#81 Ten things to share over coffee

Random reading from me

Hello friend,

I’ve always been a reader. Especially in my youth, I felt like I needed to move quick and read as much as I can before I run out of time. I know that sounds a little morose, but I definatly felt and urgance to experience as many things as possible all at the same time, such is the foolishness of niave youth.

Now that I am well and truly into my middle age, I try to be a little more selective with my reading. I don’t start a book unless I know it’s been recommended by many people and even then, if I don’t end up enjoying it I usually put it aside. Sometimes I persist if I can see that the writing style is worth it, but these days if it’s too much hard work I will abandon it and move onto the next, simply because life’s too short to read something you don’t enjoy.

Mind you looking back I’ve only ever given up on a book if it’s badly written, if I find it too depressing or disturbing. I don’t like violence or nialism, it’s too scary and depressing. In fact, two well-known classics I recall giving the flick were Nabokov’s Lolita (as the disturbing journey into a pedophile’s mind was too realistic and dark for me, eventhough the beautiful writing kept me going for more than halfway through the book.) And the narrator of Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground was the most twisted depressing person I could ever imagine, so I had to abandon the hopeless world of industrialised Russia for a brighter more life affirming story.

With the advent of smartphones, I find myself scrolling too much and reading on a device is never as satifying as a physical book. I’m convinced all of the devices we use to consume our information and content are making us less motivated, eroding our attention span and ultimatly making us less intelligent.

I find if I take a few days away from the distraction of social media and video consumption on my phone my mood always improves, and I always feel motivated to write or create rather than simply read and consume.

With these personal reading picadillo’s I’d like to share some of the books I’ve been reading, already read or have literally been dipping into this past month:

1. The memory pool: Australian stories of summer, sun and swimming. Edited by: Therese Spuhan.

I’ve been diving into this one erratically, it’s on my bedside table and I often sneak a quick read of a short story set in the Australian poolside. This collection of stories is making me a little nostalgic about the summer in Australia and the mythology of the suburbian public swimming pool culture. It’s helped me to remember certain scenes and memories from my own childhood in suburbian Western Australia. It’s a beautiful collection dedicated to a typically Australian part of life, the love of water, seaside and swimming.

2. Some what small and Orangutan teeth by Trev Cimenski

I’ve gradually fallen in love with Trev Cimenski’s intelligent, sensitive and philosphical poetry. He has a true gift with words, his online video’s dedicated to his own poetry performance are entertaining, truthful and tainted in a soulful melancholy. His two tiny poetry books are filled with his creative perspective on storytelling, observation and a life filled with beautiful pieces of art.

3. Sound track of a life: new and selected poems by Gil Fagiani (bilingual edition) and Missing Madonnas

I recently got my hands on the latest and sadly last poetry book written by Italo American writer Gil Fagiani. Lovingly published through the ongoing work of his wife Maria Lisella it gives us some of his best work. A series of poems filled with character, stories and experiences of Italian migrants to America. Paired together with Fagiani’s other poetry collection Missing Madonnas, there is a beautiful and seminal collection of Italian American heritage literature, that links two conflicting worlds together through a collective experiencee of migration.

4. Robert Greene: 48 laws of power

I’ve been dipping into this mammoth of a book whichh has been toted as a seminal text of historical importance and power. While I appreciate the immense amount of research and observation it took to write this massive book, I can’t say I agree on its world view.

Just like Machiavelli in the Renaissance, whom he regularly quotes in the book Robert Greene seems to be catering to a very specific mostly male and wealthy ‘ruling’ class which is becoming less and less relevant. Just like Machiavelli’s masterpiece written to gain favour and tell the truth about the nature of power, it’s relevence outside of a certain courtly context, it seems a little out of touch for the rest of us.

While Green does shed some light on the darker aspects of human nature, unless we are in the context of a cut throat competative corporate world it is going to sound irrelevant to everyday people.

I found it to be a knowledge dense book, filled with historical examples and stories that illustrate the pros and cons of each of the 48 laws, but I refuse to believe that people can be so calculated and cut and dry. Perhaps its just me, I like to have a little hope in the goodness of humanity.

5. Helen Fielding - Bridget Jone’s Diary

I recently went back out of pure nostalgia and watched the Bridget Jones trilogy of movies. I realised I had never read any of the original books from Helen Fielding. Whilst I enjoyed the irreverant voice of Bridget, I did find the first book a bit stale. Some comedic books are timeless, ageless and always relevant.

