August Book Haul
There are really only two things I love buying - books and groceries.
Both of these keep me alive.
Here’s what I have purchased this month:
August 5th
Waterstones @ Piccadilly
Lessons - Ian McEwan
Prominently featured on the front table - no preconceived notions.
“When the world was still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain had closed, young Roland Baines’s life was turned upside down. 2,000 miles from his mother’s protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracted piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade.
Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life.” - Waterstones
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
Familiar with the title but one I had no idea of what it was about before picking it up. Enchanting title, let’s see what I think about the content.
“A young woman is in love with a successful surgeon; a man torn between his love for her and his womanising. His mistress, a free-spirited artist, lives her life as a series of betrayals; while her other lover stands to lose everything because of his noble qualities. In a world where lives are shaped by choices and events, and everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance and weight - and we feel 'the unbearable lightness of being'.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being encompasses passion and philosophy, infidelity and ideas, the Prague Spring and modern America, political acts and private desires, comedy and tragedy - in fact, all of human existence.” - Waterstones
Tuesdays With Morrie - Mitch Albom
There were several books on the summer reading list going into my Freshman year of high school. One of them was The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. I remember reading this in the back seat of my Nana’s car as we drove around delivering “Meals on Wheels” and crying my eyes out. It was the first book that ever made me cry.
I can’t find it now, but I am fairly certain in a somewhat recent post my friend Sandra commented on this book being a top choice for her, so I had to get it.
“Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher or a colleague?
Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, and gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it?
For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago.
Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you?
Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Mitch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final 'class': lessons in how to live.” - Waterstones
William Blake vs The World - John Higgs
I only subscribe to two newsletters and enjoy them both immensely (The Cereal Aisle by Leandra Medine Cohen is the one not discussed here).
In his December 23rd Newsletter, Austin Kleon mentions this book and it’s been in my mental file cabinet ever since. I am actually not familiar with William Blake as an artist, save for one book of his I thumbed through shortly after purchasing this one, but the description itself was interesting.
“Poet, artist, visionary and author of the unofficial English national anthem 'Jerusalem', William Blake is an archetypal misunderstood genius. In this radical new biography, we return to a world of riots, revolutions and radicals, discuss movements from the Levellers of the sixteenth century to the psychedelic counterculture of the 1960s, and explore the latest discoveries in neurobiology, quantum physics and comparative religion to look afresh at Blake's life and work - and, crucially, his mind. Taking the reader on wild detours into unfamiliar territory, John Higgs places the bewildering eccentricities of a most singular artist into context and shows us how Blake can help us better understand ourselves.” - Waterstones
Hatchard’s
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
A favourite of the Field sister that they had recommended probably almost a decade ago? I saw another of Kingsolver’s books promoted at Waterstones but they didn’t have any copies of Poisonwood available so I went to Hatchard’s to pick up a copy.
“This story is told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it - from garden seeds to Scripture - is calamitously transformed on African soil.” - Hatchard’s
A little cup of cocoa on the way home from book shopping
August 12th
Oxfam in Bethnal Green
The High Mountains of Portugal - Yann Martel
My friend Mariana and I were going to Hackney City Farm for Hackney Drawing Club and stopped by a few charity shops to peruse the book section. She found two options to take with her on her upcoming travels and I chose just one selection.
I reflected on reading Martel’s The Life of Pi years ago - I took it very literally and only upon reading the very last page understood the true nature of the story. I really enjoyed it and hope this title is as compelling.
Aug 19th
Italian Lessons by Isabetta Andolini
I started following Isabetta on Instagram a few weeks ago - her stories are a perfectly curated coastal Italian aesthetic.
She is actually the dream - has spent a few years living in Italy. She is an author and photographer. Excited to dig into this first book of her’s!
If her visions of photography translate into her writing - I know I will love it.
I’ve slotted these onto the “unread” shelf which is now up to 54 books.
😮😮
So, it might take awhile to get through these but I look forward to reaching each!
