March Reading Round-up

Books I finished in March.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (2020)

This is such a beautiful, potentially life-changing book. There’s so much in here, I’ll be absorbing it for some time. What I’ve taken away so far is the importance of making reciprocity with the rest of the living world a value in my life, and how to think about consuming in the most honorable way possible. Book of the month and I’m sure will make it onto my list of books of the year. Highly recommended.

Robert MacFarlane, The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot (2013)

I’ve been reading this book for months, picking it up every now and then. I really enjoyed my meandering journey through The Old Ways, which is full of beautiful nature writing, fascinating stories, interesting characters and a few scares. I finally finished it in March. It’s not as densely written as Underland, but is quite a demanding read. Robert MacFarlane’s writing does require attention.

Jane Harper, The Lost Man (2019)

Jane Harper is one of my favourite crime writers. I save her works for the right time, because there aren’t that many of them. Her books are just so atmospheric and beautifully written with really well developed characters. The landscape of the outback in The Lost Man is quite menacing, even Gothic, in a way. The eldest son, and black sheep, in a farming family starts to investigate the mysterious death of his younger brother, unravelling dark family and community secrets in the process, and facing truths about his own life. Recommended if you enjoy writers like Tana French and Laura Lippman.

Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion (2001)

I’m not a big fan of high fantasy, but I thoroughly enjoyed The Curse of Chalion. It’s got a big, detailed world to sink into, well-paced storytelling, characters you can root for and a satisfying ending. I do love a bit of a sad, worn-down, middle-aged protagonist and Cazaril is very endearing. It’s just a lot of fun and I will be checking out the sequel, Paladin of Souls (2003).

Poetry haul

Got some good poetry books from a colleague who was having a clear out.

March Mixtape

Tracks on repeat during March.

• The Gossip, Perfect World (Banger of the month!)
• Belly, Broken
• Sleater Kinney, Say It Like You Mean It
• Thea Gilmore, Love’s the Greatest Instrument of Rage
• O Hooley and Tidow, The Hum
• Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, Carnage

The Welsh County LGBTQ+ Timeline Collection

This is a fantastic resource for Wales. A dedicated LGBTQ+ history for each county. Open access and free to use.

The Welsh County LGBTQ+ Timeline Collection

Soundtrack to the Week

• Mazzy Star, So tonight that I might see (1993)
• Lana Del Ray  Chemtrails over the country club (2021)
• Joni Mitchell,  Clouds (1969)
• Alela Diane, Cold Moon (2015)
• Meg Baird, Furling (2023)
• Mary Gauthier, Between Daylight and Dark (2007)
• Crosby, Stills and Nash (1969)
• Tracy Chapman, Crossroads (1989)

Soundtrack to the Week

• Laura Veirs, Carbon Glacier (2018)
• O’ Hooley and Tidow, The Hum (2016)
• Nick Drake, Bryter Layter (1970)
• The Breeders, Pod (1990)
• Lia Ices, Family Album (2021)
• Bob Dylan, Oh Mercy (1989)
• Cowboy Junkies, The Caution Horses (1990)
• Case, Lang, Veirs (2016)
• Belly, Bees (2021)
• Marianne Faithful, Vagabond Ways (1999)

February reading round-up

Another excellent month of reading. Here are the books I finished in February.

Louise Erdrich, The Sentence (2023)

The best book I read this month was, undoubtedly, The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. I absolutely loved this novel. The story follows Tookie, as she tries to rebuild her life following release from an unjust incarceration. The Sentence grapples with our difficult times; it’s a ghost story, and it’s a love letter to reading and independent bookshops. It’s just beautiful on so many levels. It’s also made me determined to buy more of my books from independent bookshops. Highly recommended.

