For the Books: March '25
I won't read this many books again this year, I promise you.
March saw a lot of change. I started working in a different café, so while I’m not technically unemployed anymore it isn’t what I want to do long-term per say. So, I may re-work my Substack title (again) or I may not. I’ll see how I feel. In March I read a lot, which pleasantly surprised me. In total I read eight books in March, five of which were new reads from my shelf! I’m quite happy with my efforts to work through the home library in March, so let me talk through what I read.
Pulled From the Shelves
“The Diviners” was recommended to me ages ago by my dear friend Olga. I found it in a thrift store last year sometime and started reading on it fairly quickly after buying it. This is a rare occurrence, as seen by my backlog of books. However, it did take me close to four months to finish this 500-page novel. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy it. Bray has a fantastic command of character and atmosphere, pulling us straight into 1920’s era NYC and not letting us go until we close the last page. There’s a large cast to keep up with in this narrative, but each character felt distinct and interesting. I found myself missing each one as we moved to focus on a different character, despite missing that one before the chapter began. This book did directly influence me to pick up another 1920’s NYC set book on my shelf called “Dead, Dead Girls” which ended up being my first DNF of the year. You win some you lose some!
“The Eyes Are The Best Part” is a book that I bought new, which is a bit rare for me. When it was first announced I was quite excited by the premise and the juicy cover. The reality of the narrative left me a bit wanting. Despite being rather short (277 pages) the narrative felt a bit drawn out, especially in the beginning. It’s also not a subtle horror, which tends to be more my favorite types in the genre. I also felt that the ending was just too neat and tidy. There were several characters and plotlines just ignored after they were introduced, which could have been indicative of the narrator’s mental state, but I feel were just more the flaws of a debut novel. There are some interesting aspects to this story, primarily mother/daughter relationships and mothers choosing romantic love over their children. I will look at future work from Kim, but I wasn’t left as wowed by the debut that I wanted to be.
“No One Else” is a graphic novel that I got at a friend of the library book sale in January, along-side a ridiculous number of other books because it was a “buy a tote bag for $10 and fill it with as much as possible” deal. This is a visual memoir following a family who has just lost their father/grandfather, and how they are all handling their grief and familial trauma. It was fine, and honestly, I don’t have much more to say about it! “Paradais”, however, is a book I have a lot to say about, but I’m saving most of those thoughts for a different article I’m trying to coax myself into writing. It is enough for you all to know that this is my second read-through of the book, and it knocked the wind out of me just the same as it did the first time. This has to be the year I finally read Melchor’s other books.
From the Library
I finally broke my audiobook drought with “Bury Your Gays” from my local library. Tingle gained is internet infamy from raunchy, gay dinosaur furry books before moving into queer horror. This offering follows a screenwriter who works for a company who is Defiantly Not Warner Brothers and has been told he must kill off his lesbian characters in his Not The X-Files Remake tv show. When he refuses, he begins to be haunted by the villains from the horror movies he has written. I loved the weird turns this book took, and the overall trajectory of the story. Although it was a slow start, I feel like Tingle did a lot with the story, even if the metaphor was hitting us over the head will a steel hammer. The scene in the woods though? I’ll be thinking about that for ages
In Welsh
Last year, for my birthday, I bought myself several Welsh graded readers. A few months before that I bought an armload of books from a small bookshop in Llandudno. I still have not finished the graded readers nor the armload of books, but I have made some progress this month!
“Gorau Glas” is possibly the cutest cop propaganda I’ve ever read. If I had a dollar for every Welsh book I’ve read focused on cops, I’d have two dollars, which isn’t a lot but it’s still weird to me that it’s happened twice. “Gorau Glas” follows Alix, a newer officer on the squad in Aberglas and the different cases they solve with their squad. Overall, the story was very cute, and I found it surprisingly easy to read. I think that was more about the sentence structure rather than any ability on my part, considering my efforts with “Dyn Dweud Drefn”, which were fun, but a bit more challenging. The titular Dyn Dweud Drefn (Either the man who tells people off or the orderly man, I’m not quite sure) is frustrated by his inability to keep a daily routine when his life is interrupted and subsequently made quite better by a stray weenie dog that rushes into his home. I found this one to be a bit more difficult to read, but much more heartwarming.
A letter, and some birdwatching
As I become more and more annoyed with social media and being online (ironic for someone posting articles on Substack) I try to turn more to keeping in touch with friends via post, as it makes me feel less guilty about deleting my social media apps. This past month I received a letter from my dear friend Jack, a rather avid birder who seems intent on making birders out of the rest of us. He has, at last, succeeded in my case.
Jack sent me a promised “birding newsletter” alongside a pocket guide of British and mainland European birds so that I could follow along with the birds he wrote to me about. I’m counting this book as read because, even though I did not read it cover to cover, I gave it enough of a peruse that I feel like it counts. I don’t know any sane person who reads reference books cover to cover anyways.
This book has also sent me on some of my own birding ventures around my local area. Jack will probably find this funny and very amateur of me, but I’ve realized how much time is spent not actually seeing a bird. There I’ll be, binoculars around my neck, bird guide I checked out from the library in my pocket, with a sketch pad, looking like a fucking idiot strolling around the parks where I think the birds should be. Meanwhile, there’s approximately 13 songbirds shooting the shit together outside the café while I’m working now. They could at least step in for an espresso!
Life with Leslie (Barista Version)
I’m currently reading “The Prospects” by KT Hoffman, and working my way through Heni Gruffudd’s “Welcome to Welsh”. It’s an insane experience honestly.
For some reason unknown to anyone but the football gods, I have a raging crush on Aston Villa/Argentine National team’s Emi Martinez. I’m not even a fan of the Villains! (The only Birmingham team I pull for is Birmingham Legion FC, thank you very much) But Barça is through the final eight for the Champions League, so really, I am insufferable at the moment.
The movie I watched in March was “The Aeronauts”, a Mexican short film about a tribe surviving in the middle of the desert. A funny little film that would do rounds in my literature classes, I’m sure.
In My Headphones Recently