June Review

What I've been reading, writing, watching, and listening to this month

Photo by Ana Cruz on Unsplash

It’s time for this month’s review of the best reading, watching, and listening!  This is an extra end-of-the-month post for all subscribers.  

In case you missed it, June is officially Pride month!

The sun may have been reluctant to show itself this summer so far in the UK, but at least the myriad of rainbow flags around my local area have brightened up my daily walks 😀 

I wrote this month about Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando and the follow-up thread on recommended LGBTQ+ books for Pride month was illuminating!  I now have several on order through my local library.  Thank you to everyone who got involved, and if you missed it, it’s not too late to leave a recommended read. 

There has also been a lot of election campaigning going on around the upcoming General Election in the UK this month, not to mention a certain football tournament…leading me to retreat into the much more soothing pastimes of reading, writing, and practising yoga in an effort to tune out the noise…

This has led to me re-evaluating my work here and my writing habits in general.

This month, I have finally started working on my first book.  It’s something I’ve been procrastinating over since I completed my Masters.  The problem has never been finding the research or coming up with the ideas to form the basis of the book.  The issue, if I’m honest, is making the time and space to actually work on the book.  Also, the confidence to get started, and the procrastination that that inevitably brings.

I often find myself inexplicably cleaning out the freezer, or any mindless job I can make for myself rather than sitting down at the keyboard and staring at a blank page.  The white space of the screen can be terrifying when you have that little voice of doubt on your shoulder, telling you that your time might be better spent decluttering your wardrobe…

I regularly convince myself that I will return to the book writing ‘next week’ when I’m more ‘motivated’.  But that motivation often escapes me, and the cycle repeats itself.

Can you relate?

Forever a naysayer when it comes to morning writing routines, I finally decided that I had to do something to spur me on, and so I have committed to working on my book every morning after my cup of coffee (I have some limits).  And I have to report that so far, I have been consistent!  

I am happy to report that I am around fifty pages into the manuscript.  It may be fifty pages of drivel (I am too scared to read it back just yet) but it is well on its way and I have consistently stuck to the writing schedule.

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

This is where I have to mention my paid subscription tier.  I am not good at marketing myself (I don’t think most creatives are) but in an effort to devote more time to my writing and research into what I see as important discoveries about women’s words and lives, I am looking at how to push myself out of my comfort zone.  

I operate this newsletter as a labour of love alongside another part-time work role.  I also want to continue to allow my research and writing open to all, and so am attempting to do this on a patron model. For this reason, my Sunday essays will always remain free.  Some of you have already signed up for a paid subscription, and for that, I will be eternally grateful.  For someone who didn’t even have the confidence to share my writing until after the age of forty, it really means something that so many of you have signed up for a free or paid subscription.

I am, however, going to trial opening up my monthly review posts for paying subscribers from next month.  This is in an effort to allow me to continue spending time on research for both this newsletter and my book writing. 

As a reminder, my paid subscriptions come in at less than £2 per month for a yearly subscription (£20 a year), and at £3.50 for the monthly set up, you can dip your toe in the water and give it a try!  If you sign up at this price, it will never increase as long as you remain a subscriber, and you can of course cancel at any time.   

As always, if this isn’t something you can commit to right now, a free subscription is also welcome!  As someone who eschews all social media, with Substack as my only platform to share my work, I am also grateful for any shares, likes, and comments from readers.  

Phew!  Now that I’ve got the awkward stuff out of the way…here is my round up of reading, watching, and listening for this month: 

Books I’ve read this month

The Family Tabor by Cherise Wolas

This was an unusual and in depth novel about Harry and Roma Tabor and their three grown children as they return to the family home with their partners and children to celebrate their father receiving ‘The Man of the Decade’ award.  The story explores themes around secrets, faith, and the strength of familial love.  I enjoyed the book and Wolas is a gifted writer who takes her time to explore each family member’s story and motivation.  She has been compared to JD Salinger and Joan Didion, so an author to watch out for.

Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer (also titled: Monsters: What do we do with great art by bad people?)

Born off the back of Dederer’s viral essay ‘What do we do with the art of monstrous men?’, this full length book of essays examines how we reconcile the bad behaviour (and downright abuse) committed by our heroes.  At the top of the tree as far as ‘Monsters’ go, she examines Picasso’s abuse of his models and muses; Polanski’s rape of thirteen-year-old Samantha Gailey; and Woody Allen’s relationship with Mia Farrow’s high-school aged daughter, Soon-Yi.  She conflates this against their undeniably ‘genius’ work, describing her book as a ‘biography of the audience’.

Dederer doesn’t just focus her attention on the male monsters; she also delves into themes around the disenchantment of teenage fans of Harry Potter following JK Rowling’s tweets, and Virginia Woolf’s anti-semitism, as well as other questionable female writers and artists.    

What I found most interesting here was the examination of women artists who have abandoned their children, and she pauses here for some time in order to question her own life choices, and whether, to become a truly ‘genius’ writer, she would have needed to follow in their footsteps.  She examines the narrative I have alluded to often in my own work of the ways in which women’s mothering often comes before their art, and it feels as though Dederer hit a particularly rich vein within these essays.  

Dederer is one of my favourite contemporary essayists, and having read her other two books of memoir (Poser and Love and Trouble), I can confirm that here, as in all her work, I find her candid, revelatory admissions of imperfection refreshing.

What I’m currently reading

I have just started Alan Hollinghurst’s The Swimming Pool Library, which has been recommended to me several times in recent months by other Substack writers, including in my recent Pride thread.  I am enjoying diving into it so far…(sorry) and will report back in next month’s review.  

Photo by NIM on Unsplash

What I want to read

I can’t wait to get my hands on this book, Sandwich, all about midlife from writer Catherine Newman.

Essays I’ve been reading this month

This piece on LitHub asks ten debut LGBTQ+ authors for the books that shaped them as writers, as well as this essay examining the life of seventeenth-century Queen Christina of Sweden, the gender nonconformist monarch.

This piece by Emma Copley Eisenberg on Electric Literature about her new novel Housemates, the story of a queer road trip across Pennsylvania.  

I loved this piece in the London Review of Books about the Village Voice by Vivian Gornick, delightfully titled: ‘Orgasm isn’t my bag’.  

I enjoyed this Medium post about growing up in Hampstead in the 1970s and 80s, sent to me by a reader following my recent post on the Hampstead novel. 

This piece entitled ‘What to read when you only have half an hour’ in The Atlantic by Celine Nguyen explores the joys of short stories.  

This review caught my attention, about a memoir written by Griffin Dunne- the nephew of the late Joan Didion and John Dunne- all about his family and Hollywood.

The author of the brilliant Flâneuse Lauren Elkin, has written her first novel Scaffolding- another one onto my wish list!

And the winners of the inaugural Women’s Prize for Nonfiction and Women’s Prize for Fiction have been announced.

What I’ve been watching this month

I came across a fantastic documentary, Maya Angelou at the BBC, on the life and work of Maya Angelou on the tenth anniversary of her death, available now on BBC iPlayer. 

I also discovered an episode of Reel Stories on the BBC, featuring the legend that is Jon Bon Jovi.  What many may not realise (and I am now going to confess) is that I was a rock band fanatic back in the day, playing both vinyl and cassette recordings of the long-haired legends Bon Jovi throughout my angsty teenage years.  This show was a great discovery, and I look forward to checking out more musical guests in the future. 

What I’ve been listening to this month

I have returned to my teenage self this month with an indulgent (and lengthy) playlist of rock gods Bon Jovi on Spotify (see above).  

Keep the Faith ‘til next time, friends 😂

I’d love to know what you’ve been loving this month- let me know in the comments.