Well, hello.
For anyone new here, this is my monthly round-up of what I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to: everything, in short, that’s been giving me life.
Normally, these links round-ups tilt thematically towards fertility, loss, and motherhood. But since miscarriage number 5 last month, I’ve needed a bit of distance from those particular subjects, inevitably. I’ve postponed listening to the final episodes of The Retrievals, for example. And I’ve got this post by the reliably excellent Annabel, of Maybehood, saved to read when I’m ready.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this week’s dose of gentle escapism, especially if you, too, have been forced into a strange, late-summer hibernation. And please do share your own gentle reads, watches, listens in the comments, if you fancy.
P.S. If you are finding back-to-school week a bit hard on your heart, here is something I wrote about this particular season a few years ago.
Reading/watching/listening…
Romantic Comedy, by Curtis Sittenfeld. Love in the time of corona! This was very, very enjoyable – about a TV writer, Sally, who meets a rockstar musician, Noah, when he’s the guest host on the sketch show she works for (a very thinly disguised Saturday Night Live). Noting how one of her (distinctly average) male colleagues has just started dating an incredibly hot female movie star, Sally pitches a sketch about how the reverse would never happen: the hot man falling for an unglamorous woman. The only problem is…is Noah flirting with her? Delightful.
The Burning Chambers, by Kate Mosse. Because what could be more gently escapist than some historical fiction, with a backdrop of religious persecution and Toulouse’s torture chambers? 🤷🏻
Slow Horses, by Mick Herron. This – the first in a series of British spy thrillers – is very much not my usual beat and more a gesture of marital goodwill. I let Dan talk me into the TV adaptation (Apple TV+) and, because I love him, I have now agreed to listen to the first three books so we can dissect the third series together when it’s released in autumn.
I enjoyed this episode of Radio 4’s Open Book on Elizabeth Jane Howard, to mark the centenary of her birth.
📺 Colin From Accounts. (BBC iPlayer) For some reason, I’d decided in my head that this was an Australian version of The Office and so had studiously avoided any exhortation to watch it. Turns out: it’s got little to do with an accounts department and a lot to do with dogs and unlikely romance. Hurrah! It reminds me a little of LOVE (Netflix), which Dan and I watched in the heat of miscarriages one through four, when non-traumatic TV became incredibly important.
I’ve also, erm, been re-watching The Good Wife, while I cook dinner and hang laundry and the like. Mostly I’ve enjoyed spotting guest appearances I missed before: Pedro Pascal! America Ferrera! Succession’s Jeremy Strong! In glasses! The guy who plays George Costanza’s dad in Seinfeld! Sarita Choudhury, AKA Seema from And Just Like That!
On the subject of And Just Like That…The Guilty Feminist’s watch-along podcast is a lot of fun, if you’re the kind of person who enjoys intensely criticising a piece of culture that you also dearly and sincerely love. (Also: Host Deborah Frances-White has a grand unifying theory about the JW Anderson pigeon clutch bag and the crystal-embellished swan purse from SATC series 2 that is just 🤯).
I stumbled across the Practical Positivity podcast and it has been a well-timed hit of what I’ve needed this month.
Speaking of practical: How to make good decisions, by a Harvard professor.
This blessing, by Kate Bowler – which I found in my Instagram feed mid-miscarriage – made me cry (in a good way).
This is lovely: a love letter to the British summer.
As is this, by Marisa Bate, on the true romance of the gift of a pair of gardening secateurs.
To a friend who asks when she’ll feel like herself again, by Chloe Grace Laws.
Do your tired brain a favour and peruse this library of dahlia varieties for a soothing minute or two.
Is travel overrated? (In case you need to intellectualise away any residual FOMO at not having been anywhere this summer).
And last but not least – a bit meta this one – why do we love getting and giving recommendations so much? Do feel free to recommend something you’re reading/watching/etc via the box just here:
Other joys…
Finally getting the paddling pool out in September. Garden tomatoes cooked into a pasta sauce with anchovies and mascarpone (like this). Discovering that the best alcohol-free aperitivo comes from…Lidl. Formby beach. A wedding with old friends. Writing a list of things I’d like for my birthday. Choosing next year’s tulips. Washing that smells of sunshine.
And just in case you missed it…
And Just Like That’s fumbled pregnancy loss storyline
Thank you for the Open Book podcast recommendation. Elizabeth Jane Howard is one of my favourites.