What Have I Got To R.E.P.O.R.T on this month?
It's been quite the month! Books, and Taylor, and Big Needles, oh my!
I really liked the format of the last one of these roundups, so here we go again. Perhaps might make it a monthly kind of round up, give me a chance to actually do some things and take in some life to share. So, what is it that I have to report on?
Reading
Books
“Ola Olajide, a high-profile journalist at Womxxxn magazine, is marrying the love of her life in one month's time. She and her fiancé Michael seem to have it all. That is, until one morning when they both wake up to the same message: ‘Oh my god, have you seen The List?’ It began as a list of anonymous allegations about abusive men. Now it's been published online. Ola made her name breaking exactly this type of story. But today, Michael's name is on there. Will the truth behind The List change everything for both of them?”
A book very firmly set in the post-Me-Too era, looks directly at not just the online rumour mill, the court of public opinion but also how race and feminism overlap. I found it a really interesting read, and it had enough twists and turns to keep me interested to the end.
Midnight in Chernobyl - Michael Higgenbottom
Absolutely not the cheeriest of reads, but having just listened to the Redhanded episode on Chernobyl, and knowing it was sitting in my Kindle to-read pile for a while, I mixed it up between Audiobook (On Borrowbox) and the Kindle. I’d seen the HBO series and listened to the podcast and knew bits and pieces about it, but the overwhelming impression I’ve come away from it with is how much damage the pride of the USSR caused - fear in the workers who couldn’t or wouldn’t say no, lack of information, trying to prove they were the best with under-maintained nuclear reactors and a very The-Show-Must-Go-On attitude. It’s all so very sad but really well told, and the Audiobook narrator (Jacques Roy) is quite nice to listen to too.
The School for Good Mothers - Jessamine Chan
“Frida Liu had fed and changed her toddler Harriet. She had a work deadline - an article to finish, a job hanging by a thread, a file she'd left in the office. She would go get it. Harriet would be fine. But then the neighbours heard her crying. Soon, the state will decide that Frida is not fit to care for her daughter. That she must be re-trained. That bad mothers everywhere will be re-educated. Will their mistakes cost them everything?”
This month seems to have been a month of not-cheery-reads, this one is set in an America which it seems is growing ever closer, where The Handmaids Tale is a bit more a reality. While there is no denying that what Frida has done is a bad thing to do, the repercussions for her (and her fellow inmates in the training college, who have had their children removed for much more minor infractions in some cases) are harrowing. It’s a look at the pressures of motherhood, the double standards of parenting based on gender, and how truly terrifying living in this kind of a dystopia could be.
Online
Madeline Perkins's 2024 is The Year of The Tummy , a piece on taking up the space we deserve to in this world, as women, and how making ourselves shrink into tinier bodies is more a sign of us thinking we do not deserve the space we should be filling was one I found myself really relating to as a woman in a bigger body than society says I should be.
The messages we get from the world matter because they influence the messages we tell ourselves. The power of “The Year of the Tummy” is that it pretends to be a message from the world, while really it’s a message from you. You’re stating that your body is correct to have a tummy, and you’re saying it in an communal, authoritative way. The declaration is invented by me, for me. And you. Say it below your breath, now, as you read, wherever you are: 2024 is the year of the tummy.
“2024 is the Year of the Tummy”.
Rosemary Mac Cabe’s Tears(And Fears) piece spoke to me in a way about the reality of living with depression, with the stages where it is all crying, all the time, and how it can make you feel. This piece made me stop in my tracks.
I can’t help but think that they’re disappointed in this daughter who’s crying all the time, that they look at me and wonder where they went wrong, what they could have done that would have made me a happy, productive member of society instead of this weeping mess, liable to burst into tears at any moment.
I know, of course, that this is not how they think. No, really: I know. These thoughts that are running riot inside my head are thoughts I do not have when I am well. And yet: when I’m unwell, they feel like the truest thoughts I’ve ever had. My mind is never more convincing than it is in moments like this.
, Tears (And Fears)
The
piece “The Emotional Symphony of Letting Myself Down” also hit me rather hard right in the gut for similar reasons.This swirl of reassurance, disappointment, acceptance and back again has thrown me off all weekend. I’m edgy. I’m disoriented. I told my husband, “I feel like I’m failing at everything.” An exaggeration, of course. This was just one tiny mistake. The consequences, nothing but a blip—a registration fee I’ll never see back and a thing I just never did—but that does nothing for the sharpness of the disappointment.
