Another from my favourite, Shirley Jackson! As usual, it was brilliant. But it is a difficult one to explain. I would class this more as a psychological thriller than horror, which some people class it as. It follows a young woman, Natalie, as she moves away from her family and to college. Essentially it charts a descent of a tortured soul, a little like The Bell Jar, but with classic Shirley Jackson eeriness and crippling loneliness.(cont. 👇🏻)

A grumpy old man tries to hold on to what he knows in his little changing town. This was a really lovely story. A host of very individual characters and a lot of heart. I was definitely choked up at the end.

I‘ve never read Claire Keegan before, but I‘ve heard she‘s one of the best. This did not disappoint. The book has two timelines, one following a man on a seemingly ordinary day, and the other recounting his past relationship. There is a lot of discourse at the moment of relationships and what is expected of men and women in their ‘roles‘ and this book perfectly encapsulates all of it! A very simple and yet effective gut punch right at the issue.

I love the film so much I decided to read the book! The film was a very faithful adaptation as the book is so incredibly detailed, they got in all that they could. The prose is beautiful and devastating. I most enjoyed the ending as it provided greater details about what became of Bryony‘s life but also the struggles she faces in getting her story out and the lives Marshall and Lola were still living, adding to the devastation and inequity.

I watched the film before reading this which I think took a little of the surprise out, but it was still a thoroughly enjoyable read, and I think I wanted to rocket through the big reveal despite knowing what it was anyway. This books takes place in an alternative past in 90s England and follows special school children as they grow in to adulthood and learn about their future ‘donations‘. (Cont. in comments 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

My second book bought in Montana. This one was written by a local author who lives in Whitefish where I was staying. The plot was based around Glacier National Park too, and it was so nice to read about a place I am discovering and being able to understand the references and picture the place perfectly. The story follows Ted, a guy who is basically national park police. (Cont. in comments 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

I am currently travelling around Montana, USA from the UK and ventured into my first Barnes and Noble and thought it appropriate to pick up a Western to read whilst I‘m here. This author is clearly prolific in westerns as there was an entire wall of his books, and the main character in this book, Smoke Jensen, appeared in many, many titles. (Cont. in comments 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

I read this one after watching the new Netflix film adaptation called Spaceman with Adam Sandler. As is usually the case, I thought the book was immensely better and having now read it I think the film missed the key themes of the book. The story follows Jakub, a Czechoslovakian astronaut alone in space, the first to venture out to investigate a strange new gas cloud. He encounters an arachnid on his ship. (Cont. in comments 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

This is a travel writing book exploring ancient pathways in Britain and some abroad. It is divided by geological type and country. It is a really impressive exploration of what drives and has driven humans for centuries to walk and create these pathways that have stood the test of time. (Cont. in comments 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

My third Kristin Hannah novel. This one explores America during the Vietnam War and follows a very young nurse who enlists to go over and treat injured soldiers. This isn‘t an area of history I know a lot about at all, and I think the author did a good job in balancing the sacrifice of those who served with the backlash and atrocities committed.

This is my second Kristin Hannah, my first being The Nightingale, which, despite thinking it was a little cheesy and overstated at times, I really enjoyed. This one takes place in America from 1921-1940 but predominantly deals with the mid-1930s and the Great Depression coupled with the drought that devastated the Great Plains. (Cont. in comments 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

This was a weird book. My first time reading Angela Carter, too. Published in 1969, 10 years before The Bloody Chamber, it is a post-apocalyptic story in which, after nuclear war, the surviving people have split into 3 categories; the Professors, the educated who have become the leaders (and within their societies we have the Soldiers and the Workers), the Barbarians, travellers before the war who raid Professor villages, (cont. in comments 👇🏻)

Dart is a long-form poem about the river Dart in Devon. It follows the flow of the river from source to the sea whilst also exploring those we find along the river. Oswald uses the voices of real people she interviewed to inform the voices in her poem and the authenticity truly comes across, whilst weaving in mythic and historic cultural voices too. (Cont. in comments 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

Harold Fry is a pensioner just stagnating in life, till one day he receives a letter from a long-ago friend telling him she is dying. Harold is roused into action and a desire for her to live, and so he starts walking from Cornwall to Berwick-Upon-Tweed in the belief that if he keeps walking she will keep on living. This was a really beautiful story and very well written. (Cont. in comments 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

Penny bloods were popular in the early 19th century and emerged as a response to the first-wave of gothic literature. Penny bloods were written by the Average Joe and went more for sensationalism over artistic expression but were popular and made good money. However, they still contained important social issues but were largely transgressive literature, particularly to do with transgressive women. (Cont. in comments 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

My second time reading Wuthering Heights. I figured as I was finally reading some of Charlotte and Anne for the first time, that I would re-read my favourite. After having read Jane Eyre and Agnes Grey, I would conclude that the other stories are probably slightly better written, however, I just think the story of Wuthering Heights trumps all others. The depth and darkness is unmatched and there are passages that are unlike anything I‘ve read.

