Recently read the wonderful A Thousand Feasts by Nigel Slater - a delightful smorgasbord of snippets and fragments from diaries and reflections, like wandering through a culinary and garden sensory-scape.
I love "A Thousand Feasts" and read random essays again and again. I've bought two of his literary cookbooks, "Tender" and "The Kitchen Diaries." I've also watched a YouTube podcast with him on "Homing with Matt." Obsessed and the start of the obsession was "A Thousand Feasts."
Thanks for the recommendation re: Tove Jansson, I'm going to check it out! I just finished reading The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout for a book group and Whistler by Ann Patchett for pleasure. Now I'm reading Killers of the Flower Moon -- I like to try and keep a good balance between fiction and nonfiction.
Thank you for taking the time to give us your recommendations, lots to add to my list there.
I've just finished Hope in the dark by Rebecca Solnit and I feel thoroughly called out - and very grateful for it. I have been in a state of despair for much of my life, losing hope in recent years in a way that has been genuinely crippling.
There's a line in the song Famous Blue Raincoat by Leonard Cohen that goes:
"Thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes,
I thought it was there for good so I never tried."
And I have been waiting for someone to do that for me. I had assumed it would be a man lifting me out of the darkness with his love, but it turned out to be Rebecca guiding my own fingers to the light switch.
The two books I sit with nightly are "The Book of Birds: A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss," and "What She Means: Joan Didion." You expressed adults' need for illustrated books. I agreed. Hence, two literary works overflowing with visual art.
What a fabulous newsletter, and such wonderful books and articles. Thank you so much. I just finished Legacy by Dr. Uché Blackstock about the deeply entrenched, systemic, structural racism in the U.S. Painful, hard, and important book. I'm an old white woman who grew up in the Midsouth and raised a family in southern Illinois, and I've lived in segregated and 'integrated' towns. I thought I had a good understanding of the underlying system -- I was wrong. I highly recommend this book by a person absolutely qualified to write it. I also recently finished Normal People by Sally Rooney (and watched the series on streaming), A Live Coal in the Sea by Madeleine L'Engle, and Hazel Says No by Jessica Beger Gross. All good, all different.
I just finished The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, which felt eerily resonant as I soon approach the age my mother was when she killed herself decades ago. I always have a children’s fiction book in hand and recently finished the utterly delightful The Frogkisser by Garth Nix, enhanced by finding several tiny tree frogs out on my nature therapy walks!
I just finished reading "The Summer Book" (first time!) this week and enjoyed it. Between that and the new Little House on the Prairie series I'm longing for those quiet childhood afternoons I had as a kid, aimless and curious.
I also recently read Doireann Ní Ghríofa's new book, "Said the Dead," about a narrator who begins reading casebooks from a 19th-Century women's asylum in Cork and becomes entangled with the women's stories, including one of the first women doctors in Ireland. It's incredible and I will not shut up about it. :)
John of John by Douglas Stuart was wonderful. Finally was brave enough (I waited so long) to read “this house of grief” by Helen Garner. So powerful and usual brilliant reflective writing.
Such perfect timing. I was staring at The Summer Book on my shelf yesterday thinking it was the perfect time to give it a read. I’ll start it as soon as I finish the new Ann Patchett, Whistler.
Love this, thank you for the recommendations! I’ve been reading Is A River Alive? By Robert MacFarlane, and absolutely loving it. And for me, Nina MacLaughlin’s Summer Solstice is the perfect summer book.
Thank you for your recommendations, X. I’m travelling at the moment and will look in any book shops on my way for the Tove Jansson book to read with your book club. So far I’ve loved joining in with several of the books. At the moment I’m reading John Steinbeck’s “Journal of a Novel” on my kindle when there are quiet moments on my travels. It’s a fascinating ongoing reflection of his process as he writes “East of Eden”.
Ooo, I like the Library! Speaking of which, the Summer Book is waiting for me to collect in Lancaster tomorrow. Currently I am reading 'The South' by Tash Aw which is gorgeous. Much light fiction over the hot weeks including 'Rivers of London' which I noticed in a charity shop after your mention of it; thank you! It is very rare that my husband and I read the same books, but this one floated our respective boats! I hugely enjoyed Sara Sheridan's novels The fair botanists' and 'The secrets of Blytheswood Square'. Very little non fiction or memoir recently
I think the book has been mentioned in passing by yourself, because I bought a copy a year or so ago after hearing about it. Will dig it out again this summer.
I just finished reading 'Books: A Manifesto' by Ian Patterson. Partly, about moving his beloved library of books collected over a lifetime to new home (also home to garden in 'A garden against time' by Olivia Laing). Also about the role of books and reading in our lives more generally.
Currently reading Sontag's 'On Photography' that I bought during my recent birthday trip to the Tate Modern. Been meaning to read it for years ...
I read The Summer Book last year in a time of huge emotional upheaval (post diagnosis fallout and family/parental fally-apartness). It took on a dreamlike, surreal quality - of which I'm positive is there already, made even more phantasmagoric by the strange summer of my own situation. I'm looking forward to reading it again in calmer waters.
Recently read the wonderful A Thousand Feasts by Nigel Slater - a delightful smorgasbord of snippets and fragments from diaries and reflections, like wandering through a culinary and garden sensory-scape.
