I have The Summer Book on my reading list for this year. I have heard so many good things about it. And of course, I have the Helen of Troy book of poetry that I was holding onto for National Poetry Month so I will be reading that shortly!
I know what you mean. And I also had the experience of reading something by her that I felt I ended up being unfairly disappointed because I had built it up in my head before I'd even started reading. But I thought that both Swimming Home and August Blue were wonderful and incredibly readable. I just got Hot Milk which many people argue is her best novel... and can't wait to see how it lands for me.
I will also say that I really believe in that alchemy aspect that Stacey Yu mentions in her essay on life ruining books. Sometimes a book meets all the "requirements" and still doesn't land. The heart wants what it wants. I love that about reading.
I keep hearing about Savas. Hope to read her works soon. We didn’t have any overlapping titles this month but hoping to read White Nights in April. I know this is in your radar too. My favorite book this month was Human Acts by Han Kang 💕
Thank you for such a great round-up of reading! You read so much in March and I basically just want to read them all 📚 I loved The Summer Book, such an enriching read. And you are so welcome for Swimming Home and the Levy introduction ❤️ I couldn't get into August Blue but now I want to take another look at it, because you've convinced me I wasn't in the right space before. I've downloaded your playlist to get me started. White on White and Woman also sound amazing and are going on my list.
I am just finishing a book I think you'd like, The Details by Ia Genberg (a Swedish book transfered into English) which is short and fast paced, about the four most revealing relationships in the narrator's life as she burns up from a fever.
Finally...happy one year anniversary!! Here's to book friends forever 💓 📚 🤓
I already got HOT MILK and that's next on deck. I feel like Levy cast a spell on me with Swimming Home and I just want to stay in her presence. That's why I made that August Blue playlist... I wanted to stay in that haze. After HOT MILK I think I will return to the living autobiography books. I don't know if you remember but last time we talked about her, your hypothesis was that I would enjoy her non-fiction more after having some exposure to her fiction and I suspect you are correct!
I think you would love both Women and White on White but I would definitely say that White on White is a very Kate novel. 🤓🤓
The Details sounds so good, adding to the list.
Thank you so much for the anniversary wishes. I still remember seeing your first comment on my Miranda July post and wanting to melt into the floor, I was so starstruck and excited that you liked my writing! Can you believe it's been less than a year since we met?!
I love "White on White is a very Kate" novel!! ❤️ I am visiting bookshops at the weekend...
I cannot believe it's only been a year! I remember seeing the picture of you reading Miranda July and desperately waiting for the book to arrive! I was not disappointed.
I think I do remember that about Levy! I think reading her fiction provides a way into her non-fiction. I hope you enjoy Hot Milk as much as the others. Your playlists are the best 👌 I am still listening to Satie at your recommendation and love that you seek out music to complement reading, such a great idea.
“When I do, and say, and write, and think, and speak in ways that are in tune with my values and I honor my needs and feel connected to my husband and kid and live authentically without pretense — the world feels beautiful and harmonious and, truly, it feels like signs appear around me to show me that I am on the right path.”
YES!! This feeling por vida.
Congratulations on one year!!! It’s been a joy and an honor to be a part of your reading life, Petya. Thank you for all that you share here. I'm incredibly grateful that you’ve inspired me to read contemporary fiction again. I’ve been having a blast with it.
I’ll be adding White on White to my TBR, and Name sounds fascinating. I read On the Calculation of Volume v1 in March and did not like it, as we discussed in the comments in a prior piece. It was a slog to get through. 0 joy for me.
I’m currently reading Val Kilmer’s autobiography, which is fascinating. He was such a mammoth talent in acting, and I so enjoy his writing. He’s just as witty and charming on the page as he is onscreen. Very sad that he’s no longer on our earthly plane.
You are one of my earliest friends on Substack. I think we met even before I started writing about books, didn't we?!
We've had so much fun talking books and notebooks this year! I can't wait for our field trip later this year (speaking it into existence!).
