Some Lovely Book Things
My Attempt at a Low, or No, Spend Year
Seems like everywhere I turn I am being sold something. I ventured back online to social media this past month and it’s suffocating. The noise of the deeply fulfilled life we all crave. You know the one that can be ours if we just
like and subscribe and then buy this one project management system thing that SAVED my to do list and helped me be more productive.
Make this recipe, oh BTW you need to subscribe for a low monthly fee of $5 a month to see it but that’s less than your Starbucks order and this will actually save your mental overload mama.
Take this delicious vegan, organic, non-gmo, protein rich, seed oil free, taste free but pure, clean vitamin supplement that will keep you young and healthy forever.
Buy these 25 amazon products from my storefront , all household hack time saving objects that will start your morning routine off right and cure your depression because ew sad feelings no good.
Copy my GRWM (get ready with me) morning ritual and you will be whole, you will be better, you will have value.
BLAH BLAH BLAH
It is endless and it has only kept increasing. Feels like everyone-everywhere is an influencer pushing products and commodifying their lifestyle and encouraging us to treat our emotional pain through the time honoured tradition of retail therapy.
Look I get it. It’s not that they are (for the most part) trying to use and abuse us and perpetuate a highly corporatised consumerist culture that commodifies our existence. I try to hope that most people who share suggestions of items and products that have improved their lives are genuinely telling the truth and wanting to help/also bring in some extra hustle moneys to handle the rising cost of living. I respect the drive, do what you got to do to survive my dudes.
However, with the insane in the membrane economy we are living in, and the obnoxious proliferation of targeted ads being pinged into our little handheld super-computers that are also taking up from reality to sleepwalking zombie, dopamine addicted life, I have personally had enough. So in an effort to manage my, and here is the vulnerable confession, own out of control spending and disordered shopping behaviours, am attempting to commit to a year of less spending overall. This means I am hoping to eradicate unnecessary personal shopping for at least however long I can manage it.
Practically what does that look like? It means not buying anything beyond what is a direct need for myself. That’s going to take some time to figure out the boundaries on that. Do I need socks for running? Yes because I have only one pair and they are nasty. So I will get that. Do I need a cute new running top maybe from a bougie brand like LuLuLemon, with cute shorts that make my legs go faster (lol or look leaner :D ) and a matching oversized cute sweater to throw on after my marathon ? Yeaahhhh no but doesn’t mean I don’t want it. What I already have works fine for what I need so I will work with that, at the end of the day as long as I have shoes to throw on some kind of shirt, shorts and sports bra combo that will do me. I can rewear outfits it’s ok.
That’s kinda how my frame of mind is going to go with this thing. When I crave an item to purchase, or a clothing piece, or a meal out in a restaurant I am going to stop and think about what I already have and why I think this new purchase will add any more value to my life and in what way. Will the cost to my stretched thin wallet justify the gain? What is the negative environmental impact of all this constant spending on new things being made? Then I will give it some time to percolate, and maybe not add to cart and have it sitting open on a tab on my browser tempting me with ‘free shipping over $49’ so long as I add maybe one or two more items I wasn’t going to buy in the first place.
CHOKING SOB
Where this will be especially challenging for me will be with books. I love to buy books, I love supporting authors and pre-ordering their hard work. I love looking at the beautiful spines all lined up in my bookcase singing to me of the magic inside. I love feeling a sense of ownership of the story that awaits and proud of the reading choices I have made. Books however, are just so very expensive and unless I want to buy cheap off Amazon and continue to support that fast fashion style giant retailer troll I think I need to reel it in. It is not necessary to buy every book all of the time when there is a perfectly excellent source of free books in our communities. I am referring to the absolute haven of a free space for families with tots and anyone who has a need to sit in a safe third space-the local library. So I am trying to only read books I already own and havn’t read and also ones I can source from the library. . On a whole we are prioritising spending our money on essential family life things. Mostly that’s groceries and of course what we seem to be necessary for our little one to thrive and grow healthily and happily. I will say I fully believe in hand-me-down practices and cannot stress enough how essential it is to share what you no longer need to those who have need.
If you can spare it share it.
We just got a used mini potty for our toddler saving me $35 I did not have. I am beyond grateful for that.
In full transparency I did buy one book last week because it was on deep deep sale and I was having a rough week, and I do have a preordered book coming from last year that my husband doesn’t believe is a pre order but other than those two blips I solemnly swear I am up to no…spending. Hold me to it my dudes. I am committing to reading these thirteen random books off my shelf and plan on including a conversation about them in my first ever video book nook post coming soon.
2024, A Year lived with Books
I have seen it all this year. The good, the bad, the ugly and the soul-destroying, hauntingly, titillatingly fabulous. It’s been a good reading year for me.
For the first time in a zillenia I have smashed my Goodreads reading challenge and then some. I feel inordinately proud of this entirely arbitrary achievement for two reasons.
1.) I committed to re-prioritising my ‘open’ time this year to focus less on social media, scrolling and tv and more on reading and it reveals that overall I balanced my time better.
2.) It reflects a redistribution of my identity currency to favour the activities that embody what I have always loved about me. A year and a half into motherhood and I can feel my sparkle a little and I truly believe that reading has helped that along. I think it could be anything for any new parent, whatever the thing that hobby that feels like it’s just for you go after that.
Commiting to rekindling my love of reading was some work and required some focus and sacrifice to make it happen. The year I was a pregnagranate and then subsequently a newborn zomble, I read very little. All my brains was goo as I formed a mini brain inside me and the last thing I felt like doing was reading. ESPECIALLY as a new mom when all I wanted to do was numb out to internet videos of momfluencers with aesthetically-better-than me lives. It T O O K a minute to escape that cave of dopamine spiked wonders.
My total books for the year. 42.
Eh? How in the heck did I do that? Your guess is as good as mine. I will tell you one thing that worked for me and you’re not gonna like it no siree bob. I stopped watching television during the weekdays. Now obviously there were many weeks that was not the case. Certainly in the earlier months of transitioning to mama-self I relied on tv as a form of entertainment that required nothing of me except to sit quietly and be told stories by someone else and not my brain or be in high alert newborn mode. Which was perfect. Slowly though I realised something’s gotta give if I want to get all these goddamn books in.
Nedworks presents
The Top Ten Reads of 2024*
*She shan’t be to blame if you don’t like the books she recommends. Please forward all complaints to her manager sir Gandalf the Grey (King of Us all long may he reign) Mullen.