Alice Oswald, Woods Etc. (2008)

One of my reading goals for this year is to get back into reading more poetry. In February, I read Woods Etc. by Alice Oswald. These are challenging poems. I found myself reading some of them three or four times before I felt I had understood anything of their meaning. Most of the poems are connected to the natural world in some way. My favourite poem in the collection is ‘Wood Not Yet Out’. I also loved ‘Birdsong for Two voices’, ‘River’, ‘Tree Ghosts’, ‘A Star Here and A Star There’, and ‘Excursion to the Planet Mercury’. Worth making the effort.

Yume Kitasei, The Deep Sky (2023)

I thought this was brilliant and extremely tight for a first novel. It’s an unusual generation ship story with a mystery. The story starts with Asuka, the protagonist, becoming the only survivor of a lethal explosion that also threatens to throw the ship off course, and into oblivion. As Asuka investigates and the crew desperately tries to correct their course, the story unravels through flashbacks to their training for the mission from childhood. It has an interesting premise, a very well-structured narrative, with a compelling and nuanced story that also manages to be character-driven. The ending doesn’t hold back. Recommended if you like contemporary science fiction.

Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Expert Systems Brother (2018)

I enjoyed this little science fiction novella. It’s quite simple, traditional storytelling. It’s about a boy who finds himself excluded from his community after an accident changes his physiology. His sister tries to protect him, but when she is chosen to be inhabited by one of the ‘ghosts’ that advise the community, he must leave and try to survive in a hostile world. A good bedtime read.

Agatha Christie, Three Act Tragedy (1934)

Definitely not one of Christie’s best, but quite entertaining. It re-hashes a couple of plot ideas from better works.

January reading round-up

One thing I’ll say for January, the bad weather and the long, dark evenings, made it a good month for reading.

Laura Cumming, On Chapel Sands (2019)

A beautifully written memoir/biography in which the author slowly unravels a mysterious incident in her mother’s childhood. A deeply personal book that’s also about history and how British society changed over the course of the twentieth century. A sad story in many ways, but also life-affirming. Highly recommended.

Britt Bennett, The Vanishing Half (2021)

I finally got around to reading this. So much has been said about this book, there’s nothing I can really add. Starting in the 1940s, this is a historical novel about a pair of twin sisters from the deep south, one of whom makes the decision to ‘pass over’ and live as a white woman, and the legacy this creates for their daughters. A novel about ‘passing’ in many senses. It’s brilliant, beautiful and hard to put down.

Anne Tyler, A Patchwork Planet (1998)

My first novel by Anne Tyler. I really enjoyed this and will definitely be reading more of her work. Our protagonist, Barnaby Gaitlin, is a man whose life has gone a bit off the rails. The themes are serious, but the gentle, wry humour prevents it from feeling like a bleak read. Brilliant characters. I liked how the ending doesn’t attempt to tie everything up neatly, but is still satisfying.

Barbara Hambly. The Armies of Daylight (Darwath 3) (1983)

I loved this fantasy series. I’ll do a more detailed post about the series as a whole, but in brief, great world building and storytelling, and characters you can care about. The final book in the trilogy does not disappoint and gives you everything I think you could want as a reader. There’s a shocking twist, the baddies get their comeuppance, and our heroes get good resolutions to their stories. I’m pleased to see there are a couple of follow-on novels set in the same world which I will be reading. Highly recommended for fantasy fans.

Charlie Jane Anders, The City in the Middle of the Night (2018)

This novel didn’t quite take off for me, but I did mostly enjoy reading it. Interesting story and great world building. I loved the tidally locked planet, one side constantly in blazing light, the other plunged in freezing darkness, with humans trying to survive on the line between. The creatures that live in the darkness are brilliantly done. I thought Mouth was the best character, but the others I wasn’t so keen on. Give it a go if you like more recent science fiction.

Agatha Christie, Dumb Witness (1937)

I’ve been chipping away at Agatha’s Christie’s huge list of works and have reached Dumb Witness. This is quite fun, although not one of her best. It’s mostly Poirot and Hastings going around interviewing the different suspects and the plot depends on you buying into the prejudices of the time (e.g., it assumes the reader will accept that non-British people are suspicious). It’s readable like most Christies and good for bedtime. Bob, the dog, is very well done!