My dislike for On The Calculation of Volume has softened since I posted my original review but I definitely can't imagine reading all 7 of these books. 🤣🤣🤣
I think that so much of what I read can feel really agitating and her work just feels deliberate and calming -- the equivalent of a long walk in a city I don't know well with breaks for coffee, reading and people watching at a sidewalk cafe.
Ah, that's the type of writing I particularly love - love the calmness of Tove Janssen, also.
And huge CONGRATS on the one year. Your Substack success is so well-deserved!
And thank you for reading. I'm a little disappointed that the more intersectional essays don't do as well as the non-intersectional essays, but I'm also surprised that people are interested in the off-the-beaten path literature and feminism regardless :)
I was similarly not-totally-entranced by Cost of Living. You’ve convinced me to check out Swimming Home. Plus, it has “home” in the title and I’m a sucker for that.
Oh, you're going to fall so hard for HOT MILK when you get to it. I'm excited for you!
Highly recommend Pádraig Ó Tuama's newest, 44 POEMS ON BEING WITH EACH OTHER. The poems themselves are wonderful--eclectic, beautiful, often heartbreaking--and Ó Tuama's explications are both layered and approachable, perfect for those of us who feel like we're still learning to read poetry. (FWIW, I felt similarly about the afterword of HELEN OF TROY 1993: recognizing the formal allusions I didn't catch on first reading really opened up the collection for me!)
I am honestly vibrating in anticipation. I can't stand that I have a full-time job right now... I really want to be reading!!!
I have that exact Pádraig Ó Tuama collection... and I am telling myself to read one poem a day, just really slow down and them IN... He is so wonderful. I often listen to his podcast on my drive home from work when I am buzzing with nervous, anxious (angry?!) energy and want to reset before I see my kid and my husband. I love him and have learned so much from him!!!
Note to self: it's ok to be LEARNING. It's ok to read BADLY.
an exceptional reading month!!! I haven't read any Levy myself yet but I got Hot Milk as a Christmas gift this year and can't wait to finally get around to it! Also so excited you're loving Savas so much– I've been eager to dive into more by her since reading The Anthropologists in January and they all seem so up my alley (our alleys are very similar Petya!!). I had such similar feelings about Good Girl, too, so I'm glad you had a good time with it :) Whenever I get to your list of monthly favorites at the bottom of your newsletters, I'm equally intimidated/admiring; it feels so difficult to just pick one per month (and I usually make it through about half as many books as you!). But as a challenge, if I were to pick for March, I'd have to say the new Hunger Games (sue me), or Rita Halász's debut Deep Breath, translated from the Hungarian, which is right up there as well
and– wondering if I'm missing something, but can't seem to find your Bibliophobia review in the line-up?? 👀 interested to hear what you thought of it!
Ok, Sherlock! I just updated the post with my notes on Bibliophobia that somehow got deleted as I was editing! I am so impressed that you read this closely enough that you noticed.
I love how similar our reading tastes are and even if we don't read the same titles, we are drawn to similar... reading experiences. Savas is wonderful but so are many other authors... It's a daily struggle for me to figure out how to live with the terror of knowing that I will never be able to read all the books I want to read. For the therapists in our mix, please tell us how to deal with this ever-present dread?!
Is The Hunger Games a nostalgic read for you? I just saw that Nic Marna shared he would be reading it and was similarly excited. I think I was in gradschool when everyone got originally excited over the books so I missed that moment entirely but I know so many people are celebrating this new release.
Such a nostalgic read! & it didn’t let me down— I read the original trilogy in middle school, and it’s the only ya series I’ve ever felt compelled to reread ❤️
Such a great write up. Nothing overlapping between us, and I felt very disconnected in my reading last month. But I'm very inspired after reading what you've shared, and added many books to my TBR. The Summer Book is something I'm now going to prioritize. I did attempt Good Girl, who knows...maybe I'll pick it back up.
This has been my first smooth month since October, I think. I just got frazzled with the election and the holidays and just the dread of January... I always perk up in March with spring coming. I hope your find your groove again soon! Hugs!
The Summer Book is so sweet and different and funny. I honestly think you will love it!!!
