January & February Reading

What I've read and whether I'd recommend it

I am a woman of good intentions but also a woman who is always behind on something or other. January and February collided with a deadline (the last structural edit for my next fantasy series) and my husband and I buying our first flat together and moving. I somehow thought that maybe I wouldn’t find buying property and moving as stressful as people say despite being someone who exists in a low level of stress near constantly. Needless to say, I am overwhelmed. As well as leading to a double month update, it also means I read rather sporadically as I was busy and exhausted and when I wasn’t editing or packing boxes, I preferred to rewatch Broad City for the millionth time or play daft games on my phone. But despite all this, I read four books and half of three more - including The Ministry of Time which it feels like everyone is talking about (my thoughts at the end).

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake. In 2000 the BBC adapted Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy and I stumbled across it, aged 13. I remember not really understanding what was happening but being entirely obsessed with the vibe and very taken with Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Despite thinking about this adaption around every six months since then, I somehow never got around to actually reading the book. I think I tried at the time but it was too weird and wordy for me to quite get the hang of. But I finally committed and started the year with Titus Groan, the first book in the trilogy. I am still only half way through because my brain is tired and it’s so deliciously dense and strange that I save it for any brief moments of lucidity. I shall report back when I have finished which, if I continue saving it for max brain capacity, I fear will not be until March.

Should you buy/read it: Yes, if you like weird, dense, vibe-y books.

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson. If you know me at all you’ll know I spent much of last year wandering the street of Mycenae and Troy at Punchdrunk’s The Burnt City. One result of this was a renewed fervour for Greek mythology (although my appetite for retellings remains low) and I really enjoyed reading some ancient Greek plays and delving into the mythology behind the show - the Eleusinian Mysteries in particular. But one thing I’d never read from beginning to end is any Homer so this year I’ve decided to read The Odyssey and The Iliad. I’m mixing reading Emily Wilson’s translation with listening to Claire Danes’ audio version of the same translation and finding it fascinating (I’m about two thirds through). It’s one of those literary building blocks I really should’ve got to earlier but the real joy for me was actually reading Wilson’s excellent introduction. One quick note for Homer, if I may. I’d suggest a bejewelled mask for Agamemnon. See above.

Should you buy/read it: Yes if you’re interested in filling in that gap in terms of something that continues to profoundly impact our arts and culture. Arguably no if you’re just after a good time.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, translated by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O’Connor. I finished a whole book finally. I also found a new favourite. This is a book I’ve been meaning to read forever - it’s been on my shelf since university - but I finally got to it as my pick for the Book Club I’m in with two of my author friends (we went to a Mexican restaurant so we could drink margaritas with it, and wore black for the devil). One thing I would say is that after starting said university copy I found myself a little underwhelmed and after some research realised I was reading the translation (Glenny) broadly agreed to be the worst, which is for some reason the one that Vintage uses so the one many people will stumble across. I chose the Burgin and O’Connor translation after reading the extracts on this post and picking the one I liked the most.

The book is just spectacular - grotesque but also full of strange loveliness, irreverent but also somehow incredibly sincere, a window into 1930s Moscow while also feeling wildly fresh and modern, biting satire but also full of hope (the end made me cry with how brilliant it was!). Laugh out loud funny and also a profoundly beautiful exploration of faith and love!

Should you buy/read it: Yes! Don’t make my mistake and leave it on your shelf any longer (but do make sure you’re reading a good translation).

Pirates of Darksea by Catherine Doyle. In the interests of transparency I should say that Cat is very dear friend of mine. I am friends with her for many reasons including that she is brilliant, funny and wise which is reflected in her wonderful books. Her upcoming children’s book, Pirates of Darksea, is a delight. Witty, adventurous and moving and full of superb world-building, I can’t recommend it highly enough if you have young readers in your life who enjoy books like Impossible Creatures, Skandar or Fireborn. The above photo is from when we did a pirate-themed escape room on board the Golden Hinde to celebrate the proofs going out and had a great time despite escape rooms bringing out the absolute worst in me. Fancy dress however brings out the best in me, so hopefully it all balanced out.

Should you buy/read it: Yes and buy it for any 7-12 years too.