I love "A Thousand Feasts" and read random essays again and again. I've bought two of his literary cookbooks, "Tender" and "The Kitchen Diaries." I've also watched a YouTube podcast with him on "Homing with Matt." Obsessed and the start of the obsession was "A Thousand Feasts."
Loved A Thousand Feasts! You should read his Christmas Chronicles, if you haven’t yet. One of my favorites.
I’ll definitely add that to my list! 📕
Sooo good!
omg I love this book too!
Thanks for the recommendation re: Tove Jansson, I'm going to check it out! I just finished reading The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout for a book group and Whistler by Ann Patchett for pleasure. Now I'm reading Killers of the Flower Moon -- I like to try and keep a good balance between fiction and nonfiction.
Thank you for taking the time to give us your recommendations, lots to add to my list there.
I've just finished Hope in the dark by Rebecca Solnit and I feel thoroughly called out - and very grateful for it. I have been in a state of despair for much of my life, losing hope in recent years in a way that has been genuinely crippling.
There's a line in the song Famous Blue Raincoat by Leonard Cohen that goes:
"Thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes,
I thought it was there for good so I never tried."
And I have been waiting for someone to do that for me. I had assumed it would be a man lifting me out of the darkness with his love, but it turned out to be Rebecca guiding my own fingers to the light switch.
Starting the Summer Book this weekend! Just returned from a camping holiday in Iceland, so very inspired by the nordic summer light right now.
The two books I sit with nightly are "The Book of Birds: A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss," and "What She Means: Joan Didion." You expressed adults' need for illustrated books. I agreed. Hence, two literary works overflowing with visual art.
omg those two sound great! Putting them on my list.
What a fabulous newsletter, and such wonderful books and articles. Thank you so much. I just finished Legacy by Dr. Uché Blackstock about the deeply entrenched, systemic, structural racism in the U.S. Painful, hard, and important book. I'm an old white woman who grew up in the Midsouth and raised a family in southern Illinois, and I've lived in segregated and 'integrated' towns. I thought I had a good understanding of the underlying system -- I was wrong. I highly recommend this book by a person absolutely qualified to write it. I also recently finished Normal People by Sally Rooney (and watched the series on streaming), A Live Coal in the Sea by Madeleine L'Engle, and Hazel Says No by Jessica Beger Gross. All good, all different.
I just finished The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, which felt eerily resonant as I soon approach the age my mother was when she killed herself decades ago. I always have a children’s fiction book in hand and recently finished the utterly delightful The Frogkisser by Garth Nix, enhanced by finding several tiny tree frogs out on my nature therapy walks!
I just finished reading "The Summer Book" (first time!) this week and enjoyed it. Between that and the new Little House on the Prairie series I'm longing for those quiet childhood afternoons I had as a kid, aimless and curious.
I also recently read Doireann Ní Ghríofa's new book, "Said the Dead," about a narrator who begins reading casebooks from a 19th-Century women's asylum in Cork and becomes entangled with the women's stories, including one of the first women doctors in Ireland. It's incredible and I will not shut up about it. :)
John of John by Douglas Stuart was wonderful. Finally was brave enough (I waited so long) to read “this house of grief” by Helen Garner. So powerful and usual brilliant reflective writing.
Such perfect timing. I was staring at The Summer Book on my shelf yesterday thinking it was the perfect time to give it a read. I’ll start it as soon as I finish the new Ann Patchett, Whistler.
I'm staring at my copy on the shelf right now!
Love this, thank you for the recommendations! I’ve been reading Is A River Alive? By Robert MacFarlane, and absolutely loving it. And for me, Nina MacLaughlin’s Summer Solstice is the perfect summer book.
I’ve just finished reading The Correspondent, which I absolutely loved. I hugged the book to my chest when I finished it!
I have never read any Tove Jansson so I will have a look at The Summer Book.
Thank you for your recommendations, X. I’m travelling at the moment and will look in any book shops on my way for the Tove Jansson book to read with your book club. So far I’ve loved joining in with several of the books. At the moment I’m reading John Steinbeck’s “Journal of a Novel” on my kindle when there are quiet moments on my travels. It’s a fascinating ongoing reflection of his process as he writes “East of Eden”.
Ooo, I like the Library! Speaking of which, the Summer Book is waiting for me to collect in Lancaster tomorrow. Currently I am reading 'The South' by Tash Aw which is gorgeous. Much light fiction over the hot weeks including 'Rivers of London' which I noticed in a charity shop after your mention of it; thank you! It is very rare that my husband and I read the same books, but this one floated our respective boats! I hugely enjoyed Sara Sheridan's novels The fair botanists' and 'The secrets of Blytheswood Square'. Very little non fiction or memoir recently
I think the book has been mentioned in passing by yourself, because I bought a copy a year or so ago after hearing about it. Will dig it out again this summer.
I just finished reading 'Books: A Manifesto' by Ian Patterson. Partly, about moving his beloved library of books collected over a lifetime to new home (also home to garden in 'A garden against time' by Olivia Laing). Also about the role of books and reading in our lives more generally.
Currently reading Sontag's 'On Photography' that I bought during my recent birthday trip to the Tate Modern. Been meaning to read it for years ...
I read The Summer Book last year in a time of huge emotional upheaval (post diagnosis fallout and family/parental fally-apartness). It took on a dreamlike, surreal quality - of which I'm positive is there already, made even more phantasmagoric by the strange summer of my own situation. I'm looking forward to reading it again in calmer waters.