The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton
5/5
I very nearly chose this book during my month for family book club. It was down to this and the next book on my list so I am happy to report either choice would have been excellent. I picked The Light Pirate up initially because of the beautiful colour of and title. I judge books by their cover, sue me. Be honest with me, can’t you feel the wind whipping your breath from your body when you look at this book?
The Light Pirate takes dystopian fiction and turns it on it’s head in a way that reveals how tales of great loss and devastation can evolve into something different but good. It is a story of survival and compassion. In a world wrecked by environmental damage, humanity lives on at the edge of civilisation powerless in the face of an earth reclaiming itself. Filled with both grit and grief, this book centers strong female characters who embody hope and resilience even as the apocalypse stares them down.
I would be surprised if it wasn’t adapted into a film or tv series. Feel free to give this a skip if you have had your fill of devastating environmental stories.
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
5/5
This book was my choice for book club and I think for the most part the other readers in the club enjoyed it. I don’t remember how I happened upon it but it was another case of me being hooked by the cover. Also I read a lot of books with female protagonists this year so this story set in a matrifocal society-one where women are the focus of daily life-was exactly the kind of story I was craving.
The Island of Sea Women tells the true history of the island of Jeju in South Korea through a fictionalized relationship between two young women, Mi-Ja and Young-Sook, whose lives were bound in friendship since childhood. The women are part of an ancient economy of deep sea diving undertaken by the women, known as haenyeo, on the island over centuries. The story follows their lives through the Japanese colonisation in the 30s/40s, World War II, and the Korean war through to today. It was not what I had expected and I think there is some extreme violence within the story that could be tough for some people to read. I found it to be devastating and beautiful. Lisa See is an incredibly thorough and devoted researcher. It is clear she worked as tirelessly as possibly to honour the story of this unique place.
If you are interested in learning more about the haenyeo divers there is a documentary on Apple TV+ called The Last of the Sea Women.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
4/5
‘Not the dame but the other Maggie Smith’, is how this author often refers to herself online. Oh how I love this writer and her command of words so much. She is an accomplished poet and this is her personal memoir detailing her life through divorce. I had been waiting to read this quite some time as I anticipated, correctly so, that it would break me open and pull out some tragically delicate thoughts and emotions. Obviously I had to wait till I was out of the postpartum period because the tears would never have stopped.
Smith details her life as she moves out of partnership to her husband through a lyrical series of vignettes. She cross examines the fundamentals of marriage, the role she played in both the deconstruction of all she has known and the investigation into who she can be for herself going forward. It may not be for everyone, her writing style is peppered with quotes, questions to the reader and has almost a theatrical dramatisation at times. There is an ethereal quality to her intonance in writing that feels raw and real.
The Outrun by Amy Liptrot
5/5
The Outrun was adapted into a film starring Saoirse Ronan which I watched and can gladly say was a beautiful and honourable adaptation. I cried pretty much throughout the whole film. Before you commit to reading there is sexual violence, addiction, severe mental illness and childhood trauma in this memoir. It’s a lot, oh but it is also so exacting to life and being.
I chose this book for personal reasons and one of those is that Liptrot lives on the remote Scottish Isle of Papay. The strongest aspect of this book by far is the absolute devotion to the land, culture and indigenous creatures who call these ancient, hardy lands home. This memoir details Liptrot’s battle with alcoholism and mental unwellness in her family. More than that though, it focuses on the call to place and to responding within ourselves in pursuit of bigness, belonging. The inescapable quality of being somewhere that enlarges your living, that allows you to breathe and while it is not easy it is uniquely yours. This is a story of environmentalism, self-discovery, monasticism and beauty.
My Friends by Hisham Matar
5/5
Let me share a funny story about this book. I was on Maui and out at a local coffee shop in Makawao with my baby back when she could still be confined to a stroller for extended periods of time (oh bliss a child that isn’t ‘busy’). I was reading this book when a tourist family interrupted me to ask about it. Turns out the author is a close friend of theirs and they didn’t know he had this book recently published. They were excited to hear that I was profoundly moved by his writing and delighted to be reading it. It was such a ‘meet-cute’ moment and will forever cement this reading as a memorable one in my mind
On reading My Friends I was hooked from the beginning. It tells the story of a young Libyan man, Khaled, who grows up in Benghazi. One night he hears a short story on the radio which leads him down a path of emigration to the U.K.
His entire sense of self, and life, is rewritten against the stark contrast of a vastly different world to the one he has known. Khaled finds himself entangled within revolutionary movements and protests against the Qaddafi regime that break him both physically and psychologically. Inevitably befriending Hosam Zowa, the writer of the infamous short story that catalysed his life, Khaled is deeply introspective and considered in his storytelling. Their friendship spans decades and brings into being the dimensions of belonging, sense of home and place, exile and family. As a story the characters felt alive to me. I knew so little of the history of Libya and the politics of the Arab Spring so that was fascinating. The story was also a beautiful treatise on being with others.
A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri
4/5
This book, which was published in 2012, has been on my To Be Read shelf for a few years and I never really knew why I didn’t get around to reading it until now. I found that this year, more than others, I read a lot more books from authors from diverse backgrounds, genders and ethnicities. I have a book of the month subscription of sorts that I receive and they tend to heavily lean on a wider representation of voices than what we in Ireland in the 90’s/00’s traditionally grew up on. You know, books by mostly old English white men. Not to knock their great writing, obviously they made good shit, but sure there is also equally as great writing globally that deserves to be tangled with. I digress.
A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea is a tragic and gripping story that honestly made me weep. I will warn you going into it, there are hefty topics dealt with in this seemingly magical story of sisterhood and imagination. It is after all telling the story of young Iranian women in the 1980’s so I am sure you can guess as to the general nature of the more traumatic events of the book. The manner in which women are regarded, treated and used by men and government is monstrous. Sadly this reality is pervasive still.
Grappling with the loss of her twin sister and mother to America whilst remaining in the suppressive Iranian Islamic regime, Saba Hafezi dreams of the life of a free woman she aches for in the West. Through fantasy and storytelling she lives a double life, one as herself growing up with a fixed destiny and the other as her twin sister free to pursue education and work and enlightenment. She is bound by blood and Sea to her sister and that bond breathes into her life even as hers becomes smaller in the world she is in.
A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon
5/5
Fantasy lovers flock to me. This author’s work is just the chef’s kiss of fantasy writing. I was so delighted to see she had released this prequel to the Priory and I gobbled goobled it up dying to be taken back. This is a book you should only read if you have read The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. I suppose you could read it first and then Priory but it’s easier to work your way backwards to get a sense of the world first and then the complex history.
