Hallo, it's me, Laura King. March was another very long month, especially thanks to some lovely annual leave, which I notably I used as an excuse to buy the new Hunger Games book, which I'll discuss briefly in a bit and get into more on another occasion. I had intended to wait for my library loan but inhaling the whole novel while off work is really how those books are intended to be read, so who was I to go against that?
I started off the month in reading very slowly, making my way through the books I was already reading at the end of February until almost halfway through March. I definitely was slowed down by Her Side of the Story, which I enjoyed less than I hoped, and by that time I had no patience for my book club book, Down and Out in Paris and London, but I definitely got a lot more from finishing the de Cespedes than I think I would have with the Orwell (sorry to that man, etc).
I'm in the reading habit again, but April could go either way with two (!) trips this month, so time will tell. I should also mention that on Instagram you'll be able to follow the #ReadIrishWomenChallenge once again, and I'll be posting a different recommendation to my stories each day as well as snooping on what everyone else picks for inspiration - thank you once again to the wonderful Karina for making this an institution!
Read right now!
Nesting by Róisin O’Donnell
I really enjoyed O’Donnell’s short stories, Wild Quiet, a few years ago, but was apprehensive about her first novel Nesting, given the very bleak premise - a woman makes the decision one day to try to break free from her controlling, emotionally abusive husband, facing homelessness with her two small girls rather than subject them to another day under the same roof as their father. This is particularly hard because of the housing crisis and really highlights how bad this seen and unseen problem is for vulnerable people. While it isn't an easy read, it isn't miserable for the sake of it, is really uplifting and powerful.
I Want to Go Home But I'm Already There by Róisín Langan
In I Want to Go Home But I'm Already There, Lanigan blends the reality of life as a renter in the current market, and living in a big city in your twenties, with a more supernatural undercurrent - a ghost story being a perfect way to express the horrors of this precarious, powerless state.
So many people will relate to the journey the main character Áine goes on while house hunting, so full of hope only to be browbeaten by the process and awful agents and landlords, taking a flat that she and her boyfriend Elliot thinks they can make a home, and then realising very quickly that the situation is so much worse than she thought. Over the course of the year long lease, Áine becomes physically ill from the damp conditions of the space, as well as further and further estranged from her family, friends, and especially Elliot, who doesn't seem to understand the sinister energy seeping in through the walls and how badly this is affecting his girlfriend. The book is thrilling and creepy but such a thoughtful and necessary read too - I can't recommend enough.
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
I don't know, maybe it's now being 33 and reading about children being murdered or maybe it's the constant bombardment of images of real children being murdered in Palestine but this Hunger Games prequel hit far harder than I was expecting.
Highly recommended
Albion by Anna Hope (out in May)
Francesca, Milo and Isa are the adult children of a 1960's heir and party animal turned noble steward of his family land, and co founder of an impressive rewilding project called Albion. While his eldest, Frannie, is ready to carry the torch as she inherits the land from her father, this doesn't sit right with Milo, the only son, who has what he would think are grander ambitions for his homeplace, and feels their father really meant it to go to him. Isa isn't pushed about her inheritance but instead wants to right some personal wrongs from the past, hers and her fathers, and out of this complicated web of grief and righteousness and hurt and jealousy emerges a problem none of them can avoid any longer.
All Fours by Miranda July
I loved every minute of the audiobook of All Fours, a completely singular novel which is really perfected by July's own narration. An artist embarks on a road trip, from L.A. to New York and back, planning to attend events there for a week. She leaves her husband and child but thirty minutes down the road pulls over and without ever really seeming to make a decision, ends up staying there for a night and then the entire trip, pretending to everyone her trip has gone as planned while spending twenty thousand dollars redecorating her motel room, as you do, and obsessing about a younger man working nearby. A book about family, and desire, and women, and art, and the body, it is essential reading, especially for women, and particularly I would say women in their forties and beyond - basically July asks the question "what if perimenopause was brat" and I was completely and utterly hooked. I am worried about recommending this too widely in case people read it and think I am crazy.
One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This by Omar el Akkad
A journalist’s exploration of what it is like to live an immigrant in the West, primarily in the United States, having grown up thinking of the land of plenty and opportunity and finding out the deep seeded fear and mistrust of people like you. The title comes from a tweet by the author during the bombardment in Gaza in late 2023, and while the essays cover this conflict and particularly how it is spoken about in Western media, they also cover more wide ranging topics like immigration, displacement, Empire and racism.
Recommended
Her Side of the Story by Alba de Cespedes.
Her Side of the Story is a feat in close narration and attention to detail, and as such the setting of inter war Rome is so vivid, and I felt so close to the protagonist, Allesandra. I believe de Cespedes wanted to capture as faithfully as possible the reality of women's lives between the wars and during the second world war, and how the rise of totalitarian regimes doubly punish the women whose needs are already subservient to that of their husbands. I do think she's somewhat successful, and I did find it very interesting, but the pace is so slow that it really feels like more of an account than anything else. There is an amazing novel in there, but it is unfortunately hidden behind so much detail.
Reality Check by Vicki Notaro
I really like Notaro’s podcast You Had Me At Hello and have had the pleasure of meeting her and thought she was so nice, but never reached for this book because it's definitely written by and for someone who loves reality television, particularly the Real Housewives franchise. It's set in all the glitz and glam of Hollywood, about the screenwriter child of a famous reality TV family, and her relationship breakdown in New York and return to the fold. I thought that the book had a lot of really good things to say about relationships and identity, particularly for characters like Portia turning forty and all the expectations on them, and it had a lot of heart. I was impressed with how she blended really heavy topics with funny silly bits, and so while a lot of the backdrop wasn't really for me, I could see Notaro is gifted in what she does so I think I will try her new book when it comes out as it has a different setting.
What A Time to Be Alive by Jenny Mustard (out April)
Mustard uses a close first person narration style to tell Sickan's story, of her life in university in Stockholm. Sickan has always felt out of place, from her isolated childhood amid well meaning but preoccupied academic parents, to her misery at the hands of bullies in school, to the anonymous liaisons with older men. University is a chance to start afresh, and she is determined to fit in and make friends, no matter the cost or what she has to change or hide to do so.
With it's offbeat style and quirky voice contrasting with darker subject matters, in a lot of ways this reminded me of elements of Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine or Convenience Store Woman, and though while there are very dark elements I found the book in general to be more hopeful, and I really did root for Sickan. I admittedly did feel it lost steam after a while, and I did briefly leave the book aside to read something else, but I also just think this is natural when I've read so many lonely-girl-at-university, coming of age books, but I can see my younger self really enjoying this, and it will definitely find lots of readers who will love it.
Did Not Finish/ Not For Me
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
Maybe in the past I would have enjoyed this a lot, but reading it now just felt like some guy pretending to be homeless for clout - I think I was missing the point and wasn't interested enough to find out more when I had other books I wanted to read urgently.
Currently reading (as of 1st April)
Physical book: The City Changes Its Face by Eimear McBride - banger.
eBook: Skipshock by Caroline O’Donoghue (out June) - banger
Audiobook: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Mass - I hear it gets better or you get worn down after a while.
Thank you for reading and I hope you join me again soon for another installment of LauraEatsBooks.