What I've been reading The Dangerous Bride and Goodbye Sarajevo

Lee Kofman's memoir is about her search for freedom and autonomy while being married is a fascinating read. What began as a personal journey of love and marriage became a book whereby Kofman interviews people who have engaged in relationships that don't follow the traditional monogamous model.

I loved this book for many reasons-the honest and heartfelt writing, and the fact that it made me think about relationships and the longevity of marriages. While Kofman's journey ultimately ends with a happy ending, she realises that the marriage she was in did not fulfill her needs and leaves, only to find love and a traditional monogamous marriage, it was the stories of her interview subjects that provided much food for thought.

Kofman undertook a lot of research about polyamorous communities and other non-traditional relationships and I learnt a lot from this book. One of the things I was struck by is the honesty of some of her interview subjects about the tumultuous lives they experience as they engage in different partnership models. How their relationship is constantly changing and evolving, and that there is the acknowledgement of the pain and pleasure that this results in.

Being in a long term relationship, whether it is monogamous or open, there will be pleasure and pain, what I was struck by is that the open relationships might be more honest in expecting this to happen, whereas with monogamy we're sold the model of happily ever after and are then shocked that there is an after that might not be so happy.

This was a beautifully written memoir that transcends the confessional and does what great creative fiction should do, uses the personal in order to tell a universal story and give the reader pleasure, and a moment of reflection on their own lives.

---

This is a memoir of two sisters who are separated during the Balkan war, and ultimately through their stories it is about their family and a city under siege.

On the day the conflict starts twelve-year-old Hana and her older sister are placed on a bus by the eldest sister, Atka, as there are only two seats left. The expectation is that they will only be away for a few days, but Sarajevo is under siege for 3 years. In that time the family is torn apart, the city experiences unbearable hardship while the world looks away.

This memoir is particularly poignant as my husband's family is from Sarajevo and I was reading their experiences echoed in Atka and Hanna's writing.

Ultimately this is a book about a family triumphing despite the hardships it faces, and a city that is not broken.

---

This is the second book I've read by Louise Rennison  and her funny series about Georgia Nicolson and her adventures in adolescent dating.

It’s a fun read written in a diary format and Georgia has her own vocabulary that adds a special flavour to the book, for example Boy Entrancers are False Eyelashes and Nunga-nungas are bosoms.

There are lots of laugh out loud moments and I can relate so much to Georgia's awkwardness and poor decision making when it comes to the opposite sex.

---