January Mix Tape

A little late due to starting my new job! Here are the songs that saw me through what felt like a very long, dark January.

• Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson – Winter Song
• Rachel Unthank & The Winterset – Blackbird
• Bonnie Prince Billy – Strange Form of Life
• Fern Maddie – Hares on the Mountain
• The Handsome Family – Cold, Cold, Cold
• VRi – Y Cap o Las Fawr
• Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Behold! Be Held!

Sunday Post – in between things

Something I can now reveal is that I’ll be starting a new job in February. The last couple of weeks have been absolute handover madness. I’ve been with my current employer for six years, so there’s quite a lot to think about.

Being in between jobs is a strange, dare I say it, liminal, state to be in. Finishing up at one, while starting to think about the next, but not actually there yet. Tying up loose ends. Saying goodbye to everyone. It’s sad, but also exciting. Slightly terrifying.

In other news, I had an eye test and, after a few years of resistance, finally decided to give in and try varifocal lenses. I’m annoyed to have to admit that they do improve the quality of my life and I no longer have to take my glasses off every time I need to read something.

Speaking of reading, I finished The City in the Middle of the Night (2019) by Charlie Jane Anders. I enjoyed it, although not as much as I liked All the Birds in the Sky (2016). I’m not sure that City in the Middle is quite my kind of thing, but I do think it’s very good. I’ll say more about it when I do my end of month reading round-up.

I also re-read Miss Marple’s Final Cases (1979) by Agatha Christie as a bedtime book.

The darkness is falling a little later now. Hope you are keeping warm.

Talking about Ursula Le Guin for the British Library

Event: Tuesday, 23 January, 7:00 pm UK/11:00 am Pacific. “The Realms of Ursula K Le Guin,” a public conversation between me, Julie Phillips (Ursula’s biographer) and Theo Downes-Le Guin (her son), moderated by Sarah Shin, held as part of the British Library’s Fantasy exhibit.

Talking about Ursula Le Guin for the British Library

Soundtrack to the Week

• Thea Gilmore, Murphy’s Heart (2010)
• Emmylou Harris, Hard Bargain (2011)
• Tori Amos, Ocean to Ocean (2022)
• VRi, Islais a Genir (2022)
• Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You‘ (2023)
• Laura Veirs, My Echo (2020)

Song of the Week, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Behold! Beheld!

Sunday Post – Finally, some sun!

We finally made it out for a walk at Cardiff Bay this weekend. If only every winter day was like this one. We saw some pretty turnstones and goosanders.

We celebrated the thirteenth anniversary of our civil partnership this week and went out for a meal. We’re not really anniversary people, but it’s an excuse to do something nice in the deepest, darkest depths of January. Why on earth did you get hitched in January, I hear you ask? Because we were on a timeline with my partner’s visa application, that’s why!

I read On Chapel Sands, Laura Cumming’s memoir about her mother’s family. Absolutely brilliant and recommended. One of my reading intentions for 2024 is to read more poetry and I’m working my way through Woods etc. by Alice Oswald.

I hope January is treating you well.

Poem of the Week – Alice Oswald, Wood Not Yet Out

Alice Oswald, ‘Wood Not Yet Out’ from Woods etc. (2005)

‘and calls by name the leaves that aren’t yet there’.

Entangled World with Nora Bateson

Wonderful conversation with Nora Bateson. I can’t wait to read (or, perhaps a better word is experience) her new book, Combining.

Sunday Post – New Year Planning

Well, we had to give up on our dreams of long, crisp walks over the holiday. We took some extra time off work this year and spent most of it cooped up inside watching the rain. My partner says this happens every year, so perhaps I’m just attached to distant memories of nice, long, cold winter walks during my childhood. Of course the weather is clearing up just in time to go back to work.