It felt symbolic. Of my forgetfulness. Of the limitations of my life right now.
, The Emotional Symphony of Letting Myself Down
Eating
I have made the rather terrible dangerous discovery of the Marks and Spencers Golden Blonde Chocolate Spread during what was a terrible pain week, and so there have been MANY spoons of that. It was initially purchased for “Oh, that’ll be nice in some porridge” but much like anyone who has found themselves comfort eating Nutella by the spoonful, this has been a delicious, delicious vice.
Playing
This version of “Breathless” (originally by The Corrs), sung by Orla Gartland is just stunning, especially that “C’mon”.
It seems to only be available on Apple Music, but here you go: Orla Gartland - Breathless
Also, Sabrina Carpenter’s cover of Chapelle Roan’s “Good Luck Babe” which had been high on the listening list anyway, but this cover on BBC Sounds is just gorgeous.
Obsessing Over
Making friendship Bracelets for the Eras Tour, which I attended on Night One of Dublin (which I posted about here!). Once I’d finally figured out how to not have the beads go flying absolutely everywhere, I started getting the hang of things!
Also, I’m completely finished Bridgerton, and am just finished Lost Season 3 and attempting to not have spoilers, I have become QUITE attached to a lot of the characters. I’m watching it with my boyfriend who was very obsessed with it when we first met, back in 2006, which means I’m getting to be able to discuss the episodes as I go without fear of online forums absolutely spoiling everything. (And it turns out, having my own Is-There-Someone-Getting-Hit-By-A-Car-Head-On alert person is an excellent choice).
Recommending
If you’ve ever been a fan of Gavin and Stacey, Rob Brydon (who plays the excellent Bryn) doing an Uncle Bryn version of “Please Please Please” by Sabrina Carpenter is an excellent watch.
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(If you are not familiar with the barn dance scene they have referenced, I highly recommend checking that out here).
Treating
Being at the Era’s Tour was quite a treat in itself, spending the weekend with my boyfriend, my brother and his girlfriend, and the following day the rest of my family at a lovely (obviously rainy) BBQ housewarming, that absolutely felt like a treat. My body disagrees quite staunchly; not being able to walk properly for a few days afterwards did feel like it was quite punishing but it did occur to me just how much I have come on in the last few years, as I previously wouldn’t have been able to cope AT ALL with four hours of standing, and certainly wouldn’t be able to drive to Kilkenny and back on top, and go to work as usual that week afterwards with just an extra few ibuprofen. If anything, from what I saw online, I had only slightly above the level of “normal” pain post all that standing, and dancing, and singing my heart out with ALL of the emotions that came with it. AND we got the night where it didn’t rain AT ALL, which obviously felt like a treat in and of itself, given the current definition of an Irish Summer.
Speaking of treating, well, I finally got my neck pain procedure done, long awaited, but also had a hell of a pain flare beforehand which meant my mood really, really dipped. I have never been so grateful for local anesthetic, which is a message I conveyed quite a lot to my very lovely pain management consultant who was the man with the nice medication. These procedures tend to cause a flare up afterwards so I had been afraid of the aftermath, but the first few days were actually much better than the week before, and it was only after a few days that the niggle started kicking in. I’ve got a second pain procedure lined up for this week - this time a bilateral nerve ablation of my lumbar facet and sacroiliac joints (FUN!), which while it will have a bit of a rougher recovery to it, these procedures have given me my standard of life back. I used to have to get these injections a lot more often, this is the first time in THREE YEARS that I’ve had to get this done which feels pretty damn miraculous (The miracle of modern medicine and an excellent pain management team!).
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So, that was the last month - how has yours been? I’d love to hear any of your recommendations or even the books you found weren’t quite worth the hype, what videos have been making you laugh, anything that has brought some brightness into what isn’t really in any way a bright time. Let me know in the comments below!
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never have i been so honored!!! thank you times one million billion this was the most fun!! all the love to this, my new fav newsletter!!
Such a fun format..very enjoyable..currently reading Graham Norton Forever Home,I love his quintessentially Irish characters..