April 2025

This newsletter is quite high pressure, because I often get people (Sara, Dom, my dad, and now Tara) asking me when the next post is coming. As a Leo, everything I do is in service of my fans, so here’s the April round up, especially for you, Tazzy Lou.

Is it just me, or has this winter been especially dark and tough? My mood has been a bit grim, but April has finally given me, and so many people I know, the boost we’ve needed. Maybe it’s the clocks going forward, and the creep of the temperature upwards, but I feel great! The real boost was when I finally got my crop tops out of storage and washed them, ready for summertime frolics. This time of year is just full of potential. Who knows what’s going to happen?!

Anyway, I got out of my reading funk this month. I also attended my gorgeous friend Edel’s wedding and managed to bring Sara to her first ever Catholic wedding. What joy!

Anyway, here’s the reading I did in April, as well as my playlist. I hope you’re feeling as joyous as I am, and if not, remember that you’re beautiful and things will get better!

Because I’m Worth It
I Like It Like That
It Had to be You
You’re the One That I Want
- all by Cecily von Ziegesar
I really picked up the pace with my Gossip Girl re-read. It’s been so much fun. What’s better than leaning into the priveleged world of people who live on the Upper East Side and only wear designer clothing when you’re in conveyancing hell?

Love in Exile by Shon Faye
I am a card carrying Shon Faye superfan. Everything she reads deeply resonates with me, but this one hit me hardest out of anything of hers I’ve read. She turns her laser sharp focus onto the current state of romantic love, and how her life experiences have informed her romantic relationships with men. Single women tend to joke that the bar is in hell when it comes to dating heterosexual men, but Shon really puts her finger on the current loneliness and malaise that seems rampant in hetero dating these days. She’s painfully accurate, and doesn’t lazily skewer men as the issue. This is essential reading for anyone who’s single, no matter your gender.

Careless People: A Story of Where I Used to Work by Sarah Wynn-Williams
Regular readers know that I’ve tried my best to de-Meta my life recently, and this book really cemented that decision. Sarah Wynn-Williams was a director of public policy at Facebook, before it became Meta, working directly with Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg. You’ll see how Facebook interacted with governments, and how their inaction led to actual diplomatic violence. I don’t want to go into too many details, because I think everyone should buy and read this book to support Sarah, who is currently being legally muzzled by Meta, but it is a truly unbelievable tale. Even if you’re a Meta-cynic like me, you’ll still be shocked. Compelling and completely essential reading.

Conclave by Robert Harris
Now, I adored the film Conclave. I am truly obsessed with it. I saw it with Sara and Clare and then spent all my time urging everyone to go see it. While I had some free time in the week before Easter, I decided to finally read the book. If you’ve seen the film, you’re not in for any surprises, but it’s still gripping and really enjoyable. There’s a new minor changes from the film (no vaping sadly), but I think it’d be the perfect holiday read. I finished it on Good Friday, and then Pope Francis died on Easter Monday! Coincidence, I think not!

Beauty by Andy Warhol
This was one of the Penguin Archive shorts I picked up, and it reminded me of how much I love Andy Warhol. It’s a series of musings from him on topics such as beauty, sex and art, and his typical caustic assessments on all of the above. I think his genius isn’t given enough recognition, and he was truly an anthropologist of the 20th century. I’d read anything he wrote, and it’s made me want to prioritise reading his diaries.

Special Delivery by Danielle Steel
Maybe one of the more unbelievable DS books I’ve read in terms of plot. A widow and a divorced man whose children are married begin a romantic relationship, but their happiness gets interrupted by a special delivery (surprise pregnancy). In Danielle’s world, everyone has kids at like 18, so a 48 year old widow kinda makes sense? Truly mad, but I still love her.

Birding by Rose Ruane
This is the book club pick, and we’re meeting this evening, so I don’t want to say too much, but I didn’t love this book. It’s about two women in a seaside town who want to change their lives. The language was overly descriptive, and the characters didn’t feel developed enough. It just left me wanting more, even though it’s super readable. I’m interested to see what everyone else thinks this evening!

A Separation by Katie Kitamura
Katie Kitamura has been one of my favourite contemporary authors since I read Intimacies last year. A Separation is similar to Intimacies in that it carefully studies the discomfort of personal relationships, but it also brings us down a twisty-turny narrative path. It tells the story of a woman who is separated from her husband, who follows him to Greece when his mother, who doesn’t know about the separation, tell her that he hasn’t been in touch. I read it in two sittings, and greedily inhaled it. I can’t wait to read more of her work.

All Fours by Miranda July
This one really does live up to the hype. I’ve been a fan of Miranda July’s since college, when I watched Me and You and Everyone We Know and read No One Belongs Here More Than You. She’s moved throughout her life, and continued to make vital and attention grabbing work, and this is no different. It tells the story of a nameless narrator, who aims to drive across the US, from California to New York, but instead ends up in a motel room not far from where she lives. It’s an explosive exploration into perimenopause and mid-life for women, and what it means to our minds, bodies and souls to be in this stage of our lives. I’m 35, but still related painfully to some of the things that this book looks at, and it made me excited to lean into the power of menopause. Essential reading for everyone.