I used the time stuck inside to prep my 2024 planner! Because, obviously, a new planner is going to fix my life.

We’ll see how that goes, but my intention is to focus on my own needs in 2024. My priorities for this year are quality of life, relationships, health, creativity and my career. I don’t make resolutions, but I’m going to try and re-commit to journalling every day, something I used to do, but which has fallen out of practice in recent years.

Go gently! I don’t think January in the Northern Hemisphere is a good time to start being really hard on yourself.

Soundtrack To The Week

• Joni Mitchell, For the Roses (1972)
• Rufus Wainwright, Folkocracy (2023)
• Bonnie Prince Billy, The Letting Go (2006)
• The Handsome Family, Hollow (2023)
• Lia Ices, Family Album (2021)

Quick Review – Passage by Connie Willis (2001)

Passage won the Locus Award for Best Novel, was shortlisted for the Nebula Award and received nominations for the Hugo, Campbell, and Clarke Awards.

The novel begins with Dr Joanna Lander, a research psychologist, who is carrying out research on near death experiences (NDEs) at Mercy General Hospital, interviewing people who have been revived after experiencing clinical death. Her work is being hampered by Mr Mandrake, a hospital donor and author of a book claiming that NDEs are proof of a supernatural life after death and contain messages from beyond.

She meets Dr Richard Wright, a neurologist, who invites her to join him on a project in which he will chemically induce NDEs in order to study the subjects’  brain scans in a safe environment. Seeing this as a chance to identify the real,  biological cause of NDEs, Joanna agrees to join the project and soon finds herself volunteering to go under. Intrigued by what she experiences, she becomes compelled to keep going back to uncover why her own NDE experience feels so strangely familiar.

“But each time Joanna goes under, her sense of dread begins to grow, because part of her already knows why the experience is so familiar, and why she has every reason to be afraid….”

You can’t give too much detail about Passage without risking spoilers, and there is a tremendous twist about two thirds of the way through. I do think that one of Connie Willis’s strengths as a writer is her willingness to go there and push her ideas as far as she can take them.

I found Passage very readable and very gripping. It has the tightest focus of any Willis novel I’ve read and an engaging group of characters. In addition to Joanna and Richard, there’s Joanna’s friend, ER doctor, Vielle, Joanna’s high school English teacher, Mr Briarly, who is living with dementia, his niece and carer, Kit, and Maisie, a little girl who is waiting for a heart transplant, and who copes by obsessing about historical disasters. Maisie is especially well done, annoying and adorable at the same time.

A couple of the side-characters came across as one-dimensional caricatures who are mainly there to represent annoying things – Mr Mandrake and Mrs Nellis in particular – but apart from that, I don’t have much to criticise.

Passage is quite an achievement. A powerful, moving, and often funny novel about death and memory, and how memory makes us who we are, and the reality of grief, mourning and our fear of mortality. The theme of disaster is cleverly woven throughout the book.

It really is intensely focused on exploring death, so I wouldn’t recommend this book if you’re not in a place to deal with that at the moment. And, like most Connie Willis novels, it’s a ‘chunkster’, coming in at almost 600 pages, so it is a reading commitment.  

In summary, recommended if you think you’re up to it!

My favourite albums of 2023

I can’t resist one more end of year list post.

2023 was a great year in music for me, with new albums released by some of my favourite artists.

Kristin Hersh, Clear Pond Road

I love everything Kristin Hersh does, but this wonderful album is a standout even for me. In sound, I’d say the arrangements are closest to Hips and Makers and The Grotto, but it feels richer, more lush, and definitely more upbeat than those albums.

Taster Track

Johnny Flynn and Robert MacFarlane, The Moon Also Rises

Another brilliant collaboration from Johnny Flynn and Robert MacFarlane. Beautiful, folky songs, perfect accompaniment to a dark winter’s night.

