I’m finally giving into the Maggie O’Farrell of it all and reading Hamnet. It’s very good, a very sensual and alive sort of book. It has one of my favourite sex scenes I think I’ve ever read, too. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - the Irish girls simply do it better.
I have been reading Little Fires Everywhere, and it has been whelming so far. I really don’t like how she beats facts pages upon pages.
Forgot to mention: I got to meet Hanya on Friday evening! She is so wonderfully interesting and intelligent and engaging, and spilled some interesting tea on an A Little Life TV adaptation (which has also since been reported in The Guardian). Basically, 8 treatments for it exist, but nobody will give her the $60 million and full creative control she wants. And one studio asked if it ‘could be more like Sex and the City’. Lord.
Wait, was this the event in Manchester? Savidge hosted that! <3 I can’t believe she’s just asking for 60 million… I’d never go lower than 100!
Seems an ideal fit for Apple. They're keen to get in on the prestige TV act and have very, very deep pockets.
What are we reading, girls? I just finished The Vanishing Half, which I can tell is fantastic but I’m in a bit of a reading funk at the moment, so I appreciated more than enjoyed it. Currently reading Coco Mellors’ Cleopatra and Frankenstein, because I wanted something light and breezy. She’s being pushed as a ‘new Sally Rooney’, but Ms Rooney doesn’t have much to worry about. I’d like it more if most of the characters weren’t awful people, and there are flashes of brilliance here and there (the 50 page section written in vignettes from a new character’s perspective is really great). But for the most part I’m whelmed. Tempted to go for The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo or, completely differently, Flowers For Algernon next. (I am still desperate to start To Paradise but I’m scared to do it when I’m not really loving reading right now. I don’t want it to sour my experience of the book.)
Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith Careless by Kirsty Capes Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejidé Flamingo by Rachel Elliott Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey Salt Lick by Lulu Allison Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki The Bread the Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller The Sentence by Louise Erdrich This One Sky Day by Leone Ross
My Kindle randomly suggested Seven Days in June by Tia Williams and I gave it a go just because. Gosh, what a fun read! It helped I went into it with no real expectations and loved how well the story progressed. I try to avoid reading books centered around heterosexual love stories but this one was just so charming and funny. I have a few books on my shelf left to read. A lot of them are heavy stories and I kinda want to read some more lighter stuff for now and get to the heavy stories when I have the mental space for it.
I’m reading Grapes of Wrath which is spectacular but I know is going to make me sad and angry. It’s giving me a lot to think about regarding personal freedom and choice, and how progress can be destructive too. It’s also really powerful in how it depicts the different strengths of men and women in that particular family. Steinbeck is so magnificent, I’ve not read anything from him that isn’t incredible.
Just finished Antigone for Uni and now I know why they call them TRAGEDIES. I had to lie down after it.
Grapes of Wrath is one of my all time favourites. I read East of Eden last year and, ugh, such rich, masterful storytelling. I found the book to be such a gift. Can’t wait to re-read it.
I loved, loved, loved Fuccboi. You know when you happen upon a narrative voice that rings through so loud and clear you actively miss it when you finish the book? That’s how I felt about this one. Funny, sad, deceptively charming, uncomfortable, often viscerally gross - watch this be the best debut of the year. Sean Thor Conroe also has major babe qualities (something about a man who’s not afraid to paint themselves in a bad light is highly enticing) -
I thumbed through this in Waterstones and was intrigued but ultimately unsure. Will have to give it a whirl!
