Well that was quietly devastating!
It had all the uncannily perceptive interiority that I found so engrossing in The Hours (which I've read multiple times).
If I have a quibble it's that I'd have preferred longer chapters so as to spend more time with each character. Sometimes it felt a bit choppy and briefly disorienting. Deliberately, given the COVID setting? I loved how Robbie - the single brother/uncle/friend - proved to be the family's heart.

I am buzzing! I took my harp to my library's social group (we're taking it in turns to "do a thing"). So nervous beforehand I thought I might have to change my name and leave the country but I was canny and made sure I'd primed the holds shelf!
I played with shaking hands but it went well: somehow I seem to have enchanted everyone! Feeling happily overwhelmed now and full of gratitude. ?

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii
Reading goes without saying, right? 😄

Read for library book group: at last, something I could get my teeth into!

Set in the Victorian London shark-tank (that the Tories are intent on dragging us back to), artist's model and aspiring painter Iris seeks to live on her own terms, within the cultural corsetry that is the male gaze.
Personally, I could have done without the romance, but then we'd not have seen how similar Louis's attentions were to Silas's (just a difference of degree?)

It feels wrong to use the word "enjoyed" of a memoir of queer domestic abuse but I loved the writing and the framing of her experience through the lens of an exhaustive array of genres. It's as if she's holding it up to the light, to make sense of what was happening to her in the absence of a ready frame of reference. Does this lessen the emotional impact? Possibly. It's awful she endured the abuse. I'm glad she could make this book of it.

This was waaay too relatable at times: not the domestic squalor, nor the accidentally getting a job in a church, I mean, but the stuff that goes through Gilda's mind. Severe anxiety, depression, and intrusive thoughts are to the fore throughout but I found it affirming rather than triggering. The dark humour made me snort my tea and cackle (not at the same time)!

If there is such a thing as an anti-villain, I nominate toxically positive Giuseppe.

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii

Love this tag!
It's been a challenging week mental health-wise but these things have all lifted my spirits.

Today's modest #libraryhaul , at book group.
"The Doll Factory" is next month's book.
"Day" was waiting for me on the holds shelf.

Wholly illogical, I know, but the fact that both covers are my favourite colour seems to bode well! ?

And just like that the author knocks all the air out of my lungs.

Well, that was a frustrating experience! The cringey title should have told me it would be problematic. There is plenty of useful info here... but there are also multi-page digressions with little to add, and awkward phrasing throughout that became a major distraction.

English is not CL's mother-tongue and she says she's too much of a control freak to work with a translator. Her book suffers for it and is *badly* in need of a good editor.

Read for library's book group.
It's a lemon meringue pie in book form: a tang of sharpness under a mass of sugary fluff.
I couldn't care less about the romance aspect and, as a whole, it was a pleasant but formulaic read.
I'm not saying it's a bad book: I'm saying it's not to my taste.

I've been veggie since I was 15 and vegan for 3 years. There's good stuff here but I think it would be of greater benefit to those more socially-oriented than me (so, most people, then? ?).

I found the quasi-religious language off-putting, and if I never hear the phrase "animal flesh and fluids/secretions" again it will be too soon.

Most troubling was the assumption that "vegangelism" is a must: so private acts of conscience are insufficient?

Published in 2007 (and bought used for 1p!), these days it has rather a cultural historical vibe. Written/made by multiple contributors, it's an art zine in book form: kind of a grown-up version of the things my sister and I used to make in the school holidays ?. I don't really like that messy, mixed media look, but there are several projects I plan to try (and many another that are more "why on Earth would I want to make that?!"). A curiosity!

Thank God that's over! It pains me to pan a book but I did not enjoy this one little bit.

Anna is going round the bend with writer's block and keeps multiple concurrent notebooks whilst sleeping with a succession of increasingly dreadful men and agonising over whether to leave the communist party or not. Maybe it's an insightful document of its time but I was in WTF?! mode for most of it.

#sundaybuddyread @TheBookHippie

I'm so glad the library had this in audio: the memoir of queer, Muslim, drag queen Glamrou (with brief detours via marine biology and Eton), it felt only right to hear their story told in their own voice. It's courageous, moving, inspiring, and dark with flashes of humour.

This is what's great about reading: 45+ years with a book in my hand and still I get to be surprised by the paths they lead me along.

Oh, this book! 😍 Evolutionarily-accelerated spiders and octopuses in space, you say? Yes, and I loved it! It's exciting, wildly imaginative, and a proper thinky book to get the synapses firing. What more can you ask? A prominent neuro-divergent human character (Senkovi ❤️)? A third book in the series to look forward to? There's that, too. 🕷️🐙💫

I forgot to post this week's #libraryhaul
The top one is for book group. The other two are my own choosing. (We're not going to talk about the 20 or so books I currently have on hold. 🤐)

The seashore is my happy place and AN always writes lyrically and with precision about sea-related matters. This turned out to be a rhapsodic compendium of natural history, the tides, geology, social history, philosophy... it's all in there! Some might prefer a sharper focus on the creaturely goings-on (which is what I was expecting it to be) but I found it an absolute delight.

