Reviews and other ramblings
We spent last weekend with friends and one of our recurring conversations was favourite songs. I am terrible at favourite lists and tend to swap and change, but there’s a small number of songs that will always stand out for me – “Baba O’Reilly” by The Who, “Opus 40” by Mercury Rev and “Yes” by McAlmont & Butler.
What are your favourite songs? Or do you hate that question and wish everyone would stop demanding lists?!
Anyway, enjoy the song.
I feel like I have done a lot and also very little this month. That doesn’t make much sense but it’s a pretty accurate summary of how I feel about the past four weeks! I’ve managed to read a decent amount, and I’d say my favourite read this month was The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey.
I also realised that I am terrible at giving book recommendations. I’m pretty good at knowing what I’m going to like but I’m also aware how much taste varies and it’s a rare book indeed that I would say no-one could like or that everyone would like. And yet people always ask me for advice, which is perfectly reasonable because I not only read a lot but I have this book blog thing…
How do you feel about recommending books? Do you have special favourites that you always recommend? How did you come to select those? I seek advice!
Books read
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (review here)
The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey (review here)
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple (review here)
Code Monkey Save World by Greg Pak (I haven’t reviewed this comic because it was just a quick read for fun but do check it out if you can)
Maddaddam by Margaret Atwood (review here)
13 Things That Don’t Make Sense by Michael Brooks (review to follow)
Short stories read
“Break it down” by Lydia Davis (Guardian Books podcast)
“Meet the president!” by Ali Smith (New Yorker, available online)
“The heron” by Dorthe Nors (New Yorker, Sep 9, 2013)
“Concerning the bodyguard” by Donald Barthelme (New Yorker Fiction podcast)
“A village after dark” by Kazuo Ishiguro (New Yorker Fiction podcast)
“Bluebell meadow” by Benedict Kiely (New Yorker Fiction podcast)
“A different kind of imperfection” by Thomas Beller (New Yorker Fiction podcast)
“I see you” by Harry Harrison (from his short story collection 50 in 50)
“The mistake” by Martín Kohan, translated by Nick Caistor (Guardian, available online)
How was your February? Has it finally sunk in that it’s 2014 now?
As a booklover, I’m also quite a fan of bookmarks. I like to pick up the free ones that bookshops give away, especially if I found a good bookshop on holiday, but I also have some nice ones I paid for or was given as gifts. And yet in my day-to-day reading I’m just as likely to use a random scrap of paper to mark my place as I am to search out a proper bookmark.
To take the photo below, which I’m pretty sure is barely half of my bookmarks, I scoured shelves and books alike. In some cases the bookmark was a reminder of where the book came from. But just as often I found receipts or ticket stubs in the back of books and I quite like the variety of memories they bring back. A restaurant bill reminds me of sitting on the harbourside in the sunshine a few years back with a glass of wine and a Colette book before Tim joined me for dinner. A corner torn from a newspaper puzzle page reminds me of doing crosswords with Tim after we both put our books down of a weekend morning.
So why do I still like bookmarks? Well, they can provide memories too (and, as I said, the majority of those pictured were left behind in books, so it’s no wonder I often can’t find one and use whatever scrap of paper is handy!). Those that are gifts remind me of the giver, including one bookmark I still use now that was given to me by a friend when we were 9 or 10 years old. They often, unsurprisingly, have bookish quotes or phrases on them, which are things I like. And sometimes they are just simply things of beauty.
Do you collect bookmarks? Do you use them? Or do you prefer to use something you can leave behind in the book that reminds you of when you read it?
I have been rubbish and let myself get behind on writing book reviews, so apologies for that. But in the meantime here’s a pretty song to entertain you: “Digital witness” by St Vincent.
January was so busy I didn’t even find time to write this post! I had a slow start reading-wise, possibly not helped by my new knitting hobby, which gives me an excuse to watch telly instead of reading, as I am still “being useful”. I’ve settled into a better balance now so hopefully February’s round-up will look a bit healthier. (I also have a few days off work coming up, which should help with finding time to read.)