Yet I found Bridget Jone’s to have become a little irrelevant. Kind of crindge like the new series of Sex in the City. I mean it was great when it was published, wildly popular and still is, I found it less enjoyable than the movies.

The movies seem to have aged better; I know it’s usually the other way around. Go figure.

6. Octavia Butler: Kindred

To be honest I’ve literally have just started reading this amazing novel, which had randomly came up as a suggestion after a recent spending spree on my Kindle ebook app. Buying ebooks is just as addictive as buying physical books, only that it’s a double threat becausee you never realise how much money you spend and you can never really run out of space to store your ebooks.

So thanks to Amazon I have been sucked into the amazing world of time travel back into the complex world of the narrator Dana, who travels back into the Maryland in the peak period of slavery in the America’s.

Butler explores the dark realities of slavery in this askewed parallel universe version of the South, that is so immersive and totally engrosing.

I was amazed to read Kindred was first published in 1979 as it seems like it would fit better into the modern fantasy genres so popular today. The book mixes genres and defies classification, one moment fantasy, neo-slave narrative, historical fiction, a powerful femminist point of view from its narrator, post collonial commentary and so much more.

It is an amazing find and one of the best reads I’ve seen for a while.

7. Sarah J Maas: A court of thornes and roses, A court of mist and fury and A court of wings and ruin

I’m lothed to admit that I fell into a Sarah J Maas rabbit hole recently and I’ve managed to polish off the first three volumes in the series. The series is a great page turner, filled with action, adventure, romance, steamy sex scenes and so many unexpected twists and turns that it’ll keep your interest.

What can I say? It is an easy read, it will make you have great fun, yet once you finish the last page you will forget all about it.

Until bloody Amazon recommends the next volume and you find yourself in the thick of the next part of the adventure. It’s like a sugar fix, you really can’t resist.

8. Courtney Maum: Before and After the Book Deal and Costolegre

I discovered Courtney Maum from a podcast, she was a guest on a literary podcast after publishing her memoir The year of the horses where she writes about reconnecting with her childhood love of horses and how this ultimatley helps her to heal herself from her own personal trauma. Incidentaly this memoir is still in my to be read pile.

Maum is an amazing writer, who has been published regularly since her youth. I was so impressed by her I immediately bought her book about writing: Before and After the Book Deal, where she gives countless precious advice for anyone who wants to pursue writing and then also subscribed to the associated Substack newsletter of the same title, you should subscribe too.

I also picked up her novella Costolegre: A Novel Inspired By Peggy Guggenheim and Her Daughter which is a beautiful tribute to the experimental art world in the period before and after world war two and the fascinating character of famous art collector and excentric Peggy Guggenheim.

The novel is told from the perspective of Peggy’s daughter who was growing up around a motley crew of contemporary artists that her mother had gathered around her. It’s a coming of age story about the nature of art and the powerful consequesnces the girl, Lara has when she realises, she wants to make art.

9. V.E Schwab: A Darker Shade of Magic

This is another that I’ve just dipped my foot into. V.E Schwab is an immensly popular fantasy novelist, she has written numerous series and she is also immensly productive, she publishes something every year, which is astounding. I read her standalone book The Invisible life of Addie Larue and really enjoyed it.

A darker shade of magic is the first book in a dark type of magical fantasy with several parallel universes interconnected by magic and time travel.

I’ve literally have just read the first ten pages and have had problems with getting into the characters and the world created by Schwab. I find this can be a problem I personally have with the genre of fantasy; it takes me a bit to get into it. But I’ll keep trying. But definitely go and read Addie Larue.

10. Best British short stories: 2022, edited by Nicholas Royle.

I’m trying to follow Ray Bradbury’s advice to read one short story, one essay and one poem every day. I can’t say I’m being that consistent, but this is one book I grabbed to find some good short stories.

So far it is really a bit of a mixed bag. Out of the first ten stories I probably have liked a couple, then the rest are either extremely depressing, over intellectualised or simply too experimental for me to understand.

I think perhaps I have to hunt down some of my faviourite authors short stories collections rather than leave my enjoyment to random collections like these.

Does anyone have any great short story recommendations for me?

Thanks for reading

Rochelle