Reading Review: June 2019

                           

Here's an overview of the books I read or finished last month:

• Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller (5/5). Claire Fuller is fantastic. Our Endless Numbered Days is one of my all-time favourites of hers. Bitter Orange is also good. So creepy. In this, a woman writes letters to her husband about their relationship, but hides them in their books for him to find when she is gone. The pages flip between those letters and the present day, where her grown up daughters are processing her mysterious disappearance. We witness them learning the truth behind their seemingly flawless father as secrets are unturned. It's gripping. 

• The Passion by Jeanette Winterson (4/5). I'm never drawn to classics, but I love Jeanette Winterson's other books and I found a beautiful copy of this in a charity shop. She paints a memorable image of a soldier in Napoleonic wartime, and of a woman in Venice - called Villanelle (Killing Eve fans, rejoice!) The plot itself is complex but it draws you in quickly. I'd definitely recommend. 

• I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott (2/5). I listened to this throughout the month but found the generic advice quite forgettable. It's a personal essay collection about escaping our obsession with 'life to-do lists'. Sounds right up my street but I honestly didn't enjoy the reading experience at all. 

• What My Mother And I Don't Talk About, edited by Michele Filgate (5/5). This is a  collection focused on the complexity of our relationships with our mothers. Some of the writers are estranged from their mothers, others are best friends, and they all break the silence, opening up about the relationship which has shaped their lives. Funny, heartbreaking , relatable- I think this will comfort everyone in one way or another.  

• The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy (4/5). I picked this up in Dublin. It's a heartbreaking and inspiring memoir which covers LGBTQ+ marriage, addiction, and so much more. My only issue with this was that it's quite fragmented, reading in a jolty way at times as each piece doesn't always flow smoothly to the next. 

"I wanted what we all want: everything. We want a mate who feels like a family and a lover who is exotic, surprising. We want to be youthful adventurers and middle-aged mothers. We want intimacy and autonomy, safety and stimulation, reassurance and novelty, coziness and thrills. But we can't have it all."