May Reading

I found The Prophet in a street library, and as I'd never read it, I took it home. I quote it a lot and it's got many lovely concepts in it. However, it's a dip in and out book. It was a mistake to sit down and read it whole in my opinion. It just seemed a little daft and heavy handed. I don't think that's a fair reflection on the book, just on my expereince reading it. You should read the bits on the subjets relevant to the moment...or as I do, keep using single quotes of it. Perfect. Beautiful.

 

Once a year, the talented Anthony Horowitz rewards my patience and enthusaism with another delightful Hawthorn murder book. These are funny, meta, clever and charming. And always a good mystery.

I really enjoy them. This seemed over too soon....and now I have to wait another 12 months. Ugh! Start at the first book and read in order. This is the 5th I think.

I got this for my youngest who was in a big Michael Rosen phase. It sat unread for years. Maybe a decade. I decided to read it before I put it in the street library (which I was doing when I remembered I needed a photo). It was written (or set) at time when email was more prevelant than text, and those were the emojis. The days of dial up, not wifi. It's for young adults, early teens. It starts off very young but then tackles some pretty interesting concepts. I really enjoyed it.

I genuinely thought this was the Meg Ryan bookshop movie until there was a shift and it became a murder mystery. It's a series but I think one was enough for me. It's either your thing or it isn't. Those village crime books.

I am working my way through the Agatha Christie non traditional (for her) books, and this is historical fiction. It's  a good way in before it even turns to crime. I thought it was the story of the OG characters in The Mummy movie.It is Imhotep's family, but the concubine is a different one. There is a modernity to the characters even though it's set in Ancient Egypt. I really enjoyed it. She has a few tricks in it which I can't talk about without ruining it, but some interesting use of character and narration. I enjoyed it. (Review for her Spy Novel here)

We are doing this for book club. It's short, more of a novella really. Very poetic, and as literature so often is, flawed relationships and ideas that never get perfectly resolved, just accepted. I enjoyed it, especially as it's a daughter/mother trip to Japan, and I knew where there were most of the time, so I could visualise it perfectly. I really liked that the daughter only occasionally saw the real age of her mother - our parents are often frozen in time as our parents, rather than seen as frail and ailing people that they become. I also like the concept that because the mother had no one to tell her stories too (her history) the facts became fluid, or she forgot them completely. (That came up in the Trauma Cleaner too, so I'm guessing there is science on this with memory). I enjoyed it. I am guessing half my book club didn't...but it's a short investment of time, I think only 3 hours in audible version, so I'll probably go over it before we meet up to discuss it, as it's less about plot and more about relationships.

I talked about Ariel Gore in this post,  and how her books and essays were a big part of my early motherhood years. This book is her usual fabulous style, but it is dealing with the process of a parent dying, and a difficult parental relationship (so take that as a trigger warning if in grief or dealing with a drawn out death process). It's sad, it's funny, it's relatable on guilt, selfishness, exhaustion. I found it really honest. It's not the kind of book you say you enjoy but it's good, and interesting and very easy to read in spite of the subject matter. I think the main take away is that it's different for all of us, we don't know what to do most of the time but we do the best we can. And then we grieve, in one way or another. And it happens to us all. I would recommend, if the triggers aren't a problem.

Short and sweet this month. What have you been reading?

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