reading round-up
π I'm doing Blaugust this year. This is 11/? posts.
I couldn't keep up with my weeknotes this year but I enjoyed writing them :( especially the media round-ups - books and film - as I found I often had something to say if I sat down and thought about it for a second or two. So here are the books I've been reading recently, and some other book related content.
Riders by Jilly Cooper - Maybe a bit extreme, but I feel like I should make a public apology for halfheartedly recommending this in a previous post. While the writing can be entertaining in a pulpy, page-turner way, I do think this epitomises some of the worst things about the 80s and Britain - classism, sexism, rape culture. Jilly Coopers internal misogyny comes through really strongly here with some terrible writing about weight - female characters are obsessed with weight and what men think about them. That's it.
In retrospect, I can only recommend this book as a bit of fun if you can look past this stuff. I don't think it's undamaging, especially as this stuff is resurging in British culture... In that light, the recent spate of Jilly Cooper adaptations starts to look more sinister and regressive, even though they've sanded the worst edges off. Actually, because they've sanded the worst edges off as well - it makes it more palatable. Maybe if we were further away from this as a society instead of back sliding I could read it and laugh.
If you want a more light-hearter look and to read some of the more ridiculous quotes check out this article: βRidersβ: Which Is Worse, Lousy In Bed Or Canβt Ride? (and she can be funny! it just doesn't make up for everything else).
All Consuming by Ruby Tandoh - I bought this new as a substitute for buying her new book Ice Cream City (a guide to the best ice cream places in London) which looks so cool (really, check out the cover) but I can't justify buying as someone who doesn't live there and rarely visits. I wanted to like this but I'm finding it a bit of a slog - maybe because I lived through it? Maybe because I don't find there's much insight given on food trends beyond what I already knew? Maybe because reading about tiktok trends is actually very boring if you're not on there?
Actually, the last chapter about cookbooks was interesting - summarising some influential cookbooks and their authors. There was also an interesting chapter contrasting Duncan Hinesβ Adventures in Good Eating and The Green Book to talk about the differences between white and black American dining and travelling experiences. I'll persevere.
A Close and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers - I borrowed the first in this series, A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, from a friend who immediately lent me the second one when I returned it.
Lovelace was once merely a ship's artificial intelligence. When she wakes up in an new body, following a total system shut-down and reboot, she has to start over in a synthetic body, in a world where her kind are illegal. She's never felt so alone.
But she's not alone, not really. Pepper, one of the engineers who risked life and limb to reinstall Lovelace, is determined to help her adjust to her new world. Because Pepper knows a thing or two about starting over.
I really enjoy the world building in these books, with a whole host of aliens, places and customs to get immersed in. The main criticism I read about these books is that the stakes are low and there's not enough conflict, but I'm enjoying an easy and fun read. I'm also finding the alternating chapters, and the unfolding story of Pepper's past to be engrossing - enough that I don't want to put the book down after reading my nighttime couple of chapters. Sometimes I think I'd like to see a little more... depth? or weirdness? the characters can come across as very normal and unrealistically self-aware, and I think I enjoy an inner voice than captures the messiness more. That's not the style of this book though, and for the most part that's fine. (Note to self- I should finish my post on What am I, a deer? by Polly Barton and link it here as an inner voice example).
I've also been reading Chris B's Booker Prize Longlist 2026 reviews which has made me want to check them out and maybe attempt to read them all myself... the hold queues for most of them at my local library range from 40 to 500 people though π±
Came across the Eden society books in my local bookshop and I'm so tempted to buy them... They are beautiful, and the conceit is right up my street:
The Eden Book Society is a literary hoax perpetrated by Dead Ink in order to create a playground for today's horror authors to let their imaginations run wildThe Eden Book Society was a publishing house which produced horror novelettes for a private list of subscribers from its inception in 1919 until 2006, presided over by the Eden family... Dead Ink secured the rights to the Eden archive - a century of unseen horror, written under pseudonyms by some of the greatest authors of their day - and will reissue The 1993 Collection later this year: eight vintage horror novellas, never previously available to the public. Join us as we bring a century of unseen horror out into the light...
Another purchase I'm tempted by, Ex.Mag Volume 7 from Peow2. It's a witch themed comic anthology including work by Jillian Takami and Jane Mai, which sounds fantastic. The only thing holding me back is how expensive the UK shipping is likely to be.