Taster Track

Thea Gilmore, Thea Gilmore

I’m a long-term fan of Thea Gilmore, going way back to The Lipstick Conspiracies (2000). I think she’s one of our best British singer-songwriters. She’s had a very tough few years and this latest album sees her taking back power and moving forward with determination.

Taster Track

Rufus Wainright, Folkocracy

I’m not actually a big fan of Rufus Wainwright’s music in general, but I really like this album. Great songs with some inspired collaborations and lovely Wainwright/McGarrigle family sing-a-longs.

Taster Track

PJ Harvey, I Inside the Old Year Dying

I’m also a long-term PJ Harvey fan since 1998. This latest album is musically challenging stuff with songs that seem inscrutable, not that you would expect easy listening from PJ Harvey! It’s like entering a strange sonic world but, as I expected, it’s growing on me. This may come across as a weird comparison, but in intention, it reminds me of Bjork’s Vespertine, as an attempt to create a musical landscape that conveys a physical and emotional landscape.

Taster Track

The Breath, Land of my Other

I love the Breath’s previous two albums. This one is perhaps more musically straightforward than the others, but is just as lovely. The songs really showcase Rioghnach Connolly’s incredibly beautiful voice.

Taster Track

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You

Another artist who can do no wrong by me. This is Will Oldham’s first solo album in a while. Keeping Secrets is musically stripped down, quiet and intimate. There is a real warmth on this album, although it being Will Oldman, there’s darkness too.

Taster Track

The Handsome Family, Hollow

First album in seven years from my favourite Gothic Americana band. This is quite a mellow album by Handsome Family standards, although there’s always a sense of the macabre in their lyrics. Hollow has a lovely rich, country sound. If you already like The Handsome Family, you’ll probably enjoy it.

Taster Track

Poem of the day

i am running into a new year

and i beg what i love and

i leave to forgive me

Lucille Clifton, ‘i am running into a new year‘

2023 Mixtape

The tracks that got me through 2023.

• Tori Amos, Metal Water Wood
• Sleater Kinney, The Future is Here
• Gossip, Perfect World
• First Aid Kit, Out of my Head
• Lissie, Night Moves
• Thea Gilmore, Talking Out of Tune
• Tori Amos, Reindeer King
• Courtney Mari Andrews, Let Her Go
• Cat Clyde, Papa Took My Totems
• Kristin Hersh, Thank You, Corner Blight
• The Breath, Land of My Other
• Johnny Flynn, Hard Road
• Leonard Cohen, Anthem

2023 Reading Round-Up

Non-Fiction

My top non-fiction read was Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking can Save the World (2021) by Tyson Yunkaporta. I read this for my book club. Highly recommended if you’re interested in systems thinking and sustainability, but also just an important book for anyone who’s grown up in a world dominated by white, patriarchal, neo-liberal thinking. It will challenge and expand your mind.

The only other non-fiction book I finished this year was Ultra Processed People (2023) by Chris van Tulleken for the same book club. This is a most informative and often horrifying read. Recommended if you want to get a better understanding of what the food industry is doing to our diets and bodies. I have made changes to what I eat after reading this.

I’d like to read more non-fiction in 2024.

Literary Fiction

The book of the year has to be We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962) by Shirley Jackson. I love Shirley Jackson, so I don’t know why it’s taken me long to get around to reading this. It’s just one the of the great masterpieces of the twentieth century. Unsettling perfection from beginning to end.

In second place, comes The Maker of Swans (2023) by Paraic O’ Donnell. This is a very strange and dark gothic novel about a little girl who lives in a house with her mysterious guardian and his manservant, Eustace. I loved The House on Vesper Sands, but this one is possibly even better, although very different to the first book.

I read three good collections of short stories. The best was undoubtedly The Interpreter of Maladies (1999) by Jhumpa Lahiri which is just brilliant throughout.

