How to Be Resilient by Gail Gazelle

In an increasingly scary, unpredictable and challenging world, Dr Gail Gazelle’s How to Be Resilient is a practical and compassionate guide that will empower you to find inner strength and inner calm needed to navigate life’s tough times.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Genre: Self-Help, Personal Growth, Psychology, Mental Health

Publisher: Callisto

Review in one word: Empowering

Self-help books and books about resilience in particular are a dime a dozen nowadays. And so I almost rolled my eyes when I came across this book. But I was naturally drawn to it anyway and wanted to give it a go.

I was absolutely delighted to find that this book is not cliched or filled with overwrought and trite advice. Instead this is an indepth and extensive collection of theories all masterfully brought into the real world of actionable insights. collection of abstract theories but a roadmap filled with supportive advice and actionable exercises designed to help readers weather difficult times with courage and wisdom.

A physician at Harvard Medical School and a certified life coach, Dr Gazelle brings both medical expertise and a deep understanding of the human spirit to this accessible book.

This is a collection of wisdom from many difference evidence-based approaches that are packaged together in an accessible and helpful way. ‘How to be Resilient’ is structured to empower you step-by-step and begins by demystifying the concept of resilience, explaining the psychology behind it and the science of neuroplasticity, the brain’s remarkable ability to rewire itself in response to new habits and experiences.

From this foundation, Dr Gazelle guides the reader through a series of practices rooted in evidence-based fields such as positive psychology, mindfulness, and gratitude research. The book is organised very well and is not overly long-winded either, each chapter has clear takeaways that reinforce the main points.

The overarching theme is that resilience is not an innate trait possessed by a lucky few, but a flexible pool of strength that anyone can consciously cultivate and fortified with continued and dedicated practice.

Dr Gazelle focuses on several core pillars for building this strength: learning to be more adaptable in the face of change, cultivating meaningful connections with others, staying mindful of one’s thoughts and feelings without being overwhelmed by them, and prioritising self-care.

Her style is clear, encouraging, and direct, making complex psychological concepts easy to understand and apply. The tone is deeply supportive, caring and non-judgemental, acting as a trusted guide on the journey toward greater well-being.

How to Be Resilient provides readers with the techniques—from meditation and journalling to strategies for deepening relationships—to not just survive challenges, but to heal, move forward, and continue to enjoy life to the fullest.

I found this book to be one of the best I’ve ever read (and I have consumed 100’s of self-help books over the years), I cannot recommend this book more strongly to you!

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#BookTag: Great British Bake Off Challenge

I absolutely love the Great British Bake Off so, when I saw this book challenge I though 'yeah, sign me up for that one.' ON YOUR MARKS – A Book You Can’t Wait To Read I can't wait to read The Last Mandarin, a fast-paced, all-too-real thriller co-written by #1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny and award-winning journalist Mellissa Fung, global politics become personal for two unlikely heroines.

https://alexwolfe.ca/booktag-great-british-bake-off-challenge/

Book Review: Plant Magick: The Library of Esoterica by Taschen

Plant Magick is a collectors item of sublime and exquisite beauty. This is a treasury of art and plant history for lovers of nature, art history, folklore, witchcraft and magic. Psychonauts, spiritual seekers and shamanic explorers will find a lyrical home here as well.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Genre: Non-Fiction, Philosophy, Spirituality, Esoterica

Publisher: Taschen

Review in one word: Esoteric

Divided into thoughtful sections and chapters, Plant Magick features visionary and universal wisdom from a broad range of scholars, witches, sorcerers and mystics about different aspects of plant magick, lore and practice.

There’s a diverse and broad exploration of magical practices using plants and fungi and how this is reflected in art across all ages and cultures. This is an ambitious ask and Taschen have delivered 100% with this stunning book.

If you or someone you know is a gardener, plant enthusiast, hedge witch or practising pagan or you simply revere and respect nature and plants – then this book will embolden and deepen your love and respect for these other-than-human beings.

The importance of plants as a part of religious and pagan rites, ritual, medicinal and transcendental spiritual purposes is explored through eye-popping and mind-bending art.

Each artwork is tactfully placed to add colour and depth to the informative essays that make up each chapter. The essays rather than being filler or less important than the artworks are a complement to them. The words are not wasted or superfluous but are instead brimming with lush and vivid detail about artists, movements and cultural phenomena throughout the ages. These allow you to understand the artworks in a much more profound way.

The sheer range of historical context explored in this book is exciting. Even if you casually flip through it, I guarantee that the hours will melt away and you will still be sitting on your sofa eyes glued to the pages, carefully turning them savouring every detail.

