Hello Friends!
It’s Tuesday and I’m already tired of this week. I feel like I need a job so I can have some sort of routine or I will go crazy. That may explain why I’m always posting reviews late in the night.
Anyway, today I bring you another novel with food. “Fishing for Māui“, written by Isa Pearl Ritchie, is a fiction, women’s literature, published 4th July 2018.
I want to thank Rachel, at Rachel’s Random Resources, and Isa for the eCopy of this book and for allowing me to join in the fun and by being a part of the blog tour with my honest review of the book.
Blurb
A novel about food, whānau, and mental illness.
Valerie reads George Eliot to get to sleep – just to take her mind off worries over her patients, her children, their father and the next family dinner. Elena is so obsessed with health, traditional food, her pregnancy and her blog she doesn’t notice that her partner, Malcolm the ethicist, is getting himself into a moral dilemma of his own making. Evie wants to save the world one chicken at a time. Meanwhile her boyfriend, Michael is on a quest to reconnect with his Māori heritage and discover his own identity. Rosa is eight years old and lost in her own fantasy world, but she’s the only one who can tell something’s not right. Crisis has the power to bring this family together, but will it be too late?
“An accomplished story of a family in crisis – Ritchie’s great skill is her ability to conjure the inner lives if her characters. Fishing For Maui is a compassionate meditation on what it means to be well”. – Sarah Jane Barnett
Purchase Links – Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords
Author Bio
Isa Ritchie is a Wellington-based writer. She grew up as a Pākehā child in a bicultural family and Māori was her first written language. She has completed a PhD on food sovereignty in Aotearoa. She is passionate about food, wellbeing and social justice.
Social Media Links – Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
My Review
This is the first book I’m reading from Isa Pearl Ritchie, and I enjoyed it a lot. It’s a book that was thought provoking and engaging, plus I loved the setting of the story, because although I don’t know much about New Zealand and Māori heritage, I love learning more about cultures and religions.
This book is also a story about a family, and that’s always interesting to me because of the big family I have and all the different countries I have family in, which means there is a diversity. In this case, I loved it because we could see the family dynamic and get to know the characters as individuals and as family members.
Besides the story is told by different characters, from three generations, which made the book amazing, because we can see what those characters think, believe and how the act based on the culture, ancestry and society. From a point of view of a Social Educator that loves cultures and religions, that was a fascinating this and very enlightening.
We meet a lot of characters in this story, and each one has strength, doubts, problems and goals. It really felt like “listening” to my family members talk about their lives. It felt like that because, just like listening to my grandma talk about silly moments or telling me about her love story with grandpa, I felt a connection.
That was the beauty of the author’s writing style. She gave us well developed characters, that were engaging, that felt real and that we could connect to. Like Michael, for example, he’s trying to reconnect with his Māori heritage and discover his own identity. Okay, I may not have a Māori heritage, but I could connect to him because once upon a time I was searching for answers, to define who I really was, to discover my own identity, the characteristics that made me different from all the members in the society I lived in.
This book made me think. It made me think about myself and my own journey to discover who I am, a journey that in a way I’m still taking. It also made me think about my family and my ancestry and were I came from. So, it was a thought provoking book for me.
Overall, I recommend this novel. A novel about food… Food for the body, the mind and the soul.
Don’t forget to check out all the other bloggers that given their contribute in this Blog Tour, from reviews to basic promo/spotlight posts.
Don’t forget to comment, don’t be stranger. If you have any book recommendation you can leave a message using the form on my Contact Me page.
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I always welcome new books to add to my list and I’m always excited to do reviews and read books.
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Love,
Jess
Jess Bookish Life 
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