I thoroughly enjoyed the quirky, magical and moving stories in Wicked Wonders by Ellen Klages (2017) and really liked Amora (2015) by Brazilian writer, Natalia Borges. This is a book of short stories about women who love women. What I liked most about this was the ordinariness of the characters and the lives depicted. There is such a real-life feeling and the little stories (snippets from peoples’ lives) are told with both tremendous energy and great tenderness.

Poem of the year, Joseph Fasano, ‘The Late Arrival of the Light’

This is the poem that I’ve come back to over and over this year.

‘Only you can reach your life in time.’

https://hotazelreviewlit.org/the-late-arrival-of-the-light/

Seasons Greetings

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate!

I know this can be a tricky time of year for a lot of reasons. If that’s the case for you, I hope you are able to take care of yourself.

We’re not Christmassy people ourselves and always try to spend the holiday very quietly in our own way, usually holed up with a pile of good books and some nice food. Whatever you do at this time of year, I hope you get what you need.

Christmas Eve with Inspector Gamache

Curled up the sofa all afternoon with the book I’ve been saving and a mug of Christmas tea, which may have contained a shot of brandy.

‘Bury Your Dead‘ is the sixth entry in Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series. We all started reading this series at our work book club and now I’m so addicted, it’s ridiculous; each book is a treat.

I wish you all wonderful reading.

Quick Review – Robert Aickman, Cold Hand in Mine: Strange Stories (1975)

I first came across this book years ago on the recommended reading list in Stephen King’s Danse Macabre (1981) and made a note of it as one to read at some point. I also read one of the stories, the World Fantasy Award-winning ‘Pages from a young girl’s journal’, in the excellent Penguin Book of Vampire Stories (1987). Cold Hand in Mine has been hovering around on my reading list ever since and, over twenty years later, I finally got around to it this year.

Firstly, I think it should get an award for one the most uncanny titles ever. It gives me a slight shiver every time I think about it. There are eight stories in Cold Hand in Mine, which is considered one of Robert Aickman’s best collections. They are all quite long and slow moving. The most famous story, ‘Pages from a young girl’s journal’, which is superb, is actually an anomaly, in that it’s the most straightforward narrative in the book. The rest are far more ambiguous and leave the reader feeling very unsure about the meaning of what they have just read. The stories have mostly mundane, sometimes seedy, settings, in which an encounter occurs with something inexplicable and profoundly unsettling. There is also a persistent and uncomfortable concern with sexuality in a lot of the stories.

For me, the stand out stories are, ‘Niemandswasser’, a haunting tale about history and war, ‘The Hospice’ and ‘The Same Dog’. ‘The Hospice’ is the one that will really stay with me. An unremarkable traveling salesman finds himself stranded in the country one night and takes refuge in a strange hotel where he has an experience that becomes increasingly grotesque and menacing. It really made my skin crawl. ‘The Same Dog’ is a deeply uncanny tale in which a man returns to the village of his childhood where he had a strange traumatic experience only to find the experience repeating itself in the most mystifying and chilling way.

Should you read it? I can see why Aickman is a bit of a ‘horror writers’ writer’, so I’d recommend this collection if you’re interested in the genre. He didn’t consider himself a horror writer (preferring the term ‘strange stories’) but he’s clearly been very influential. And, if you happen to enjoy weird, macabre stories, definitely go for it! But if you don’t have the patience for slow and inconclusive narratives, then this may be best avoided.

Will I read more of his work? Maybe. But probably not for a while.

Backlisted podcast, Robert Aickman – Cold Hand in Mine

Like this? Try the collection Narrow Houses: Tales of Superstition, Suspense and Fear (1994).

Poem of the Week: Mary Jo Bang, ‘Dead of Winter’

‘Tell me, how
often do you feel the way you feel?’

Mary Jo Bang, ‘Dead of Winter‘ available at Poems.com

Quick review – Time is the Fire: The Best of Connie Willis (2013)

I very much enjoyed this collection of stories by multi-award winning SF writer, Connie Willis. It’s a great showcase of her talent and range as a genre writer.

