What's Everyone Been Reading?

Here we are in October and summer suddenly feels like a distant, warm and fuzzy memory, but with one last blast of sunshine due this weekend, I thought I’d tell you about a few of the books I read this summer.

I was lucky enough to be invited to stay with some friends in the Dordogne, and it only occurred to me when I got there that many of the books that I had picked out to take just happened to have a French theme.

I decided to take a whole bunch of very short books with me on holiday. I love a novella, I just feel so fatigued when I look at at a 400-page book, and I do think a novella is a great way to get back into reading if you’ve been finding it hard to wade through something longer.

I also felt I would have the sense that I had ‘achieved’ something other than a tan by reading two or three of them. Here they are, lazing by the pool…

I managed to read five out of seven of them.

First up, ASSEMBLY. I absolutely loved this powerful little book. It felt electric in my hands as I paused only to top up my SPF (ok, and a little rosé) and wonder how a book this slim (just 112 pages) could deal with such huge themes and carry you along as a reader in such a compelling way. This debut novel has been described as a ‘coming of age in the credit crunch’.

It appeared on many prize shortlists (deservedly so) and I can’t wait to see what Natasha Brown writes next.

You can buy ASSEMBLY here, you will not regret it.

THE YEARS by Annie Ernaux is a book that I feel has changed me as a writer and a reader forever. I would lend it out but I can’t bear to let it go. It also set me off on a reading week of Annie Ernaux, which I’ll write more of later. Spanning 1941 to 2006 this is the story of Annie’s life, except it isn’t just that, it is the story of all our lives, of a country’s ‘life’. It’s a story of progress, if you can call it that, of revolution, renewal, fading away… it is everything. If you would like to know where to start with Annie Ernaux, it is here.

You can buy THE YEARS here.

THE INSEPARABLES is another that by sheer chance I took with me to France and I was so glad I did seeing as Annie Ernaux referenced Simone de Beauvoir so many times during her own book. We all know De Beauvoir for her non-fiction and so I almost wasn’t expecting much from this unearthed work of fiction and to be honest I hadn’t read many hugely favourable reviews at the time but I absolutely loved it. The characters stayed with me for days – weeks even – which is understandable when you realise that this is largely a work of autofiction as De Beauvoir centred this novel on her bestfriend from school, Andree. It is short, bursting with feeling and ultimately heartbreaking. I thought about Andree and Sylvie (Simone’s character) long after turning the last page. De Beauvoir apparently spent her whole life trying to do her bestfriend justice on the page, this is a glorious tribute to her.

You can buy THE INSEPARABLES here. I now must read THE MANDARINS.

WRITING by Marguerite Duras. I haven’t read any other works by Duras and so her writing on writing is perhaps a strange place to start, but I did so because one of my favourite writers, Deborah Levy, references her a lot in interviews and her own work. From the moment I turned the first page I connected immediately with her thoughts on writing and why she writes, why she has to write, and the internal world one has to create to be able to write. It might appear a lonely hermetic existence for some, though Duras seemed to have many lovers to keep her company (where do they find them all!?!), in this book she takes your into her home and her mind to show you in these strange little essays where and how the magic happens.

You can buy WRITING here.

I loved EVERYTHING UNDER by Daisy Johnson and her short story collection FEN, but for some reason I haven’t been able to quite get into this dark little book, SISTERS. perhaps it was because I was sitting under the blazing sunshine and I need to be tucked up alone in the midst of winter. I’ll keep it by my bedside for cold nights.

You can buy SISTERS here.

And finally WEIRD FUCKS. It is indeed a weird little book, and it is indeed a book about all the narrator’s f*cks, as you travel with her across continents and conquests. It is a coming of age book with lots of sex, set (from hazy memory) in the sixties and again it had references to De Beauvoir and Paris. It was first published in 1980 and Tillman is currently having a bit of a renaissance. I can’t wait to read HAUNTED HOUSES too. Plus the covers are gorgeous.

You can buy WEIRD FUCKS here.

One other book I’ll mention, which isn’t one I took away with me, but nonetheless enjoyed very much was YELLOWFACE. I mentioned it in the reviews earlier in the summer, it is set in the world of book publishing and gives readers a peak into the horrors of that world yet it also comes with a great plot and it is a lot of fun.

You can buy YELLOWFACE here.

There you go, that’s what I read, though I must talk to you about Annie Ernaux in more detail another time. I would love to know what you’ve been reading over the summer.

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