This was the longest book I read this year, 868 pages which is hefty to say the least. A good fantasy I find tends to fill out and spread out. World-building of this degree warrants the extra weight and I am so glad it was as immersive and rich in detail and culture as Priory was.
This is a standalone prequel set five centuries before Priory. Which is wonderful because it gives so much context for the world that exists in the now in Priory and I love seeing all the little connections and ties between the two books. The foreshadowing, the Easter eggs, the characters who are historical figures in Priory ahhhh it made me so happy.
It is more political than Priory but still as full of adventures and wild dragons and creatures, beautiful friendships, brutal deaths and of course most important of all badass fucking warrior women. What more could you ask for?
Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame
by Olivia Ford
3.5/5
Was this a 5 star read? No, but I am including it as one of my top reads of the year because it was very enjoyable and I read a lot of heavy stuff this year and this was exactly the warm fuzzy goodness I needed to balance that. This is essentially the Great British Bake-Off (Baking Show) in book form. So of course utterly scrumptious, delightful, and hopeful in every way one could want in this day and age.
Jenny is getting on in her years and after a lifetime of marital bliss and with no children to tend to, she decides to go after something just for her. She applies to be a contestant on Britain Bakes. As she secretly works her way through each week, her fame star rises like a good loaf of bread perfectly proved. Suddenly long buried stories begin to come to the surface and Jenny must contend with doors she had shut that had never been opened for her doting husband or for healing.
As I said, it’s a lovely story with enough drama to stop it from becoming too sickly sweet. Jenny is very likeable and I love the context of the Bake-Off TV show as a backdrop for her life. That show brings me a lot of peace in difficult times so to did this book give me a nice world to be in after a lot of heavy reads.
Absolution by Alice McDermott
4/5
A work of historical fiction, Absolution was a shorter read for me but every bit of it was weighted with intensity and brevity. I also received this work as a monthly subscription option and I am glad I did as I am not sure I would have picked it up otherwise. Stories that center around the American military presence during various wars internationally are not my natural ‘go to.’
The story takes place in Saigon before war broke out in 1963. It is centered around two wives of military personnel who are stationed there-Tricia and Charlene. As Tricia is brought under Charlene’s wing through her various efforts to ‘do good’ in the country, the women seek to redeem and justify the American presence in a country torn asunder by their very presence. It brings to question the ethics of ‘helping’ and mission work while also confronting the lived reality of the lives of generations of women who were trained in the ways of being wives waging their own private war against their disempowerment. We see their lives unfold over a generation who have to reckon with the reality behind a complex historical event that ripples through their lives.
I’ll tell ya McDermott is a fantastic story teller. Vietnam was brought to life around me and as the short but sweet interlude in the lives of these two women is woven around the reader you begin to fall for them as people. I read a different book also last year about the American women who were over during the Vietnam war. That book was an international bestseller and if I had to choose I would choose this as the one to read over that every time.
Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
5/5
I have only read one Stephen King novel in my life. That is The Shining which is an enjoyable read I took on whilst being courted by my husband because I wanted to impress him with my bravery to read scary things. HA. I don’t tend to be drawn to King’s work mostly because I am not a fan of horror (although I have made exceptions cough cough Nosferatu). I know he is an exceptionally gifted, hardworking writer with a lot of wisdom to share about the craft of writing.
Salem’s Lot is King’s second book published in 1974 which shocked me to find out. This story is classic old school horror and I love it. It has that creeping and crawling, things that go bump in the night kinda energy. A true heebie jeebies tale. Set in the sleepy, small town of Jerusalem’s Lot in New England during a summer no more notable than the next, a stranger comes who stirs up trouble and swiftly brings evil to people’s doors. Ben Mears is a writer returning to a childhood home hoping to reconcile with the darkness in his own past, yet here in Salem’s Lot darkness finds him. MUAHAHAHAHA.
Craft this book is, an absolute celebration of the craft of King. I read this with my family book club and while I was nervous going in I came out one of its biggest fans. Clearly King adores writing people and places. The whole town of Salem’s Lot is a character in and of itself, so much life written into it. For me it felt like the character of Ben Mears was a caricature of King himself which was a cute little nod. Ole King had a twisted Lovecraftian style in his writing and the suspense when it ramps up is suffocating and unrelenting. I am not sure what his writing is like nowadays but this is a long book that takes it’s time with its scenes and I find you do not often get that in books anymore so I appreciate that aspect. Don’t be daunted by the 700 plus page count, it’s worth every minute to be sucked on oh eh I mean in.
And there ya have it folks. Took me a minute to get this done because I truly wanted to suggest books I think would enrich your lives in different ways.
““Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.””
I’ll be leaving you now because I have a cuppa tea cooling quietly on the counter awaiting to be drunk, a pile of books with curled pages and bent spines beckoning for a submerging and a clock on the wall with a hand speedily spinning waiting to prod me a reminder that I have all the time and none of the time to read them all. Best get to it.
When reading becomes a chore
Or, a subtitle: November book club in review and what’s upcoming in the New Year (AHHH)
November’s pick was…decent. I would say, in the similar vein of October’s choice, it was pleasant enough. I would like to finish out the year with the least amount of ‘To Do’s’ on my plate so I will not be choosing a particular book to read this last month as I am trying to keep up with ALL the other everythings we mad eggs commit to in order to enjoy (??) the season.
lol
The Road From Belhaven
By Margot Livesey
Rating: ⭐️⭐️.5/5
Livesey takes us as readers to a small farm in 19th century Scotland where a young girl, Lizzie Craig, grows up raised by books, the land, and her stoic, hardworking grandparents. As she navigates the challenges of social conventions and a lack of power in the wake of a gift of the second sight, Lizzie builds a life of her own and tries to face the turmoil that comes her way.
Unfortunately this book didn’t quite land the way I had anticipated it would and the magical realism element fell flat. I was enjoying the backdrop of rural Scotland so much and felt like at first I had an understanding of each character’s motivations and way of life. Things dropped off somewhat as Lizzie moved into adulthood and the second half of the book just got boring. For most of it I felt as if the author failed to allow for a full sense of emotional depth to take place and instead continued to rush through events in order to get to some essential moment in Lizzie’s life that is built up through suggestive ‘visions’. A number of side characters were quietly introduced , popping up with more frequency yet with little in the way of memorable identities. In a way that felt like they were simply tools in order to push the plot forward and not individuals peopling a community and story so that felt a little wasted.