Three stories, in particular, stand out for me as masterpieces that demonstrate just how good Connie Willis can be. ‘A Letter from the Clearys’ is a bleak and utterly uncompromising story set in a post-apocalyptic future. ‘Fire Watch’ is a moving story set in the world of her time travel series, in which one of her time-traveling historians finds himself on the Fire Watch at St Paul’s Cathedral during the second world war. ‘The Last of the Winnebagos’ is a truly haunting story set in a near future in which all dogs have been wiped out by a devastating disease. There’s something really shocking about the idea of a world without dogs and the story conveys a palpable sense of loss. This one would make it on to my own top 100 science fiction stories. I thought the story’ ‘Death on the Nile’ was also very, very good. ‘At the Rialto’, ‘Inside Job’, and ‘All Seated on the Ground’ are fun Connie Willis romps, full of enjoyably satirical humour and a touch of romance. There were a couple in the collection that didn’t grab me and I’ve never really liked ‘Even the Queen’, which I’ve read before, although it’s considered a Willis classic. Maybe that’s just me – she wrote it with an axe to grind and I feel that just comes through a little too strongly!

Each story comes with an ‘Afterword’ from Willis giving more detail about its genesis. Three acceptance speeches are included at the end. The 2006 Worldcon speech is especially delightful and full of reading recommendations.

But I wouldn’t recommend starting with this collection if you’re new to Connie Willis. Go to Doomsday Book or To Say Nothing of the Dog for that. I’ve been on a bit of a Willis kick recently and I’m currently reading Passage, her novel about near death experiences. I’m also hoping that her new novel, The Road to Roswell, which sounds like a total joy, will be available in the UK at some point!

Comfort food to bring you back to health

Being a bit under the weather, I’ve been wanting some comfort food this weekend.

I found myself craving an old favourite soup, chickpea, tomato and pasta. This is so simple. Just fry an onion, add some chili powder to taste, a can of tomatoes, a can of chickpeas, and about 1 1/2 litres of vegetable stock. Simmer for around 20 minutes and then chuck in your pasta of choice. I like tagliatelle in this, but anything will do. Top it with parmesan if you like and/or a drizzle of chill oil.

Last night I made one of our favourite dinners, Anna Jones’s recipe for Tomato and Coconut Cassoulet. This is also an excellent vegan dish.

Sunday Post – This week in reading, watching, listening

I’ve been unwell all week with a bad cold and cough. I’m almost recovered today, thank goodness, and I really hope this is my last bug of 2023.

I have had more time to read, because I couldn’t do much else, so I’ve been ploughing through the pile of books that I currently have on the go. I finished three this week. There was a Shirley Jackson theme, as I finished Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962), which may be one of the most unsettling books I’ve ever read, and Elizabeth Hand’s sequel (?) to The Haunting of Hill House, A Haunting on the Hill. I’ll say more about that one another time. I also finished The Brutal Telling, book five in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series, to which I’m now completely addicted. I can’t wait to read the next one, which sounds amazing, but I may save it for the Christmas holidays.

It’s been a good week for music, with two new albums arriving from favourite artists. I adore The Moon Also Rises by Johnny Flynn and Robert MacFarlane. It’s going to be my album of the winter. I also received my pre-ordered copy of Thea Gilmore’s new eponymous album. I’m a patron, so I’d heard earlier versions of some of the songs, but it’s great to have the complete album. She’s had a very difficult few years and this album is about finding yourself and moving forward again after a dark time. Defiant and uplifting in equal measures.

A few other items of interest:

• History Extra Podcast, The Dark Side of Dickens. I’m not very surprised to hear that Dickens may have been a bit ‘full of it’ but this new books sounds fascinating
• Lovely conversation with Tamsin Grieg on Gace Dent’s Comfort eating podcast
• We both enjoyed the BBC’s Shakespeare: Rise of a Genius docu-drama.

Song of the week, Johnny Flynn & Robert MacFarlane, ‘The Sun also Rises’