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Delia Locked account

feijoatrees@bookwyrm.social

Joined 2 years ago

Pakeha New Zealander, trying to read more and be a bit more grounded in the real. Huge Goodreads fan but also a fediverse fan and keen to try this thing out. Grateful to the volunteers with their ethos that have established all this.

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2025 Reading Goal

53% complete! Delia has read 22 of 41 books.

Veronica Gorrie: Black and Blue (2021, Scribe Publications)

Harrowing

I feel bad rating this so low when it is such an important story to have told. It reads like someone dumping data (as she describes later on) - this happened then this happened then this happened then this happened. I almost DNF due to the stacking nature of one awful thing after another, but persisted out of respect for the fact it’s a true story and the events weren’t told for shock or awe, but to bear witness.

Michael J. Fox: Always Looking Up : The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist (2009)

Pity about lance and bill cosby…

I confess I skim read through this - there were some stand out descriptions; of Paris during the Tour de France during lance’s pre fall from grace peak, or New York after September 11th, of what it feels like to have symptoms of PD square in the public eye. Michael J Fox is a great writer and his chapter on faith is wonderful and could potentially sit as a stand alone book. I enjoyed travelling back to the optimism of the early 2000s USA. Not sure if he has written anything since but I probably would read something of his again. Great dude.

Hannah Kent: Devotion (2022, Pan Macmillan)

1836, Prussia. Hanne is nearly fifteen and the domestic world of womanhood is quickly closing …

Part historical fiction, part nature writing

Gay AF (a bit too intense but I guess that’s what teenagers are like). Amazing descriptions of the ocean journey, to the extent that I think it could be a school text - in terms of understanding the white migration experience.

Jacinda Ardern: A Different Kind of Power (AudiobookFormat, Penguin)

A Different Kind of Power is a memoir by Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of …

Really excellent

A love letter to growing up in NZ in the 80s and 90s… a timely moment to reflect on the trauma of March 15, White Island and how much Covid hurt New Zealand, even without the loss of life; this is a book about leadership, sure but also the deep worth of meaningful collaboration. Really excellent book and I highly recommend it.

reviewed Dare to Lead by Brené Brown

Brené Brown: Dare to Lead (Paperback, 2018, Vermilion)

In her #1 NYT bestsellers, Brené Brown taught us what it means to dare greatly, …

It’s not the squishiness, it’s the vagueness I find weak

Brene browns approach to things is so revolutionary and effective at changing things that I think I am approaching this book in a context where things have already shifted somewhat and some of the excellent things she has to say is a bit “well, duh”. I found some bits really helpful, and took photos of pages especially with tips for being in the grunt of a hard conversation, but a lot of the book danced around a corporate world I’m just not familiar with. She also alludes a lot to her faith without naming what it is, which I am not sure is good or bad; just a little incomplete I guess? As a composite book with ideas from other books, I wonder if going back to the other books will be better. Glad I read it but not sure I’d recommend this specific book despite really backing her work.

James Prosek: Eels (2010, Harper)

"A resonant look at that most mysterious of fish, the eel--including their biology and epic …

A book so good I stole it from an island

One of those bookshelves in a shared accomodation on an island in the hauraki.

Became a comfort book over the months afterwards- clearly written by someone who cared about the stories that he was being told. Has tapped into/made me low key obsessed with eels now…