I also lost interest in Lizzie as the story went on. She inevitably falls into a victim mindset and yet, we are supposed to root for her. It’s hard to root for someone who makes a large number of selfish and cold decisions and then justifies them under the excuse of “but the viiiiisions”. Her character progression doesn't really have definitive backstory or context for it’s rapid and annoying changes. By the end I didn’t care what happened to her but at the start of the book I defintely caught Anne of Green Gables vibes so that was a disappointing unveiling. The other fault I found in the book was the lack of presence of Lizzie’s second sight, it felt tacked on and irrelevant to the story. I kept waiting for the big moment where her powers would be in any way essential to her development or experiences but…they simply were not.
Other than those issues I did feel the environment of the story was well designed. The reality of Scotland felt well rounded, the culture was authentic, the colloquial dialogue was accurate and I know it would make my Scottish proud mammy very happy. In fact it motivated me to go visit and explore the wilds of Scotland more than I ever have in my life so I would say that’s a win.
Unfortunately, since the book left me feeling apathetic and unwilling to explore more I honestly have no questions for personal reflection on it. Nor, do I have a favourite quote as nothing was truly memorable. Sorry for picking a little meh-meh read this time around but hopefully come the new year we will have some nice choices to lift our spirits in the post-holiday season slump.
SPEAKING OF NEXT YEAR….
This book club may potentially be finding itself unfolding within a new format. Mayhaps, video blogs are in our future. I have been thinking it might be fun to break out onto Youtube as a way to address all the bookish things and basically be a basic booktuber/stagrammer/tokker like every other person out there. Or….in classic over 30 year old millennial style…should I start a podcast? Ugh I hate myself for even considering this but it does sound fun goddamit. Do we need more people on the interwebs shouting out their opinions in all the various formats? No. Do I want to force my book taste onto you because I want to hand out my best bookish bits in order to feel like we are connected in some sort of lovely, global way? Yes. We shall see how it goes. Honestly it is very time dependent. I hope this year has been one of some eclectic and worthy reads of your time beloveds. See you next year.
After-Words Bookshop, Chicago, May 2023z
October Recap/November Pick
My faaaavourite months of the year are halfway through. The ~ber months. Listen, I love summer. I am a sun and beach and hiking and getting outside human no questions asked. I am also a burrowing deep into my couch under a pile of blankets with a hot cup of tea or hot chocolate, some yummy sweet snackky sniccky goods and some lovely reads to waste away many hours with. Honestly, I blame my extreme love for all types of seasons and weather on the fact that I have lived my life in two halves basically. The first a half of wet/cold following that, a half of dry/hot. I have seen it all and I love it all. A mom at the storytime at the library today complimented me on my positive response to her questions about all the diverse places I have lived. I told her every spot has been a significant place with a culture, community and beautiful thing/hard experience to endure and I love it because it reflects how humans contain a multiplicity of being.
I finished our October book club pick in the second week of the month. I am attaching a short list of book club questions here for further reflection and my responses because as of now I am the only person in this book club. AND THAT IS A-OK. In the new year I have a twinkling of an idea to take this club into the live-osphere but stay tuned on that update friendos. At the end of this post I will share November’s Book Club pick so you can procure it in any manner you see fit. I have a physical copy for this particular read which is nice but in doing so I accept that my child will tear pages and/or smear sticky substances on the cover with her adorable starfish toddler hands.
What You Are Looking For Is In The Library
By Michiko Aoyama, Alison Watts (Translator)
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
This book felt like being prescribed warm fuzzies. The story focuses on five different people from young to old, each who are stuck in life with seemingly no trajectory or resolution to their big personal torment. One by one, the characters find themselves, through happenstance, looking for recommended reads from a local librarian, Mrs. Komachi who cuts a rather imposing figure. With a touch of mischief and magic, she manages to procure for them a glimmer of a guiding light to their path forward in the form of some creative book suggestions and gentle conversation. As the story goes on we begin to see the weaving together of the character’s lives and an overarching theme of community and connectedness.
Aoyama’s story has a lovely, heartwarming tone and the experience of each person’s tale feels familiar. The big feelings of being stuck, lost, resentful, and left behind are all very human and very much places we find ourselves at in different points in our lives. This imagined Hatori ward in Japan feels decidedly like the village I grew up in and that’s an impressive rendering for a writer whose book is not set in my hometown not even in my country or Western culture. And yet, there is a tenacity to each character and a liveliness that reminds us of people we have known and been. It flowed very gently and easily along however, at times it was a little predictable and simplistic. I did want there to be something more in one or two of the chapters which felt like they could have been a little more fleshed out. I did feel like some of the chapters landed perfectly. I loved the undercurrent of the indomitable human spirit in each character. The writer also clearly loves books and people’s stories and that joy of reading and connection pops up in a bubbly effervescence through this quick read.
All in all I really enjoyed this book and it is so lovely to read a story that has a good, resolved manner of addressing ending/beginnings in life. Each person finds their way through and achieves it not with some magical wand-waving alleviation of burden but with their own perseverance and commitment. It sort of reminded me of the film Once, which shows us only a snapshot of a person’s life and speaks to the fullness of that which remains unknown to us. A pretty universal them I should say.
Question 1.) Which of the character tales resonated with you the most? Why?
For me, I found the story of the mother who finds herself demoted during maternity leave and struggles with finding balance and joy in motherhood to be the most impactful. For obvious reasons I hardcore relate. It was a beautiful little short story about the reality of invisible labour and the extreme duress undergone during becoming a mother and trying to maintain a semblance of the person you were before without resenting your child for changing your life. I love her resolution and how she found joy and peace in a new opportunity that may not have been the life she envisioned for herself but was an even better fit for the one she had now.
Question 2.) Do you think that the librarian had an otherworldly power to predict the path to success for each person who came to her for answers? Or was she simply astute and a compassionate, focused listener with helpful guidance?
In some respects, I like to believe that Mrs. Komachi had some cognitive ability to perhaps perceive the paths available to the person in front of her. Maybe she could glimpse the great problem they are wrestling with on a visual plane. Perhaps she could see possible futures depending on how the person interacted and responded to her. Certainly, she did not seem particularly present in any other regard other than when focused on helping the individual by finding what they were searching for. Once she did in conversation and through intentional questions she helped guide them, if not to the answer, then at least to a place where they could have a seed take root of an idea. I think maybe from my perspective she was just an empathic person who could discern the troubles of others and was quick enough to come up with a plan in response to their need. The transformation in each character’s life came mostly from their choice to take action over inertia. But then again, the little crochet figures? Now those were too on the nose for there to be no magic involved.
Question 3.) If you were asked by Mrs. Komachi, “What are you looking for?”, what would be your answer?
