I came across my idea of the perfect break recently. The bookcation. When you and a few select friends go on holiday together, pack your to-read pile, then spend all day, every day, just reading. Either separately or silently in each other’s company. Then you all meet up for dinner and tell each other about your book of the day. Whilst drinking wine, eating Thai food, smoking a pipe, or whatever you prefer. And the whole bookcation proceeds and ends like that. Does that sound like perfection or what? Or have I only just caught on and that’s what everyone’s already doing in their forties+ now?

Location would be some relaxing non-hectic place with green sprawling landscape, lovely woodland walks, a nice café or two nearby, not too many people, a little secluded. We’d stay in cabins. Or a cottage. It would be the end of summer, the onset of autumn, as the trees start to turn and there’s a chill in the air. You know, cosy bookish weather.

I felt so wistful thinking about this and also determined to make it happen at some point because reading’s all I like to do anyway when I have a spare moment (minus the pipe as I don’t own one, but feel free to pack yours) and it would be great to share the experience with a few carefully selected weirdos that feel as passionate about it as I do.

If you feel inspired to do this yourself having read it just here and then end up doing it before me, don’t tell me, that’ll make me envious and irk me off just a little bit, but I’ll probably forgive you and want to know all about it so let me know, okay?

With that said, here are my latest book recommendations . . .

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Quiet by Victoria Adukwei Bulley

I was halfway through this beautiful book when I attended a poetry workshop that serendipitously happened to have this poet on the panel! It’s hard for me not to fangirl when that happens. But she didn’t seem to mind. Anyway, this debut poetry collection of hers is, as I said, a beautiful read. Easy to follow and yet so layered. No words are wasted, each earns its place in the poem. She plays with form as well as language. I was actually reading whilst walking, something I don’t do often, but that’s how absorbing it was.

There are list poems, prose poems, poems that play with the space on the page, childhood memories, love poems. One of those that stood out for me was a deceptively simple poem called not quiet as in quiet but in which she lists all the different types of quiet – as in shy / as in slow to anger / as in the newborn is sleeping / as in no news is good news and so on. I love the list poem form, so not surprisingly, it sparked a poem in me and got me writing.

Another favourite of mine was note on exiting, which is probably one of the most powerful prose poems I’ve ever read. Here she puts into words the tiny brave steps one takes to finally extricate oneself from a situation which is not serving your growth. You’ll just have to read it for yourself, my explanation won’t do it justice.

She deals with heavy subjects in such a thoughtful considered way. Like how one is both exoticised and shunned, sometimes by men you like who look like you, who prefer women who look nothing like you. Like how to get used to being in one’s skin and adjust to one’s place in the world.

But what came through to me was an unmistakable quiet strength in all her acceptance of self, in all the gathering of her pieces and holding them in an embrace, a celebration of self. It’s a really enchanting read and at once a questioning read.

Overall, this collection of poems feels like a memoir given historical context of ancestry and questions of identity and searching. But in a realised way, as in I felt that she was writing from a place of deep truth and ponderance having reached a point of grace within herself. If you’re looking for a good self-affirming poetry read, I highly recommend this gorgeous collection 👌🏼

Oranges are not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

This book achieved popular acclaim years ago and is one of those I’ve been meaning to read for ages.  Especially as I love Jeanette Winterson.  How she manages to deal with tricky subject matter with such dry humour and almost throwaway wisdom.  How she flits between fairytale then back to the actual tale, and as it unfolds you see how the journey of each echoes the other. How she writes in a non-linear spiralling narrative.

The consequences of religious fervour in close-knit communities is one of the main themes of this book, and how one’s religious leanings may clash utterly with one’s choices in love and therefore one’s being.  This is a coming-of-age tale of how a young girl comes to terms with her love of the Lord as well as her own burgeoning sexuality.

I found some parts hard to read, as when she has to undergo an exorcism, organised by her mother and local pastor, and is forbidden from leaving the house until she repents her “illness.”  Still, although it’s a difficult tale, it’s also a fascinating read not least because of all the biblical comparisons, good-and-evil references and talk of demons.

It’s about how love’s many faces manifest and are misunderstood, how strong a young girl can be.  And what it means to serve one’s community then also be expelled by that community if you are not seen to conform to its ideals. It’s about the difficult lives we live behind closed doors, how madness can be concealed in a parent, the legitimate angst of a teenager and their lack of freedom to be themselves.  And how they deal with their new world with surprising grit, resolve and hard work.

