dmathuna's reviews
13 reviews

The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang

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challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

I don’t even know what to say about a book that covers such topics. I’ll start by saying that it’s short enough at around 230 pages and aims to give an overview of such a wide ranging event that it can’t seriously detail much but what is told in here is extremely harrowing to read and then to comprehend that these acts were all done by humans to other humans. 

The sheer barbarity and brutality shown to the Chinese inhabitants of Nanjing  is staggering and each page you uncover a new horror you previously thought incomprehensible. The detailing of how widespread the systematic rape of all women regardless of age, pregnancy, occupation churned my stomach in a way I don’t think has ever happened to me. I am absolutely forever changed by the contents of this book and it will never leave me for the rest of my life..

The fact that elements of Japanese society still can’t accept that this event occurred much less that their soldiers carried it out with explicit knowledge by their government leaders is tragic and should be a crime akin to denial of the holocaust. I can only hope that since the time the book was published that attitudes there have started to change. More than 300,000 people were murdered by the occupation and we did them a disservice by not remembering this event more. 

At the time of me writing this review Iris Chang would have been 56.
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Driven: A Pioneer for Women in Motorsport - An Autobiography by Rosemary Smith

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

A very insightful read that highlighted the career of an Irish motorsport legend in her own words and gave an incredible look into what early rallying was like and recounts her numerous larger than life tales on those rallies. 
Under the Hawthorn Tree by Donald Teskey, Marita Conlon-McKenna

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

4.5 stars, this was a brutal read and I honestly didn’t realise how much I was holding my own emotions in until the end. It was hard to read the last few pages, not because it was bad but because it was hard to see the page through my tears
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The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Such a fun read, especially having acted as Shylock in this before. The characters flow off the page and come alive with Shakespeares words. It’s crazy how 500 years after it was written it’s still such a great story.
Foster by Claire Keegan

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dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I first read this when I was a young lad in secondary school and I wanted to reread this now that I am so much older. This is absolutely beautifully written with descriptions that bring the characters and places in the book to life. It’s such a good and poignant piece that looks at the pettiness of people in rural Ireland, the manifestations and physical reminders of grief, and how the people that love you the most aren’t always the ones you’re born to.
Peacemakers: Six Months that Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan

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challenging informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

An excellent look at the peace treaties and nation building that occurred after World War I by the peacemakers. This book gives a good base understanding of the treaties that have shaped the world in so many ways. A good insight into how all of the decisions were driven by imperialism and a good few by anti Bolshevism. 
Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.

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challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Man was Dr King one of the best of us, smart, eloquent, polite but utterly dedicated to his people’s cause, firm in his insistence that he was right and that he would prevail. Essential reading.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

A hard book to get through tbh, I don’t like Hemingways writing style and I didn't care about the characters. The ending hits like a ton of bricks tho.
Wax & Wane by Saoirse Ní Chiaragáin

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

An extremely well crafted fast paced narrative story set in modern Ireland. There was high tension throughout this entire book that never ceased to pull me in and kept me turning the pages. It starts off as a very real scenario and just gets more intense as you keep reading. An incredibly chilling story of how someone can be so radicalised so quickly with some life changing consequences. Highly highly recommended.
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