THAT’S A WRAP: May 2018

Does anyone know what happened to May? I’m pretty sure it snuck past me when my back was turned. I have been doing a lot of running around this month. I don’t think there was one weekend in May that I actually stayed at home. This is the first weekend in a while that I’ve done absolutely nothing! And by nothing I mean catching up on blogging and the admin of life.

REVIEW: Sal by Mick Kitson

Sal is like a Wes Anderson film but with more grit. It has all of the quirkiness and off beat humour, but it also has a serious edge and emotional depth. Sal takes her younger sister Peppa out into the Scottish wilderness not for an adventure but to escape. There is a novelty to their life among the trees – no school, no teachers, no rules – but there’s a gravity to it as well. For Sal, survival is her top priority and she achieves it will a practicality and focus that most adults lack.

READING LISTS: Siblings in Fiction

I read to books last week and coincidentally both had sibling relationships at their centre, and they were positive relationships. They supported each other, protected each other and made each other laugh. They were brother and sister, or sister and sister, or brother and brother, but they were also friends. That’s not to say their relationships were perfect. Siblings can be your closest allies and an acute pain in the bum. The problem is they know how to push your buttons, they know things your parents don’t about you and that gives them leverage, and they don’t always agree with you. As one of three children, I can confirm all this is true, but that’s what’s great about siblings. Even when they annoy you and tease you, they’ll still stick up for you when it counts.

BOOKISH FINDS: Online Orders & Other Things

I’m currently trying to minimise the amount of books I have in London, because I’m pretty conscious of completely swamping my aunt’s house in books. It will happen if I don’t watch myself. So I’ve turned my home into an almost library, where every time I go back I take the books I’ve read home and bring back the same amount that I haven’t read. It’s a system that’s lasted all of about three minutes, because I am terrible at not buying books.

A couple of books I’ve been given by colleagues who have passed them along after they’ve read them so I don’t count that as not sticking to the rule. Or deviating from the rule only slightly. You can’t really turn down books that have been offered to you. That would be sheer madness. So here are the books I’ve collected over the last few weeks.