Stupid Covid is stupid. We had a rainy start to the month, attending multiple birthday barbecues in the rain. Then the sun came out and a few days later I caught Covid and had to spend the last 10 days of the month confined to home, feeling too ill to read anything more challenging than YA.

But if I cast my mind back a few weeks to the start of the month there were some highlights. I went to Bristol Pride with a bunch of friends (and the dog). The parade was huge this year (apparently 20,000 marched) and we were near the back, missing a lot of the spectacle but thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere. It was a beautiful, uplifting experience. But as we walked home and left the safety of the Pride crowds, there were some hateful comments directed our way. Even this open-hearted, forward-thinking city has its haters, sadly.

And of course we had a general election that resulted in a Labour government and 4 Green Party MPs. It does feel like I can breathe clearer and hope for a better future again. But the current Labour leaders aren’t perfect. They have a long way to go to improve the status of trans people, refugees and disabled people, and I’m still worried for the NHS. But it does look like they will improve the UK’s environment and carbon emissions.

Books read

Clean by Juno Dawson
Socialite Lexi is only 17 when she overdoses and is dragged to rehab by her brother. In a special facility for minors with addictions and other serious issues, she is forced to question all her relationships. This is a really good novella at the upper age end of YA. (This is the second of Dawson’s books I’ve read recently and I’ve really liked both.)

Rosewater by Liv Little
Elsie is a 28-year-old poet in London struggling with debt in the gig economy. Her story is relatable while also being specific to her experience of being queer, Black and striving to work in the arts. This is a sweet and funny novel.

Rosewater by Tade Thompson
In a future Nigeria decades after aliens have landed on Earth, Kaaro is a “sensitive” – people who have gained psychic powers since the aliens arrived. This sci-fi combines biology, politics, spycraft and high-octane action.

Empress & Aniya by Candice Carty-Williams
Empress is the new kid at a fancy private school and Aniya is told to show her around. From uneasily putting up with each other, a true friendship forms. Then on their 16^th birthday, they do a magic spell as a silly joke and find that it has worked only too well. This is a very small book and took a while to get going, but once it did I enjoyed it. It deals well with serious subjects including racism and poverty. Just a bit simplistic to start, perhaps aimed at a younger reader than other YA?

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
This, conversely, felt solidly YA and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Juliet has just finished her first year at university and has decided it’s time to tell her conservative Puerto Rican family that she’s gay and has a girlfriend. She breaks the news at a big family dinner the night before leaving New York for an internship with her favourite author. She learns over the summer who her people are, the limits to white feminism, the blind spots of rich hippies and what can be forgiven. This book is funny and honest, sometimes brutally so for a middle-class white feminist reader like me.

Philippe Halsmann: Astonish Me! by Anne Lacoste and Sam Stourdzé
This is a photo book I bought after seeing several of Philippe Halsmann’s photos in an exhibition at the Science Museum in London. It includes a handful of essays so I’m counting it here! Halsmann had an astonishing and varied career. He started in Paris, working and socialising with great pioneers of photography including Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and Man Ray. He did some photojournalism before specializing in portraiture of famous figures, often for the cover of Life magazine. After moving to New York he experimented more, including a long and fruitful collaboration with Salvador Dali and the decades-long series he is best known for: his jump photos. I truly love his work.

Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Tales to Dream Big by Elena Favilli
This truly is a children’s book. 100 glossy spreads each briefly describe a woman of note alongside a full-page illustration of that woman, all by different women artists. Some are still living – including mostly activists – but most are historical, going right back to Hypatia the ancient philosopher/mathematician. They represent diverse fields from writing, art and science to politics, modelling, dance – really every possible field. The brevity and child-friendliness means these mini biographies don’t give much background and sometimes highlight odd details while omitting facts far more famous. But for its stated aim of providing bedtime stories about fantastic women, this does its job well.