February 2025

It truly never rains, but pours. Following my work trip to Spain in January, I had another in February, along with trips home, and down south to my office. It’s been a lot of travel, but I learned that Spanish trains are far easier to be comfortable and work from than British ones, and that cats aren’t really ever as ill as we think they are. After a late-night rush to the vet hospital after I thought she’d been poisoned, P got diagnosed with travel sickness and anxiety. Thank goodness for pet insurance.

The one good thing about lots of flights is that it gives you a lot of time to read. Due to all the travel and other responsibilities, I’ve been a little exhausted, but I did still manage to read five books this month, mainly while in the air. Is anyone else experiencing a little bit of a reading slump?

Orbital by Samantha Harvey
I read this one in print, this time for the second chapter of my book club Feminist Fiction Liverpool. As well as meeting a whole new group of wonderful people, I also realised that some books are completely suited to audio. I still enjoyed the print version of this, but found it far less engaging than the swoon-worthy audio experience. A good lesson for a recovering audiobook snob like myself.

Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas
As the typical basic bitch thirty-something, I am loathe to describe anything as quintessentially millennial, but here we are. Set in New York around the occurrence of 9/11, it tells the story of two queer friends and their intense and instant friendship and how it bleeds into a similar relationship between two boys in their school across the academic year. I was 12 when 9/11 happened, so the references to instant messaging, 24-hour news and insanely intimate friendships felt very familiar. It’s a really fun and enjoyable read, especially if you’re around my age. What was less fun was finding out that some of the women in my book club are too young to remember 9/11.

Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan
I sadly missed this author being interviewed at The West Kirby Bookshop as I was in Vilanova wearing a branded sweatshirt and reading my colleagues’ tarot cards on an offsite, but I loved this one even more than I loved her debut Bellies. It’s about lawyer and poet Max who works at a soulless AI company, and her relationship with corporate lawyer Vincent, who loves to bake. Their story jumps between the present day and their romance, and Vincent’s gap year trip around Thailand. I always feel like Nicola Dinan has a similar talent as Sally Rooney for being able to observe the ache of intimate relationships, and how it can feel so scary to really reveal your true self to someone. I’m already eagerly awaiting her third novel.

A Thousand Threads by Neneh Cherry
This was a completely random audiobook download that I ended up listening to on a six-hour train trip from Barcelona to Malaga while I worked on the surprisingly strong Spanish train wifi. While I’m obviously a fan of her music, I had no idea that Neneh Cherry had such a fascinating life, where she was raised between Sweden and New York by her artist mother and her jazz musician stepfather. She is an incredible narrator, who really makes you feel immersed and invested in her story. You can tell that all that really matters to her is love, and art, and she has built an incredible life for herself centred around both. I spent a lot of time after this re-listening to Buffalo Stance.

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
When I went to Vilanova for my work trip, my boss Dom gave me a novel that he said he couldn’t get through more than five pages of, but that he felt I would love. I chose to take this as a compliment, and texted Clare and Sara, as they’d read the Booker longlist in its entirety. Like Dom, they both hated this book, and neither of them had finished it, so I was intrigued. I was surprised that I ended up really enjoying it, and spent a good chunk of my flight back to Liverpool from Malaga reading it, alongside watching Southern Charm. It’s about a mercenary private spy for hire, and her mission to infiltrate an ecological group that have set up their own society in the south of France. You never really get a sense of her, but her mission is fascinating as she reads the hacked emails of a shadowy figure who inspires the eco-group. It sounds weird, and it’s definitely polarising. I have never read any John le Carré, but apparently this book is appealing to his fans.

And onto March! I have a transatlantic flight this month, so hopefully I get some good reading done.