What I’ve been reading…
by Anna Hewitt
I often get emails from friends asking what I have been reading lately, and there is nothing I love more than discussing books and how people felt about them. It doesn’t need to be an in depth literary analysis, deciding who would be the biggest babe of all the characters is just fine by me!
So here we have what I have read since I last posted about reading. Besides from my beautiful new copy of Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries…
I just finished NW by Zadie Smith this morning. I enjoyed it, but not as much as her last two, On Beauty is such a great novel. I really enjoyed The Flame Thrower by Rachel Kushner but want to find someone to discuss the ending with. It was one of those ones where you turn the page and are surprised it is over. Goodbye Sarajevo is written by two sisters Hana Schofield and Atka Reid who escaped from the Bosnian war and came to New Zealand as refugees. It made me realise how little I know about the conflict, despite having been to the countries effected while backpacking round Europe. I also got on a San Francisco buzz and read The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, a novel spanning generations of Chinese immigrants to the city. And a more contemporary take on the city, society and the impact of technology on our interactions, David Egger’s The Circle. To top this off, I have just finished the manuscript of a friend’s first book, very exciting!
Any recommendations of what to read next?
I loved Kate Atkinson’s ‘Life After Life’. I read it in a day.
I read that earlier in the year and loved it, the first Kate Atkinson book I have read. Can you recommend anything else by her? Thanks for stopping by! Anna x
It was my first too! I always find the blurbs for her novels really badly written, so I only picked up ‘Life After Life’ after a friend recommended it. She’s also recommended ‘Human Croquet’ and ‘Behind the Scenes at the Museum’. I’m about to start ‘Human Croquet’. 🙂 Have you read any Sarah Waters books? She’s wonderful and ‘The Night Watch’ is quite similar to ‘Life After Life’ x
I am a huge Kate Atkinson fan … Her Case Histories series is great. I have just started ‘The Things They Carried’ with my Y13s and am enjoying teaching something new. I am about to start reading ‘The Last Days of the National Costume’ (Anne Kennedy) – Liz Steer’s choice for bookclub…
I will be very interested to hear what you think of ‘The Last Days…’- it drove me absolutely crazy! I couldn’t stand it!
I will track down another Kate Atkinson tomorrow, thanks for the recommendations.
Lovely to hear from you! x
I have heard similar things about ‘The Last Days …’ from a number of people. I’ll let you know how reading it goes.