Review of Music To Make Friends By

Music To Make Friends By: Quick Reads 2019 by Hayley Long

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cover – Music to Make Friends By

📖 This is a really intriguing little book. I initially purchased it as I enjoy the quick-reads series to which it belongs to. I don’t think there are many autobiographies amongst it (that I am aware of) so this seemed fun and a little different and at £1 worth a go.

✍️Well I wasn’t disappointed. This is a sweet little book about a woman going through life, told through music. The excitement of buying her first album, the sharing of common music with friends, joining your first fan club, getting a first job, having a boyfriend (who is sweet enough to create her a mixtape), travelling Europe, becoming a teacher and attending school dances. Quite a lot of life story in 99 pages, mostly told through the medium of song.

👓 This little book brought back quite a lot of memories for me too (who doesn’t remember the exciting times of visiting a woolies store with your eagerly saved pocket money). Everyone has special songs that can instantly bring back memories (good or bad) and that’s what this little book captures.

🗣 I often think it’s useful to see an extract of a book to get an idea of the writing style. Here is a brief extract so that you can see a sample of the writing yourself:

‘The music?’ I crossed my fingers. ‘Can I choose it this time?’
Jeanie was silent for a moment and then she gave a snort of laughter. ‘Of course you can, love. You can choose anything you like as long as it’s Elton John.’

💭 Overall View: A light-hearted, funny, sweet little book. Full of nostalgia (particularly around how music shapes and inspires us). I’ve now added Marlena Shaw’s – Let’s Wade in the Water to my playlist too, such a brilliant little song to much this fun little book.

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At the time of reviewing this book it is on sale for £1.00 at Amazon (affiliate link):

https://amzn.to/3CgHY3E

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Review of The Gift of Stones by Jim Crace

Cover – The Gift of Stones

The Gift of Stones by Jim Crace

📖 This is such an unusual little book; I’ve never read anything quite like it. This book is inspired by the stone age, or I guess more accurately the transition from the stone age to the iron age. It follows the story of a young boy who is shot in the elbow by an arrow. As a young man he is feeling quite inadequate to help out in the village he sets of wandering and comes back home to tell his stories full of adventure. Soon, the village is captured by his tales.

✍️The village itself exists as a hub for working stones into weapons which are then traded by passers-by for food and other things. As this trade begins to dwindle, the village needs to address what they need to do to survive and perhaps they might need to learn to be more like the brave storyteller.

🗣 I often think it’s useful to see an extract of a book to get an idea of the writing style. Here is a brief extract so that you can see a sample of the writing yourself:

Give us the details, we, his audience, would say. Tell us once again how your blood flowed like a cliff spring down your arm, into the sling, onto the scallops, how the landscape turned from bracken-brown to red, how the bracts on the under-leaves stuck to the thickening blood as you toppled from the rock. Tell us, too, about the rich foliage that would have grown, coddled, germinated by the blood. What mushrooms, toadstools; what grubs, what flies, might have flourished there if you had simply fallen and not staggered to your feet again?

👫 Character(s): The story primarily follows the tales of “father”, “daughter” and Doe. The narrator is primarily “daughter” telling of her father’s story and how he came to meet Doe and their life together.

💭 Overall View: Told in simply constructed prose, this is an odd, beautifully written book about storytelling, imagination, disability and people’s resistance to change. It had a charm throughout it although the underlying story of uncertainty for the villager’s future was present. I’ll certainly look forward to reading more of this author’s works.

👍 Please leave a like if you think my review/feedback of the item was helpful to you. Alternatively, please contact me if you want me to clarify something in my review.

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Affiliate link to the book:

https://amzn.to/3Ebplyv

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