Recent(ish) reads in brief

Since mid-June, when we made the decision to reserve a dog from a litter that had just been born, that decision has pretty much dominated our lives. We dug out the dog training books we’d bought 10 years ago just after we moved into this house – which we chose in part for its doggy-suitable garden and layout – and bought a few more books on the subject, just to be safe. While my non-doggy-reading didn’t dry up completely, my ability to write thoughtful, detailed reviews of books afterward certainly did.

That said, I have continued to make some notes and highlight/bookmark some passages as I read, so I do have a little more to say about most of the books I’ve read than the single-paragraph synopses I write for my monthly reading round-ups. And I even found that trying to write brief reviews of a handful of recent reads led me to write full-sized reviews of a few of them, so look out for those in the coming week.

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Space itself: a straight line from every point to every other point

Measuring the World book coverMeasuring the World
by Daniel Kehlmann
translated from German by Carol Brown Janeway

This is my Austria book for my EU Reading Challenge. It’s the fictionalised story of two real German scientists whose lives and work intersected, despite their very different backgrounds and temperaments.

Carl Friedrich Gauss and Alexander von Humboldt are unlikely stars for a comedy, but Kehlmann’s style leans towards the comedic. He also shows a fascination with facts and scientific process, which makes these two men a great choice for him.

Humboldt and Gauss both did work mapping and measuring the physical landscape – distances and heights primarily. For Gauss this was unwelcome, unpleasant work that forced him to be outdoors and interact with people in return for food and shelter. He much preferred to be at home with his beloved wife observing the stars and calculating the maths that governed their movements.

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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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I should have known that someone would come along and spoil it

Queenie book coverQueenie
by Candice Carty-Williams

I loved this novel. It starts out riotously funny and gradually introduces its themes until it becomes clear that it’s talking about some very serious shit. But it remains extremely enjoyably readable to the end. Which is saying something right now, as having a puppy is very distracting.

We meet Queenie texting her boyfriend Tom from the stirrups of a gynaecologist’s table, while she waits for a series of nurses and doctors to come and take a look. Through the rest of the day, between her aunt Maggie’s ceaseless chatter and her quiet evening at home, we learn that all is not rosy between Queenie and Tom. But the reasons for that take a while to emerge because they are filtered through Queenie blaming herself and idolising Tom for “putting up with” her. While she is frank about some things in her life (sex, mostly) she is less open on other matters.

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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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August 2020 reading round-up

Beckett and book
Reading time can be snatched in the rare moments when the dog is asleep, I am awake and I’m not working or doing chores.

There’s not a lot to round up this month on the reading front. Not only did I fail to write any book reviews (or even a TV review), I also only read two books. Unless you count books about dog care, in which case I have read (and re-read) a further two books. I guess four isn’t a terrible total.

You see, Beckett – our new dog – takes up all of our time and energy. Which we expected in the early months. She can be hilarious, frustrating, soppy and needy. We know if we put the work in now she will be the best doggy companion ever.

I also now have less time for watching films. With most nights’ sleep interrupted, I have found myself falling asleep far earlier in the evening – often during a film. I did stay awake for Breakfast With Scot, which I thoroughly enjoyed. And on our first night with Beckett we rewatched Jurassic Park, so that has a special place in our memories now. Plus I really do think it helped Beckett to cope well with the thunder and lightning storms we have had quite a lot of this month.

Yesterday, Tim and I celebrated 18 years together. We cooked and ate delicious food, played computer games and took Beckett for a long walk (in a carrier, as she isn’t fully vaccinated yet). It was pretty great, even in the midst of a scary pandemic.

I hope you have a great September.

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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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If you grew up both black and poor in the UK you know more about the inner workings of British society than a slew of PhDs

Natives book coverNatives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire
by Akala

This is a cross between a memoir and a history of black people in the UK. Akala is a hip-hop artist and a lecturer, who I must admit I only became aware of in recent months. He wrote this book a couple of years ago but it reads as though custom designed to speak to this current moment.

Akala begins with his own beginnings, including his mother’s efforts to ensure he was educated on race in the British Empire, and the history of Jamaica (where two of his grandparents moved to the UK from, as part of Windrush). He uses pop culture and news items from his own lifetime (which, as he’s only two years younger than me, were all familiar) to point out everyday racism and injustice.

In some ways his story sounds like a cliché. Despite early inclinations for academia, in his teens he looked to a career in football and then rap music. He was repeatedly harassed by police (and still is). He had friends and relatives who went to prison. Akala lays out the statistics at every juncture – how often black men (and boys) are stopped by police versus white men; how much more income a black family has to have to live in a “nice” neighbourhood than the white families around them. But by making it personal he can also include how it felt that first time he was stopped by the police for no reason other than being a young black man; how it felt to have a teacher so racist that they put him in the learning-difficulties group to stop him being “a smartypants”; what it was like the first time he witnessed street violence up close.

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If we truly want an end to racism, we need to understand the past

Superior book coverSuperior: the Return of Race Science
by Angela Saini

Saini, an engineer-turned-journalist, looks at how science was and is used to create, justify and perpetuate racism. She begins with the so-called science that defined race in the first place – using long-since discredited methods such as phrenology and skin-colour charts. The more you read about how people have been grouped differently over time, and the political reasons for the changing delineations between “races”, the more clear it becomes that race is an entirely social construct, not a scientific one.

But of course race became a social reality, one that has been used to justify a lot of very dodgy science. From European explorer scientists publishing ignorant untruths about native people they encountered to justify colonialism and slavery, to the ugly history of eugenics, there have now been centuries of racist lies masquerading as science. And worse, the lies still need to be countered because they are still part of public discourse.

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