It feels like midsummer here in Bristol. Which is kinda lovely but also kinda terrifying on a climate-catastrophe level.

April was busy, mostly with fun things. We made our own spiced rum, went fossil hunting in Lyme Regis and saw the very excellent poet-musician Joshua Idehen perform.

April has also been a shitshow politically, especially for trans people in the UK. I am ashamed of my country right now. I’m trying to help by writing to my MP, donating to the Good Law Project and generally being vocal in my solidarity. Trans rights are human rights. No women are made safer by legitimizing the exclusion and ill treatment of a subset of women. I truly hope this is a short-term setback on an overall upward trajectory and that things will get better.

Books read

Roots by Alex Haley
The classic saga of a single family, from a small village in 18th century Gambia, through being kidnapped into slavery, generations who are enslaved in the southern US, and then finally free African-Americans. It’s hard to read the details of physical violence, sickness, injury, sexual assault and rape but I do think they were necessary to really depict this story. Haley isn’t the most elegant writer, and I know there are multiple controversies about this book. But I think it tells a story that needed to be told and its huge cultural impact shows it was important to a lot of people that it got told.

Summer by Ali Smith
The fourth and final part of Smith’s state-of-the-nation series about Britain and the aftermath of Brexit. Like the other volumes this was written and published in a very short time. In this case it was published in late 2020 and is set in the first half of 2020. Though it’s not the focus, Covid-19 is there in the background from the first to the last chapter. Smith’s language is brilliant but I really did find it disturbing to revisit the post-Brexit rise in xenophobia, racism, misogyny and general anger. Perhaps because that wave is still rising.

House of Odysseus by Claire North
In this sequel to Ithaca, Elektra and her brother Orestes arrive on Ithaca from neighbouring Mycenae, fleeing from the consequences of murdering their mother. Penelope is trying to rule the island in her absent husband Odysseus’s name. It’s already a delicate operation without these delinquent teenagers showing up. And then her cousin Helen arrives with her husband Menelaus, who wants to swoop in and claim Mycenae by claiming Orestes is mad. North tells the tale brilliantly, centring the women and employing a sense of humour and love for language.

Pageboy by Elliot Page
Audiobook read by the author
Page’s life story to date, told thematically rather than linearly. Page is a good writer – warm, funny, genuinely interested in people and places. I really enjoyed this and found it insightful and honest. His experiences of coming out as first gay and then trans are the fulcrums around which the narrative turns. It is both awful and sadly not surprising to hear of the abuse that Page has faced from both strangers and people he knew in the industry. God, people can be terrible.

Fair Play by Tove Janssen
Translated from Swedish by Thomas Teal
This is a novel about two women who are lifelong partners and friends. Like Janssen’s own life, her fictional characters spend their summers sharing a bed in a small cottage on a small island, while the rest of the year they maintain separate apartments in the same building in Helsinki. They bicker and make up, share small moments and big ones, but their love is always evident.

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
The Exodus Fleet carried the last humans from Earth centuries ago. Those who have chosen to continue living in the fleet have kept themselves separate from other humans – and even more so other intelligent species. Their society is built on the basis of wasting nothing and on beautifully equal ideals. But they aren’t alone in the universe and continuing to live as they always have may no longer be possible.

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
I picked this up from a local book swap for a light, silly read. It’s certainly that. Having seen the film I expected the unbelievable levels of excess, the snobbery and bitchiness. I didn’t expect the genuinely interesting insights into Singaporean history, culture and language. I won’t be rushing to read the sequels but if they also appear at the book swap, I might well give them a go.

Happy May Day / International Workers’ Day!