Happy Friday!

The sun has come out just in time for me to sit on a few conference calls. Isn’t that sweet of it?

How’s your July been treating you? Anything to look forward to in August? Lately I’ve been packing boxes, trying to shift some of my old things and catching up with friends. The stuff is easy to say goodbye to – I’m ready to dump my slow cooker in the damn street – but counting down final visits with friends is tough. I expect the next month will be much more of the same, with a couple of day trips and visits to the Edinburgh Book Festival thrown in for good measure. We’re getting there.

Now, how about some links?

 

 

–– MY WORDS ––

I haven’t been very prolific this month, but have a couple of things to share…

I made another book haul / More Anticipated Summer Reads. These are the books I’ve kept out of the shipping boxes and on my nightstand for now.

On Bookish Blether this week, Holly and I shared our Favourite Books of 2016 (So Far).

I’ve also written a couple of summer features for the Big Issue magazine: some summer book previews, and a review column with some thoughts on White Sands by Geoff Dyer and The Bed Moved by Rebecca Schiff.

 

 

–– OTHER WORDS ––

I throughly enjoyed Lauren Kolm on 10 Breakfasts with Men I’ve Known on Extra Crispy.

Geoff Dyer again, on The picture that captures why Jack Kerouac will last forever.

I absolutely reveled in this piece from Angelica Jade Bastién about The Legacy of “Point Break” – which I read about via Eva’s Tinyletter.

 

 

–– OTHER WORLDS ––

This week I’ve been digging into Negroland by Margo Jefferson and learning about life in the 1950s as part of Chicago’s, and by extension the US’s, black elite. It’s a heady mix of cultural history and memoir – definitely one to keep your eyes open for.

Act of God by Jill Ciment, which I mentioned last week, was exactly the kind of light read I needed… though nothing to write home about. But I also enjoyed A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa about a woman who bricks herself into her apartment as Angolan civil war breaks out and stays there for 30 years – especially the in-novel poetry.

Next I’ll be starting The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss with a few friends. Which books have you been enjoying lately?
 

 

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Your turn! Read anything good this week? Hit reply or tweet me, won’t you?

Have a lovely weekend!
Nicola x
 

Hey friends. How’s July treating you?

We had a lovely day yesterday but it’s back to rain and gloom today. The picture above is from one year ago and will soon represent a version of home for me – one where the sun is almost always out but there’ll be new ways to live, and a process of learning to do that.

This limbo stage of moving has been a great excuse to hang out with friends I usually see in group settings one-on-one, share the bounty of my bookshelves, and daydream a little bit more than usual. With 6 weeks to go I’m spending a lot of time thinking about how my life looks now, how I’d like it to look in the future, and ways to work towards that. But it doesn’t feel like I’m getting anywhere just yet.

And you? Looking for something to read? This week’s selection is as diffused as my thinking, but I gotcha…

 

 

–– MIXED MEDIA ––

If you’re feeling sad about world events today, Jen has Two Recommendations: one of which is a letter about fear and perspective. Listen to Jen read it in the video or read it here.

In this week’s new Bookish Blether we discussed Place as a Character – and other strong senses of place in literature.

I cracked up at Rosa Lyster’s The Best Time I Pretended I Hadn’t Heard of Slavoj Žižek. I am all in on this game.
 

 

–– AT THE MOVIES ––

It’d been ages since I’d been to the cinema, but in the past 3 days I saw Ghostbusters (good), Neon Demon (mixed), and Maggie’s Plan (lovely). It was a nice reminder that I really love going to the cinema after a few dud months of releases and other priorities.

Non-movie-wise, we’re well into the depths of The Good Wife season 7 and I finished Girls season 5 this week. What should come next? Suggestions welcome.

In related, here’s a nice feature with Greta Gerwig (star of Maggie’s Plan).

Jennifer Aniston spoke up against the media harassment and devaluing of women that she encounters daily.
 

 

–– ON MY SHELF ––

Here’s a lovely piece about the writing process from Ramona Ausubel: How To Be A Writer: The Map Is the Territory. I’m buying her new novel the minute we land in LAX.

My curiosity took me places this week, including to Everything You Wanted to Know about Book Sales (But Were Afraid to Ask).

Book-wise, my current reads include returning to Stranger on a Train by Jenny Diski (after taking a break from it to read her first non-fiction book, Skating to Antarctica, which I loved) and Sudden Death by Alvaro Enrigue, whom I can’t wait to see at the book festival next month.

What’s on your nightstand?
 

 

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Your turn! Read anything good this week? Hit reply or tweet me, won’t you?

Have a lovely weekend!
Nicola x