Bound in high quality hardcover and featuring gold inlay, Plant Magick is a part of a larger four part series by Taschen called the Library of Esoterica. Other books that might tickle your fancy in the series include Tarot, Astrology and Witchcraft. Personally, the only other one I simply had to own was Witchcraft and the review for this one is coming up on Content Catnip very soon.

Would I recommend this book to you? If you love nature, art history, folklore, paganism…then this book is a must for your collection – 5 stars!

Do you have this book or do you plan on getting it? let me know below!

Content Catnip

#BookThreads #booksky 💙📚 #bookstodon TCL's #SomethingDifferent Sunday #28 - New Year's Bookish Resolutions! No bread, pottery, or stained glass today. Instead I bring you a new #Booktag, brought to you by @TStrawberryPost - a new blog for me! Only 13 questions, about our 2026 reading goals.

http://tcl-bookreviews.com/2026/02/01/tcls-somethingdifferent-sunday-28-new-years-bookish-resolutions/

#BookThreads #booksky 💙📚 #bookstodon TCL's 7th My Life in Books (aka Life According to Literature) Tag - 2025 Version - on my #bookblog here. Thanks to @annabookbel and @bookdout for these fun prompts/questions and this lovely yearly #booktag!

http://tcl-bookreviews.com/2026/01/15/tcls-7th-my-life-in-books-aka-life-according-to-literature-tag-2025-version/

Book Review: Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings by Joy Harjo

Harjo’s poetry is deeply rooted in her ancestral roots and the intergenerational trauma of colonisation. Her collection is a profound meditation on the lives, struggles, and resilience of all indigenous peoples.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Genre: Poetry, Non-fiction, Native American Literature

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Review in one word: Transcendental

Joy Harjo is an internationally renowned poet, writer, and musician of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She served three terms as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate. Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings is a powerful and essential collection of poems and prose from Harjo.

The book is not a linear narrative but a lyrical journey that weaves together personal memory, ancestral stories, and sharp political commentary to paint a vivid picture of Indigenous existence in the modern world.

The trajectory of the collection follows the profound cycles of life, loss, and survival. Harjo begins by emphasising the importance of passing down traditions from one generation to the next, a sacred act of cultural preservation.

Poems and short vignettes traverse time and geography, drawing on imagery and stories from ancestral knowing in North America, from Alaska to Hawaii to her own Cherokee lands.

The centrepiece poem, from which the collection takes its title, serves as a powerful axis for the book’s themes. In it, Harjo contrasts the worldviews of Native peoples and white Americans, particularly in their approaches to conflict, land, and spirituality.

Harjo critiques a colonising mindset that would build a casino on sacred land, contrasting it with the Indigenous preference for resolving conflict and expressing identity through art, music, poetry, and oral tradition.

There’s a lot of thematic focus on the Blues as a musical style and lifestyle and her prose is incantatory, blending the rhythms of traditional song and oral storytelling.

I loved this collection of elegiac and hopeful poems there is so much affinity I feel for her and her experiences seeing as I am indigenous as well. This is a moving and essential collection of poetry. Harjo is a genius for the ages!

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Book Review: The Ghost Cat by Alex Howard

The Ghost Cat, a curious little novel about a spectral cat haunting an Edinburgh townhouse over several generations — is sometimes enchanting, sometimes discombobulating and overall quite uneven

Rating: 🌟

Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Animals, History.

Review in one word: Confusing

The premise of this book sounded enchanting. A cosy historical fantasy novel set in Edinburgh from the perspective of a cat! I mean this sounded like a book made especially for me. To say I was excited was an understatement!

The novel begins in the early morning in 1902. At a handsome home in Edinburgh’s New Town on the street of Marchmont Crescent, Grimalkin is snuggling next to his beloved human companion, housekeeper Eilidh. It will be his last day as a living cat. Sooner after he is plunged into a feline netherworld where he meets Cait-sìth who grants him eight additional lives. “For three he plays, for three he strays, and for the last three he stays.”

The novel follows Grimalkin as he witnesses the world’s changes for the next 120 years. This book starts off with an enormous amount of promise and the first few chapters are really engaging.

I don’t know what I was expecting but the tone of the novel seemed a bit silly. The narrative felt cheapened by fast-paced vignettes of the lives of people living in the home. Instead it’s a mash-up of key events and figures from throughout the past 100 years who all seem to converge on the one house over that period of time. So it’s a whistlestop tour of the The Blitz, the moon landing, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, the 2008 financial crisis and so on. After a while in the same mode it all felt a bit repetitive and stale.

