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arlenefinnigan

arlenefinnigan

Joined September 2016

There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more.
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arlenefinnigan
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17 likes1 stack add
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arlenefinnigan
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Pickpick

This is a lovely, sweet book. I found it slightly twee in places, but that's just me being a cold hearted cynic. It paints a great, vivid picture of how wartime evacuation felt for all involved, and it's a great festive ending.

CarolynM Have you seen the film Blitz? It‘s a bit of a different take on the evacuations. (And Paul Weller‘s in it 😜) 1d
arlenefinnigan @CarolynM no, I'll have to check it out! 1d
17 likes2 comments
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My reading game has been way off form this year, for Reasons (my target was 60 books). Goodreads have gone too early with this, though. There's 12 days left, I can read another 4 books in that time.

CarolynM Of course you can! 2d
DogMomIrene Feel the same way. They‘re always early, but this year the images in the email actually look good. I wish they‘d send an updated version on January 1. 23h
arlenefinnigan @DogMomIrene I know! I get loads of reading done over Christmas! 7h
18 likes4 comments
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arlenefinnigan
Liverpool Through Time | Daniel K. Longman
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17 likes1 stack add
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Pickpick

This is a suitably tumultuous, eventful, and often brutal and heartbreaking conclusion to the quartet. The unresolved mysteries are in a way frustrating, but they also make the story more real and relatable. It's quite the journey.

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arlenefinnigan
Oldham Library & Lifelong Learning Centre | Oldham, United Kingdom (Library)
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"Libraries across Oldham will light up tonight in support of our colleagues and the community in Liverpool, who are re opening Spellow Library following damage caused by the violent disorder in the summer. The community in Spellow have pulled together to help the much loved venue to re open and we'll be lighting up to celebrate their achievements and the role of libraries as safe, welcoming community spaces for everyone to enjoy."

Ruthiella 👏👏👏 1w
squirrelbrain ❤️❤️❤️ 1w
CarolynM ❤️ 1w
24 likes3 comments
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arlenefinnigan
Shelf Life Books and Zines | Cardiff, United Kingdom (Bookstore)
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It's my friend Anna's birthday today (she isn't on Litsy), can everyone please take a moment to admire how cool her new book bag is. (I haven't seen her to give her the book I got her yet!)

Andrea313 I'm going to need this bag! 2w
TheBookHippie 😂 OMG ACAB 😂😂😂💀🪦☠️ 2w
TheBookHippie Also need this bag. 2w
See All 6 Comments
CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian Ha love the double entendre! 2w
BookmarkTavern She has excellent taste! 2w
Chelsea.Poole Nice! Bring her to Litsy! 😉 2w
19 likes6 comments
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arlenefinnigan
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Christmas shopping done. Time for #BooksAndBooze. Earned it.

Bookwomble Do you mean you're done with SOME Christmas shopping, or that you've done ALL your Christmas shopping? If the latter, then 😱🤯 I'm one of those people rattling shop doors on Christmas Eve! 😄 2w
arlenefinnigan @Bookwomble I'm one of those people who puts their tree up early November and has panic attacks if they haven't bought all the presents by the end of the first week of December! 2w
19 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Christmas read.

14 likes1 stack add
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18 likes1 stack add
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arlenefinnigan
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Pickpick

This is a really lovely, enjoyable book. Books about books are catnip to bookworms, and Cathy Rentzenbrink conveys the joy and restorative healing power of reading beautifully. She writes movingly about her family - losing her brother, her parents' illnesses, her father learning to read and developing a love of books late in life, becoming a mother - and gives an insight into her various book-related jobs.

arlenefinnigan Given recent news, some of her anecdotes about working at Harrods are a bit eyebrow-raising, but it's inspirational reading about her work with prisoners. 1mo
23 likes1 comment
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arlenefinnigan
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Pickpick

This is a brilliant book, I really enjoyed it. A collection of essays by nineteen trans, non-binary, agender, gender-fluid and intersex writers, describing the multi-faceted ways they find joy in simply being themselves.

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Pickpick

This is a remarkable book and incredibly well researched. The author vividly describes centuries of Naples' tumultuous history of art, mythology, social and political upheaval, and violent revolution, interspersed with his own anecdotes of living in the city.

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Now more than ever, read more books.

