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Breakfast at Bronzefield by Sophie Campbell

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Published: June 22nd 2020

Pages:368

Genre: memoir and crime

* I received a e-copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest opinion*

I am always interested in reading about the prison system and people’s experiences during their time serving a sentence. As a law abiding citizen I hope that I will never get sent to prison because I don’t think I would be able to cope, especially after reading Sophie Campbell’s ‘Breakfast at Bronzefield’.

Sophie Campbell (pseudonym) was incarcerated at HMP Bronzefield for grievously bodily harm and assaulting a police officer. She is an educated young black woman and is a minority in the prison system, she details the unfairness and racism that goes on behind bars.

This is a very honest memoir it’s not glorified and the author even acknowledge s the fact that her persona in prison changed…it had to or she would have been deemed weak and vulnerable leaving her as a target to the bent officers and other inmates.
Sophie doesn’t shy away from the fact that she did some things in prison that wouldn’t be acceptable outside prison, but inside it got her moved to a different block or segregation which is what she wanted.
She lets you understand how corrupt it is prison, with officers turning a blind eye, making up things that didn’t happen and even officers having relationships with the prisoners.

The book focuses a lot on education and the fact that Sophie has been to university, whereas a lot of the women are illiterate. There is lots of courses for the women to get an education but it’s poorly run and women are made to feel ashamed for trying to better themselves.

Sophie is very determined never to go back to prison and become a statistic. It’s her determination that makes her succeed. The probation officers are not helpful with housing and giving just under £50 it’s no wonder so many women reoffend.

This is a very insightful memoir on HMP Bronzefield and HMP Downview where Sophie was transferred to. It has a great balance of subjects and statistics. Sophie sometimes comes across as ‘stand offish’ but actually reflecting on it she is very strong woman, she knows that is only her looking out for herself and she must do everything it takes.


Definitely recommend reading.

4/5🌟🌟🌟🌟

challenges

POPSUGAR CHALLENGE 2020

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Image result for popsugar

 

I am back! And I am ready to start 2020 with a bang and knock out some hopefully amazing books. So this years challenges were quite hard but don’t worry if you can’t think of any there is a great group on Goodreads and they have lists for all the challenges. Goodreads Popsugar challenge 

In 2019 I read mostly library books which is great but it’s not really getting rid of the mountains and mountains of books that I have accumulated over the years…so most of these books that I have chosen I own or have on Netgalley. There are 40 challenges with an additional 10 for advanced challengers. Click on the covers to be directed to Goodreads.

1.A BOOK PUBLISHED IN 2020

The Glass Hotel

2. A BOOK BY A TRANS OR NON-BINARY AUTHOR

All of the Above

3.A BOOK WITH A FIRST GREAT LINE

Middlesex

4. A BOOK ABOUT A BOOK CLUB

The Ten Thousand Doors of January

5. A BOOK SET IN A CITY THAT HAS HOSTED THE OLYMPICS

The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike, #1)

 6. A BILDUNGSROMAN

(A bildungsroman is a novel dealing with one person’s formative years or spiritual education)

Circe

7. THE FIRST BOOK YOU TOUCH ON YOUR SHELF WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED

The Queen of the Tearling (The Queen of the Tearling, #1)

8. A BOOK WITH AN UPSIDE-DOWN IMAGE ON THE COVER

Red Queen (Red Queen, #1)

9. A BOOK WITH A MAP

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

10. A BOOK RECOMMENDED BY YOUR FAVOURITE BLOG,VLOG, BOOK CLUB OR PODCAST

The Flatshare

11. AN ANTHOLOGY

Uncommon Type

12. A BOOK THAT PASSES THE BECHDEL TEST

(The Bechdel test relates to the representation of women in (usually) films)

Vox

13. A BOOK THAT HAS THE SAME TITLE AS A MOVIE OR TV SHOW BUT IS NOT RELATED

The Snow Child

14. A BOOK BY AN AUTHOR WITH FLORA OR FAUNA IN THEIR NAME

The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air, #3)

15. A BOOK ABOUT OR INVOLVING SOCIAL MEDIA

Friend Request

16. A BOOK THAT HAS A BOOK ON THE COVER

Fahrenheit 451

17. A MEDICAL THRILLER

Control

18. A BOOK WITH A MADE UP LANGUAGE

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

19. A BOOK SET IN A COUNTRY STARTING WITH ‘C’

Station Eleven

20. A BOOK YOU PICKED BECAUSE THE TITLE CAUGHT YOU ATTENTION

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

21. A BOOK PUBLISHED THE MONTH OF YOUR BIRTHDAY (FEBRUARY)

We Are Ok

22. A BOOK BY A WOMAN IN STEM

(STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering and Math)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

23. A BOOK THAT WON AN AWARD IN 2019

Milkman

24. A BOOK ON A SUBJECT YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT.

Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness

25. A BOOK WITH ONLY WORDS ON THE COVER

Between the World and Me

26. A BOOK WITH A PUN IN THE TITLE

Fix Her Up (Hot & Hammered, #1)