The individual vignettes don’t linger long enough for the reader to meaningfully connect with the characters who live in the house or to care what happens to them. At the end of each vignette set in a particular period, the author felt it necessary to explain the characters and the historical context of the vignette. This unconventional move of explaining a vignette after it’s told seemed like lazy writing and also seemed condescending, as though the audience needed to be given historical context in order to understand. There is also a confusing addition of which monarch was reigning after each vignette—to anchor the reader in time. These flourishes, rather than enriching the narrative, came across as being self-conscious and condescending.

On a positive note the main character of Grimalkin the cat is engaging and amusing in a snooty, feline way. The stories themselves were sweet and amusing but also at times discombobulating and lacking in meaning and depth.

The Cat-Sith, a kind of Grim Reaper figure who grants Grimalkin eight additional lives is a towering figure in the book who commands a lot of attention in the beginning, it would have been good to hear more from him.

As cat lover and devotee of all things feline I just couldn’t like Grimalkin much as a character. Each time he enters into a new era he finds so much to moan and complain about. There’s a sense that he’s a Luddite and technophobic Boomer (in cat form) who rails against any new changes in the world and spends a lot of time grumbling about new things and longing for the good old days. Some will find this charming and this belligerence rather cat-like, I just found it annoying.

I’m not sure if I would recommend this book, it’s a strange and surreal read with not much satisfying depth to it.

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#ValentinesDayBookTag #booktag #bookblog #bookblogger #booklovers #books #bookish #booktwt @_TeamBlogger @BloggersHutn @BiblioblogR

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#wwwwednesdays #bookblog #bookblogger #booklovers #booktag #books #bookish #booktwt
@_TeamBlogger @BloggersHut
@BiblioblogR
#bookblog #bookblogger

https://chasingdestino.com/2025/02/05/www-wednesday-february-5/

@meeghanreads #booklovers #booktag #books #bookish #booktwt
@_TeamBlogger @BloggersHut
#top5tuesday #bookseries
@BiblioblogR #bookblog #bookblogger

https://chasingdestino.com/2025/02/04/top-5-book-series-i-will-start-in-2025-top-5-tuesday/

#fightthepatriarchy #booklovers #booktag #books #bookish #booktwt
@_TeamBlogger @BloggersHut
@BiblioblogR #bookblog #bookblogger

https://chasingdestino.com/2025/02/02/fight-the-patriarchy-book-tag/

@meeghanreads #booklovers #booktag #books #bookish #booktwt
@_TeamBlogger @BloggersHut
@BiblioblogR #bookblog #bookblogger #top5tuesday

https://chasingdestino.com/2025/01/27/top-5-authors-i-want-to-try-in-2025-top-5-tuesday/

Forget the top tens today, I’m revisiting My Life In Books for 2024 #booktag

http://onemore.org/2025/01/28/my-life-in-books-2024-edition/

@JaleesaReads @In_The_Lines #bookbloggers #booklovers #booktag #books #bookish #booktwt
@_TeamBlogger @In_The_Lines
@BloggersHut @elliasreads
@BiblioblogR

https://chasingdestino.com/2025/01/26/the-kindness-book-tag/

@kristinharmel @NetGalley #bookbloggers #booklovers #booktag #books #bookish #booktwt
@_TeamBlogger @BloggersHut
@BiblioblogR #thestolenlifeofcoletttemarceau

https://chasingdestino.com/2025/01/22/the-stolen-life-of-colette-marceau-bookreview/

#bookbloggers #booklovers #booktag #books #bookish #booktwt
@_TeamBlogger @BloggersHut
@BiblioblogR @MeeghanReads

https://chasingdestino.com/2025/01/21/top-5-books-i-will-definitely-read-in-2025-top-5-tuesday/

#SomethingDifferent #20 - The Great British Bake Off #BookTag Challenge! I'm actually in Italy right now, visiting my son, but the #bookblog must go on! Thanks to @Nicki_Mags, @portybelle and @JoannaLouisePar for the inspiration! #bookstodon #Sundaybooks

http://tcl-bookreviews.com/2024/11/24/somethingdifferent-20-the-great-british-bake-off-booktag-challenge/

A brutal, universal story of a little girl growing up between the world wars in #Denmark. #BookReview #Booktag #writing #books #nonfiction #literature

http://contentcatnip.com/2024/10/19/book-review-childhood-by-tove-ditlevsen/

#booktag #literaverso

Libro con un gran final: concluyó el booktag haciendo un poco de trampas, ya que me cuesta quedarme con solo uno.

El de El Encuadernador que comentaba antes brilla mucho de la mitad hacia el desenlace.

Los últimos capítulos de La Canción de Aquiles son desgarradoramente bellos.

La Casa al Final de Needless Street tiene un final que es pura catarsis y una montaña rusa de emociones. El de La Bahía del Espejo me gustó mucho también.