I have been dawdling. Two hundred and seven pages have taken
me two months to read. I’ve even written that down in letters rather than
numbers so I can take my time. The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan has
stopped me in my tracks.
Marina Keegan was an American author, playwright, and
journalist. She is best known for her essay "The Opposite of
Loneliness," which sent the internet into overdrive with over 1.4 million hits
throughout ninety-eight countries.
Marina was killed in a tragic car crash just five days after
she graduated magna cum laude from Yale University.
She was 22.
That is why I have been dragging my feet.
The book in itself is split into fictional short stories and
essays that Marina mostly wrote whilst at Yale. I fell in love with her writing, her dry
sense of humour, her lively and bright voice and her sharp observational eye
for detail. Every page oozes vibrant colours and vivid descriptions.
I wanted more. I want to read more of her writing. That’s
why I was so not wanting to finish the book because I knew I couldn’t just
tweet her and ask her what’s she’s working on now.
This book is not just a tribute. As the New York Times
called it, it is a triumph. Marina was destined to be a bestseller and she is. The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories is her echo and I am so glad and
grateful to her family for allowing it to be published so we can all hear her
sing.
A four legged, one kilo bundle of black tabby fur recently joined our clan. Her name is Jemima and she is now a permanent feature on my Instagram feed. I'm addicted to taking pictures of her.
Warning: if we meet up, don't ask me how I am. It will result in me diving into my handbag to triumphantly pull out my phone and swipe through endless photos of my curious, mischievous and frankly darn tootin' cute gal pal. Yes. I'm that person now.
She will probably also crop up here. My mum told me when I was little and wanted another cat that when I was an adult I could get whatever pet I wanted. I have now done that and at the age of twenty seven I have got a cat.
I'm adulting really well.
Excellent job.
We landed back in the UK with a rather soggy bump on
Saturday from our fantastic week on hols in Kos, Greece. A week in the sun with
good food, drink and company was just what we needed and the rain that we
returned to just made our memories of the week even more golden. We got up to
lots of mischief on beach buggies and pirate ships but mainly we lazed around
like big cats and consumed more than our recommended daily calorie intake. YOLO.
I spent most of my days swimming and reading (not at the
same time but I do think there is money to be made in waterproof books sold at
airports). Below is a snap of each read and a one line summery summary. Whey – homophones!
The Messiah Secret: James Becker
A race to find the Arc of the Covenant - chase around UK, Cairo and India. For lovers of Dan Brown and David Baldacci. Easy reading and pacy.
Saint Odd: Dean Koontz
Perfect blend of the paranormal, cults, murder and intrigue. Loved every juicy page. Unwittingly read the last in the series first, but going to dive back into Odd's world as soon as I've caught my breath.
I'll Give You the Sun: Jandy Nelson
Heartbreaking. Just. So. Damn. Sad. Fantastic - but by heck did this book destroy me.
It's about to get a bit deep.
I don't normally write things like this but transgender issues have been in the news a lot recently and I am passionate about equality for all. I'm so pleased that the general vibe seems to be of acceptance towards Bruce Jenner as he became Caitlyn.
Growing up my parents taught me that our bodies are just coats, precious coats to be looked after, but coats all the same. Our soul is what is inside us that makes us special and it's our souls that we take with us when the day comes for us to take our coats off.
I think everyone has the right to wear a coat that fits, even if it means adjusting it. Seeing Caitlyn Jenner make such a brave step for the transgender community and so publicly express her desire to be acknowledged as Caitlyn and to drop the male pronouns, adopting female she/her pronouns is admirable and to be applauded. I'm fortunate that the body I was born into fits and I fully acknowledge that those less fortunate, either through disabilities or abnormalities may feel frustrated at this metaphor. But for what it's worth I do believe that we should all have the chance at a happy life and hopefully medical technologies can continue to make progress to enable those with disabilities to also make alterations.
