Remember, Remember, the 5th of November…
* This is a Big Catch Up post – see bottom of the page for details!
As the nights grew darker, so did my reading. I love this time of year, as the air grows crisper and the trees burst into colour. November is my birthday month and marks the beginning of the winter months ahead.
And yet I often find that as the days plunge into darkness, so does my head. My motivation levels drop, and I instead seek the comforts of warm blankets and comfort food.
My reading levels slowed to a crawl, matching my energy levels, and yet I found a lot of fulfilment in taking my time. Savouring every word, rather than chasing chapters…
Melmoth
By Sarah Perry
For centuries, the mysterious dark-robed figure has roamed the globe, searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have fed into the rapids of history’s darkest waters.
The Woman in Black, The Babadook, Lanny. Melmoth is very much in the same vein. Gothic fantasy-horror isn’t a genre I am normally drawn to, but as Halloween began I craved something a little darker to dig into.
Sarah Perry can undoubtedly write. This is literary fiction, and you are soon drawn into the atmospheric story. At times, I felt adrift, unsure of where the story was heading. Uncertain as to whether I should continue.
“Reading something scary before bed is just a recipe for nightmares.” There were times where this was a little spooky for me, but like the examples above, not scary, not terrifying. Just a little tingle of fear. Which was what I was seeking at this time of year.
10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in This Strange World
By Elif Shafak
‘In the first minute following her death, Tequila Leila’s consciousness began to ebb, slowly and steadily, like a tide receding from the shore. Her brain cells, having run out of blood, were now completely deprived of oxygen. But they did not shut down. Not right away…’
This contemporary novel was highly recommended (including shortlisted for the Booker Prize) and rightly so. It took a certain kind of mood to read, but fresh from Melmoth I was ready to give it a try.
10 minutes is the story of Leila, a Turkish woman slowly dying on the streets of Istanbul. 10 minutes 38 seconds is all the time she has left as she clings to life. The story explores how her life came to be this way, winding through the memories and people that made her who she was.
It is haunting and ominous in its predetermined ending – the ending of Leila’s life. And yet there was so much beauty in this book. Beauty in the unravelling of what makes up a human life. It made an impression and Leila’s story has stuck with me for months.
Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone
By J.K Rowling
Harry Potter’s life is miserable. His parents are dead and he’s stuck with his heartless relatives, who force him to live in a tiny closet under the stairs. But his fortune changes when he receives a letter that tells him the truth about himself: he’s a wizard. A mysterious visitor rescues him from his relatives and takes him to his new home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
What more can be said about Harry Potter that hasn’t already been said? Philosophers Stone is the beginning of Harry Potter, so it was always going to rate highly for me. I decided it was time to reread the series after discovering it had been almost a decade since my last reread!
As someone who prides themselves on being a Harry Potter fan, I was definitely ready to be emersed in the world again. It was exciting to return all this time later, and this time I wanted to do it in a whole new way… audiobook.
That’s right – I had never listened to the legendary Stephen Fry audiobooks before, and upon finding them for free on my library’s audiobook app Borrow Box, I settled down one night to begin the adventure. Little did I know I was embarking on a five-month revolutionary journey – more on that to come!
While of course, I loved returning to Hogwarts, Philosophers Stone is very much a children’s book and so the story is very simple. In fact, it mirrors almost exactly the first film, with little deviation. This was great fun for my nostalgia, but it wasn’t until later in the series that I began to appreciate them as an adult…
The Language of Kindness: A Nurse’s Story
By Christie Watson
Christie Watson spent twenty years as a nurse, and in this intimate, poignant, and remarkably powerful book, she opens the doors of the hospital and shares its secrets. She takes us by her side down hospital corridors to visit the wards and meet her unforgettable patients.
Having loved This is Going to Hurt, I was in the mood for another ‘medical memoir’. This time from a nurse’s perspective, this was a moving look at the NHS today.
It is however rather different to Adam Kay’s book, lacking the warmth and humour that made it connect with so many readers. While very personal at times, Watson’s take was more fact-based. This was interesting, but just not as an engaging read.
The Lady of the Ravens
By Joanna Hickson
When Joan Vaux is sent to live in the shadow of the Tower of London, she must learn to navigate the treacherous waters of this new England under the Tudors. Like the ravens, Joan must use her eyes and her senses, if Henry and his new dynasty are to prosper and thrive.
I love a good historical story: give me a Phillippa Gregory and a cup of coffee and I won’t move for a couple of hours. Fortuitously, I was accepted to read this just as I was searching for something to scratch that itch. Set in Tudor London, you’re immediately transported to this time. There are all the details of the genre that you would expect, and I found that Ravens was a little darker in tone than, say, a Gregory. There’s a touch of the mystical, as protagonist Joan has a deep connection to ravens, which is neatly intertwined with the wider story of her life balancing her duties as a lady in waiting and as a wife.
The story was well-paced and I raced through the book, loving the use of language that fully evoked all the senses of Tudor London. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to what Hickson writes next.
* This is a Big Catch Up post. Written in May 2020 as part of a lockdown project to get back into blogging. Currently, I’m ‘catching up’ with the last few months of reading round-ups, before launching into new content!
Good to see you back, Sarah!