Well, it has been quite a month. Art is good. Emergency hospital trips are not. The relentless rain here in Bristol ruled out any chance of aurora spotting and the world news continues to be largely terrible.

Thank goodness for books and films and photography and music. And awesome friends. And delicious food. And did I mention our friends are awesome?

Tim and I had an excellent long weekend in London, where we saw both the RSC production of My Neighbour Totoro – which is as sweet and beautiful and funny and sad as the film – and the Theatre Royal production of Othello, starring David Harewood and Toby Jones. Which is as heartbreaking and brutal and mesmerising as it should be with such amazing actors.

Books read

Arsene Lupin: Gentleman Thief by Maurice Leblanc
Translated from French
This is a sort of “best of” the Lupin short stories. Which serves well as an introduction to the character and his arc from gentlemen thief to unconventional detective. But may have revealed details I would have preferred to learn in due course now that I have discovered I really enjoy this character.

Monkey Grip by Helen Garner
Tim is a huge fan of Garner and has been telling me to read her for ages so I finally gave her a chance. As I should have known, I completely agree that she is excellent. This was her first novel, loosely based on her own life in Melbourne in the 1970s. The narrator is a single mother in love with a heroin addict. It’s somehow tough and dark, but also joyful and beautiful. I loved the details of her bohemian life of shared houses, but best of all are the small moments the narrator shares with her young daughter. I’ll definitely be reading more Garner.

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
This is a big book that’s sat on my TBR since it was first published, and it turns out to be the first in a trilogy. Which I absolutely want to continue now. Ghosh introduces a large cast of characters who are all connected with the ship the Ibis, which towards the end of this novel embarks on an epic journey from India to Mauritius. But most of the novel is set in or near Kolkata in 1838. There are Indian characters of varying levels of prosperity (and varying religions); British opium agents; plus the international make-up of the shipping trade, from lascars to river pilots to the money men running it all. There are multiple romantic storylines, but most of all this is a tale of reinvention and hidden identities. I loved it.

Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter
This is an intense satire of Silicon Valley. I both loved it and found it stressful to read. On paper, Cassie is living the dream, with an apartment in a nice San Francisco neighbourhood and an impressive-sounding job at a unicorn start-up. But her depression is a black hole that threatens to overwhelm her; work hours and pressure are overwhelming; and her finances are precarious. She’s taking a lot of coke and plastering on a fake smile to survive. This is really well written but also very dark.

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
I’ve long been curious about Hammett’s Nick and Nora books. They sounded like more fun characters than his other famed detective Sam Spade, and that’s certainly the case. They’re a rich, attractive, intelligent couple in New York for Christmas and they plan to spend a week or two drinking and catching up with old friends. But then the secretary of an old acquaintance of Nick’s is murdered and everyone assumes that, as he used to work as a detective, that he is investigating the case. Against his will, people come to him with threats and information, and he and Nora are sucked in. I enjoyed this. There’s a LOT of alcohol for a book set during prohibition. And there’s Asta the dog, who is a schnauzer.