Having someone in the public eye make such a statement whilst being backed by one of the most recognisable media brands in the world is a testament to how our society has come leaps and bounds from past prejudices. Programmes like Transparent making waves at the Golden Globe Awards and Louis Theroux's Transgender Kids have brought the once taboo topic of gender identity out into the open. Obviously there are still obstacles and hurdles for people to navigate as transphobia, homophobia, Islamophobia and many other phobias continue to exist but it does stand to reason that this display of courage is a solid reflection of the growing trend of tolerance and a celebration of diversity.
I hope that makes sense? It's my two cents and it's completely fine if it's not yours.
Thanks for reading x
I don't normally write things like this but transgender issues have been in the news a lot recently and I am passionate about equality for all. I'm so pleased that the general vibe seems to be of acceptance towards Bruce Jenner as he became Caitlyn.
Growing up my parents taught me that our bodies are just coats, precious coats to be looked after, but coats all the same. Our soul is what is inside us that makes us special and it's our souls that we take with us when the day comes for us to take our coats off.
I think everyone has the right to wear a coat that fits, even if it means adjusting it. Seeing Caitlyn Jenner make such a brave step for the transgender community and so publicly express her desire to be acknowledged as Caitlyn and to drop the male pronouns, adopting female she/her pronouns is admirable and to be applauded. I'm fortunate that the body I was born into fits and I fully acknowledge that those less fortunate, either through disabilities or abnormalities may feel frustrated at this metaphor. But for what it's worth I do believe that we should all have the chance at a happy life and hopefully medical technologies can continue to make progress to enable those with disabilities to also make alterations.
Having someone in the public eye make such a statement whilst being backed by one of the most recognisable media brands in the world is a testament to how our society has come leaps and bounds from past prejudices. Programmes like Transparent making waves at the Golden Globe Awards and Louis Theroux's Transgender Kids have brought the once taboo topic of gender identity out into the open. Obviously there are still obstacles and hurdles for people to navigate as transphobia, homophobia, Islamophobia and many other phobias continue to exist but it does stand to reason that this display of courage is a solid reflection of the growing trend of tolerance and a celebration of diversity.
I hope that makes sense? It's my two cents and it's completely fine if it's not yours.
Thanks for reading x
 |
| Louis Theroux: Transgender Kids |
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| Golden Globe winning Transparent |
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| Caitlyn Jenner |
I really tried hard with this book. Honestly, I even bent
the rules and stuck with it after 50 pages which is usually my cut off point.
In fact I stuck around until page 162. At which point I decided that life is
too short and sometimes when you know it isn’t right, you just know.
I guess it could have been cool if it wasn’t about bees. If
it was about an isolated tribe who were struggling for survival and had an
internal hierarchy that was based on breeding and genetics then I probably
could have got on board. I even tried to kid myself that this was what I was
reading. But it’s about bees. I like Springwatch as much as the next gal, heck
I even had A Bug’s Life socks when I was still rocking dungarees but this just
didn’t float my boat.
Soz.
I have said for quite a while now that I am growing tired of
unreliable narrators. But Nathan Filer’s The Shock of the Fall was originally
published in 2013 so I’m just going to sweep on past my initial judgement and
crack on with the show.
I do tend to spend most of my time reading manuscripts that
are not yet books, they are mostly formed and have been plopped into my inbox
by either a colleague or a literary agent like a stork delivering a tiny human.
For this reason I sometimes unwittingly fail to read books that are in the
charts or published by other houses (unless it’s YA in which case I will always
find time to stave my hunger for YA goodness). Every so often I have a mini marathon
and race through books to catch up on titles that I have missed. The Shock of
the Fall is definitely one of those titles, although it was the Costa Book of
the Year 2013, I hadn't had time to wedge it into my reading pile until now.
It took me all of a day and a half to read, I whizzed
through it like a Grand National champ.
Matt, the protagonist is in therapy, for what, or for how
long, you don’t know. As the words tumble on to the page, more layers of the
complex nature of Matt’s psyche begin to form and the vulnerable and chaotic
world of a patient living with diagnosed schizophrenia develops into a clearer
image of a young man broken by grief.
