Happy New Year and Recommended Reads

By Vita Forest

Happy New Year everyone!  I thought I’d start the year with a list of new books I read last year and would recommend.  Some are not so very new but I discovered them in 2018.  As always, these were interspersed with lots of rereading of old favourites.  Happy Reading!

  • Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine by Gail Honeyman (you will laugh and you will cry at this warm-hearted book).
  • Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave (a sensational story set during WW2).
  • His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (I know, it’s not new at all, but how fantastic to be able to read it voraciously all the way through and not have to wait for the next  book in the series.  A fantasy classic).
  • Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (another gem from one of my absolute favourite authors.  Another WW2 story, this seemed to be a bit of a theme this year).
  • The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore (my daughter Lucy put me on to this YA tale of forbidden love.  One of her friends put her onto it, comparing it to Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus… enough said).
  • Tom Appleby: Convict Boy by Jackie French (we read this excellent book at school.  The kids loved it and so did I).
  • The Dry by Jane Harper (Australian Bush noir with a killer prologue).
  • Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman (amongst all the gloom comes this guidebook to create a better world.  One of the few non-fiction books on my list).
  • We are all completely beside ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler (expertly written with a major twist that changes everything).
  • Nevermoor: the trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (another book my class enjoyed.  It promised to be a successor to Harry Potter and guess what?  It is!)
  • Men explain things to me by Rebecca Solnit (beautifully written, passionate feminism).
  • A year of Marvellous Ways by Sarah Winman (how great to discover this wonderful author.  Another novel with a WW2 setting).

What did you enjoy reading last year?

This week

By Vita Forest

This week I have been

WRITING

DISCUSSING our writing and having a good laugh with my Writers’ Circle pals

READING

  • Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend
  • Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

CATCHING up with all sorts of friends during the school holidays – lovely to see you all!

SKETCHING at Carriageworks and enjoying the warmth of the winter sunshine

DOING a whole bunch of ‘Life Admin’ chores

VISITING

  • Manly with Briony
  • Carriageworks, Redfern

INDULGING in a few mornings of sleeping in

This week

By Vita Forest

This week I have been

READING

  • Men explain things to me by Rebecca Solnit
  • Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend

WRITING Tai-chi and Tennis rackets

MAKING a collage of a Christmas Island crab on a grand scale with my class

LEARNING about the migration of the crabs

WATCHING Casablanca with my kids

WALKING and TALKING with Saskia on a cold windy winter’s evening

SLEEPING in as it’s now the holidays

PLANNING the next term and the big trip