That is a tough question. Many things, I think she would find me to be quite a dithering customer. I want so much and yet have a hard time articulating what it is that I want. I think that would be a component of my answer. To be able to determine exactly what I personally need to start moving forward into a life that feels fulfilling. Or perhaps to have the tenacity to see through my circumstances and to come out the other end feeling like I lived a good life and am proud of the choices I have made. Or even to achieve what I have always wanted which is to make something that matters and feel like I haven’t wasted my life. I wonder what she would recommend to me. I wonder what my crochet figure would be.
Favourite Quote
““Life is one revelation after another. Things don’t always go to plan, no matter what your circumstances. But the flip side is all the unexpected, wonderful things that you could never have imagined happening. Ultimately it’s all for the best that many things don’t turn out the way we hoped. Try not to think of upset plans or schedules as personal failure or bad luck. If you can do that, then you can change, in your own self and in your life overall.”.”
November book choice:
The Road From Belhaven by Margot Livesey
Books set in Scotland have been my jam recently so I am very much looking forward to reading this and finding myself transported. This is also a magical realism story so perhaps the book for December we shall deviate a little. The world just feels bleak at the moment so I want to infuse some magic into it for myself.
Also do not be fooled by this lovely (staged) daytime reading picture. I only ever read at night after my baby-toddler has gone to bed. Reading in the day with her? C’est impossible!
Book Club Fail?
Right so… May book club did not go anywhere. How do we know this? Well, it is now checks calendar app just about October 1st and I never posted again after sharing about my book choice. Why is that? Good think you asked non-existent curious reader of mine. The book was quite frankly disappointing trash poo poo and I wish I had never chosen it. Gosh you know I feel bad saying that. It wasn’t ALL bad just generally not good for the most part. There were some quotes I highlighted…before I added it to my ‘Did Not Finish’ shelf on Goodreads and donated it to my local Little Free Library box.
Sorry for that messy crap recommend. I should have read reviews beforehand. I figured I enjoyed the author’s essays so naturally wouldn’t I enjoy her book? No that is not the case. I don’t want to get into the particular of why it was not good-just imagine big mean girl energy but also jealous secretly wants to be the popular girls so ends up bitching about them energy also.
My family started their own book club. Goddamit, they are better at this than I am. There are rules and crap. And everyone is VERY communicative….which is great don’t get me wrong I love it I am here for it. But why don’t I have my shit together and why am I one of the few members of the club who didn’t actually read the assigned book but is pretending I did?
Alas and alack beloveds, when one loves to read as I do but also has had their brain flipped into a half-cooked, smushy pancake of forgetfulness due to having a child, reading often takes the backseat. Yet, I have managed to read many books this year. Sadly most of them were mediocre and ooof I hate that. I am bringing back my little book nook page for the last few months of the year in the hopes it will give me a push to get myself away from numbing out to Netflix at the end of the day (although I will always argue that there is validity to finding rest in these kinds of activities) and into some of my long list of TO BE READ books.
I have decided to pick What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama, a short enough and calming book to read for October. This book should be accessible in your local library or as an E-Book or audio book online A little cosy, fall book to comfort us as we burrow down into the oncoming wintering of our selves and our world. If you care to join me that would be delightful. I’ll pop back in with a little suggestion of our next read towards the middle to end of October and share some thoughts on the book. This book is for people who have read and liked Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa or The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.
I want to stress that it is ok to not finish books and when you are living a time crunched life there is nothing wrong with tossing stuff aside and looking elsewhere for satisfaction. I spent years forcing myself to finish drivel out of a sense of nobility and due process…now I am a parent who is ruled by the iron chubby fist of a tiny almost toddler and I have to be choosy about how I spend my precious free time. If this book or any thing I recommend is not for you that’s ok. Go, seek meaning elsewhere fellow traveller of the cosmos of life. I’m sure we will meet on the path to personal enlightenment and peace somewhere down the line in one context or another. .
May Book Club Pick
It is finally here after all these years (oh lawd have mercy) of promising a virtual book club I am starting one now.
Boom. Right this moment. Here we go.
Right so, I have no clue how to conduct this. It would certainly be easier within an in-person context or maybe a podcast (“FOR THE LOVE OF GOD NO NED”-I hear you all yell). Perhaps one day we may even be able to host a zoom book club meeting. How darling…how…reminiscent of a time recently past. Wait, have we suddenly been teleported back to March 2020? The beginning of the pandemic virtual socialising life? I hear echoes of that dark time that strange world clanging in my ears….tiger king boooohhh whipped coffee ahhhh baking loaf after loaf of banana bread eeee zoom family quiz time nooooo insert ghost noises here
SO I may be a couple of years late to a trend that isn’t really a thing anymore but I figured I would like to start a book club. I have limitations on my time and I have nobody in my direct circle, as of yet, that is willing to actually show up in person to something like this. So why not take it to the virtual world and see if anyone is interested. If there is something in this life you need or want and it doesn’t exist then you make that thing. No sense in me complaining about the lack of amenities to satisfy my hobbies if I am not going to get up and try to design and engineer it for myself.
Anyway enough of this chin wagging self-help nonsense. Here is my choice for this month’s book club.
Peep those stunning breast milk collectors hanging out with the mommy book. Is that serendipitous or am I a clever influencer? We will never know……
I understand this may be a very niche book choice for a book club pick. I am currently the only person in the club so I get to choose the book. Thems the rules. Listen I am so happy to have other people pick the next reads we do and will gladly take suggestions either in the comment box, email or direct message on Instagram. Perhaps if I can figure out the technology we can do a poll.
I chose this book because I follow the author on her Substack-In Pursuit of Clean Countertops. Having recently washed myself clean of the toxic net of mommy influencer culture that really challenged my own experiences of new motherhood, I am fascinated by the topic.
I am interested to see if this book is what I hope it is- an acerbic and witty analysis of the problematic nature of peddling our children for profit through proliferating restricted ideologies of ‘successful parenting’ based on a puritanical and western model. Then again perhaps it won’t do that and it may just add fodder to the cannon. Whatever you do, do not do what I did and go read reviews on the book on Goodreads. I had to stop myself because it began to colour my interpretation before even beginning. Let’s just dive in and see what happens, I bought the book but feel free to rent at a local library or go the e-book route or audio book if that’s your fancy.
See you in two weeks!
2023 Top Ten Reads-Coming at You the end of February 2024
She’s a little late but hey, I got there eventually so that’s got to count for something right? Did I manage to complete my Goodreads challenge of 2023 and read 32 books? No. I gave birth to a tiny human in July and that kind of derailed my plans a little. I did, however, manage to read 24 so about two a month is not bad. I thought it would be fun to give a brief overview of my top ten books I read last year. The order the books are listed does not indicate preference.