Matt was a bright young boy who looked up to his big brother
Simon. Inseparable and co-dependent, the boys were separated by only a couple of
years and an extra chromosome. Simon had Down’s Syndrome and had a fatal
accident on a family holiday. A child shaken by guilt and struggling to wrap
his mind around the concept of loss, Matt develops behavioral problems that hint at an undercurrent of mental health issues which in turn leads to a life punctuated by therapy and involuntary hospital admissions.
The Shock of the Fall is by no means a light read, yet
surprisingly it is hard to slow the pace. The disjointed narrative is admirable, brave, rhythmic, cyclical and repetitive. An insight into the
struggles for both families and patients living with mental health issues, with
a broader look at how cuts to mental health units and the NHS has a direct
impact on patients that would otherwise slip through the net without a
diagnosis. Nathan Filer's examination of the redefinition of a family clinging to
each other through the storm of the death of a child is both sensitive and
delicately placed.
If I could give this book six stars on Goodreads, I would.
This book was everywhere last year. That’s probably why I haven’t
read it until now, not that I’m trying to be hipster, it’s just that when an
author or artist is quite literally blasted everywhere I tend to get a bit fed
up. I usually wait and read (or in the case of music, listen to) something else
and then when all the raving has quietened down, I sneak in and have a peek
without all the outside noise.
Does that make sense?
It makes sense in my mind but then again so does the idea of
stannah stairlifts for elderly cats.
Two facts:
- I’ve been to Amsterdam and adored the canals and tall townhouses
- I’m a sucker for novels with wisps of historical accuracy
- The Miniaturist has both
- I add things to numbered lists.
The Miniaturist is inspired by Petronella Oortman's dollhouse now
at the Rijksmuseum but is not biographical beyond that point. I’ve never been a fan of dolls houses but I used to have a
barge for my Sylvanian families and that’s pretty much the same thing, right?
There’s a ton of reviews out there for this book so I won’t
harp on. It’s blooming fantastic. I’m glad I waited to read it, as I could
really immerse myself in seventeenth century Amsterdam without wondering what
Time Out said about it. I only came up for air to tap in my Oyster card. The wealth
and social hierarchy of a city so oppressed by religious piety and hypocrisy is
outstanding. The writing is authentic and as intricately woven as the tiny
plates in protagonist, Nella Brandt’s cabinet dolls house.
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| I had this barge when I was little. It doesn't float on water as the advert suggested. Luckily my Dad hot-footed it down to the pond just as I was setting it down for its maiden voyage - thanks to Dad this barge is now in our attic and not a playground for newts. |
I’ve been meaning to read The Kite Runner for quite some
time and having managed to skip channels whenever the film was on TV I successfully
dodged spoilers. I must say it took me a while to get into the plot as I was so
distracted by the setting of the novel and the beautiful descriptions of
pre-occupied Kabul. In my lifetime, Kabul has only every been described on the
news as a place of war-torn devastation and loss. It was surprising and equally
upsetting to read of the peaceful golden days of Kabul with orchards, and
hilltops for children to run freely, flying kites and basking in childhood
innocence. How that now jars with the present day image of the city is
shocking.
I’m not going to lay out the plot for you as I think you
should read it. Both tragic and brutal, author Khaled Hosseini demands your
attention and trusts your intelligence. At times you are enveloped in childhood
nostalgia and then thrust hurtling forward into a city in the grips of the
Taliban. The writing is full of tension, remorse and justice. I found myself
learning a lot from it, not just historically but also from a human angle, how
families lives have been changed and bloodlines altered as the landscape that
was once home to the pomegranate tree has become our front-page news.
I've recently discovered UK-based artist Marija Tiurina who has illustrated Untranslatable Words and Luftmensch is by far my number one.
More artwork can be found:
Behance: https://www.behance.net/tiurinam
Tumblr: http://marijatiurina.tumblr.com/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/marijatiurina
I haven't been blogging because I've been reading The Kite Runner and it's all got a bit emotional.
