February 2021 Reading Round Up + Podcasts
Posted 19th March 2021
Category: Round-Ups Genres: N/A
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I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog. One of my rabbits has required two emergancy vet visits in as many months, having also had an issue at Christmas which we just managed to catch before it became urgent. It’s a common intestinal issue, GI Statis, where if you don’t treat or catch it early enough the rabbit dies. It’s been constant stress and rushing around and now we’re waiting for blood test results to see if we can find out what’s going wrong. Suffice to say February and March have been overwhelming and my read list is a bit… sparse.
But I did get some reading done, three books that I very much enjoyed, and I hope to review the two that were new reads.
The Books
Non-Fiction
Catherine Cho: Inferno – A short while after giving birth to her first child, Cho was sent to an involuntary psych ward in the US (she was visiting from the UK) having experienced Post Partum Psychosis; she details the experience, interwoven with the events to the run up. Stunning book; Cho’s story needs reading widely and her handling of the literature side of things is phenomenal.
Fiction
Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen: Secret Passages In A Hillside Town – Mundane, boring, Ollie, who lives in his own world and doesn’t even seem to know or care what his son’s name is, has a blast from the past when a past lover adds him as a friend on Facebook and Ollie starts to be imbroiled in a present-day version of his fantastical childhood. Fantastic, strange, out and out weird – I still haven’t worked it all out but there’s no question; it’s amazing.
Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen: The Rabbit Back Literature Society – Ella becomes the long-awaited 10th member of a society that involves the country’s greatest writers – but are they the greatest writers, really? A very good look at ideas and writing in general.
I had a ball with my February reading. Three excellent books. The categories are incomparable and I couldn’t pretend to choose a favourite.
So far in March I have read one book and have tentatively started another. I’m going to continue doing what I am and taking it one day at a time.
Two podcasts today as I’m behind in posting them here. Email and RSS subscribers: you may need to open this post in your browser to see the media players below.
Charlie and Susmita Bhattacharya (Table Manners; also The Normal State Of Mind) discuss her world-wide travel and moves abroad – including a visa-less stopover, the experiences of recent immigrants to Britain, and having your work featured and serialised on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra.
Charlie and Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen (The Rabbit Back Literature Society; Secret Passages In A Hillside Town) discuss dreams that become literature – vampires; books where words and plot points change in a sort of book plague; secret passages that wipe your memory, and many more – writing a book that’s difficult for a reader to work out and not knowing yourself what the answer is, creepy and traumatic fictional games, and issuing an alternative ending to your novel in a brand new publication.
To see all the details including links to other apps, the episode pages can be found here.
March 21, 2021, 6:32 pm
I am so sorry to hear your rabbit has been poorly Charlie and I hope they will be all better soon. Also great to hear with all that going on that you were still able to enjoy three excellent books. Take care and happy reading in March 🙂
March 25, 2021, 4:12 pm
Sorry to hear about the rabbit, Charlie! It’s so upsetting when a pet is ill, so I hope he/she gets well soon. Glad you enjoyed those three books!
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March 20, 2021, 2:35 pm
Secret Passages in a Hillside Town piques my curiosity. Weird can be good sometimes.
I hope you resolve the issues with your rabbit soon.