This edition contained Metamorphosis, as well as In the Penal Colony and The Judgement: A Story for F. I think all were brilliant and the famous dissatisfaction of conventional society comes across strongly in all. Metamorphosis was a lot sadder than I anticipated; the actions of his family contrasted with Gregor‘s innocent inner monologue conjures feelings of injustice and unfairness. (Cont in comments 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

Into the Wild is unlike anything I‘ve read before. It charts the true story of Chris McCandless, who in 1992 lived off grid in the Alaska wilderness but eventually died due to starvation. Krakauer become enchanted and obsessed by Chris‘ story and his mental journey and so in this book he tracks Chris‘ movements as he travels in his last years, (cont. I‘m comments 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

A collection of Shirley Jackson short stories! She continues to amaze and entice me. She tells so much with so few words, I am always immediately enraptured in the story. Whilst the stories themselves have overlapping themes of the nature of womanhood, being a wife, living in the home, place in society, paranoia and suspicion, etc, the stories are still so distinct and each address different aspects. (Cont. in comments 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

This collection appears to be a hybrid form of prose/poetry. The author physicalizes the grief his family is going through at the death of his wife as a crow that has invaded their home and won‘t leave till their ready. The crow disrupts their life, sometimes has comforting things to say, sometimes hurts them, sometimes fits in like a member of the family, until the intrusion of the crow isn‘t such a big deal and it leaves. (Cont. below 👇🏻👇🏻)

There is something about this story that really gets me and I‘m not quite sure what it is. I think both the film and the book tell the tale very well, and dispute Cheryl making mistakes in life, she is such an endearing, strong, likeable person. She owns her mistakes and doesn‘t shy away from the things she‘s done. The book is really raw and she shares so much. It is also so uplifting and inspirational how she decided to turn her life around.

Agnes Grey decides to become a governess when her father encounters money troubles. She is passionate and determined but gets stuck with families who‘s morals she judges and isn‘t treated the kindest. An interesting insight in to what it was like to be a governess in the 19th century, with issues of class and morality as well as other things, with a sprinkling of a lovely love story towards the end. (Cont. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

In this essay, Perry analyses the trope, stereotype and insult of the label of Essex Girl and posits an historical trend of Essex (and women from further afield who earn the title) women breaking convention, doing good, making history and contributing to positive societal change, while perhaps dressed or looking or acting in a manner not deemed socially acceptable. (Continued in comments 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

This was a really impressive collection of writing. It feels like Adichie both strips away and calls out the bullshit surrounding grief, pointing out the useless things other people say and do and it seems more of a rallying cry to not deal with grief how other people think you should, to be posed and graceful, but to truly allow yourself to feel it, wallow in it and truly experience it, rather than quickly trying to overcome it.

My second Shirley Jackson and this one was even better than The Haunting of Hill House. The Blackwood girls live with their uncle in their big, family home, shunned by the town because of suspicions of poisoning the rest of their family. Their lives revolve around mealtimes and ritual. Told from the perspective of the youngest sister, Merricat, she is methodical, has a unique view of the world, and protects the house and her sister (👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

This was my Christmassy read this year and it was a little disappointing although very easy and quick to get through which is nice for holiday reading. I found the language, whilst beautiful and impressive, was overdone and actually too detailed. It was actually a really short, simple story with only a few things happening but everything and every action was described in such detail that it took a really long time for anything to happen. Cont.👇🏻

(Part 2)

Many themes emerge, those of the nature of art, repurposing, love, death, illness, despair, bliss and many more. Philips has created intricate and important images on each page which reflect, mirror and encapsulate the chosen words on the page. It reads almost like a hybrid book; a poetic novel and is challenging but breath-taking.

(Part 1)

A Humument is the work of a decades long creative endeavour by Tom Philips which started as a simple challenge to himself in 1966: to find a second-hand book for threepence and alter every page. From this came several different versions and from the pages of an old Victorian novel called A Human Document, a new story emerged. Philips‘ new book follows the story of a man called Bill Toge and his love Irma.

Great to read another book about my favourite historical figure. This book was really interesting in it‘s interpretation of Grace and her life. It is the only source I‘ve come across that proposes and discusses the possibility of Grace being a spy for the English. (Continued in comments 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

A really original read; this book aims to explore what indigenous Americans experienced when they first encountered European society. With the majority of sources from this period being from European perspectives, it is refreshing to read but also cannot hide the trickiness of tracking these stories that have been concealed, ignored or erased. (Continued in comments… 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

Having just read one book of hers, I already feel like Shirley Jackson is going to be a new favourite author of mine. Her prose is sublime, layered, intricate, loaded and somehow effortless. This book was a beautiful mix between classic, jump-scare horror and psychological torment. Written and set in the 1950s it brilliantly reflects themes of feminism, loneliness, identity and more. (Continued in my comments 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻)

Cora Seabournce travels to Essex in her widowhood seeking fossils and a scientific explanation for the local hysteria that a serpent plagues them. This was really well written, the descriptions of the nature and landscapes were beautiful. The characters were all deeply complex and very distinct. The ending was rather open ended and maybe slightly anticlimactic but still enjoyable. There was so much detail that I‘ll think about this one often.

