During intense periods of writing, I can’t seem to read. Is it possible to forget how? I start book after book and can never get past the first few chapters. Does anyone else have this? Writers??? Do you?
It was pretty alarming at first to me, someone who predictably has always been a Big Reader and indeed a Pleasure To Have In Class.
Luckily, since realising this happens literally every time I draft/edit/get real intense about writing, I’ve a) been able to stop beating myself up about it and b) can look forward to the joy of reading again when I come up for air.
April has been a full month off writing which has allowed me to read many books, which felt like gulping water at 3am after drinking wine the night before. So I thought I’d share them. For fun! Here they are in the order I read them.
SICK TO DEATH by Chris Bridges. Chris is in the same WhatsApp group for debut writers as me, and is funny and lovely, which of course made me want to read his book, along with the fact that it had a great premise. I don’t often read thrillers but I really enjoyed this one, about a chronically ill woman who decides to take matters into her own hands after being downtrodden for so long. I wish Chris every success with it, he deserves it all!
OLD SOUL by Susan Barker. I read this literary horror novel because my sister lent it to me. It was spooky scary and I did enjoy it and also noticed the thing that as soon as the monster is named, it becomes much less scary. (Old eps of Doctor Who could learn a lot from this. Although the gas mask episode and the Angels episode are still the scariest TV there is.) Anyway, I did enjoy this book. I was also relieved when it was over. But everything scares me so don’t take this as anything at all, actually. It was definitely good.
FAN SERVICE by Rosie Danan. Just literally so funny and great: aging actor starts turning into a werewolf just like the TV role he played for years, and has to get the help of a small-town former fan who’s clever and mean with a heart of gold (love her). If you (like me, obviously) were on tumblr at any point in your life, read this. If you’ve read so many fanfics, read this. I got this from the library but I will be buying a copy along with Rosie Danan’s entire back catalogue. Thank you to Betty for the rec!
SWIMMING IN THE DARK by Tomasz Jedrowski. I’m a co-founder of a book club at work. The theme this month was ‘romance’, and hilariously, Swimming In The Dark was what my very literary-leaning colleagues voted for. This book — Call Me By Your Name set in Communist Poland — is by NO definition a romance. But I enjoyed it; it was tender and moving, and fiction is my favourite way to learn about history. So all in all, good book club choice.
THE SPY AND THE TRAITOR by Ben Macintyre. Non-fiction about Oleg Gordievsky, double agent for Britain during the Cold War, which reads like a thriller. Just phenomenally good. I’m not a World War II guy and Ben Macintyre writes the kind of stuff that World War II guys are into and yet, here we are. Great as an audiobook too; felt like a really long podcast.
A BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES by Suzanne Collins. Listen. I don’t like prequels because you always know who survives, and I had no interest in learning anything else about President Snow, and yet here we are, catapulted back into a Hunger Games phase like we never left. Suzanne Collins is just so good. It’s a real power to keep such a low profile most of the time and then whenever you release a book to be like, OK everyone, it’s time to ruin your life for the next 1-4 months! And yet Suzanne does it every time! I’ve got her newest book on hold at the library, where I fully expect it to stay for years.
MORTAL FOLLIES by Alexis Hall. I’ve read a couple of Alexis Hall’s contemporary books — Boyfriend Material, and at least one Bake Off romcom — and they’re always funny and good, which is why I picked this one up at my library. I seem to have a problem with covers like this (or perhaps images in general????), whereby I literally cannot comprehend what they’re trying to tell me, so I had no idea what the book was about even though arguably the cover does suggest it’s a sapphic regency romp. Anyway, it was fun! Very irreverent and I liked the magic and the Bath setting.
THE RE-WRITE by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn. I was looking forward to this after reading and enjoying Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband. The Re-Write was also lovely; I liked it even more than Yinka. The characters felt very real and nuanced; their character arcs made total sense. I also really loved the vulnerability of the male main character and the pressure to be strong and masculine which he was fighting against.
Sorry that I can’t remember anybody’s names. You may notice that I hardly mention any character names in this post! That’s because as soon as I finish a book, I close it and all character names are instantly wiped from my mind.
THE CONFIDENCE GAMES by Tess Amy. I bought this in Norfolk when I was there last week, having been meaning to read it for literally months. I absolutely love a hijinx-y heist style adventure, as you can imagine, and this one was so lovely! I really love a book that’s clearly had a lot of research poured into it, and the details in the criminal mastermind underworld were just so good, and also, crucially, fun. It was also sufficiently twisty that I was trying to keep track the whole way and failing.
MEET ME AT THE LAKE by Carley Fortune. This is only my second Carley Fortune book but I loved it as much as the first one — This Summer Will Be Different. Both books, and I suspect all her books, have a beautiful, nostalgic quality; the writing is extremely tender and thoughtful in a way that makes me feel held as I read. The settings are also just glorious: lakes, small communities, delicious food, sunsets, kayaking. I want to live on a lake, basically.
THE UNMAGICAL LIFE OF BRIAR JONES by Lex Croucher. This isn’t out until next year so I won’t say too much but I’m regretfully smug that Lex allowed me to read an early version and it was literally just excellent — my favourite one of Lex’s so far, which is saying a lot. It’s going to be a big splash, folks! Magic school, but good! And by ‘good’, I of course mean ‘evil and horrible’. Fucked up in the best way, basically.
THE BRAVE AND THE RECKLESS by Dilan Dyer. I was so happy to get an early copy of this, a contemporary romcom set at a Wild West theme park. So many hilarious cowboy related bits, some full on spicy sex scenes which had me fanning myself with my cowboy hat, and some tender touching representation of living with a chronic condition. I suspect the booktok girlies will lose their minds over this when it comes out this summer and they’re absolutely right; I will be joining them.
FUNDAMENTALLY by Nussaibah Younis. Another writer in my debuts WhatsApp group! This has been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize (congrats Nussaibah!), and you can see why. It’s a brilliant premise: a British Muslim woman whose faith has lapsed takes a UN job in Iraq aiming to deradicalise ISIS brides, and becomes obsessed with helping one woman in the camp who could’ve been just like the main character, if her path had been slightly different. The setting was fascinating, and some of the characters felt so real it was alarming, given how incompetent or shit many of them were. As usual, it’s demoralising to remember how impossible it is to identify ‘the right thing to do’. The good news is, you can at least write about it in a funny way.
Hope you enjoyed this surprise post a mere week after the last one! I’ll be back to editing Book 2 soon, so wanted to get one in while I can. This is the first time I’ve had an alert pop up to warn I’m almost at the limit for Substack’s email length. That’ll teach me.
P.S. My book is 99p on Kindle UK for the month of May! Please do help me shout about this, possibly my one and only chance of making it sell any copies :) perhaps by leaving a review? Thank you xx