Lack of reading certainly didn’t translate into low-quality reading, as this month I awarded my first five-star rating on Goodreads since last August, to The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. I really do recommend this book to anyone and everyone; it ticked all the boxes for me. (Not that I’m a fan of star ratings, I find them a bit of a crude measure and we all have different levels of generosity/harshness, but they can be useful as a rough idea of how I felt about a book immediately on completing it.)
So what did I read this month overall?
Books
The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin (review here)
Bullet Park by John Cheaver (review here)
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (review here)
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach (review here)
Short stories
“Victory” by Yu Hua (New Yorker magazine, Aug 26, 2013)
“The veldt” by Ray Bradbury (Selected Shorts podcast)
“The catbird” by James Thurber (Selected Shorts podcast)
“I love Girl” by Simon Rich (Selected Shorts podcast)
“Then we lived together in the belly of a whale, some nights were perfect” by Mara Sternberg (Selected Shorts podcast)
“Jubilation, Florida” by N M Kelby (Selected Shorts podcast)
“Homegirls on St Nicholas Avenue” by Sonia Sanchez (Selected Shorts podcast)
“Strike and fade” by Henry Dumas (Selected Shorts podcast)
“Fenstad’s mother” by Charles Baxter (Selected Shorts podcast)
How has your reading month been? What was your last outstanding read?
The new year is really just an arbitrary point in time, but I think a lot of us see it as an opportunity for change. That might be making resolutions, beginning new projects or routines, or just making promises to ourselves to be “better” in some way this year. I pretty much never make resolutions, though I do have annual reading goals, but I do tend to see the new year as a time to start afresh on good habits.
Well, we might only be 12 days in, but so far the signs aren’t good for my habits this year. I could blame it on the nasty cough/cold I’ve had or the fact I’ve not yet settled back into a routine after the Christmas holiday, but I’m still not happy with how my year has started. I have so far finished one book. I have done zero exercise. The to do list is longer than ever. And I’ve not been eating especially healthily. Hmm.
On the plus side, since my mother-in-law taught me to knit in December I’ve been practising a little every day and I’m really pleased with my progress. I might even treat myself to a second ball of wool soon! I find myself studying every knitted item I see to figure out what stitches it’s made up of and whether I think I might be capable of making it in the future.
Oh – and I have also ordered myself a comfy reading chair, which I look forward to snuggling up in when it arrives. That will – finally – complete our library, a mere three a half years after we started work on it. We’re not the fastest at redecorating!
Right, I need to squeeze in some reading and review-writing before the weekend is gone. It’s time to start asserting those good habits!
How’s your new year going? Do you have any special aims, goals or resolutions? If so, then good luck with them!
The mulled wine is keeping warm and the box of chocolate biscuits is open, so all that’s left to do before bringing in the New Year is to round up my 2013 reading.
This year I continued keeping stats on what I’ve read, as I had begun to in 2012. I have read 75 books, which is the exact number I aimed for in the Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge (yay!) and just three fewer than last year. Of those, 18 were translated from other languages, which is a fair bit better than last year, though clearly there’s still room for improvement. And only 18 books were written by authors not from the UK or North America (strictly not quite the same 18 books as there was one written in French by a British author and one written in English by an Indian author). My best success is that I read 37 books by women and 38 by men, which is about as even a split as it could be!
As I thought I would find, I’ve only read 5 books that could be classed as science fiction this year, so I’m definitely going to try to read one SF book per month in 2014. And only 9 were non-fiction (not counting the Little House books because they are fictionalised memoir) so my 2014 Popular-Science Reading Challenge will definitely be a bit of a change for me.
My favourite reads this year were The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood, Dan Yack by Blaise Cendrars, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, Black Vodka by Deborah Levy and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. What were yours?
Overall I’d say it’s been a good reading year. I have greatly enjoyed most of what I’ve read (lots of 4 stars on Goodreads) and only abandoned one book that I can remember. As I mentioned last month, my 2013 challenges have been a bit hit and miss, but I’m happy with what I have lined up for 2014.
