what i've been reading this week
11/8 — 17/8
hello lovely people! hope you all had a great week! mine was very exciting - i finally finished the second draft of Mammy! it’s come out as 110,000 words which is the longest book I’ve ever written lol but I’m so proud of it and so happy with its progress. I’m not taking any breaks though and diving straight back into another round of edits—this time just a readthrough mainly to cut down that big word count to something a little more reasonable. i’m anticipating this to take me a couple of weeks so i’m hoping mid-september i’ll have a draft ready to send to my agent! vvv exciting indeed. and scary. but we move! so what else did i get up to this week? i went to the Leigh Bowery exhibition at the Tate yesterday which I loved. He was such a visionary and I learnt so much about queer history and fashion. It’s on until August 31st so do try catch it if you’re in London.
now let’s talk about books! if you want even more recommendations you can find me yapping at ReadsByRoss on Instagram and TikTok!
The Imagined Life by Andrew Porter
Wow, one of my top books of the year for sure! I loved it. A gorgeous mediation on fatherhood, identity, memory and how it dictates our perceptions of things and people. It follows a man, Steven, who feels trapped in a struggling marriage with his wife and sets out to discover more about his father who left when he was only a teenager. Set during the 1980s, against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic, it’s told in gorgeous cinematic prose and I devoured it. Just out from Europa books last week. It’s going to stay with me for a while!
On Friendship by Andrew O’Hagan
This was a cute little book, I think it’s out in October this year. Essentially a collection of essays from O’Hagan on friendship and the different ways it manifests in his, and our, lives. It didn’t change my life or anything, but there was one chapter about his friendship with Edna O’Brien that really moved me - it was amazing to see how electric her personality was on the page, he had a real skill of bringing her to life. She is certainly missed!
And that’s all from me this week! See you next time xx