N.B. Quite a few of the books I read have pretty challenging emotional and traumatic content so I am attaching trigger warnings so you can make an informed choice if you want to read them.
1.) I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Rating: 3.5/5
Yeah I know this book was like a booktok (that is the Tickety Tockety Boo corner of the internet fellow old folks) fan favourite at the end of 2022/start of 2023. I fell for the hype and read it while traveling in the Midwest for family time. I told my mama all about it and recommended she read it. I don’t typically care for memoirs, but this was fascinating. This one is for those who are riveted by celebrity culture, the psychology and parameters of it in our lives, and who want a peak into the toxic child star world. It’s very emotional and if you grew up with childhood trauma of any kind this will rattle around in you BUT for me it was still worth the read because I felt so much empathy for McCurdy. Content of abuse-physical and emotional- grooming and addictive behaviours.
2.) The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah
Rating: 5 out of 5 bloody stars
This was a TOP contender for my best read of the year, narrowly it got beaten out but man I was gone in this dark, brilliant, shocking tale of survival and loss in the wild keening of the Alaskan territories. It follows the Albright family who move to settle in remote Alaska in the 70’s after the father comes home from the Vietnam war brutally altered, like so many. I LOVE survivalist stories, I am really finding myself drawn to historical fiction that embodies the spirit of the place and people it is set. In wine culture a terroir refers to this concept, the embodiment of place within the wine. This book does this but in a book. This is a LONG read to warn you all. Content warning of war trauma, abuse, addiction, extreme political ideologies, all the things basically it broaches it all.
3.) How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Rating: 4/5 stars. I don’t remember why I dropped a star, I think because it was quite sad.
Ok sis was a brain doozy but brilliant and engaging and thought provoking none the less. Ah how to describe this book in a brief way that will catch your attention…it’s a story written across history, time, space and consciousness. It’s as if 2001 a space odyssey crashed into and mated with The Tree of Life, a little of The Matrix, with a touch of The Notebook. It’s expansive, it’s microscopic, it’s beautiful and heart splitting. It deals with global fallouts similar to the covid pandemic and also questions of mortality and philosophy. So you know, if that’s your speed and you like Sci-Fi I HIGHLY recommend.
4.) Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Rating: 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️-duh
A book about video game design? Yes please. This book TOOK me places I was not expecting. Very emotional so it was and oh so satisfying to read a book that honours what is beautiful and really so very creatively profound about much of video games. I used to be a hater of games and I fully turned that position around over the last decade and I just loved that this one was deeply researched and held such an intelligent positional conversation on the impactful way games and escapist modalities give us spaces of expression, freedom and community. This book follows two young game designers as they weave their lives together through tragedy and the complicated path of becoming. I don’t want to give too much away but there is a trigger warning of violence and loss.
5.) This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone
Rating: 4/5 stars
A very interesting book conceptually, not many books written by multiple people co-authoring are successful. This book is a tango, a waltz, a delicately balanced scale of duality; two authors, two characters, two sides of a war across the space/time continuum. It’s short and each chapter is written from the perspective of one of two characters who are writing letters back and forth telling a story. It definitely took a minute to catch on to the writing style, with each author writing chapters back and forth to one another it felt like a breathtaking conversation and perhaps a tad confusing from the outset but then again isn’t that the usual for time travel stories.
6.) Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Rating: 4/5 stars
I just read that this is being adapted as a film starring Cillian Murphy so that makes me really happy. I really enjoy reading stories by Irish authors set in Ireland as I feel connected to home and it’s so fun to relate to the cultural context of the book. Sort of like how I feel when I watch Derry Girls. This novella tells the story of the Magdalene Laundries present in a small Irish town in the 80’s. One of the cruelest acts of the Catholic Church in its blighted past in Ireland, these Laundries were maintained by an oppressive hand of religion which controlled culture and the behaviours and identity of the Irish people. It’s a short but captivating novel about a complicit society, heroism, and vulnerability.
7.) The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Rating: 3.75/5 stars
I really enjoyed this book and I don’t really remember how I found it to add to my list. I think I saw a short clip of the film adaptation with Brie Larson who I know picks good films based on books about interesting female experiences so that’s where that came from. This book reminded me of another favourite of mine-Educated by Tara Westover. I would say Educated is slightly better in the writing style but both are equally as engaging in the storytelling. There is a lot of crossover, both are deeply introspective reflections of what it is like to grow up in challenging adverse childhoods and how it shapes relationships, the self and the future. What is so profound about this book is how Walls is able to hold space in her mind for opposing thoughts on her childhood and her parents. She also imparts that on us as readers, there is such a grace for nuance here. Her parents are both/and. Both abusive and desperately loving, both ‘lower class’ and ‘highly educated’, both shameful and free of shame. I could go on, but this is very much a true and ascerbic self-analysis of the complexity of families and trauma. Many trigger warnings here, abuse, neglect, addiction, extreme poverty.
Sidenote the top review on Goodreads by Meredith Holley is worth a read. She did a really good job of capturing what is essentially excellent about Walls’ telling of her life.
8.) Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
This was a lovely story and while I didn’t love it quite as much as I thought I would it is certainly worth a read especially for it’s creative twist on the narrator. Told from two perspectives, one that of an aquarium dwelling giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus and the other from a lonely, hardworking custodian named Tova who seeks solace from her personal tragedy in the company of the aquarium inhabitants. There is a mystery here to solve and a sweet friendship that blossoms between these two long-suffering creatures. It’s a sweet and sad tale that has some humour peppered throughout and what I really like is that it treats the ocean creatures as the intelligent, living beings that they are. Small warning of thoughts of death and suicide here.
9.) Thin Places by Kerri ní Dochartaigh
Rating: 3.75/5 stars
This book is both a memoir and a deep reflection on the natural world and the philosophy of being within that. There is a lot of discussion of trauma here, a lived experience of both personal and political violence and extremism, so in that sense it was very weighty but for the most part tastefully and sensitively done. I do think ní Dochartaigh did a wonderful job in honouring the cultural legacy of life under the Troubles in Northern Ireland and occupying the liminal space of Irish heritage from being raised under opposing religious traditions. Some of the writing was weaker than I would have wanted, I do love her poetic and nature writing but this is definitely not just a book on the wild and there is a slightly unrelenting wave of suffering that doesn’t quite feel as alleviated as I think the chapters on nature were trying to do. I am excited for her second book which I will be starting shortly. Trigger warning of war, domestic violence, addiction, depression.
