The Bricks that Built the Houses | 
so-soYou know sometimes a book just doesn‘t really do it for you and you don‘t know why? I don‘t think this book was bad but I didn‘t connect with it, I got bored and couldn‘t feel invested in the characters, the writing style jarred for me which is odd cause I did think it was well written. It‘s like I thought it was good, I‘ve recommended it to my bf cause I think he‘d like it, I just didn‘t enjoy it myself.
Becky was great bi representation tho
Debut novel by Ted Hughes Prize winning poet. Even if she's new to this it must be worth a read.
bailedJust not for me at the moment. Have seen some of the authors performances on you tube and really wanted to love this. Couldn't connect with any of the characters though. May come back to it.
Maybe it's because it made me feel so old?!
Having a blast in Nashville! The top two books are from Parnassus, and the rest are from McKay's, which I found amazingly overwhelming!
"The doors are heavy, they demand a push with the shoulder and, like the best of us, they swing both ways."
"To be a woman, you must struggle, like the ballerina struggles. You have to work hard. It is painful work. And when you do it right, it will look effortless. But where we're different from dancers, my sweet, is that we will never be applauded for getting it right."
#katetempest #thebricksthatbuiltthehouses #lillytales #qotd #women #feminism
After a long and stressful day, it's absolute heaven to curl up with my two favourite ladies, Tara and Kate
#CatsOfLitsy
On Thursday night, I saw Kate Tempest perform Let Them Eat Chaos in Brighton and it was the most powerful and energising and intense thing I have possibly ever experienced. It was utter magic. So screw the book buying ban. Screw my tight budget. This was an absolute necessity in my life 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 #BookMail #EverythingIEverWantedToBe #SpiritualExperience #KateTempestForPM
Becky works as a waitress in her Italian uncle's place. It's where she meets Pete. It's a caff or a greasy spoon rather than a restaurant. But there are definitely scenes.
#scenesfromanitalianrestaurant #rockinmay
Look what's just arrived. Really can't wait to read this book. #bookmail
so-soKate Tempest has an impressive talent but this is an uneven work that needs a better editor. There are moments of startling clarity and sentences that jump right of the page and scenes (in a JobCentre, in a café) that are wonderfully, painfully real but these are often bogged down in over-elaborate metaphors and peripheral backstories. There is some great writing when Tempest keeps it simple and punchy and raw and let's her best characters speak.
Day 13 of #riotgrams - pink covers! Here's my stack of pink with a monkey on top! @bookriot
pickWhat a talented young woman Kate Tempest is. I first saw her on tv when she was in Australia for the Sydney Writer's Festival 2016. I saw her on Q&A, an ABC current affairs talk show & I was impressed by her reserved, considered comments on the show and then by her amazing spoken word performance. The Bricks that Built the Houses is her first novel set in south London. Interesting, believable characters and a plot that hooked me in.
About to start this beauty, on loan from a good friend.
A rep for Tor handsold this. It's a debut from an extraordinarily talented author who is an acclaimed poet, playwright, rapper, & recording artist. I'm always on the lookout for new voices! #literaryloot #books
pickKate Tempest is an amazing talent. The Bricks That Built the Houses is a culmination of her award winning poetry and Mercury Prize nominated album Everybody Down. Highly recommend listening to the album to complement reading the novel #southlondon #sydneywritersfestival #london
pickAmazing voice, edgy and her poetry/rapping background show. Really well observed and beautifully drawn characters. The voice can take a bit of getting used to and needs attention when reading, but well worth the effort.
Completely recommending Kate Tempest's beautiful novel, with its cast of warm, messed up, hopeful characters (and their families) as my #bestofoctober #booktober
(Pic inspired by @scripturient 's gorgeous colourful autumn photos 🍁🍂)
pickA love song to London, to home and to family, whatever screwed up mix of genes, love, circumstance and choice that may be.
"You don't even realise it, until you're driving through it, watching all the things you've always known and leaving them behind.
They're driving past the streets, the shops, the corners where they made themselves. Every ghost is out there, staring. Bad skin and sunken eyes, grinning madly at them from the past.
It's in their bones. Bread and booze and concrete. The beauty of it. All the tiny moments blazing."
#greatfirstlines #booktober
pickKate Tempest is a beautiful genius. The Bricks That Built the Houses is raw and gritty, and so sincere. It‘s a kick-start to the heart, and I fell in love with all of the characters in turn, their delicate idiosyncrasies and loudly beating hearts. Poetically charged, it will leave you on a high.
Each breath is a thrown dart that has to be wrenched from the board before she can throw again.
Heading off to the Sydney Writers Festival with this to keep me company. Kate Tempest has taken Sydney by storm!
Nothing nicer than reading my book on my ferry ride home. Sydney Harbour enjoying a beautiful autumnal evening. Part II begins with a William Blake poem "Love to faults is always blind/Always is to joy inclined/Lawless, winged, unconfined/And breaks all chains from every mind."
You give too much, they take too much, they want too much, or not enough, and suddenly you find yourselves emptied out and open-handed, grabbing for some more.
pickKate Tempest's prose is just as amazing as her poetry. Read this in almost one sitting.
I love the color of this book so much. Also it has some killer opening passages. Really excited about it.
pickLOVED it. I'll admit, I trepidatiously read the first couple of chapters, wondering how such an amazing poet & lyricist could mould herself into the novel form. But I really didn't want it to end! Made me v homesick for SE London. The Bricks will end up one of my best reads of the year, I reckon.
Um... Sooo... Y'know how the UK cover of Kate Tempest's first novel is very pretty? Weeeell, my friendly local bookshop put aside a copy of the limited, signed edition, which is even prettier. Look at those blue edges! 😍
It begins: "It gets into your bones." Bought this yesterday and can't wait to read it. Look, she signed mine!
REALLY excited to be reading the first novel by one of my favourite poets, artists and humans. A few chapters in and loving it. (This is the UK cover, btw.) P.S. If anyone knows KT's Everybody Down LP, you'll be intrigued by the plot...
