pickI listened to this during a pretty hard week at work and feel like I missed a lot. But I feel that Nabokov‘s style, while great read aloud, really needs to be read physically to catch all the jokes and idiosyncrasies, anyway.
He mentions in one chapter the hope to write a second part and I wish he had gotten the chance, because ‘Speak, Memory‘ is missing something. Certainly it is the whirlwind his life became after Lolita.
pickThis was published in 2002 when Fay Weldon was 70. And its like sitting down with an older lady who has lived quite a life and having her describe that life to you over tea and cake. Its written in an easy style but Fay never kept diaries so its not always detailed - although her childhood in NZ is very well remembered. Her mother was a solo mum in the 30s and Fay was a solo mum in the late 50‘s ⬇️
pickThis is a really lovely, funny, charming, moving book. It conveys the messiness and overwhelming stress of grief so well. The bit where he talks about getting inexplicably angry at, and stressed out by, apparently minor things, and people thinking you're just being cranky and unreasonable, felt particularly relatable. And his description of the last text message his dad sent him is, however inappropriately, hilarious.
Mogwai are better than your favourite band-glad I found this over the weekend.
Been meaning to buy this book for a while. The first thing I did on my free day in Byron Bay was visit The Book Room book shop and buy it along with some stationery of course. I‘d already got going early to get some delicious food from the Byron Bay Farmer‘s Market hence the strawberry cup cake. I thought it odd that the air bnb host hadn‘t put milk in the fridge for me so I had to get some of that too. I picked this accomodation primarily for 🛀
pickTW for child sexual abuse.
Thanks @Jeg for passing this one on. I am so glad to have read it. Grace stood up to her high school teacher who sexually abused her and in doing so stood up for victims everywhere. 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused. What a vile man. And what a woman Grace is 💪❤️. Can‘t wait to see what she does next. (She did just come first in an ultra marathon - phew!).
pickPaul O‘Grady was a comedian, actor, TV presenter, chat show host and British national treasure. The third in his autobiographical quartet charts the 1980s as he hones Lily Savage in Northern clubs (dragging Vera with him), overseas and London‘s gay clubs and searches for love in all the wrong places. But tragedy isn‘t far away as HIV starts to bite and O‘Grady suffers more loss closer to home that even his sharp wit struggles to see the humour in.
