Reading round-up: September

59. Water Lily by Susanna Jones - 6/10 (full review). With this book I have completed my reading of the author's oeuvre: it certainly wasn't her best, but it was definitely intriguing, driven by two fascinatingly unpleasant main characters. Sadly, the ending was very unsatisfying.
60. Swimming Home by Deborah Levy - 6/10 (full review). I was excited to finally read Swimming Home, having had it on my wishlist for months before it was nominated for the Booker. In the end, I found it beautifully written but fairly unremarkable.
61. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - 8/10 (full review). Another book I'd been meaning to read for a while - in this case years! Essentially a series of short stories, it was unsurprisingly uneven but truly brilliant in places.
62. Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple - 7/10 (full review). A fun satire about a wealthy and eccentric Seattle family, this was maybe a bit too flimsy but had enough warmth and wit to make up for it.
63. The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson - 5/10 (full review). This is a short, atmospheric, historical novella about the Pendle witch trials. It had some wonderful descriptive passages and absorbing elements of magical realism, but overall it was too short and too bleak.
64. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng - 7/10 (full review to be written). A complex and really quite educational novel, set primarily in Malaya in 1949, telling the story of a Chinese girl who has survived a Japanese war camp, and goes on to become the student of a Japanese gardener. Quite slow-moving but full of interesting details and characters, though I was disappointed some of the relationships weren't explored further.

I didn't quite keep up the pace I achieved in August, but I've still managed to get through a good chunk of my to-read list, including a couple of the nominees from the Booker shortlist. My favourite of the month was Cloud Atlas (I don't know why it took me so long to get round to reading this) but Where'd You Go, Bernadette and The Garden of Evening Mists are also recommended. I was disappointed in The Daylight Gate as I had high expectations and thought it would be so much better than it was, but at least it was a very short, quick read.

I can't believe it's the end of September already! I'm actually a bit stuck for something to read at the moment, so I'm going to carry on trying to clear some of the backlog on my Kindle. I've just started an Icelandic mystery and I'm probably going to treat myself to something new soon, although I'm a bit stuck between Mette Jakobsen's The Vanishing Act and The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers.

Moschino dream hair

So, I wasn't at all keen on the clothes at Moschino's spring/summer 2013 show, but the hair. THE HAIR! The hair is something I could feast my eyes on forever. With all that volume and lengths and beehives and waves, it is basically my absolute dream.

This photo pretty much encapsulates how I feel about it:


Look at that woman's face at the back. She is FLABBERGASTED, OVERWHELMED and AWED by the sheer magnificence of the hair, AS AM I.

Image sources: Vogue.com - Moschino Spring 2013 - Details, NYTimes.com - Photos of the Moment - Moschino by Carlotta Manaigo, Fashionising.com - Backstage at Moschino Spring/Summer 2013.

More S/S 2013

3.1 Phillip Lim







Theyskens' Theory





Rodarte





Mary Katrantzou





Diesel Black Gold





Reed Krakoff





Prabal Gurung



Jonathan Saunders



Sass & Bide



Christopher Raeburn
Over the past year (or so) I've found my taste in blogs changing: I used to hate blogs that consisted of nothing but pictures, and now they're often what I deliberately seek out. I think this might be partly due to the influence of Pinterest, which I am still hopelessly addicted to - it's also a direct result of having less time to read things online, on top of an increasingly short attention span. It's much easier to quickly scroll through a series of images, pausing to look more closely at any that particularly interest me, than it is to read a considered piece of writing. Rightly or wrongly, I am finding myself wanting instant inspiration from the blogs I read, and am starting to see mine as more of a visual scrapbook. The less free time I have, the more I want to quickly flick through blogs, and save my reading energy for actual books.

A few months ago I had all sorts of exciting plans for this blog - involving frequent updates and more interesting content, about topics like travel, music, films and the ubiquitous concept of 'lifestyle' - but they've fallen by the wayside, primarily because work hasn't left me with much time to devote to blogging. So, time and time again I come back to the same two things: book reviews and commentary (because that's what I really, really love doing) and fashion (because I love fashion too, but mainly because it's very easy - pictures of clothes and outfits pretty much speak for themselves).

All of the above brings me (in a roundabout way) to this post. Obviously, these are some more images of spring/summer 2013 looks I've liked - a mixture of New York and London this time. I know these posts are a bit lazy, but I like keeping a record of what I enjoy from the shows, to use as inspiration now and later. Again I'm struck by how 'right for now' a lot of these feel - particularly Theyskens' Theory with all that leather! Also loving all the prints, slouchy slim trouser shapes and those iridescent details at Jonathan Saunders.

Book review: Communion Town by Sam Thompson

Communion Town (2012) by Sam Thompson

Subtitled A City in Ten Chapters, Sam Thompson's debut is a collection of ten short stories: all are set in the same unnamed city, and all have loose connections with the others. The city itself remains an enigma, though its many districts have colourful, slightly offbeat and evocative names - Sludd's Liberty, Glory Part, Low Glinder. The narrative style varies enormously, from the cool, detached tone typical of literary fiction, present in (my favourite) 'Outside the Days', which recalls the best bits of Great House by Nicole Krauss, to the noirish romp of 'Gallathea' and 'The Significant City of Lazarus Glass', which is a bit like a dark spoof of an Agatha Christie mystery. The many narrators and their vastly different experiences in different locales of the city create a patchwork effect, as if you are studying something huge from a number of different angles, while the whole remains too vast to perceive. The experience of reading Communion Town is much like that of exploring an unfamiliar city on foot - both disorientating and seductive, and full of sharp turns with the occasional dead end.

