It’s been a while since I did one of these miscellanies, I think. In the UK, pandemic restrictions start to lift in a couple of days, so it’s quite an exciting feeling – on the edge of being able to go inside friends’ homes and hug them etc! (My least favourite kind of tweet is the “Weren’t we all doing this anyway?” variety. No, most of us were doing all we could to stop the spread of the virus.) Of course, we shan’t all be dashing back to normal life on Monday, but this weekend does feel like the end of something.
I’m still waiting for my first vaccination, though it should only be a few weeks now. And hoping my current spate of dizziness/eye soreness goes away – it’s now a year since all my health stuff started, and I’m no closer to a diagnosis, but generally it is all very, very slowly improving. Praise God, there were only a couple weeks where I couldn’t read at all – at the moment, I just have to steer clear of small print.
ANYWAY, that’s a whistle-stop update. Let’s get onto the book, the blog post, and the link:
1.) The blog post – It’s a vlog post, but I wanted to share a review of O, The Brave Music from Lil’s Vintage World – one of my favourite Booktubers. I so love seeing people discover this book, particularly, from all the British Library Women Writers series.
2.) The link – On Twitter, Marina Sofia shared an excellent article by Alexander Larman in The Critic: ‘A Radical Proposal: Book reviews should review books‘. It has always irked me that broadsheet reviews, especially of non-fiction, scarcely engage with the quality of the book in question. One of the many reasons I prefer reading bloggers – though the bloggers vs newspaper reviewers debate has died down a little of late, hasn’t it?
3.) The book – One of the few still-publishing novelists I love is Jenn Ashworth. I still have a couple of her back catalogue unread on my shelves, but that doesn’t stop me being excited about Ghosted, coming out in June. Find out more at Jenn’s website.
Hi Simon, sorry to hear you are still having health issues. Random question, but have you had your Vitamin D levels checked? In 2015 I experienced constant dizziness for 6 mo yes or more, had terrible aches and pains in legs, heart palpitations and sore eyes. Doctors did all kinds of tests and the only thing they discovered “wrong” was that I had bone-deficient levels of vitamin D (ie basically no vitamin d). They didn’t think this was the issue, but after being put on a three-month heavy dose prescription of Vitamin D all my symptoms went away! This may not be related to your issues, but it’s worth investigating because having read a LOT about Vit D now it’s clear that the medical establishment tends to overlook how vital it is to our general health and well being.
Thanks Kim! Tbh I don’t know all the things they tested me for, because there were so many and I lost track. Based on the pattern of illness and the other symptoms, they think it is something viral – but who knows. My theory is long covid, cos that covers more or less any symptom….
I try not to give away too much of the plot, particularly of mysteries and thrillers when I review them on my blog, ThePassionateReader.blog. I prefer to concentrate on the writing style, the characterizations, and the sometimes important lessons I learn from my reading. Just reading Barbara Kingsolver’s, Flight Behavior,which combines wonderful prose with colourful characters and a potent message
And I bought it the other day!
The New Statesman and Guardian still do a decent job of reviewing books, although they do tend to review the SAME books which is slightly annoying! And I haven’t dashed into anyone’s home as yet, I have to say. In fact, now I come to think of it, I haven’t actually left the house today!
Something I find amusing about the Guardian, online at least, is that they give star ratings to theatre, films etc but for some reason not books…