27. A BOOK FEATURING ONE OF THE 7 DEADLY SINS IN THE TITLE

Seven Ways We Lie

28.A BOOK WITH A ROBOT,CYBORG OR AI CHARACTER

Scythe (Arc of a Scythe, #1)

29. A BOOK WITH A BIRD ON THE COVER

Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2)

30. A FICTION OR NON-FICTION ABOUT A WORLD LEADER

Victoria

31. A BOOK WITH “GOLD”,”SILVER” OR “BRONZE” IN THE TITLE

The Goldfinch

32. A BOOK BY A WOC (WOMAN OF COLOUR)

Little Fires Everywhere

33. A BOOK WITH AT LEAST A FOUR-STAR RATING ON GOODREADS

The Librarian of Auschwitz

34. A BOOK YOU MEANT TO READ IN 2019

The Turn of the Key

35.A BOOK WITH A THREE WORD TITLE

Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)

36.A BOOK WITH A PINK COVER

Final Girls

37. A WESTERN

The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1)

38. A BOOK BY OR ABOUT A JOURNALIST

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

 

39. READ A BANNED BOOK IN BANNED BOOK WEEK (SEPTEMBER 20-26TH)

The Complete Persepolis (Persepolis, #1-4)

40. A FAVOURITE PROMPT FROM A PAST POPSUGAR CHALLENGE.

2015: NON-HUMAN CHARACTERS

The Wind in the Willows

ADVANCED CHALLENGES

 

1 A BOOK WRITTEN BY AN AUTHOR IN THEIR 20’S

The Bell Jar

2. A BOOK WITH ’20’ OR ‘TWENTY’ IN THE TITLE

2001: A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey, #1)

3. A BOOK CHARACTER WITH A VISION IMPAIRMENT OR ENHANCEMENT

My Lady Jane (The Lady Janies, #1)

4. A BOOK SET IN THE 1920’S

The Great Gatsby

5. A BOOK SET IN JAPAN

If Cats Disappeared from the World

6. A BOOK BY AN AUTHOR WHO HAS WRITTEN MORE THAN 20 BOOKS

The Graveyard Book

7. A BOOK WITH MORE THAN 20 LETTERS IN THE TITLE

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

8. A BOOK PUBLISHED IN THE 20TH CENTURY

The Reader

9. A BOOK FROM A SERIES WITH MORE THAN 20 BOOKS

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot, #1)

10. A BOOK WITH A MAIN CHARACTER IN THEIR 20’S

Daisy Jones and The Six

So that’s my 50 books that I am planning to read in 2020, some of these may be stretching the challenges but I got most of the ideas from goodreads listopia.

Have you read any of these? What should I read first? Do we have the same for any of the challenges?

wrap up

December Wrap up!

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Hi Peeps,

I know this is pretty darn late, but better late than never I suppose. I hope you have all had a fantastic new year. I managed to get some serious reading done in December but I didn’t manage to achieve my Goodreads goal for the first time in 5 years *sadface*. Anyways here is what I read in December.

 

TBR

December TBR

masonlou2 Comments

 

Hi Bookworms! So I am still going strong with my posting on the BookTube channel, I am even starting to get used to editing, though there is a long way to go. So I have been making and editing these videos on my old Note 4 using the app PowerDirector, it’s really simple to use just what you need to start out (especially for a newb like me).  Don’t worry guys I will be posting some written reviews soon as I have read quite a few of my #beatthebacklist TBR.

 

Anyway, this is my ambitious TBR pile but I think I have a good mix of books and really looking forward to reading them all.

Thanks for reading/watching,

Louise x

 

 

 

bookhaul · Uncategorized

Winter Book Haul

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Hi Bookworms, I haven’t done a book haul in a long time! I have actually been quite good and not bought too many books lately as I have way to many unread books on my shelves. So this is my Winter Book Haul…again it’s a YouTube clip. I am really grateful for all the support everyone has given me whilst plucking up the courage to make videos. Let me know if you have read any of these and which ones I should read first. Also,if you want to keep up to date then just hit that subscribe button as it would be greatly appreciated :).

 

 

 

 

wrap up

November Wrap-up

masonlouLeave a comment

 

So I am continuing on with my BookTube channel, I had a small viewing of my last video and lots of support. This is my November wrap-up. I only read 4 books this month but check it out.I will hopefully be using a new camera on my next video and will be better quality. Hope you guys had a fantastic reading month.

 

 

TBR · Uncategorized

I have only gone and done it!!!

masonlou8 Comments

Ok, so I have been umming and aaahhhing over wether or not to create a BookTube channel and I have just uploaded my first video.

Admittedly it’s going to be as cringy as hell and I am doing it on my phone but hey ho. I am not expecting anyone to watch but it would be great if you do and maybe subscribe 😊.

Anyway I will link the video, let me know what you think.

