A better reading month than October, but I still need to pick up the pace if I’m going to hit that arbitrary target I set myself on Goodreads of 65 books. It’s achievable but it might rely quite heavily on the week’s holiday I have for Christmas!

November alternated between miserably cold and wet, and gloriously sunny but still cold. Beckett and I have kept up our weekly run together and our extra long walks every Sunday morning, but we’re spending more of our evenings and weekends curled up on the sofa. Sometimes Tim joins us too and Beckett is in doggy heaven wedging herself between us.

My favourite book this month was Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith but everything I read was great, which is nice. My top films this month were Harriet and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. My favourite new discovery in TV land is Feel Good. From tomorrow my TV and film choices will be decidedly Christmassy, which may lead to a drop in quality. Or maybe not…

Continue reading “November 2021 reading round-up”

Oh dear, I only finished two books this month and neither was very big. I did have a really bad cold that meant I spent a week mostly watching The Mindy Project and failing to read anything at all. I am currently halfway through three books and gave up on another that I was struggling with. But I was still surprised when I checked Goodreads and saw my October stats.

I did watch the usual quota of films, my top picks being Moxie and Summer of Soul.

Anyway, I’m over the cold and currently away in Devon for a long weekend with Tim, Beckett and our good friend Tushna, so I think things are looking up. Hopefully.

Continue reading “October 2021 reading round-up”

This has been a good month. The weather’s been beautiful, I read a lot, and today I got my third COVID shot so I am safer for the winter months to come.

My favourite read this month was The Street by Ann Petry, which was a staff recommendation at Stanford’s bookshop in Bristol. This is one of the many reasons why bookshops rule.

As always I’ve watched lots of films this month – including both Kate and Beckett, which are recently released thrillers on Netflix. Kate is the better film, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead as an assassin in Tokyo. We’re hoping they release a thriller called Tim soon! I also really enjoyed Sylvie’s Love (a 1960s-set romance starring Tessa Thompson) and Sound of Metal (Riz Ahmed as a drummer who loses his hearing).

And having learned from our holiday in August that Beckett is up to walking for a couple of hours now that she’s all grown up, we’ve done a few longer walks lately. It’s nice to explore a little further afield and not just go to our three local parks every day. Though with winter weather and shorter hours of daylight coming soon, we might not have that choice for long. For now we’ll enjoy the autumn colours.

Continue reading “September 2021 reading round-up”

I am currently in the middle of three different books and I’m on holiday next week so hopefully next month’s “books read” list will be much longer. We’ll see.

This month we went from heatwave to weeks of rain storms, so outings have been sporadic. We ended the month with a trip to Brean Down in Somerset, which was a fantastic afternoon out. And Beckett graduated from doggy obedience classes, so she is now officially a Good Dog.

My top films this month were Black Widow and The Dead Don’t Die, which are both very entertaining. I also watched the first season of Rita, a Danish comedy about a school teacher who initially appears to not care about anything or what anyone else thinks, but it gradually becomes clear that this is a facade. It’s wryly funny and has been left in a very interesting place for season 2.

Continue reading “July 2021 reading round-up”

Oh look, another month in which I read loads but failed to write any reviews. And I really do want to write about some of this month’s reads, especially The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie, which is packed with ideas and references.

Top films watch this month include One Night in Miami, Rocks and Liar’s Dice. We also watched Army of the Dead, which is silly action fun with lots of zombies and explosions.

A week ago I got my second COVID jab. It was a less emotional moment than the first one for me, but it’s still a big step toward moving on from all this.

Happy June!

Continue reading “May 2021 reading round-up”

The world opened up a little bit this month and the weather wasn’t terrible. Which meant I spent more time outdoors and less time reading. I’m definitely happy to start seeing friends and family again, though I do feel we still need to be cautious, as most people our age are only just starting to be vaccinated and our younger friends are still waiting.

My top film watches this month were Call Me By Your Name, Palm Springs and Easy Rider. I also started a project of watching all four versions of A Star is Born – two down, two to go. And I watched another terrible-in-a-good-way K-drama called I Am Not a Robot.

Continue reading “April 2021 reading round-up”

Well ending a month with a mini heatwave is one way to feel better about it. But I’m feeling more positive about the month ahead. Better weather plus the first steps of lockdown easing should make April a wonderful antidote to that horrible winter. Here’s hoping.

I read a decent amount this month and wrote two whole reviews! Excellent films watched include The Vast of the Night and Roma. And TV-wise I decided better-late-than-never and inhaled the first season of Line of Duty. I’m trying to give myself a week or two off before I start season two.

Better weather, lighter evenings, plus a dog who has decided she likes being carried in her doggy backpack again, mean we can start going for walks that are a bit longer/further from our house. I just have to be careful not to try to do too much too suddenly, or I’ll trigger a lupus flare. Gently does it.

Continue reading “March 2021 reading round-up”