Well it certainly unsettled me! It's a powerful reminder of how rapidly everything can unravel, in an inescapable disaster-cascade, for people who are already marginal. (The fact that Jeanie and Julius are exactly my age upped the anxiety, too.) I do think it tipped into bathos about three quarters of the way through, and I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, but otherwise it was a top-notch read.

Another series I'm reading out of order: I've yet to read the second one.This is one of those books that has me in awe of "ordinary" individuals and in despair at the human race as a whole. Mercifully, the book lands firmly on the side of hope.
RW is not religious but I was reminded of something Mother Teresa said about knowing God would never give her bigger challenges than she was able to bear: "but sometimes I wish He didn't trust me so much".

Well, if you're going to write a pandemic novel it's a good thing to be Ann Patchett, I guess. Oh, you know, the apparent *ease* of the thing!
I was afraid this would be a little too sweet for my taste but there were enough sharp cherries amongst the harvest that I ended up loving it. 🍒
(I especially loved Emily!)

Dave Myers! 😢
May he feast in foodie Valhalla.

Oh, I love her quiet books! Due to the vagaries of library stock availability this is the first of the Lucy books I've read: it's fine as a standalone but I look forward to looping back for the others.

The minimal plot and deep dive into the hearts of her characters are a welcome respite from the diet of thrillers the library's book group has me on.

ES's books make me more kindly disposed towards people. That has to be a good thing, surely!

Oof, I found this provocative, humbling, reassuring, and very timely: I am well and truly in the midlife chrysalis!
It's very Jungian, which is fine but it does mean that his one strategy is to get a good therapist.
Hmm... I'm going to be doing a lot of journalling and thinking-walks. 😊

Today's modest #libraryhaul 😊
I'm focusing on reading my owned books this year but the library gets me out of the house, so what's a girl to do? 🤷

Is there a Library Service division of the Deep State? I don't know how else to account for this being their book of the month.
I gave it the 50-pages test. Can't. Won't. Nope!
I wasn't thrilled: I was bored.
Maybe pick this up if you fancy an easy game of bad-writing bingo.

Oh, I say!
I enjoyed "Gentleman Jack" with the excellent Suranne Jones but rather assumed they'd spiced it up for the sake of drama. Not a bit of it! If anything, it was toned down: Miss Lister apparently withheld nothing from her diary. I can't say that I like her much - she's a snobbish social-climber, and less than honest in her dealings with the women she's after (poor Mrs Barlow!) - but she's certainly a strong and fascinating character.

Set on an arable farm in the 1930s, MH's nature-writing is marvellous (as expected!). She got me invested in Edie's coming of age story. I would have loved to see more of Ada's experience and perspective, too. (Constance made my hackles rise from the get-go!). The ending was abrupt and, for me, the epilogue fell flat. In conclusion, I loved it, save for the final 20 pages which fell somewhere between "harrumph!" and "hnnh?".

#libraryhaul
I really didn't want to go to book group today (feel more like hiding in my room and not talking to anyone for the rest of the year). But... my books were due back and library fines make me feel like a criminal. 🤣 So, off I went, like a dutiful citizen.
Tagged is next month's book. The Raynor Winn just leapt into my arms.

#hyggehour
All the little everyday things have been getting me down this week. I'm thankful, then, that my BorrowBox hold came through. I've had a lovely quiet hour drinking chamomile tea with Elizabeth Strout!
@AllDebooks @TheBookHippie @Chrissyreadit

Been pondering how to review this. I enjoyed his previous collection (tagged 👇) but this one? Not so much.
Written by a practising Muslim living in an Islamophobic culture, and a recovered addict (thus no stranger to self-annihilation/grandiosity) I ended up concluding that a long conversation with him about the themes and ideas behind the poetry would be fascinating. But the poems themselves? Sadly for the most part I found them baffling. 😕

It's an arable farm. Why to goodness would they be making their own butter and cheese?!

What a lovely surprise!
Thank you, @TrishB ; this sounds great! ❤️

Feeling utterly frazzled earlier by the unending, inescapable human noise of the day. What a relief to have a thoughtful book to immerse myself in!
#hyggehour

Birthday #bookhaul (from yesterday). ?
Birds and dinosaurs were well-represented in the non-book category, too! My nerdy self is delighted ?
Thank you, @Caroline2 for "North Woods", and @squirrelbrain for "Water" (the bookmark is spot on!). I look forward to diving into them! ?