November TBR

S

Social Media Tour -Still Lives

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Author: Maria Hummel

Publisher: Quercus Books

Published: 1st November 2018

Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller

Pages: 384

Amazon

Book Depository

 

 

 

The Blurb:

A young editor at a Los Angeles art museum finds herself pulled into the disturbing and dangerous world of a famous artist who goes missing on the opening night of her exhibition

Kim Lord is an avant garde figure, feminist icon, and agent provocateur in the L.A. art scene. Her groundbreaking new exhibition Still Lives is comprised of self-portraits depicting herself as famous, murdered women—the Black Dahlia, Chandra Levy, Nicole Brown Simpson, among many others—and the works are as compelling as they are disturbing, implicating a culture that is too accustomed to violence against women.

As the city’s richest art patrons pour into the Rocque Museum’s opening night, all of the staff, including editor Maggie Richter, hope the event will be enough to save the historic institution’s flailing finances.

Except Kim Lord never shows up to her own gala.

Fear mounts as the hours and days drag on and Lord remains missing. Suspicion falls upon the up-and-coming gallerist Greg Shaw Ferguson, who happens to be Maggie’s ex. A rogue’s gallery of eccentric art world figures could also have motive for the act, and as Maggie gets drawn into her own investigation of Lord’s disappearance, she’ll come to suspect all of those closest to her.

Set against a culture that too often fetishizes violence against women, Still Lives is a page-turning exodus into the art world’s hall of mirrors, and one woman’s journey into the belly of an industry flooded with money and secrets.

 

My Thoughts:

So I haven’t quite finished reading this book but I thought I would let you know my feelings on what I have read so far. The story is told from our narrator Maggie, she is working in the Rocque Museum as an editor and they are about to exhibit a collection of art by Kim Lord. Kim Lord is quite well loved in the art world and her latest exhibit is to be her most controversial yet, she has decided to paint female victims that have been murdered in Los Angeles.

The opening night of the exhibit seems to be a success with anybody and everybody there except the star herself, Kim Lord. No one has been able to get hold of her and Maggie thinks it may just be another publicity stunt from the artist, yet the next day cops and investigators start prowling around the museum and asking questions. However, Maggie seems to have got pulled into a little investigation of her own with a journalist that was at the opening night.

I am really liking this so far, the writing is really easy to follow and the pace is just right. The world of art is not something I am familiar with so it’s nice to get an idea of the set up of the museum and how its run The descriptive writing of the art that is being displayed is really good and you can visualise these paintings. There does seem to be quite a few characters at the moment and I am not sure if all of them are necessary but it definitely makes me aware of how many people are needed to run a successful museum. I am not too sure about Maggie as of yet, she seems like a level headed woman but nothing has stood out as of yet.

This is definitely worth a shot if you like mystery/thriller books, however I think this is more in the literary thriller genre. I will be having a look at some of the other Reese Witherspoon books that she has in her collection.

 

Here is a list of all the other blogs where you can read more reviews about this book which is happening till Thursday, so do check them out.

Maria Hummel

Maria Hummel

Maria Hummel is the author of Motherland, a San Francisco Chronicle Book of the year. She has worked as a writer/editor at MOCA in Los Angeles, then received a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. Maria is currently an assistant professor at Vermont, where she lives with her Husband and sons.

 

Thanks for reading

 

Uncategorized

October Wrap Up 2018

masonlou3 Comments

Here we are with another wrap up! October has flown by, I have been so busy. I started a Business Administration apprenticeship through work and have had a first assignment to complete. So with all that I have only read 3 books which is really poor for me. I think this is the worst reading month I have had in a very long time. But I am currently 74% through ‘IT’ by Stephen King and that’s like 3 books in 1. I am currently 3 books behind schedule and sitting at 60/75.

So here is what I read in October:

Passenger (Passenger, #1)

This is the first book that I have really read that involves time travel and whilst the concept of time travel is intriguing, I didn’t really like this book.It started off really slowly and then gained a helluva lot of speed towards the end. The world building to me wasn’t that great and the romance was just not romancy enough. I felt the time travel got a bit confusing at times and why she was actually traveling to said places. Though it did leave on a bit of a cliff hanger and I am intrigued to read the next installment but I don’t now when I will get to it. This was one of my reads for #Beatthebacklist. I rated this 2/5 stars.

 

Truly Madly Guilty

I have finally read this bloody book, it has only taken 2 years from when I said I wanted to read it. It has been on so many TBR lists I have lost count. This is the second Moriarty book that I have read and I liked it but didn’t think it was anything special and I actually started to get frustrated as it was taking ages to get to the point. I found it a bit predictable but I did like all the different characters that she used.  I rated this 3/5 stars.

 

The Little Stranger

This also the second book that I have read by Sarah Waters, I was in the mood for some spooky reads and I thought this was a great start. This is a very slow, atmospheric novel based in the 1950’s Leamington. A once wealthy family are living in the crumbling remains of a mansion and living off the last of their money. Dr Faraday is called out and his life becomes entwined with the Ayres family. Strange things start happening in the house, which the doctor tries to explain away as deliriousness. This book was OK but I was expecting more of a shock factor. It is dark and a gothic read. I rated 3/5 stars.

 

So there is the 3 books that I read in October, not many but hopefully I will do better in November.

What did you read in October? Any the same as me,let’s chat.

Thanks for Reading