Tag Archives: Music
I didn’t mean to disappear…
… but once the initial euphoria of having a job again wore off I was beset by doubts.
Could I juggle everything. A full-time job, a dog, a mother in a nursing home, a life, a blog …
I retreated for a while, and I spent my evenings just reading and listening to music. New music, found via the lovely medium of artist radio on last.fm.
And after a few days I realised that I had to do this. That I had to sing the praises of the lovely books I’m reading. As soon as I stopped thinking about what I would write the words and the ideas began to form in my head again, quite naturally.
I just need to find a little more self-belief, and maybe to think as little bit less.
Things may be a little quieter than they were, but I’m still here.
I have a plan for next week. And here it is, interspersed with some of the things I’ve been listening to.
Monday: A novel published last year, that spins around an early twentieth century icon to tell the tale of a very different woman who crossed her path. It was very nearly perfect …
Three sisters from Watford offered up the first new piece of music that caught my ear. It seemed very timely, and now it is lodged in my head …
Tuesday: An extraordinary work of non fiction: London at war brought to life through the the letters, diaries and fiction of five remarkable writers. I can’t find the word to explain how wonderful this is yet, but I will …
I was on the other side of the room when I heard a voice coming out of my computer, and I was smitten …
Wednesday: Briar returns, with another game of guessing the blogger from five of their books…
I thought this was going to be a little too folky for me, but I was charmed. And The Leisure Society sound rather like Belle and Sebastian in their more up-tempo moments, and that has to be a good thing …
Thursday: A first encounter with a familiar name from the early part of the twentieth century, that left me eager to read more of his work but uncertain about what I should read next …
I loved Natasha Khan’s first record, I was a little less taken with her second, and her third passed me by. Until I heard this …
Friday: A gothic romance from the seventies, set in Cornwall. The perfect book for a cold, damp, dark night like tonight. Unless I change my mind, and pick up another book, of course …
A Musical Interlude …
… because for no particular reason I had a browse through my loved tracks on last.fm, and I must share one that I hadn’t heard for such a long time.
It’s still beautiful, and it still makes me cry …
In July …
I spent some time in Paris.
With books.
Monsier Montespan by Jean Teulé – An interesting book. A very different take on French history. A great book for somebody, but not really the book for me.
13, rue Thérèse by Elena Mauli Shapiro: Not the book I expected, but something much more interesting. And utterly intriguing.
The Ladies’ Paradise by Émile Zola: The book for which the expression flawed but fabulous was invented. I’m still pondering which Zola to read next.
With music.
From Charlotte Gainsbourg, from Novelle Vague, and from Françoise Hardy.
But I didn’t spend as much time in Paris as I had intended.
I was distracted by Orange July.
Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch – I picked this one up and put it down a few times before I made it through. A great book, but definitely a book that needs the right moment.
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer – I’ve been progressing slowly through this one, and I have to say that it is quite wonderful.
A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan – It was love, quite against my expectations.
There were other books too. I can’t read to plan too much, I have to read the books that call.
The Crime Fiction Alphabet came to an end.
And I’ve had one or two other distractions. Job hunting. A home study course to bring me a little more up to date in one or two areas. A battle with BT to get our phone line fixed. Life …
But now it’s August – my month for getting organised!
I’ve already boxed up all of my outgoing books and put them on ReadItSwapIt and I’ve reorganised my bookcase of Virago Modern Classics and made sure they are all recorded on LibraryThing.
Bibliotherapy can come in many different forms!
Fleur in her World 