10.) Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Rating: A+++++ ONE BAJILLION SAND DOLLARS OF GOODNESS
BEST BOOK OF 2023! Sorry for shouting, god I just love Barbara Kingsolver she is absolutely one of the greats for me. Really dense read, as all hers are they take a minute to really get into. This one is a modern retelling of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. A hefty challenge by any means; naturally I was apprehensive reading this, retellings or remakes often miss the mark. This did not miss anything, Kingsolver knocks it out of the park. Centered around the story of young Demon Copperhead, a boy born to a teenage mom in a trailer in the Appalachian south, this book embodies the spirit of Americana. Over the course of young Copperhead’s life, he speaks of essential socio-political issues such as the Opioid crisis, the terrible War on Drugs campaign, the deconstruction of rural self-governance through centralising wealth in urban areas and incentivising a mass population exodus leading to the annexation of rural southern communities. It’s just a legacy of a book and I highly recommend. In terms of trigger warnings it runs the whole gamut and basically touches every form of harm under the sun. It’s a book about poverty, foster care, drugs and self-discovery.
The surprise positive review of 2022 I didn't think I would be writing...
I am going to post a review of the Humboldt book I P R O M I S E I just took a short break from it because my mind needed to read (for some reason) a slew of subpar books before making my way back to it’s richly detailed storytelling. With that being said, I finished this slew of books towards the end of November 2022 with one I was mildly curious about and much to my surprise it was a better read than I had expected. Honestly hopes were low. Memoirs are not my favourite genre particularly when they are one of two things:
1.) A memoir that’s secretly a self-help book written by someone regurgitating-without much depth-a bunch of ideas they have appropriated from older thinkers while pretending they don’t live in extreme privilege. The very worst ones are centered on trying to tell us dear readers how ‘easily’ we can make our lives better by just willing it or getting up off our lazy asses eye roll.
2.) Written by a celebrity. Sorry famous people, just cause you have a platform does not mean you are an expert in everything and are owed a microphone or soap box. It DEFINITELY does not mean we care about your ‘rags to riches’ story, that you can actually write or that you earned that book deal.
So all those things being very true of me, nobody was more shocked than I that I actually enjoyed reading Matthew Perry’s memoir, ‘Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.’ This book was published November 1st 2022 and honestly when I added it to my kindle I had heard nothing of it, wasn’t aware of the hype that came after and didn’t have any real desire to read it beyond the fact that it was about a person who starred in one of my favourite (don’t hate me I know it isn’t cool) sitcom shows from growing up. It mainly caught my attention because it’s about addiction issues, which I am personally connected to and love reading on for perspective and healing. I saw it on my Goodreads suggestions over a lonely thanksgiving week and thought, “Ok, well I have been reading a bunch of shite fiction lately maybe I’ll give this a go and hopefully it won’t be too disappointing like the Poehler incident.”***
Perry has received some significant acclaim since the release of his book which details his life all the way from his parents’ backgrounds and his displaced, wayward childhood to the height of his celebrity success when he was a cultural darling whilst simultaneously battling extreme drug and alcohol addiction. For the most part, stories that center around a person’s deep pain and suffering can be risky territory and there is always the chance it can become a form of trauma porn. Perry holds nothing back and to be frank the book is at times gratuitous and shocking from the get-go. The violence and wretchedness of his disease is told with his usual acerbic wit and brutal, sarcastic tongue that allows this extremely personal history to be told without egoism, or an attempt to make himself sound like a hero. He lets all of it loose, every thing he has done, taken, lost and abused; it is all there with no shame he lays it bare. I found myself deeply moved. This is a man who has suffered so much and caused so much suffering and as I came away from reading it I just wanted to sit with him and hold him. It is not usual to read a story where someone is detailing their pain without them playing a victim card or blaming others. Perry is honest to a fault going into explicit detail over and over again about the devastation of his choices on his life and what it is like inside the mind of an addict. Something a lot of society knows nothing about and can struggle to feel compassion for. As his story unfurls he reveals, with extreme emotion, the factors in his life that he believes are the reasons he is still alive. Namely his beloved family and close friends. His parents surface significantly in his story over and over. His father was an actor with his own past of disordered drinking and his mother a retired beauty pageant winner who struggled to raise him alone in Canada, eventually sending him off to LA with his father. He is an honest if flawed son. They have stood by him through it all and regularly in the book he professes his deep love for them and his friends who he credits as the most compassionate and supportive people someone like him did not deserve. The book returns consistently to the theme of friendship saving his life as Perry shares harrowing stories of how his parents never stopped showing up no matter how many times he has relapsed and how manipulative and stupid he has been sometimes hurting them beyond what one would think a parent could forgive. There is a lot of deeply emotional and spiritual themes here. Unconditional love and grace, a family brought together through trauma as opposed to being torn apart, and a burgeoning sense of a spiritual awakening set off by a divine encounter that only a mind addled by drugs has the lowered mental walls to receive. It’s all very dramatic and keeps you held in the story whilst reminding you that this is a real person who is still alive, barely, and who will likely never be truly healed but who is trying.
Some of the criticism being thrown Perry’s way comes from the fact that he is writing this reflection on his battle with addiction while only recently sober and at that not successfully for very long. Many people feel this undermines the lessons he is trying to impart and thus, they distrust both the wisdom he spouts regarding spirituality and sobriety, as well as his likelihood to-well-remain sober. I think that’s sad and I hate that cynicism is such a powerful force in humanity and so easily accepted. Here is a man clinging to hope and wanting to tell his story while he still can, why should we write him off as a failure when he is trying again, trying to change far more than many of us are ever willing to in our own behaviours, ideologies and mistakes. I truly hope he makes it. Other negative responses have called him ‘misogynistic’, and ‘anti-feminist’ for his statements and recollections of women. Are his thoughts and perspectives on women pleasant? No, they are indicative of an unhealthy psyche and cultural understanding of women that doesn’t fit with our current wave of feminism. He has a warped, outdated view of women and tends to give them the Madonna treatment, coveting them as a sexual object while desiring for them to rescue him and mother him. However, I do not think this is a fair literary criticism and I think to slander the account of the perspective of the author undermines the point of a personal memoir. This is his story, these are his thoughts and he is giving them to us without pretense and without making excuses. Are we supposed to like them? No, we probably wouldn’t like most people’s innermost thoughts if we knew them. So I am not going to base my judgement of this book as a good read off of whether the author’s innermost thoughts personally offend me. Instead I acknowledge that I did not come to this book expecting to want to model my life after this celebrity or put him on any kind of pedestal and I am grateful for his candidness even if it’s a little much sometimes.