YOU DIDN'T THINK YOU NEEDED US? But book friends are the best friends... 😃
I love witnessing you find these books that speak to your soul. One of the greatest gifts is learning what moves you as an individual. I feel like I'm starting to get there too.
I need to read Good Girl because I certainly did enough drugs for the both of us and it sounds like Required Reading. Also got Checkout 19 on my shelf that clearly needs some reading as well
LOL i know. A friend of ours did a post-doc in Berlin (in philosophy) and after what he thought was a fun in-class exchange with a fellow graduate student he asked the guy to go grab a beer and talk a bit more about whatever it was they were discussing. And the guy looked at him and said, No thank you. I have enough friends.
When people ask me why I spend so much time working on my Substack when I clearly don't need more on my plate, this is exactly what I tell them. Writing these little posts really has helped me become more clear about what I like to read and finding books that I enjoy is starting to feel less like a crapshoot. Obviously, we can't love everything in equal measure... there would be no fun in that... but it is so great to experience this kind of self-knowledge.
Good Girl is amazing.
Checkout 19 is on my desk for April! She is just such a nut and I love her. From what I've read, Fish Out of Water echoes some of the themes from Checkout 19.
I'm looking forward to reading Aber and Debre. I've been a fan of Aber's poetry and Debre's first two works. I loved Savas' Wilderness and she has short story out in this week's New Yorker about getting older, which I also loved. I'm reading The Book of Disappearance this week, it reminds me of a ghazal.
Wow Petya what a month!!!! I loved reading your love for the summer book - it made me feel all warm and fuzzy when I read it last summer. I had NO idea about the adaptation so that is very exciting! I love the casting already.
Well done for saying you just didn't like On The Calculation of Vol when everyone else is saying how much they love it! That can be so hard, to take a stand against a book you feel the whole world is loving. I do absolutely agree with your point that the book is about the mundanity of life as it explores all these infinite possibilities of what a 'day' can look like. Because I read it after Biography of X it made me think a lot, about Tara and X, and how similar they were in so many ways - this continual reinvention of self they both are doing, for very different reasons. Both Lacey and Balle are meditating on the limits of our existence, all that we could be versus all that we are? Then I started to think about how much fun X would have if she was in Tara's shoes... because she DID do that, changed her identity so many times no one could keep track. In my mind, I think they'd be good friends.
Oh AND this is another reminder I need to read Constance Debré this year - shall I start w Playboy? And congratulations on one year of A Reading Life Petya 🩷🩷🩷🩷 all of our reading lives are better because of you and everything you have to say about books and what it means to be a reader!
Thank you so much, I think you commented on my first book related post which is so wild to think about given how many of us are on this platform! I guess we just always find our own people which is so good to remember. 🥹
Definitely read the books in order - Playboy, Love me tender and then Name.
I think I remember that comment!!! I think it was because I saw you had read Clear and I had a copy! It is so wild, sweet and honestly quite romantic that we always find our people no matter how much noise can be around 🥹 The book obsessed will always find each other <3
Thank you so much for your thoughtful words, Martha. I started typing and my day exploded... I know that part of the appeal of having a personal newsletter is that it is NOT a job and it's just for fun but sometimes I truly wish I could spend my full days reading and yapping about books with my friends here.
I only discovered the adaptation as I was typing up my notes on my book and I am so excited... the island itself looks so similar to what I pictured and I can't wait to meet the rest of this quirky cast of characters. My favorite was Eriksson - the guy who refused to name his boat - a man after my own heart.
I love your imagining of Tara and X's friendship - I love it when a book feels so real that you begin to think of the characters as people living their lives...
Haha I hear you - days full of reading and talking about reading is the only life I want to live! We all have so much to say, it is SO much fun.
I admired Eriksson too, but my favourite was definitely the grandma. I just watched the trailer and it made me cry so.... can't wait! It seems to have captured the essence of what I imagined it to be, which is really special.
I have The Summer Book on my reading list for this year. I have heard so many good things about it. And of course, I have the Helen of Troy book of poetry that I was holding onto for National Poetry Month so I will be reading that shortly!
