Reading Update: June

Yes I did go to Primavera thanks for asking

Hallo, its me, Laura King. I had a lovely holiday in Barcelona at the start of the month, 3 out of the 5 nights of which I spent at the Primavera Sound Music Festival (it's ok to just admit that you're jealous of me, as the poet Charli XCX would say). I thought I'd read way more considering I was staying in a hotel with a pool and near a beach (the perfect reading conditions), but it was too hot and I was too tired to concentrate on the book I brought with me, Vilette by Charlotte Brontë. I think my usual method of picking a holiday book really failed me (head empty = time to read something that requires attention), because it was a very busy holiday and a very boring book (I am sorry).

While Vilette took up a lot of time for me this month, I still felt inspired to read in part thanks to a great event in Chapters with Caroline O’Donoghue and Sarah Maria Griffin. Skipshock and Eat the Ones You Love are brilliant books, as I've mentioned before in this Substack, but what made the event so special was that the two women are friends, and are very passionate and articulate in how they speak and generous also in the time and attention they give to other people's work, and in this case each of them really eloquently praised each other's novels, which was lovely! They spoke a lot about their friendship and how that began through work and became more personal, but they continue to be impressed and inspired by the others’ intellect, talent and hard work. As well as friendship and found family, in real life as well as their novels, their conversation focused on really interesting ideas of space and community and movement and work, and I could have listened to them for hours.

What I read in June:

Run Out and Read!

As usual Taylor Jenkins Reid has a great setting for her new novel - in this case a fictional NASA in the early 80’s about the first American women to go to space - and a great hook, in this case about two women who are not meant to fall in love. I listened to this intensely over three days, completely immersed, and while I listened I thought a lot about how this is separate to her "celeb" books, but feels similar in how everyone's eyes are trained on the astronauts, publicly, at NASA, and literally while they're on the shuttle, and a lot of hope and other feelings are projected on them, but a lot of prejudice and judgement too. It was great to discuss this online this month as part of the Tired Mammy Book Club (“you don't have to be a Mammy, you just have to be tired”).

In a very different vein, I reread the first Hunger Games book this month. I really can't recommend this first book enough, but probably more relevant, if anyone is tempted to reread it the new versions of the audiobooks are read by Tatiana Maslaney (from Orphan Black!) and she is fantastic. I really love thinking about Collins’ world, but Maslaney’s narration brought me back into the emotional depth and sheer excitement (and terror) of the novel.

Highly Recommended

Over the past while I had been treating myself to a story a night, right before I went asleep, from In the Movie of Her Life by Claire Hennessy. All the stories in the collection are particularly short, which meant if I had a lot going on and it was a struggle to read at all, at least then I'd know I'd read something really good that day. I wasn't surprised by the high quality of the stories at all - I had read some of Hennessy's writing for young people and was always very impressed, but I think more importantly for me personally I've been a fan of Hennessy's taste and opinions about writing for many years, and her work has an intelligence, wit, and painstaking attention to detail that I've long admired. I always listen when Hennessy has something to say about a piece of writing, not because I always agree, but because I'll generally learn something. All of this work so far, and all of these skills, make In the Movie of Her Life a pleasure to read.

From the first page, Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico oozes cool, a series of images of an idyllic Berlin apartment, furnished tastefully and suggesting the kind of life one might live there, surrounded by (seemingly) effortlessly cool objects and touches begins the novel. It soon emerges the images being described make up an Airbnb ad, which is how we first see the apartment digital creatives and "ex pats" Anna and Tom sublet in Berlin on their trips home to somewhere only called "Southern Europe". I think especially because of the author's choice to speak about them as a unit, you're given the impression of a sort of hive mind, of a pair following a pack, lead by others as well as what appears to be the right way to live, and ultimately their way to sustain and change that life is to sell that tantalizing dream to those who watch them with envy. So interesting and enjoyable, and really speaks to so much of the millennial experience.

Open by Andre Agassi is a book I often handsold to people when I was a young bookseller ironically in charge of sports biographies, and later in publishing when I produced sports biographies Open often came up as a goal or reference. I was thrilled to realise from the opening chapter that the hype was completely warranted, even for such a non-Sporty Spice like myself! Agassi’s story is moving, and his account of his big matches is thrilling, and I was raging that only the abridged version of the audiobook was available. I'm told he was quite a cerebral player and I think this really comes through in this biography co-written with J.R. Moehringer.

Recommended

I still remember how blown my mind was when A Girl Is A Half Formed Thing by Eimear McBride was first published, and some twelve years later this novel still feels as white hot and as urgent as it did back then. I'm using the term "stream of consciousness" to describe the writing style, but so many other examples feel like stale copies when this is so full of life. The narrative feels like it is happening in a constant present tense, charting impressions rather than much reflection, though now and then it is clear it is being told by the protagonist as an adult, perhaps trying to relieve each of these moments rather than just remember, a tension which speaks to an effort to accurately convey what she experienced. Unfortunately I found the novel this time around to be so bleak and it meant I didn't really like reaching for it, though it's just so good. Very impressive, not very enjoyable on reread, but this could have been down to my mood too.

Swept Away was really enjoyable, and definitely the strongest book from Beth O’Leary in the past few years. It's a lot of fun and completely far-fetched - a couple meet at a pub and go back to a houseboat that floats away from the harbour overnight and they find themselves lost at sea - I liked reading it a lot, though it takes itself a little too seriously. If it had ended a few chapters earlier I'd have enjoyed it even more, but even so it was a great book to be able to pick up after a long day (and after Vilette).

Did Not Finish/Not For Me

I will quickly say I listened to the first twenty minutes of The Morrigan by Kim Curran, but I realised quickly that it's not my thing at all. Still, I want it to do well because it seems ambitious and impressive, a YA retelling of Irish folklore that will definitely find a keen audience.

Right, Villette. I think I will pause “My Year With Charlotte Brontë” for now and reconsider Shirley and The Professor at a later date. Jane Eyre is still one of my favourite books of all time, and nothing has changed there. I think I wanted Villette to be Jane Eyre 2 (2 Wife 2 Attic), and while there are some thematic similarities, the interior and exterior landscapes are vastly different and I struggled to sort of get my footing in the novel, and get to know the protagonist. But at least I finished it?To be honest, I should have abandoned this a few chapters in when I was trying my best to love it in Barcelona and left it for another time instead of carrying on resentfully with it for weeks. Lessons learned, onwards and upwards!

Currently reading (as of 1st July):

Physical book: There's No Turning Back by Alba de Cespedes

eBook: Everyone Still Here by Liadan Ni Chuinn

Audiobook: Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Thank you for reading, and I hope you join me soon for another installment of LauraEatsBooks.