february round up
Covid finally got us. It didn’t come at the worst time; it was half term and storms were raging outside. We battened down the hatches, snuggled and used up a lot of our fire wood. I also had a chance to get my teeth into To Paradise, Hanya Yanagihara’s newest behemoth of a book.
What I Read
1. Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny
2. What A Shame by Abigail Bergstrom
3. Some Body To Love by Alexandra Heminsley
4. To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
Really enjoyed all these books; all in completely different ways. Katherine Heiny’s book is a magical, domestic story in which you really fall for the characters.
What A Shame is written by Abigail Bergstrom, who headed up the publishing department at Gleam until recently/her now documented breakdown. There have been tons of books recently written by people who I feel are my contemporaries, charting their 20’s: their lives, loves and jobs but none which have felt as generous and familiar as this one. Can’t wait to see what she writes next.
MONTHLY FAVOURITES
Watched… Went on an early 90’s film binge in our covid lockdown fever. Pulp Fiction, Thelma & Louise, Romeo & Juliet, My Own Private Idaho. They don’t make films like that anymore, well maybe Tarantino does.
Listened… After Charlie Bones left NTS I lost track of him and in January I discovered he has popped back up on his own mixcloud site (I have found so many of my absolutely favourite songs via his show) so I had a backlog since October of Charlie Bones mixes and I have listened to little else this month. Check them out here.
Turned up online for… When my family and I went to Komedia to see the Studio Ghibli film, Castle In The Sky I wasn’t to know that the following week my kids were going to be watching back to back Studio Ghibli for a full week. I never thought I would be this parent but (due to covid and storms) thank god for the telly.
I feel that I can’t sign off without mentioning what is happening in Ukraine but I have nothing to add; just putting a prayer out there for peace.
