Book Chat - Issue #21
Comfort reading, comfort eating
Hello reading friends!
Happy new year to you all. I hope you survived the holidays and are finding some time to read and relax.
I’m always a bit restless at this time of year. The absence of any structure is freeing, but I find myself half doing chores and being easily distracted. We have been staying at home and that involves too much sitting and eating, and the weather has not lent itself to gardening lately. Too much rain.
I’ve been spending lots of time looking for the perfect read, but find it difficult to settle or read anything too demanding. So instead I’ve settled for comfort reading and comfort eating.
Bad? I don’t think so…
What I’ve been reading
I read three books in the last two weeks but I must confess to doing some speed-reading at times. This involves skipping forward and reading very quickly to the end to find out what happened. It’s a bad habit and all the books deserved more attention, but as I said, I’m very easily distracted at the moment.
My favourite read was Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto, a delightful book and an easy read. It’s about a wedding photographer who accidentally kills a man on a blind date and then tries to cover up the murder with the help of her four Chinese-Indonesian aunts, all of whom are very competitive and quite funny. It’s a bit farcical in places (think Weekend at Bernies), but the details about the Chinese-Indonesian wedding are quite fascinating. I would recommend this book if you want something very light and a bit different.
What I’ve been listening to
People often ask me when I get time to listen to podcasts, and the truth is that I often listen in the middle of the night. Sometimes I wake up and start ruminating about various issues and then toss and turn for ages, so listening to a podcast helps distract me and drift off again. I don’t always make it through to the end, but that’s ok.
This episode of Desert Island Discs features writer and television producer Richard Osman, author of The Thursday Murder Club is both fascinating and sad in places. Richard talks openly about his childhood and issues with food, but also about his uncanny knack for thinking up ideas for new shows and books.
A new game
You may have already heard about this great new game that’s been capturing the internet by storm. If you love word games check out Wordle.
It was invented by Josh Wardle for his wife to play during lockdown and it’s free, but addictive.
What I’ve been baking
I intended to make these almond and cranberry biscuits for Christmas but I was too tired/hot/busy, so I made them for morning tea last week when a friend came over.
The recipe is a bit fiddly and involves roasting your own almonds, but it was worth it because the biscuits were delicious. We just ate the last two.
That’s all for now!
Keep well and keep reading,
Marg xxx
I think I've said this to you before, but I also listen to podcasts in the middle of the night. It's like a lullaby...I'm usually sleeping again in 2 minutes! Which means I actually don't end up listening to many. I have a roster of podcasts that are interesting, but if I drift off I'm OK with that.