Looking For Jane by Heather Marshall

Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 3 days

Pages - 384

Publisher - Simon & Schuster

Source - Netgalley

Blurb from Amazon

'Just tell them you're looking for Jane...'

2017
When Angela discovers a mysterious letter containing a life-shattering confession in a stack of forgotten letters, she begins to look for the intended recipient. Her search takes her to the 1970s and 80s, when a group of daring women operated an illegal underground abortion network known only by its whispered code name: Jane . . .

1971
As a teenager, Dr. Evelyn Taylor was forced to give her baby up for adoption. Swearing she'll do everything she can to make sure other women have the right to choose, she joins the Jane Network to provide safe but illegal abortions. There, she crosses paths with Nancy, who was told that if she ever found herself 'in a position', she should ask for Jane. Nancy soon becomes the Network's newest volunteer, desperately trying to help others while family secrets threaten everything she knows to be true.

Over the years, Evelyn, Nancy, and Angela's lives intertwine to reveal the devastating consequences that come from a lack of choice, and the buried secrets that will always find a way to the surface . . .

Spanning decades, Evelyn, Nancy, and Angela's lives intertwine to reveal the devastating consequences that come from a lack of choice, and the buried truths that will always find a way to the surface...


My Review

Spanning over many timelines and characters the book focuses centrally on abortion, it is fictional based on historical facts around abortion. It looks at young mothers to be, unmarried, no father for multiple reasons and the home for these "unfortunates" and the nuns that "care" for them.

We go through the horrors women face because abortion is illegal at one of the timelines and what they go through, in detail at points, protests. We also look at motherhood, the impact is has when it is thrust upon you, when you have a partner, when you don't. Options available to women back then or lack of and how one woman's experience drives her to "Looking for Jane".

The book is graphic, brutal, emotive and heartbreaking at points. It has been well researched and multiple links and info available for the reader when they finish.

You don't realise how lucky you are (general you) in the healthcare and options we have as modern day females. That said what is going on in America with the abortion laws really brings a lot of this home just how scary it truly is and the risk women are yet again going to put at. A book that gives pause for thought, 4/5.

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Confessions of A Bad Mother by Stephanie Calman

Confessions Of A Bad Mother by Stephanie Calman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 10 days

Pages - 324

Publisher - MacMillan

Source - given by a friend

Blurb from Goodreads

Funny, acutely observed, frighteningly honest and drawing on her own and hundreds of other mum's real experiences, Stephanie Calman serves up the perfect antidote to all those books that tell you that your children must be perfect, and to all those Stepford mums and kids out there who look as if they just might be: perfectly groomed, perfectly behaved and perfectly brilliant. The reality, as we all know, encompasses sleepless nights, no sex for years, baby sick on your best cashmere cardy, the terrible twos and then, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the sitting room, terrible teenagers whose only means of communication is the slamming door or the grunt.



My review

Two kids fighting, milestones, the impact they have on your relationship, the impact on your life. Here is the no holds barred account by one mother on her journey, pre motherhood, pregnancy and when the journey of her children taking over her life.

There is a fair bit of humour through her tellings but I imagine a fair few people will be raging, annoyed, upset at some of the banter throughout. She gives a stripped account of her failings, how she and her o/h cope with tantrums, their own relationship after the kids. It is parenting stripped bare, the things a lot of parents would never admit to, thinking, saying, feeling.

For me I think some of it has flashes of humour that if it was snippets in a weekly magazine it would be, for me, better received. As it is a book I felt some of it a wee bit uncomfortable reading and as a non parent I am sure that sounds judgey. I laughed at bits some parents would wince or be enraged at, I get the humour and the whole taboo of admitting your kids aren't 100% perfect nor is she the perfect parent. I think the honestly will generate love and hate from camps in equal measures depending on your view point.

It is a funny, brutal and honest book and whilst I didn't love it I know so many will. Parenting with a light shone on it, I think a lot of parents will read it and whisper ha it isn't just me or blow a gasket thinking people actually think/talk about/to their kids like that. I don't know how I feel about it to be honest, I don't hate it, I don't love it. Some days I read and really liked bits of it, some days I really didn't. A lot of it I think is tongue in cheek and if you take it for what it is you will like it, some have loved it. I think 2.5/5 for me this time, absolutely check it out, see which camp you fall into.

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