Reading Lessons by Carol Atherton. This is a curious one, as it’s certainly not a bad book but I didn’t feel like I was the right reader for it and I didn’t finish it. It’s essays by an English teacher about what teaching certain books to young people over the last few decades has taught her. I love that as a concept! And it’s published by an editor who I think has exceptionally good taste. It’s well written and convincing but I think perhaps I wanted something that dug a little deeper, got a little more tangly, or perhaps just said things that I didn’t already know and believe. I was a secondary school librarian for five years and I think part of the disconnect for me was that I’ve experienced a lot of what she writes about first hand already (the photo is a present my students got me when I left - Readers Anonymous was the name of our book club). So not for me, but there’s already somebody I’ve bought it for as a present.

Should you buy/read it: If you’ve enjoyed, or are buying for people who’ve enjoyed, books by Matt Haig or Cathy Rentzenbrink, I’d give it a go.

Parasol Against the Axe by Helen Oyeyemi. I’m ride or die for Helen Oyeyemi, even through the books of hers that haven’t quite come together, I’ve never regretted the time I’ve spent reading her. She writes like if Wes Anderson directed a Borges book. Her book of short stories, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, is in my top 20 books of all time and I just love the way she puts a sentence together.

“I have the diffidence of the middle child who has nobody’s backing but their own.”

“What you can put off till tomorrow, never do today. This also concerns redemption.”

“The contradiction felt sweet, the question you thought you’d answered returning to meet you as an equal.”

“After everything I’d said about really and truly changing my ways and not doing anything Agnes of Bohemia wouldn’t do, and so on, I wanted Hero… I’m someone who always longs to behave as they ought, and to let trouble pass by. Rabbis and Christian priests used to have quite a lot of time for me, but they’ve given up.”

This felt, to me, as though it must be a riff on Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler. A sexy, witty, weird postmodern romp through Prague as a hen do is plagued by a book which is different for everyone who reads it. Great chunks of the book are these different books and I would’ve happily read them all, in particular the one about the love triangle turned outlaws. It’s about - or rather, given the nature of the book, to me it’s about - how fiction and love meet everyone differently, and about how words are sexy and fun.

Should you buy/read it: Yes because I would be so sad to live in a world where Oyeyemi isn’t publishing a weird, sexy book every couple of years.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. Buzz is a curious thing. I feel like everyone in books is reading a proof of this at the moment, but when I was filming a video about the Women’s Prize with dear friend Eric he hadn’t heard of it. He is exceptionally well read but his tastes don’t veer into genre much and this book is perhaps what you’d call literary sci fi or maybe speculative reading group fiction?! Part of its joy is its glorious mashup of genres - it’s a time travel novel about colonialism that’s also a love story. It’s witty and sad and do you know what it’s weird and sexy. I clearly need to embrace that my sweet spot is weird, sexy literary fantasy novels so let me know if you know of any others that fill that brief. This is less weird than the Oyeyemi, more sexy than Peake, and I reckon Bulgakov would’ve had a fun time with it. Plot wise it’s about a British-Cambodian civil servant working for the government’s top secret time travel project where she is assigned Commander Graham Gore to assimilate into modern society, who has been ripped from certain death as part of Franklin’s doomed 1845 Arctic expedition. I think and hope this is a book that we’ll all be talking about and reading this summer.

Should you buy/read it: Yes, or rather pre-order it (it’s out in May). Especially if you enjoy books like Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. It’s that rare book I think will live up to the hype for most readers. Pre-order it now for bragging rights when it becomes the next big thing.

As a books journalist and author, I am often reading proof copies of books sent for free by publishers. These are never sent with any obligation to read or write about them (indeed most of them are sent unsolicited) and I am never paid to do so. If I ever was, or if I’m reading them for an event I’m being paid to chair, I will disclose that alongside any personal relationships with the author. This month Parasol Against the Axe, Pirates of Darksea, Reading Lessons and The Ministry of Time were sent to me by the publishers. I bought Gormenghast, The Odyssey and The Master and Margarita (Homer tried to pay me for a good review but I turned him down). Links are affiliate links and will take you to Bookshop.org.