BK's first novel? It's safe to say she hit the ground running!
I love how she writes her characters and shows how interdependent they all are on each other.
Others of hers I've read (and loved) do tend towards the didactic: here, the surprise was humour.
Despite the horrible, horrible things that happen off the page, it's a book that restores my faith in people (which is no mean feat!) My book of the month, for sure.

She was preaching to the choir with me on this and yet, of the three books of hers I've read, this is the one I've felt the least engaged with. I enjoyed the Water section best. Sometimes her writing really sang and at others it, and the structural device, just felt clunky and laboured. She's convinced me (not that I needed convincing) of the importance of everyday wonder, but... And? What next? (I'll still happily read everything she writes.)

Mouthwatering recipes but a bit of a stretch for those on a tight budget. (I've made whole dinners for less than the price of a jar of Belazu harissa.) I like the approach of making base recipes, to be dressed up or down in various ways as desired, so as to cook once and eat twice. I want to do more of this.

Plentiful vegan yum to keep me happy but it's for special occasions unless I can come up with some cheaper workarounds.

#mtcookbook

I completed my first knitting project! 😃
I don't know any babies these days, so I gave it to the pebble we use as a doorstop. (Figured if I was going to the trouble of making a bobble, I might as well go big!)

Nice book of sound, plant-based recipes but sadly of limited use in my kitchen:
1. Lots of avocado = heckin' expensive
2. Leans heavily on mushrooms and aubergine, which daughter won't touch with a 50ft barge pole
3. Breakfasts chapter: breakfast is, and shall always be, tea and porridge 😆
4. Cocktails chapter: I'm not interested in hosting parties, just want to feed my family
Still, I look forward to trying some things I bookmarked.
#mtcookbook

Another fast-carbs binge of a read for library's book group. It's not a book I would have chosen for myself but I'm realising this sort of thing is enjoyable so long as I can wolf it down! I wouldn't have wanted to spend any longer in these characters's heads, and it began to depress me how the three capable women were intent on taking each other down, when flabby-natured Harry was at the epicentre of their woes. (Ugh, internalised misogyny! 😒)

Once I got past the entitled assholery of the title, this was surprisingly good! I knew there's ample grudging obligation in my days but the depth and pervasiveness of my "shoulds" was shocking.

She (un)covers motivation, shame, self-worth issues, how to get going on the things you want to do but can't get started... and offers strategies for still getting the chores done.

It's early days but I'm enjoying tentative experiments of my own. ?

Post library book group haul.
Next month's book. Plus, I am still auditioning knitting books suitable for newbies.

Librarian Kim ran a tight ship this afternoon, so I enjoyed it much more than last time... even if we were discussing the plausibility or otherwise of nuclear-apocalyptic human behaviour.

Read for library book group (tomorrow: eeek!).
A post-nuclear apocalypse, coupled with an amateur investigation into a child's murder, this was an "interesting" choice for a festive read! ? The Shining-esque shenanigans were an unnecessary distraction but I read this like I was bingeing on fast carbs. (The unsatisfying conclusion only reinforced this impression.) I enjoyed it, is what I'm saying, but now I want something more nutritious.

I'm not familiar with FB's stand-up (and haven't a clue what Taskmaster is). This was yet another of my autism memoirs. Maybe I didn't get the joke but this struck me as unrelentingly bleak, and frequently alarming. It is important to share the experience of non-posh ND women, and kudos to her for being so open on the subject of meltdowns. Wish I could say I loved it but, ironically, it left me feeling overwhelmed (and not in a good way). 😩

My first completed read of 2024 is a 5🌟!
Oof, this book! It feels wrong to say I enjoyed 900+ pages about inter-generational trauma but I loved the many hours I spent with the various members of the Jashi family. And though it is a mighty tome, the only thing that slowed me down was trying to bench press it in bed of a night.

It's primarily set in the Caucasus/USSR throughout the 20th Century: you can probably supply your own trigger warnings.

Here is my #24in2024 list. @Jas16
Yes, there are more than 24 books here because I am a mood reader, ... and I think we all know this list is but the tip of the iceberg. 😆

What he said 👆.
With chapters on social situations, access to general healthcare, education, work, public transport, PW explores autistic experience and makes suggestions which with a little thoughtfulness and care have the potential to massively decrease the daily nervous system overload. Things that NT people stand to benefit from, too (flickering fluorescent lighting, anyone?)
Aimed at the NT majority, I read it for self-affirmation reasons.

This was nice but not, I think, the stuff of life-changing epiphanies. Will I remember the particulars in a month's time? I doubt it. Was it a feel-good listen? Absolutely!

(I'll rate it a pick as I need all the encouragement I can get to treat myself with greater compassion, and I don't suppose I am alone in this.)

Yesterday was lovely! ❤️
I did rather well out of it, all told. 🎄🎁📚