From My Sick Bed

Books and tissues.

I’m sick. How boring. This can only mean three things: a) I can’t concentrate on a single thing, b) my reading has slowed to a glacial pace, and c) I’m late with my newsletter.

Earlier

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

This had been on my list for so long, and I’m happy I finally picked it up. There’s so much to unpack about womanhood, family, and mothering in Peters’s work. I loved the flawed and sometimes plain irritating characters; I loved the exploration of motherhood, and I loved how funny I found the writing.

Now

But The Girl by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu

I’m thoroughly enjoying this debut and I have to say, I’m glad because I was looking forward to reading it. There’s a lot of inner monologuing, which I know can go either way for some. For me, it worked here and relished ‘Girl’, the monologue-er, raking through her memories and digging into the nuance of carrying the weight of family expectations on your shoulders.

Later

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

This jumped out at me in a ‘judging-a-book-by-it’s-cover’ situation in one of my favourite book stores recently and I took a photo to commit it to memory/my reading list. Then, I saw Pandora Sykes review it in her Substack. So, it doesn’t really need my help but the premise does sound good so here it is.

Enjoy!