The language is beautiful which makes it easy to read on. Winterson doesn’t mess around with superfluous words, she just cracks on with the story, weaving into it fragments of gothic fairytale featuring wizards and Arthurian parable.  It’s one of those classics a serious reader ought to read at least once 🍊

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

This book is great to unwind with and take your mind off the drudgery of daily doings just when you need a bit of inspiration.  It’s quite an easy read but that doesn’t mean it’s not well-written.  I love how it jumps from different times in the past back to the current unfolding present, whilst all the while the main protagonist is trying to solve the puzzle of himself.

In short, this is the tale of a man who has the rare condition of never ageing, so although he’s almost five hundred years old, he bears the resemblance of a forty-something. There are others like him scattered around the world but he is sworn to secrecy about his condition so as not to endanger himself or others like him.  As a result, he is forbidden from falling in love and must move residence every few years to begin a new life elsewhere all over again so no one suspects him. Except the past will always catch up with you.  The ramifications of which he must wrestle with whilst moving back to London some centuries later to become a history teacher (of course he is, what else could he be?) at a typical comprehensive school with complicated testy teenagers. I shan’t say any more than that, except that Haig manages to capture the gut-wrenching feeling of falling in love when one tries all they can to fight it.

With the main character’s flashbacks to the past, it’s impossible not to realise how barbaric people could be – that a hanging was entertainment before TV, or the burning or drowning of a suspected witch. (To think this happened for hundreds of years is mind-boggling.  I should think all that nonsense would be enough to turn women into witches if anything).

The way the character connects the past to the present whilst trying to resolve his own riddle will keep you hooked, and you’ll find yourself rooting for him all the way.  This story is moving, funny, and at times, edge-of-the-seat dramatic. Overall, it gave me Highlander, Chocolat and The Time Traveller’s Wife feels. Absolutely well worth a read if you want some high-quality escapism 👌🏼

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Written as poetic prose, this is an exquisitely crafted book. With this being Vuong’s debut novel, you can tell he’s a poet with lines such as “Our shadows… bloomed… like purple graffiti” or how he can hear “October slashing outside making a lexicon of the leaves.” It almost didn’t matter what this book was about as the language alone was so beautifully rendered.

It tells of the raw emotions that reside within complicated family relationships, the abuse as a result of a parent suffering PTSD, and the acceptance of that abuse, the forgiveness of it. How a son must deal with his mother’s many unresolved traumas, left over from an abusive marriage, growing up during the Vietnam war and having to flee as a child before finding refuge in America. We are privy to this telling in a series of flashbacks and realisations retold through the son’s lens. His wisdom and how he makes sense of everything is so moving, how he learns “otherness” from a young age, how he deals with his mother’s unpredictable nature whilst also being protective of her in a country where she struggles to speak English; and how he takes care of her while she works every hour God sends just so he can have the privilege of learning to read and go to college.

He also has to come to terms with his blossoming sexuality as a queer Asian, in a world that does not readily accept this way of being, in both cultures he has a foot in. We see this with the unexpected love affair he has with a co-worker at a tobacco plant and how it plays out to a surprising end. How abuse can sometimes translate itself into one’s romantic relationships as an automatic “acting out.”

It’s a tale that works its way through to acceptance. I have to quote a line from the blurb here because I simply could not put it any better: “…it’s as much about the power of telling one’s own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.”

As an already successful and established poet, it did feel at times as if Vuong lapsed right back into his poetic self. For example, there is one chapter written as one long poem describing – and so powerfully – the object of his love in all the ways he sees him. And there are whole sections that are written as abstract perceptions without a sense of narrative, so if you’re not a fan of poetry, you may find this a little frustrating as you’re left wondering what happens next. But I insist that the beauty of this book lies in the perceptive telling, as he shares his every realisation with you, the reader, as he goes along. Absolutely recommend 🌸

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I am trying to make these book posts a little shorter, but despite editing chunks here and there, it’s still a good ten minutes read. Ah well, it’s for the true bookworms 🙂

And what, pray tell, are you reading at the moment? 📖  Have you read any of the above? If so, what were your thoughts?  Whose world are you lost in right now?  Feel free to share in the comments ☺️👇

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