There is an element of something strange and supernatural to almost all of the stories, giving the book as a whole an unmistakeable air of fantasy. This much I expected from the fact that it has won plaudits from the likes of China Miéville. However, this is not actually a fantasy novel: rather, each of the stories has a touch of something weird and inexplicable, with the most prominent example being the 'monsters' that stalk the city at night, which are never quite described or explained properly. Most of the interactions that take place within the stories are recognisable, even mundane, and easy for anyone to relate to, but their surroundings and circumstances are not. I won't pretend I understood everything that was going on in the stories or precisely how they were all linked, and this may be frustrating for some readers, but for me it just deepened the intrigue.

Communion Town is one of those books I want to go back and re-read straight away. I miss being immersed in its world, and I wish there had been ten, twenty more stories about the city. I want to pick apart the layers and puzzle out the connections, figure out who each character was to each of the others. I borrowed my copy from the library and held onto it for weeks after I'd finished reading, because I just didn't want to let it go: I found that there was something weirdly comforting about this strange, beguiling, nameless city. It's a place I want to escape back to and, in fact, I can't stop thinking about it. I can't think of a better reason for a ten-out-of-ten review than that.

Rating: 10/10

S/S 2013, New York

10 Crosby Derek Lam







Rag & Bone





Helmut Lang



Edun



Altuzarra



Boy by Band of Outsiders



See by Chloé
I am (perpetually) more excited by autumn/winter fashion than I am by the idea of what I might be wearing next spring, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested to see what's coming out of New York fashion week. These are just some looks that have caught my eye so far. Funnily enough, a lot of these are pieces I can see myself wearing now, particularly the loosely layered shirts and blazers at Rag & Bone - also, all the khaki green and paisley! I'm glad to see that printed shirts/trousers and sharp tailoring will still be a 'thing' next year. I couldn't resist including so much of the 10 Crosby Derek Lam lookbook - I love almost every piece and I really like how it's all been put together and styled. Plus I am very envious of the model's hair and makeup - a nice change because no matter how much I like fashion, the lank and/or slicked-back hair you usually see on the catwalk will never, ever appeal to me.

Reading round-up: August

49. The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey - 6/10 (full review). This felt like a very typical literary novel: a study of grief, told through a split narrative as the protagonist restores an automaton and, at the same time, discovers the journals of its original owner. Beautifully written but, apart from the emotional impact of the main character's loss, it left me cold.
50. In Her Shadow by Louise Douglas - 7/10 (full review). A daft but extremely fun and readable mystery, told mainly through flashbacks. Very fluffy but highly enjoyable - it would make a great holiday read!
51. The Quiddity of Will Self by Sam Mills - 3/10 (full review). An experimental piece of metafiction based on the work of Will Self, this started out as something really different and interesting, then quickly deteriorated and I lost all interest. Not very well written either.
52. Broken Harbour by Tana French - 8/10 (full review). I wasn't expecting too much from this mystery, the fourth in a series, but it really grabbed my attention. There were some superfluous bits, but it had a truly dark heart and made much more of an impression on me than I'd anticipated.
53. Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil - 10/10 (full review). This lyrical and often very surreal novel (loosely) follows a group of opium addicts in 1970s Bombay. It won't appeal to everyone, but I absolutely loved the dreamlike atmosphere created by the non-linear, rambling narrative.
54. Landed by Tim Pears - 7/10 (full review). The story of Owen, a man who appears to have lost everything - told first through a series of accounts from others, then through a more straightforward narrative as he attempts to reconnect with his children. Bleak, but extremely well-crafted.
55. The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton - 9/10. No review yet as this was an ARC which I was very lucky and very happy to have the opportunity to read! It's due out officially in October and will be a must-read for all fans of her previous books.
56. HHhH by Laurent Binet - 6/10 (full review). This is an account of the true story of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich - but it's also the author's own take on the difficulties inherent in fictionalising real events. A really interesting idea, but I found the execution uninspiring.
57. Communion Town by Sam Thompson - 10/10 (full review in the process of being written!) As the subtitle says, this is 'a city in ten chapters': a series of interconnected short stories all set in the same unnamed city. With elements of fantasy and inexplicably strange details, I found this absolutely fascinating and the variety of narratives thrilling.
58. The Colony by F.G. Cottam - 9/10 (full review). Another exciting, spooky adventure from Cottam, this time focused on a remote Scottish island which was famously the site of a whole community 'disappearing'. I always love the author's books and this didn't disappoint, with a great cast of characters and plenty of atmosphere.

I've had a really good month for reading. Not only have I got through lots of books, but I've read FOUR of my favourites of the year (so far!) during August. These were Narcopolis, The Secret Keeper, Communion Town and The Colony. All VERY different books, but all excellent in their own ways. Narcopolis and Communion Town particularly stood out as excellent reads, perhaps because the authors were new to me, and also because the books were brought to my attention by this year's Man Booker Prize longlist. I'm not one of those people who makes a habit of reading everything that's nominated, and there are some novels on there that don't appeal to me whatsoever, but I'm really pleased I discovered these two fantastic debuts through the longlist.

I also read a couple of books which were 'light' but nevertheless excellent - In Her Shadow and, in particular, The Secret Keeper. There were also a few disappointments, of course. I wasn't expecting much from The Quiddity of Will Self, which I wouldn't have bought if it hadn't been 99p in the Kindle sale, but it really was quite poor. The Chemistry of Tears was mediocre and HHhH, which I'd been looking forward to for ages, was just a bit boring, which was absolutely the last thing I expected from it.

I hope I can keep up the same pace during September. It really frustrates me having a long 'to-read' list, but at the same time I'm constantly adding to it. I've just got round to picking up Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which I've been meaning to read for years - I was inspired because numerous reviewers have compared Communion Town to it, and with a film version coming out soon, the timing seemed just right. What have you enjoyed reading this month? Are there any new releases you're looking forward to in September?