What a start to 2024! After a long and relaxing Christmas break, it was full on from 2nd Jan. This week I am back from Barcelona, which was lovely as usual. Spring had arrived, but I didn’t spend much time outdoors. Going there, I missed my flight due to an incident on the Elizabeth train line, and that pretty much set the tone for the whole trip. Anyways…
Reading Wrap-up
My reading has come off to an excellent start. Quality over quantity. The first book I read was Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, which is part of my Reading around the World project, representing South Korea. Five stars! This feminism novella will make you furious, but it’s an excellent account of all the more or less subtle ways women can be harassed, discriminated and put to a disadvantage in modern society.
This was followed by two solid nonfiction books. Glucose Revolution looks at the tremendous role glucose spikes play in our health. The book offers tips to control these spikes, without giving up on carbs and succumbing to a diet of chicken breast and broccoli, with a few nuts thrown in as an occasional snack. The author, Jessie Inchauspe, has a realistic relationship to food. Of course, you should always take tips like this with a pinch of salt, but it made for interesting reading and I am open towards giving it a try. I’ve noticed more and more people wearing a glucose monitor, so maybe this trend is catching on.
Wintering by Katherine May seemed to be the right book at the right time. While being stressed out with work and other commitments, it was soothing to read May’s introspective reflections, using winter as a metaphor for the tougher times in life. I also enjoyed reading about her excursion to the Blue Lagune (Iceland), chasing the aurora (Finland), swimming during winter and exploring the significance of Stonehenge at winter solstice. Both nonfiction books were in the 3.5 – 4 stars territory.
Finally, another five star read. Julia and the Shark focuses on growing up, dealing with mental health issues, forming relations and finding yourself. In the centre is a search for the elusive Greenland shark, which can reach abnormally high ages. Targeting a middle-grade audience, the novel can easily be enjoyed by all age groups. Beautifully written and emotionally impactful this could potentially turn out to be one of my favourite books of the year. And yes, I know we are in only in February.
Currently Reading
At the moment, I am reading two books. Sebastian Barry’s Old God’s Time is a disturbing and slightly confusing read so far. A retired police officer is visited by a couple of former colleagues asking questions about an old case. This triggers a stream of jumbled thoughts and reflections, revealing a dark and troubled past. These jumbled thoughts, however, indicate the police officer may not be a reliable narrator. Confusion, dementia, suppression of terrible truths? Who knows. But I am certainly intrigued to read on.
Lord of the Flies is technically a reread, but I only vaguely remember the plot. A group of schoolboys stranded on an island make an attempt of recreating some sort of society. It quickly descends into barbarism, rather than civilisation. I don’t suffer from any illusions about human nature and I look forward to finishing this reread.
Following up on Reading Projects
Nonfiction project: 1 book per month
Doing well – two books read so far. Whereas plenty of inspiration to fiction can be found on book blogs and booktube, nonfiction content is less frequent. Hence, I look forward to the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction 2024, which is a new addition to the Women’s Prize. The longlist will be announced 15th February and I can’t wait to see, which books are included.
Reading the Best British Books
I’ve finished two books from the second batch of this project, Howard’s End and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Technically, Lord of the Flies also fits into the project, being number 93 on BBC’s list, The 100 greatest British novels. Since it’s a reread, I may not write a review, though.
Fantasy for Beginners
No progress yet, but I am watching fantasy content on Booktube.
Reading from other countries
In my previous post, I covered North and South Korea. With two countries covered in one month, I suspect I’ll never finish this challenge. It doesn’t matter. If the project increases my reading of international literature, it’s a win.
That was all for now. Wish you a lovely Sunday!
Did you notice the image with the girl on the bench above this section? This is AI generated. As something relatively new, Canva offers bespoke image generation. If you can’t find a suitable image, you just write “girl reading on a bench” and it will create a couple of suggestions for you. I still mean to write about AI on the blog. Maybe 2024 will be the year?
The Sunday Post is hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer.
You’re doing well with your projects, Stargazer! I read Wintering recently and enjoyed it. I’m reading Glucose Revolution at the moment and find it easy to follow and full of interesting suggestions. I vaguely remember being disturbed by Lord of the Flies but I was still at school then!
Thanks Sandra! I’ve set the bar low for these challenges, but happy about how it is going. Good to hear we have been reading some of the same books recently and both enjoyed them. I was also quite young when reading Lord of the Flies for the first time, but I still find it somewhat disturbing as an adult.
Glad you enjoyed Wintering. I listened to the audiobook back in 2020 and it really helped my mental health during those first six months of the pandemic.
Ah yes, I could imagine it was a good book to read during the early stages at the pandemic. It feels so weird thinking back at that time – almost like a bad dream.
I enjoyed The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie many years ago. Never did read Lord of the Flies. Enjoy your week.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie really surprised me in a positive way. Enjoy your week too! 🙂
Barcelona sounds lovely. I’d be interested in reading that glucose book… and apost on AI art would be fascinating too since that seems to be everywhere now.
The Glucose book was very interesting! It has even prompted me to change my eating habits a little bit. AI is so fascinating, I hope to be able to write a post about it sooner or later (or I can get AI to write it for me….)
Oh no! I usually have my travel mishaps at the end of my trip. I can definitely see where it would set the tone at the beginning. Barcelona is such a lovely city.
I’ve had mishaps before, both going out and coming back. Going out is definitely worse, because it tends to ruin your plans. And yes, Barcelona is lovely!
Have you tried a glucose monitor? Hmm I didn’t know about those. And I’m curious too about the elusive Greenland shark. I have not heard of that novel but like that there’s a shark in it. And I’ve read Old God’s Time … the retired officer has a lot going on in his head. And it’s a sad one!
No, I haven’t tried a glucose monitor, but I’ve come across a few people using it. I can see, why it makes sense, since we don’t all react the same way to different types of food. The Greenland shark can live to at least 250 years and potentially up till 500 years. I actually have another book (nonfiction) about that on my TBR. Fascinating stuff… By now, I am more than half way through Old God’s Time and it certainly doesn’t come across as very cheerful. But then, I didn’t expect that.
I hope Barcelona wasn’t all bad, despite those hiccups you had to live through. Your reading projects seems to be on a good roll and I hope it’ll be so for the rest of the month too!
Haha, no it wasn’t all that bad, but for various reasons not the best trip either. Thanks!