I recently completed the Hadrian‘s Wall path with my dad and read this to introduce myself to the history. We walked 84 miles from west to east over 6 and a half days. This was a great, short, easily read introduction with interesting facts and a broad historical sweep, covering how it was used, for how long, the people that used it, and its purposes. Recommend for anyone wanting an introduction to the northernmost Roman frontier!

Pinker explores why we as people can seem so irrational, how we can fall in to cults, etc. He goes over different fallacies and how to analyse probabilities and how pre-held belief can impact our ability to disseminate facts. An impactful read.

Set in 60s America, Elizabeth Zott is a chemist presenting a cooking show, imbuing housewives with scientific knowledge as well as confidence. The writing was cleverly done, seamlessly switching perspectives. Very impressed with how she wrote from the perspective of the dog; it did not feel contrived or forceful, but plausible and satisfying. An elegant example of the hardships suffered by women without being pandering or condescending.

Late the game on this one but glad I finally read it! Esther Greenwood is an intelligent and talented woman but is trapped in a stifling, restricting system which drives her mad. Some of the most beautiful and inventive descriptions I‘ve ever read. Esther‘s descent seems completely plausible, believable and inevitable. Really powerful. Highly recommend.

Spent a day at the National Archives last week and saw an opportunity for this picture when I was reading a scroll from the 1660s and 70s detailing the expenses for the king‘s household staff 🥰

A fantastic microhistory about a 16th century miller who believed the earth was formed much in the same way cheese is, through putrefaction came a mass, that worms then formed in this mass which were angels. Ginsburg impressively unravels how these beliefs may have been formed, analysing the books Menocchio would have read, the oral culture and traditions of his village, the movement of ideas, wider contexts and consequences of the reformation.

A small snapshot of Word on the Water in London on Friday 🥰

Went to Word on the Water on Friday, the London book barge, and picked up 2 news books. The first a small Bukowski book called Notes of a Dirty Old Man and the second called Seven Brief Lesson on Physics by Carlo Rovelli 💫 📚

Went to the Deptford Literature Festival yesterday and picked up 2 books. One was Tales from the City and is a collection of short stories from Londoners on themes of Food, Climate and Nature and was free from the festival 🥰 The second is Blood & Sugar, an historical crime fiction set in Deptford in the 1700s 🥰 Looking forward to tucking into both at some point! 📚

A poor Californian moves to Vermont for college where he encounters an elite and studious classics class which he eventually manages to join and thus enters a world very similar to a Greek Tragedy. All the characters are deeply flawed, damaged, distinct and multi-faceted and Richard is a very intriguing narrator. They are fully-formed and yet unpredictable, and constantly changing, but in a manner which is consistent with their characters.
Loved!

I love this quote by Seneca On Asthma and Death from his Moral Letters to Lucilius, this one translated by Robin Campbell. I find it rather comforting.

A useful whistle stop tour on the History of Political Thought. Some aspects are easier to grasp than others but it is all presented in as simple and understandable a way as possible which makes it possible to fly through this one. It‘s includes brief explanations of some of the most prominent thinkers such as Marx and John Rawls, as well as covering conceptual history and governmentality and eventually globality.

This was fascinating to read. As I‘ve seen many mention, the middle section can get a bit tedious and repetitive but overall it was very engaging, simple writing and short, quick snippets of stories. Occasionally I would have wanted more detail, his lifestyle is so unique sometimes it‘s difficult to picture, but a great, broad stroke through his life and very touching and emotional in many places! Glad I read it and got to understand him more.

A Victorian story following two timelines; a woman who‘s lost her memory but can remember how to deliver babies and tend to wounds and a male midwife in London treating high society women. The eventual link between the two is satisfying and intelligently interwoven. The medical descriptions are also fascinating and well researched. The only let down is the very end which feels a little rushed and not fully explored. But a good read nonetheless!

Written in 1996, Let Me Count the Ways follows Frances, a complicated, multi-faceted woman, as we witness the aftermath of the failure of her marriage. A complex story and unfolded well through the structure, beginning almost at the end, then going back to find out exactly what really happened, and then coming back again to see the final complexities satisfyingly play out. This book has a lot of sadness and depth and heart.

Young, former lovers Frances and Bobbi become entangled with an older, married couple and messiness ensues. I didn‘t like this one as much as Normal People but it was still an enjoyable read if ever so slightly tedious and cliche. Most of the characters were fairly unlikeable but there was also a realistic element to it, especially the modern communication and relationship building.

This book is completely engrossing and novelistic. It‘s incredible how intertwined the lives of these women were, presented well by the structure of the book. I didn‘t know much about Catherine de Medici before but I have a new appreciation for her fierceness and ability to stand toe to toe with Elizabeth (my favourite). However these women are never pitted against each other, but rather allowed to magnificently stand as their own people.