TrishB If only to try and ignore the world! 1mo
arlenefinnigan @TrishB sometimes you have to! 1mo
27 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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arlenefinnigan
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Pickpick

This is a tough, but excellent and important, read. Chimene Suleyman writes brilliantly about her awful experience with a manipulative abusive ex-partner, who disappeared while she was in a clinic having a termination, the trauma of coming to terms with his abuse, and the strength she drew from finding other women who had suffered similar abuse from him.

arlenefinnigan She highlights how systemic societal misogyny protects and enables abusers, and shames women into putting up with & excusing abusive behaviour; how, while many men suffer in silence from mental health problems because they fear being seen as 'weak' for struggling, other men weaponise mental health to excuse their behaviour (her ex partner claimed to have agoraphobia and autism, and made her, and other women, feel guilty for challenging him); 2mo
arlenefinnigan ... and how women, out of necessity, look out for and support each other. A very powerful book. 2mo
17 likes2 comments
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arlenefinnigan
Biblioteca dei Girolamini di Napoli | Napoli, Italy (Library)
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Cool book art. Not at the tagged library, at a trattoria called I Gerolomini nearby.

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Monday afternoon #BooksAndBooze. Cannot beat it.

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18 likes1 stack add
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arlenefinnigan
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Pickpick

Another brilliant, gripping novel in the Neapolitan quartet. Elena and Lila are now young adults with children in the 1960s, and their personal lives and relationships are as turbulent as the social and political landscape. No spoilers, but Elena, what the hell are you doing, girl?

zezeki I adore these books! 2mo
arlenefinnigan @zezeki yeah I'm really enjoying them! Flying out to Naples next week so I'll be reading the 4th instalment there, which is kinda cool. 2mo
zezeki @arlenefinnigan oh, that's great! 2mo
21 likes3 comments
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22 likes1 stack add
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arlenefinnigan
Behind You Is the Sea: A Novel | Susan Muaddi Darraj
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Pickpick

This is an excellent collection of intertwined short stories about a Palestinian community in Baltimore. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I'd read it in print, as it was a bit difficult to keep up with who was related to who on audiobook, but I found the family dynamics really interesting.

squirrelbrain Good to know, as I have both print and audio versions bookmarked on Everand - I will go with print. 3mo
arlenefinnigan @squirrelbrain hope you enjoy it! 3mo
26 likes2 comments
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Aw. RIP Tony Soper.

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Booked a holiday. Bought a book. Having an absolutely banging Sunday.

TrishB Perfect! 3mo
22 likes1 stack add1 comment
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arlenefinnigan
Mrs Death Misses Death | Salena Godden
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Mehso-so

This is an odd book, and I really wanted to like it more than I did, but the experimental, stream of consciousness style, and the tough subject matter made it a difficult read. Still, we shouldn't shy away from talking and reading about injustice and violence and death, and Wolf and Mrs Death are strangely likeable characters. This is really well written, I just didn't quite get it.

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arlenefinnigan
Behind You Is the Sea: A Novel | Susan Muaddi Darraj
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squirrelbrain I‘ll be interested to hear what you think. I have it bookmarked on Everand since it was rumoured for the Booker - I kept it on there when it didn‘t make the list as it sounds so good. 4mo
22 likes1 stack add1 comment
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arlenefinnigan
Too Much | Tom Allen
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Pickpick

This is a really lovely, funny, charming, moving book. It conveys the messiness and overwhelming stress of grief so well. The bit where he talks about getting inexplicably angry at, and stressed out by, apparently minor things, and people thinking you're just being cranky and unreasonable, felt particularly relatable. And his description of the last text message his dad sent him is, however inappropriately, hilarious.

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18 likes1 stack add
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arlenefinnigan
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Pickpick

Oof, there is so much going on here, and so much of it is pretty disturbing. What an utter mess Lila is in. The violence, misogyny and lack of hope and opportunity in the neighbourhood becomes even more clear as the girls become women, and it‘s no wonder Lenu wants to escape, but her path out is far from smooth. Another brilliant, vividly written book in the series.

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arlenefinnigan
Too Much | Tom Allen
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16 likes1 stack add
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arlenefinnigan
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Pickpick

This is a brilliant memoir. It centres around Eddie's experience at Oxford University, which should have been a fantastic opportunity but became an ordeal, when the 'full scholarship' he won won't cover the essential care he needs, and he's expected to fundraise this himself. It's a great insight into the realities of living in a world that excludes disabled people, and challenges 'uprights' to reconsider what we mean by 'reasonable adjustments'.

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arlenefinnigan
Spellow Community Library | Liverpool, United Kingdom (Library)
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In a move straight from the Nazis' play book, thugs burnt down Spellow Library in north Liverpool last night. If you can, please consider donating toward the Go Fund Me that's been set up to help them rebuild.
https://gofund.me/ef5c66ee