With that being said there were some things I could say I might take a little issue with in the book. There was a lot of name-dropping. Like a lot. Perry has had a lot of friends and dalliances in high places. I don’t care for name-dropping, it irks me both in the famous and in real life. If you tell me you know the chef and I should really extend you some privilege that goes against the rules of the restaurant then I will absolutely never respect you. Sorry social climber, you are a parasite. Perry has also made a lot of money and he does not hold back from addressing his exorbitant levels of wealth and decades of accumulation of homes and cars. This didn’t bother me as much as I had thought it would on reflection. Most celebrities lie or pretend with a shy modesty about how rich we all know they really are. There is a weird, money purity culture with the uber rich and famous where they like us to all think “oh hey they are just like us” because for some reason it sells their image better and we are more likely to buy a lot of the crap they are peddling. Perry does not do this in fact he brags, A LOT, and it’s refreshing. It’s shocking how much money he has made and how he spent it but at least the guy has the decency to not feign a modest, normal life. Is it douchy? Yes, but does it add value to his story because it lends his words an authenticity and revelatory nature that shows just how much he wants to come clean and does he also consistently, readily admit he is a big douche? Also yes.
In the end of it all I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads which is pretty high. I would say personally it was a 3.5 star read for the most part- some of the technical writing issues grated on me. After sitting with it, when I finished binge reading it, I felt the surprise of my enjoyment and the emotional dimension of this poor man’s story pushed it up to a 4 for me. Watching interviews with Perry now after this release you can see the toll his addictions have had on his body, his physical and mental changes that he will carry as scars for as long as he lives and it just breaks your heart. There are many people who, having no context for life with an addict or addiction, will not understand how one can feel compassion and empathy for someone who chose to do the things they did to themselves. I think Perry does a good job revealing to his audience that is not always a choice and sometimes there are forces that abuse and haunt on a level some of us are blessed to not know and that for the people who are touched by addiction well those souls need us to start trying to understand. Addiction is a violence on the human soul that splits the self into a darkness iced over with brutality and fear and the inability to escape even if it makes total and complete sense to just stop. And yet…
As I wrote this review I was listening to Late Night Tales by Bonobo on vinyl. Highly recommend for deep, emotional thinking and otherworldly, writing theme music.
***I STILL have not made peace with how crappy Amy Poehler’s 2014 memoir ‘Yes Please’ was. So much so it actually led me to dislike her where before I enjoyed her comedy and personality. Sad face.
September sojourn into the wilderness.
(I am desperately trying to find a way to phrase this section so it doesn't read as a ‘book of the month’ club cause that already exists lol).
The first book I am choosing this month is The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf. I just started this book and I am interested to see where it takes me. I picked it up on a whim at one of my favourite bookstores in America. It’s a little place called Bart’s Books in Ojai, California and being there surrounded by warm, sunbaked books is just utterly delightful. Bart’s Books is an outdoor bookstore that we always make sure to take a drive to and pick up some fun reads every time we visit family in California. I highly recommend supporting this independent store.
A brief introduction to this pick for the month. It is a biography so the format may not be for everyone but it reads like an adventure tale. It follows the history of Alexander Humboldt one of the greatest historical naturalists and ecological scientists to have ever lived. He was born in Germany in the late 1700’s and he has (sadly) largely been forgotten**. I just started this book and my mind is blown at the depth and breadth of the reach of his ideas and work. If you think Thoreau was significant, John Muir or even Charles Darwin then you are a fan of the people who were heavily influenced by Humboldt and whose work was shaped by his ideologies and writing. Isn’t that incredible? It’s shaping up to be a heavy read so I’m excited to get into it. Once I finish it I will post a review and some reflections or maybe questions we shall see.
**I do think that his presence may have potentially been erased from US history because of anti-German sentiment post World War II. Then again maybe history isn’t written by the victors. smirk
Welcome to the Reading Nook
Sometimes I look back at my brash and wild childhood and I am warmed by the lucky stars that reside there. Both my parents are lovers of words, thought and spirited debate and have embedded a lifelong habit of reading and storytelling into the culture of our large family. All of us love to gather together in coffee shops, pubs, at home and over social media and endlessly try to outmatch each other in our story keeping and conversational prowess.
We are talkers.
Anyone who knows me can attest to this. Due to aforementioned largeness, numerically speaking, of my family we were however, not well inclined towards monetary excellence. With that being said, we spent A LOT of time at the (free) local library as kids; renting out books and books on tape, using the free resources to write projects on Amelia Earhart and Big Cats before at-home internet was a thing. I loved our by-the-sea library with the grumpy, owlish librarians and the billions of worlds to play around in. I loved that certification of maturity denoted by the library card, how when you went from being allowed to rent three books to five at the age of thirteen well, that was adulthood. Imagination was a well fed beast in that cosy little building with the crunchy pages full of friends and magic and intrepid adventures for even the shyest of us.
Once upon a time I remarked to a friend that I cannot recall ever not reading. At every moment of my life there has been a book within reach.
“And most of all, books. They were, in and of themselves, reasons to stay alive. Every book written is the product of a human mind in a particular state. Add all the books together and you get the end sum of humanity. Every time I read a great book I felt I was reading a kind of map, a treasure map, and the treasure I was being directed to was in actual fact myself.”
In every story I read I find a piece of myself, I wrestle with my values, I cement my dreams, I question the nature of humankind. This is what I love about it and that’s what I hope to share. Reading is not an exclusive hobby for those who are intellectually superior. No matter what you read or what I read or in what form we engage with story, it is all valid experience.
This particular section of my whatever you want to call it-blog, website, vanity piece, bullshit ex-hipster cry for attention-is here because I live for books and I recently read a book that moved me so profoundly it shook my apathy and kicked my ass into a ‘ MUST make and create and just fricken do even if it is shite’ kind of realm. So, if you want to engage that’s amazing, I am making this a virtual, follow along at your own pace kind of book club. I will be picking one book each month (hopefully I can actually stick to this commitment) and sharing some questions on it as I read and then a nice little review at the end of how I felt about the book. Maybe some other bits and bobs, we’ll see, I’m sort of feeling loosey goosey about this whole thing so don’t expect consistency at least for the first while!
Also dear readers, the books will vary across many different genres, I do not discriminate between book types. Except horror. Catch me getting in a helicopter before I let my vivid and visceral imagination walk into a horror story (if you know you know).
I am so looking forward to sharing some good reads with you lovelies and hopefully receiving some good recommendations too.