2018 is the year of 'reading books that have been on my shelf for ages that I really should read'.
Here's Part 2 of my reading list.
Read Part 1
Get a Life: The Diaries of Vivienne Westwood (2016)
Say what you like about Viv, love her or hate her, she’s anything but boring. I bloody love our Viv, Britain’s punk dame, and can often be found stroking the clothes in her Cardiff store.
She says what she thinks and does what she wants. Get a Life is six years’ worth of Viv’s diary entries, following her trips to tribal communities in the Amazon, visiting Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy or hanging out with her good pal Pamela Anderson. I can’t wait to get stuck into Viv’s world.
Hag-Seed is part of Hogarth Press’ Shakespeare series which reinterprets Shakie’s plays for modern day. Hag-Seed is Margaret Atwood's modern retelling of The Tempest. I can’t honestly remember ever having read The Tempest though there was one hazy term in the second year of my degree where I read a lot of Shakespeare while hungover so I can’t be sure.
At London Book Fair last year Jeanette Winterson gave a talk on The Gap of Time, her retelling of The Winter’s Tale. I did mean to go and immediately buy said novel but somehow Atwood’s contribution to the series was the first to end up on my shelf. I haven’t read as many of Atwood's novels as I’d like - though my ‘to read’ list is full of them. But if you haven’t, make sure you read The Robber Bride. You’ll love it.
This book was given to me as a gift by a previous colleague and treasured friend - and someone with impeccable taste in books. All I know of this novel is that it tells the story of John Wheelwright and his best friend Owen Meany growing up together in New Hampshire during the 1950s and 60s. The only reason I haven’t read it yet is because it’s quite chunky and I want to have plenty of time to read it and enjoy it. I want to savour every word.
Another that needs no introduction, I’m ashamed that I’ve never got around to reading this book. When the magnificent Maya passed away in 2014 I resolved to finally read this memoir of her early years yet somehow, it still hasn’t happened. This iconic story follows Maya’s life from age three through to 16. I think it’s the troubling subject matters of rape, racism, violence against women, class issues, and child abuse that have probably stopped me from reading it before now. So this year’s it’s time to finally get stuck in.
Anyone who’s asked me about books in the last two years will have been subjected to a 10-minute monologue about Elena Ferrante and her epic tale of female friendship.
I read My Brilliant Friend on a Greek beach in 2015, followed by The Story of a New Name a week later. By the time I got around to purchasing books 3 and 4 in the series the sun had set on the summer and I couldn’t face picking them up again. Set in mid-century Italy, the books the saga of two women, Elena and Lila, growing up in violent, male-dominated Naples. As their lives diverge, the friendship weakens, changes, grows, but they never quite separate. To me, these books must be read on hot, sticky days.
I went back to book 3 last summer but busy life meant I didn’t get to book 4 before the weather turned cold again. To read about fiery, seductive Naples on a cold, windy day can’t be done. This May I’m heading off to Italy for 10 days to drag my other half around old cities I haven’t been to since I was a child and to spend hours on trains chugging through the countryside so I’m going to be an absolute cliche and read the last book then. Though I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to Elena and Lila yet. Maybe 2019 will be the year I re-read them all.
What's on your reading list for this year?
What's on your reading list for this year?
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