Librarybelle So horrifying 5mo
arlenefinnigan @Librarybelle terrifying. The Nazis burned books. They've burnt a library. 5mo
AlaMich wtf is WRONG with people?! 5mo
See All 16 Comments
arlenefinnigan @AlaMich I know, I'm sickened. 5mo
Ruthiella Reprehensible. 5mo
arlenefinnigan @Ruthiella I know. It's terrifying. 5mo
Leftcoastzen OMG ! How awful! 5mo
BookmarkTavern Oh no! How awful! Thank you for sharing the GoFundMe! (edited) 5mo
marleed Oh no! 5mo
squirrelbrain Wow, I donated last night as @TrishB sent the link. I think it was at (c9k then - now it‘s (ddk! There are many more good people than bad people out there. 5mo
Dilara Unbelievable! And terrifying. 5mo
arlenefinnigan @Leftcoastzen I know, isn't it! 5mo
arlenefinnigan @marleed yeah 💔 5mo
arlenefinnigan @squirrelbrain thanks for donating! 5mo
arlenefinnigan @Dilara yeah, it's awful x 5mo
arlenefinnigan Over £100k raised so far. Faith in humanity restored. 5mo
19 likes16 comments
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arlenefinnigan
Queer and Catholic | Mark Dowd
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Pickpick

This is a fascinating memoir. It's really interesting to hear how the author reconciles his Catholic faith - which is neither blind nor unquestioning, but something he thinks deeply about, has studied and debated, and is a source of strength and comfort to him - with the institutionalised homophobia of the Church hierarchy. It's funny and moving, and beautifully told.

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arlenefinnigan
Mrs Death Misses Death | Salena Godden
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Library hold's come in

18 likes2 stack adds
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arlenefinnigan
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Absolutely devastated to hear that Jackie Hagan passed away yesterday. It was a privilege to know her and the world is a better place for her having been in it.

Ruthiella Sorry to hear that. ❤️ 6mo
CarolynM 💙 6mo
20 likes2 comments
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Queer and Catholic | Mark Dowd
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arlenefinnigan
The Nineties: A Book | Chuck Klosterman
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Pickpick

This is a fascinating book, and feels like it could have been specifically written for someone who sat their Sociology A Level in 1999. It's incredibly broad in its scope, covering music, film, TV, sports and politics, and it rightly gives popular culture equal weight to geopolitics. I really enjoyed this.

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21 likes1 stack add
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arlenefinnigan
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Pickpick

This is a superb, beautifully written novel. It follows the intense and complicated friendship of Lila and Lenu through their childhood and adolescence in post war Naples. It depicts the poverty and violence, and the complex social dynamics, vividly. I'm really looking forward to reading the next book in the quartet.

Ruthiella This quartet is stellar! 6mo
zezeki I love this quartet! Ferrante's writing is superb! 6mo
arlenefinnigan @Ruthiella really enjoying it so far! 6mo
arlenefinnigan @zezeki yeah the writing is so vivid, really looking forward to the rest of the quartet! 6mo
29 likes4 comments
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18 likes1 stack add
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arlenefinnigan
Memories of a Militant | Annie Kenney
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Pickpick

This is a fascinating contemporary account of Annie Kenney"s life and her tireless work in the Suffragette movement. Someone of her views (especially on race) are quite "of their time", but it's a great first-hand insight into the sacrifices and efforts made to win women the vote.

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Next up. My husband got me the Neapolitan novels for my birthday cos we're hoping to go to Naples this year.

BarbaraBB Naples is fantastic 💕 7mo
arlenefinnigan @BarbaraBB really looking forward to going! 7mo
33 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Pickpick

This is a beautiful, uplifting collection of poems reflecting on grief/love (and how intertwined they are), activism and hope. Blue Boat Mother was especially moving. Exactly what I needed.

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TheKidUpstairs What a wonderfully evocative cover! 7mo
arlenefinnigan @TheKidUpstairs it's so striking, isn't it? Actually that's a bit of an accidental pun. 7mo
21 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Pickpick

This is a brilliant memoir by a brilliant woman. Beth Mead is open and honest about her struggles with anxiety and self doubt, & the challenges she's faced. She speaks warmly about her family and how much their support means to her, & the chapters about her mum's illness are heartbreaking (I don't recommend reading the last one about her mum when you're on your lunch break and have to go back to work, esp if you're recovering from a bereavement).

arlenefinnigan There's plenty about the camaraderie and banter with her team mates, especially her partner. And, of course, the utter joy of the Euros win. I'm delighted that the party that night was as good as I'd hoped it would be. 7mo
23 likes1 comment
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arlenefinnigan
The Nineties: A Book | Chuck Klosterman
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21 likes2 stack adds
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arlenefinnigan
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Pickpick

This is a brilliant memoir and a brutally honest insight into Fern Brady's experience as an autistic woman. I hope the snobby posh bastards who she went to uni with read this and feel inferior and shit. Definitely recommend listening to it on audiobook.

Bookwomble ❤️ Fern. She was brilliant on Taskmaster and her Netflix show is hilarious. 8mo
arlenefinnigan @Bookwomble she's hilarious, I love her. 8mo
27 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Happy St George's Day and World Book Day

Sace 📖🌹 8mo
22 likes1 comment
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