Now I’m going to refill my mug of mulled wine and pick out a book to begin 2014 with. So many to choose between!
I hope you have a fantastic New Year, and here’s to a wonderful 2014!
Well I hope you’ve all had a few days off work and eaten far too much and maybe even found some time to escape into a quiet corner and read. I didn’t get much reading done over Christmas because, as predicted, meeting my newest niece was quite the distraction! Plus it was good to spend some time with my family and old friends, as well as just enjoying being back in the beautiful Forest of Dean for a week.
Tomorrow I’ll write a round-up of my year in reading, but for now here’s what I read in December. You’ll notice it’s significantly less than the number of books I was given for Christmas 🙂
Books
All is Fair by Emma Newman (review here)
Other Colours by Orhan Pamuk (review here)
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
And as I’m writing this a day early, I’m hoping I will have finished Paradises by Iosi Havilio by midnight tomorrow!
Short stories
“Xingu” by Edith Wharton (Selected Shorts podcast)
“How to relax while broadcasting” by James Thurber (Selected Shorts podcast)
“The topaz cufflinks mystery” by James Thurber (Selected Shorts podcast)
“A ride with Olympy” by James Thurber (Selected Shorts podcast)
“Macbeth murder mystery” by James Thurber (Selected Shorts podcast)
“The secret life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber (Selected Shorts podcast)
“The babysitter” by Jane Yolen (Selected Shorts podcast)
“The pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury (Selected Shorts podcast)
“The wood duck” by James Thurber (Selected Shorts podcast)
“Here we are” by Dorothy Parker (Selected Shorts podcast)
“Just a little one” by Dorothy Parker (Selected Shorts podcast)
“The waltz” by Dorothy Parker (Selected Shorts podcast)
There’s a bit of a pattern to my short stories this month, I notice! This was a particularly good bunch, I thought.
Happy New Year, all.
I’ve wrapped the presents, picked out my Christmas Day outfit and had too many Christmas drinks already. I thought I’d share a favourite Christmas tune with you to keep the blog ticking over while I’m busy with family. I do love a good Christmas song.
I have no idea if I’ll find time for reading (I have a new niece to play with and there’s a lot of enthusiasm for board games this year…) but I do (of course) have a stack of books lined up that I’m hoping to snatch a few hours with at some point in the next week and a half off work.
Happy holidays!
A Topping & Co author event
Christ Church, Bath, 10 December
As I mentioned a while back, one of my heroes in life is Kate Adie, so when Topping Bookshop sent me its list of upcoming events I got very excited about this one. Adie is a proper serious broadcast journalist. She was a rare female face on TV news outside of the studio back in my childhood and when I aspired to be a journalist she was a natural role model. But my failure to become a journalist hasn’t stopped me from admiring her, so I willingly braved the cold, dark and steep hills of Bath last night to see her in the flesh.
Unlike the other author events I’ve been to this year, Adie wasn’t interviewed for the crowd, she simply stood at the front of the big old church and spoke to us. She was lively, engaging and full of enthusiasm for her subject. Essentially her talk was background to and highlights from her new book Fighting on the Home Front: the Legacy of Women in World War One.
Adie held forth knowledgeably about the legal status of women 100 years ago and how World War I changed everything. She consummately related the points she was making to Bath and Bristol, as well as dropping in some related anecdotes from her own life. But most of all she exuded passion for her subject and admiration for the women who stepped up, not only those who filled the gaps left behind by men who had gone to war, but also the women who went to war themselves and those women who had to fight hard for the right to fill those gaps, even as Britain was creaking desperately with need of them.
Adie also spoke a little about her own career, about how her school teacher was so eager to get at least one pupil into university that Adie found herself “shunted into university via the catflap”, and how a reporter has to have an ordinary life to go back to between assignments: “You have to live an ordinary life in order to understand disorder.” She also had a lot to say about the strength and resilience of human beings.
I enjoyed Adie’s autobiography The Kindness of Strangers back when it came out and greatly look forward to reading my autographed copy of her new book.