I’ve been sneak reading.
You know when you are into a seriously good read and you take every opportunity to snatch another 1000 words – that’s me. I lost reading for a while, I mean book reading; I am always reading but it tends to be online. Far too much online, but that has been how it is and it is easy to be seduced by the digital world.
The books I have been reading, The Dry and Standard Deviation aren’t intellectual mind-benders simply great reads. They hold your attention and for me with a brain scattered in a million directions, is a very great thing. Relaxing, purposeful and pleasurable. Grabbing 5 minutes between meetings or at lunchtime, on transport or in the mornings has been a delight.
I have a feeling we have a good book in common. Last weekend you gave me brilliant reading ideas and after a long time coming we are just about ready to launch our VA book club.
To join our book club gang register your interest HERE.
We will share titles, read and put our heads together over the content. All suggestions very welcome. xv
In The Meantime I’m Working Through These
‘Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine’ by Gail Honeyman
Change can be good. Change can be bad. But surely any change is better than… fine?
Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive – but not how to live. She leads a simple life, carefully timetabled. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.
‘Other Minds: The Octopus, The Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness’ by Peter Godfrey-Smith
A bold new story of how nature became aware of itself.
Mammals and birds are widely seen as the smartest creatures on earth. But one other branch of the tree of life has also sprouted higher intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus. Godfrey- Smith’s Other Minds sheds new light on one of our most abiding mysteries.
‘An Elephant in My Kitchen’ by Françoise Malby-Anthony
Filled with extraordinary animals and the humans who dedicate their lives to saving them.
Françoise never expected to find herself responsible for a herd of elephants with a troubled past. A chic Parisienne, her life changed forever when she fell in love with South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony. Together they founded a game reserve but after Lawrence’s death, Françoise faced the daunting responsibility of running Thula Thula without him.
‘A Separation’ by Katie Kitamura
The experience of a woman on edge, with a fiercely mesmerizing story to tell.
A young woman has agreed with her faithless husband: it’s time for them to separate. For the moment it’s a private matter, a secret between the two of them. As she begins her new life, she gets word that Christopher has gone missing in a remote region in the rugged south of Greece; she reluctantly agrees to go look for him, still keeping their split to herself. A Separation lays bare what divides us from the inner lives of others.
‘Standard Deviation’ by Katherine Heiny
Love, marriage, infidelity, and origami, Standard Deviation never deviates from the superb.
When Graham Cavanaugh divorced his first wife it was to marry his girlfriend, Audra, a woman as irrepressible as she is spontaneous and fun. But, Graham learns, life with Audra can also be exhausting. How can anyone love two such different women? Did I make the right choice? Is there a right choice?
‘The Dry’ by Jane Harper
A dizzying series of twists and revelations edging nearer to the truth of what actually elapsed.
Amid the worst drought to ravage Australia in a century, it hasn’t rained in small country town Kiewarra for two years. Tensions in the community become unbearable when three members of the Hadler family are brutally murdered. Policeman Aaron Falk returns to the town of his youth for the funeral of his childhood best friend and is unwillingly drawn into the investigation.
Add These to Your Reading List
eleanor oliphant is completely fine || the dry || a separation || an elephant in my garden || otherminds || standard deviation
image jane mount
