☀️ June; I read some books!
Including why I nearly threw my Kindle in a swimming pool
“Why is it always / liars and ball games / when I / turn on / the television?”
~ TV Dog, Everything Everything
Greetings (or should I say hiyay’alright) from the UK, where the above lyrics have been running through my head on the daily as I’m here in the midst of the Euros and the run up to the general election.
I spent last week in Cyprus enjoying endless sunshine and A LOT of reading time. I pretty much made reading books my full time job for six days. I read three books and started one other (that I got ten pages into before wanting to throw my Kindle in the pool). Keep scrolling to find out more about what I read (including a bonus fourth book that I read the week before the trip).
I set off on this trip feeling quite frazzled, but yet found it harder than expected to get into rest mode. I actually found that reading helped with this transition, as I could channel some of that excess energy into the sort-of-productive task of getting through books, whilst laying on a sun-lounger and letting my brain and body recalibrate.
Whenever I take a proper break, the first strong ‘work-y’ urge I have is always the urge to write. For the first few days I get this feeling, I don’t let myself near my laptop. I want that feeling to ferment until I am convinced I’m going to burst.
Side note: Sorry to anyone who’s had texts from me in the last week, you may definitely had to endure a few essays.
At the point that I literally cannot sleep for needing to get things out of my brain, I try and first go to my notebook. And then after a couple more days, I let myself back at the keyboard.
It’s not always ‘a thing’ I get the urge to write. Yes, sometimes it is an idea for an article or something I want to ‘create’, but often it’s just… stuff. Random thoughts, a variety of reflections, a scattering of ideas, a trip I want to plan, an email I want to send… just all the things that my brain has had a chance to think about as a result of letting the sediment fall to the bottom and the water become clear.
I’m in the UK for the next couple of weeks. A combination of working remotely and spending more relaxed time with friends and family (and let’s face it, their cats).
Whilst I’m going to be doing quite a lot of work whilst I’m here, I still find the change of location, season, and timezone to be incredibly helpful in clarifying some thinking. I always come back home with some useful thoughts on what I like (and therefore miss) in my regular life, and the things that need a few tweaks. I’m already thinking about a few habits I want to reinstate (lazy weekend morning reading) or rhythms I want to get back into (regular morning pilates classes).
To sunshine and sifting sediment,
Steph
PS. If you’re travelling this Winter/Summer, I highly recommend getting a travel eSim from airalo. I’ve been using them for over a year and it’s so much cheaper that the rort that is roaming charges, easier than trying to buy a local sim, and more convenient as you can run your usual home sim at the same time as your travel data sim (if you have a compatible phone). Get $3 off your first eSim here using code STEPH1595.
PPS. To borrow from Austin Kleon, this newsletter is 'free but not cheap'. You can support their ongoing creation and keep me in books by buying me a coffee as a 'thank you', recommending it to a friend, or using any affiliate links in the email.
The it list 🔥
A bit of a music edition, as I’ve had a very music-heavy couple of weeks…
Song - Hermetic Boogey by Tonbruket: The other week I was working with my pals in the SOON/Taboo studio and someone put this on the speakers just as the sky turned black and it started pouring with rain outside and the sky went black. Never a more perfect soundscape to a rainstorm.
Album - Nomad by Bombino: A very welcome algorithm-interrupt by my pal Nneka last week, who informed me that this artist inspired her to learn to play electric guitar.
Album - Heaven or Las Vegas by Cocteau Twins: This seminal 1990 album is such a dream. You can’t understand a word of Elizabeth Fraser’s swirly vocals, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable.
Album - Always Centered at Night by Moby: A new album from Moby, complete with his trademark mix of heavy dance beats packaged alongside atmospheric tracks that are like an IV drip straight into your soul. It’s no Play, but I like it. Standout tracks: On Air and Ache For.
Album - Seven Swans by Sufjan Stevens: I was quite excited when this new release popped up, but so far it’s leaving a bit to be desired. Maybe a grower…
📚 What I read this month 📚
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🤏🏻 Accessible time travel novel set across multiple centuries.
👍🏻 I really liked the thought experiment of this plot, and the fact that it wasn’t too weird and sci-fi-y. The characters and dialogue were likeable, some of the language was beautiful, and the book felt like it was the perfect length.
👎🏻 I found myself wanting more about some of the characters. Which is probably a good problem to have.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
🤏🏻 Sci-fi about a man who wakes up from a coma and finds himself in an unexpected place, and quite a pickle.
👍🏻 It was funny and struck a good balance so as not to go over the top with the drama or sentimentality of some of the character development. Andy went a little hard in places on some of the real science descriptions for my taste, but overall the critical science parts were pretty easy to follow and felt useful to the plot.
👎🏻 The ending was a little unsatisfying, but really not too much to complain about.
Side note: I swear Andy Weir wrote this with a movie adaptation in mind, and had Ryan Reynolds tagged for playing the main character.
Candy House by Jennifer Egan
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🤏🏻 A web of characters come together over decades to connect in complex ways.
👍🏻 For a short book, you get a lot of bang for your buck in terms of the depth of each of the variety of characters. There’s side stories all over the place, and I liked the interesting ways that things weaved together. There’s a memory storing piece of technology that’s quite a central theme to this book, but I think Jennifer thread the needle perfectly between making that a core part of the story, without it being SO overt that it was distracting to the characters and overall plot.
👎🏻 The last 15% of the book had quite a different style, and it felt like there were almost too many intertwined characters, twisted plot lines, and story arcs to neatly wrap up, so it required a very long series of overlapping emails between characters to quickly move everything forward. In some ways it was quite clever, but it also made my brain melt.
Side note: This is the second book in the A Visit From the Goon Squad series. I haven’t read the first book though, and that doesn’t seem to be a pre-requisite.
Moxyland by Lauren Beukes
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🤏🏻 Dystopian, cyberpunk novel following four characters in a tech-heavy near future.
👍🏻 I really enjoyed how dark but reality-adjacent the storyline was. Particularly the ownership of people by corporations, the advertising delivery methods, the geo-engineering of people and animals, and the techniques used by police and governments to control citizens. All of which are inspired by real events, that Lauren describes in the afterword.
👎🏻 The characters are almost all completely unbearable, which in some ways makes a nice change, but also makes some parts a bit of a slog. However, the book is very fast paced, so it’s easy to get through those skin-crawling chapters.
Side note: I read Candy House and Moxyland one after the other. Which I wouldn’t recommend as they were a little too similar in style and subject matter.
The Overstory by Richard Powers
💀 DNF (ok, I barely started)
This book got a lot of mixed comments when I posted my pre-emptive reading list before I left. I lasted ten pages and could not bear it. But that loss was offset by the gain of this very entertaining message from a friend…
🙌🏻 Big old H/Ts to Megan, Petah, and Xav for these book recommendations (none of whom were responsible for recommending The Overstory).
Some places I popped up recently 👋🏻
Smart Company - I recently wrote about my secret professional crush in my latest Smart Company piece 😘
App - The People Spot: Each month I pop up in the audio tracks of the People Spot app sharing a few interesting signals about the future. These audio clips are included in the free download (iPhone only) and you can use the code STEPHC for an additional two months free access to the full content library in the app.
Love this! I'm building Steph's Book Love profile for more recommendations!!