June Wrap Up

We’re over half way through 2017.

Can we all take a second for an obligatory: whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!

Summer is well and truly here, and I am blogging from a slightly rotting bench in our garden with hair that still smells like last night’s barbecue.

Things could be worse.

So, this month I reviewed:

The Good Immigrant – Ed. by Nikesh Shukla

Thoughts: A really vital book I have since recommended to basically everyone I know. I especially think any UK readers should order this one. So much of what we read about race is through an American lens, and I think that can lead us white Brits to the assumption of racism as an ‘American problem’  – like obesity and electing reality TV presidents – but that is not the case. We have real systemic issues that must be dealt with.

Kindred Spirits – Rainbow Rowell

Thoughts: An adorable story of nerd culture and romance. 5 stars.

The Name of the Star – Maureen Johnson

Thoughts: It’s kind of like Gilmore Girls meets Buffy. What else could you possibly want?

The Madness Underneath – Maureen Johnson

Thoughts: If you need to distract yourself from life, I recommend hammer weilding ghosts. This series does the escapism trick well.

The Shadow Cabinet – Maureen Johnson

Thoughts: A wing of British government… and a ghost fighting organisation!

 

After spending the earlier months of the year avoiding it a bit – variety is important! – YA has become such a haven for me lately as the world just keeps getting worse. While I think it is important to be informed, when I feel like my brain is going to melt there’s really nothing better than a series about ghost hunting teenagers.

OTHER THAN BOOKS: Some recommendations that you didn’t ask for…

To watch: THIS Soul Pancake series about dating, hosted by perhaps the most adorable man alive. It’s a really lovely show about the universal issues of dating but without the heteronormative lens through which we normally experience… basically everything.

To read: Betty Gilpin of GLOW on ‘What it’s like to have pea-sized confidence with watermelon-sized boobs’. Whatever the size of your boobs I think you’ll find something in this beautiful, vulnerable piece on self confidence (or lack thereof. As someone who wore oversized sweatshirts in the height of summer until she was 18, I can certainly relate).

To listen: Melodrama, obviously.