Category: Blog

October 2020 reading round-up

Reading Lowborn at lunchtimeI don’t know if it’s the onset of winter weather or the prospect of a second lockdown, but I am struggling a little again with reading. I am finding it a little easier to read and reflect on non-fiction at the moment but I have only written one book review all month and even the synopses below took me a few days to put together.

Most of our film-watching this month has been of the super cheesy variety (though I will admit I had forgotten the high calibre of cameos in Blues Brothers) so I will instead recommend two TV shows that I have very much enjoyed, both on BBC iplayer: I May Destroy You – a powerful piece about friendship and sexual assault – and Ghosts, which is silly and funny and I am grateful to the multiple friends who recommended it.

Walking Beckett has been really lovely as autumn deepens into winter. She’s the best.

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September 2020 reading round-up

Beckett in the woods
Beckett is a whirlwind when she gets outside and frequently tangled in her lead. Until she stops and lies down because she’s so tired suddenly.

Just as I was starting to feel comfortable with the idea of venturing out into the world more, it looks like we are on the verge of another lockdown. Having a dog gets us out of the house twice a day, but we won’t get to introduce her to most of our family and friends this year. Not in person, anyway. Beckett is still both awesome and exhausting, but a little less exhausting than she was.

Which is probably why this has been a better month on the reading front – six books! – and I even wrote one whole book review. I plan to write some mini reviews (more than the synopses below) so that I can finally put away the growing stack of read books on the arm of the sofa. I’m going to need to get them out of Beckett’s reach soon as she is expanding the list of things she tries to eat every day.

Historically, I am a fan of October. It’s the pretty leaves, blue skies end of autumn. For some reason I associate it with Daphne du Maurier, and I do have a few of her books still to read (she was prolific). But I am anxious about the COVID-19 situation getting worse as the days get shorter, colder and wetter.

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Music to soothe the soul

This year music has taken on a bigger role in my life – as a distraction, an outlet, a healing force. Throughout the pandemic, before, during and sort-of-after lockdown, there has been so much fear, worry and sadness. I have been luckier than many, but I have still needed something to help with my anxiety and before we got a puppy (who both helps and adds to the anxiety, if I’m being honest) the cure for me was music (and hugs from Tim). So I want to highlight some of this year’s new music that has spoken to me.

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July 2020 reading round-up

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July activities: cycling and cooking

July was a decent month for reading but not for writing reviews. I am so behind on that. Health-wise I’m feeling the benefit of weekly long bike rides, which is a habit I hope to keep up. We’ve been doing a lot of cookery experimentation, including lots of Japanese and Korean recipes.

But most of all we’ve been watching films. A lot of them. Highlights include But I’m a Cheerleader, Fighting With My Family, The Farewell and BlacKkKlansman. All of which are excellent. I was surprised to find that The Farewell wasn’t a weepie for me, but I did cry a lot at the end of 12 Years A Slave. And the end of BlacKkKlansman for that matter. I have the book of 12 Years A Slave so at some point I will find out how close the film is to the truth.

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June 2020 reading round-up

Glastonbury

June sped by, didn’t it? And it’s been eventful. I made a good start on my anti-racism reading list, but I’m determined for this not to be a temporary detour from my usual reads. I’ve bought a fair few titles and added a lot more to my future reads list, so you should see them dotted into my reviews here. And more fool me that I haven’t previously covered these books.

I also watched the documentary I Am Not Your Negro, based on James Baldwin’s proposal for a book looking at his own life through the lens of the deaths of three of his friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Samuel L Jackson reads Baldwin’s unpublished words, cut together with footage of Baldwin speaking at universities, events and on TV. It’s a really impressive – though of course upsetting – piece that draws a clear line to today’s Black Lives Matter movement.

The last weekend of June would have been Glastonbury. This year rather than listening to new live sets from Worthy Farm on the radio, I watched many hours of old Glastonbury footage that the BBC made available on iPlayer. Inevitably, my favourites so far are Janelle Monáe’s 2011 set and the 2019 performance of Christine and the Queens. But I was also surprised to find myself spellbound by Dolly Parton. Who knew?

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Musical interlude: Hell You Talmbout

This protest song written by Janelle Monáe, performed by members of the Wondaland collective, is incredibly powerful, and this seems like the right time to be resurfacing it. Say her name: Breonna Taylor.

May 2020 reading round-up

Showcase cinema Avonmeads
“We are pressing pause for now” – the cinema nearest our house last week. That empty carpark felt really eerie.

Oh dear. I read a decent amount this month but only managed to write one review. And with all those bank holidays too! I really do want to write more about all of this month’s books, but I am in danger of forgetting any interesting critical thoughts I had about them. Ah well. There have been things on my mind.

Speaking of things on my mind, racism is – rightly – a major point of discussion right now. As a white woman, I need to educate myself as well as call it out when I see it. My school education was sorely lacking in this department. In history (which I studied up to A-level) the coverage of slavery was limited to the trade triangle and maybe one or two accounts of slave ships. Colonialism was an even briefer footnote, limited to a few maps of the world showing the extent of different empires, but no examination of how they came to be, how they operated, the long-lasting effect they had on all countries involved. Even when studying Othello at university, we didn’t really look at historical race issues, which I now see as a shocking omission.

So I have switched up my June reading plans from finishing my EU list to some titles that address race and racism head-on. I’m starting with Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, and I plan to follow it up with Superior: the Return of Race Science by Angela Saini. After that, I’m thinking maybe The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, perhaps Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination.

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April 2020 reading round-up

In our local park someone has left a series of these flags with positive messages to keep spirits up.

How do I summarise this month? Aside from the garden, I left the house four times – for two walks and two bike rides. I’m a home body anyway, so most of the time I don’t mind that. But every so often I feel a massive urge to get out and I have so much sympathy for people who can’t go outside easily or even at all right now. It’s hard.

The four-day Easter weekend gave me the chance to kick-start my reading again. I haven’t maintained that intensity of reading, but I am still reading actual books, which is an improvement on most of March.

If you’re not already aware, the National Theatre has been putting some recordings of its shows on YouTube, a different one each week. I’ve so far watched the Sally Cookson production of Jane Eyre and the Simon Godwin production of Twelfth Night, and I fully plan to catch Frankenstein before it disappears next Thursday. I am also really grateful that the BBC and Channel 4 have made a bunch of old TV shows available on their streaming services. We’ve watched a lot of Scrubs. I’ve watched even more films than usual as well. I highly recommend the Ghibli film Nausicaa (Netflix) and the Taika Waititi film Boy (Amazon Prime).

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Easter weekend readathon

Every Easter for more than a decade now (16 years?) Tim has got together with a group of friends to play computer games for the bank holiday weekend. Usually they come to our house and I either go to visit my family or I hole up in the bedroom reading books. This year we of course could not have several house guests, but they still gamed together remotely while I enjoyed the freedom to read all over the house!

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