The Summer Book is wonderful. It stirred up so much in me. I love stories of unlikely friendships and this one is a good example of that.
Happy National Poetry Month!
Did you know that the Close Reads Podcast did The Summer Book last year?
No! I just found it, I can't wait to listen. I just adored this book.
I am curious about Deborah Levy but have always found her intimidating and I don't know why! I may start with the ones you enjoyed 🙂
I know what you mean. And I also had the experience of reading something by her that I felt I ended up being unfairly disappointed because I had built it up in my head before I'd even started reading. But I thought that both Swimming Home and August Blue were wonderful and incredibly readable. I just got Hot Milk which many people argue is her best novel... and can't wait to see how it lands for me.
I will also say that I really believe in that alchemy aspect that Stacey Yu mentions in her essay on life ruining books. Sometimes a book meets all the "requirements" and still doesn't land. The heart wants what it wants. I love that about reading.
I keep hearing about Savas. Hope to read her works soon. We didn’t have any overlapping titles this month but hoping to read White Nights in April. I know this is in your radar too. My favorite book this month was Human Acts by Han Kang 💕
Happy Substack anniversary!
It is! It is sitting on my desk actually. Do you want to read it together in April? This may give us the extra motivation to finally get to it?
My husband just read We Do Not Part by Han Kang and it wrecked him!
yes let’s do it! yes to the motivation haha. I’m just finishing a book now so might start next week.
I just started a new book too, so that would be perfect. I will let you know when I start.
perfect!
Hi Petya! just wanted to let you know that I will be starting White Nights later after binging a few White Lotus episodes :)
Oh. And I think you would really like Savas. I find reading her work super calming to my nervous system.
Thank you for such a great round-up of reading! You read so much in March and I basically just want to read them all 📚 I loved The Summer Book, such an enriching read. And you are so welcome for Swimming Home and the Levy introduction ❤️ I couldn't get into August Blue but now I want to take another look at it, because you've convinced me I wasn't in the right space before. I've downloaded your playlist to get me started. White on White and Woman also sound amazing and are going on my list.
I am just finishing a book I think you'd like, The Details by Ia Genberg (a Swedish book transfered into English) which is short and fast paced, about the four most revealing relationships in the narrator's life as she burns up from a fever.
Finally...happy one year anniversary!! Here's to book friends forever 💓 📚 🤓
I already got HOT MILK and that's next on deck. I feel like Levy cast a spell on me with Swimming Home and I just want to stay in her presence. That's why I made that August Blue playlist... I wanted to stay in that haze. After HOT MILK I think I will return to the living autobiography books. I don't know if you remember but last time we talked about her, your hypothesis was that I would enjoy her non-fiction more after having some exposure to her fiction and I suspect you are correct!
I think you would love both Women and White on White but I would definitely say that White on White is a very Kate novel. 🤓🤓
The Details sounds so good, adding to the list.
Thank you so much for the anniversary wishes. I still remember seeing your first comment on my Miranda July post and wanting to melt into the floor, I was so starstruck and excited that you liked my writing! Can you believe it's been less than a year since we met?!
I love "White on White is a very Kate" novel!! ❤️ I am visiting bookshops at the weekend...
I cannot believe it's only been a year! I remember seeing the picture of you reading Miranda July and desperately waiting for the book to arrive! I was not disappointed.
I think I do remember that about Levy! I think reading her fiction provides a way into her non-fiction. I hope you enjoy Hot Milk as much as the others. Your playlists are the best 👌 I am still listening to Satie at your recommendation and love that you seek out music to complement reading, such a great idea.
“When I do, and say, and write, and think, and speak in ways that are in tune with my values and I honor my needs and feel connected to my husband and kid and live authentically without pretense — the world feels beautiful and harmonious and, truly, it feels like signs appear around me to show me that I am on the right path.”
YES!! This feeling por vida.
Congratulations on one year!!! It’s been a joy and an honor to be a part of your reading life, Petya. Thank you for all that you share here. I'm incredibly grateful that you’ve inspired me to read contemporary fiction again. I’ve been having a blast with it.
I’ll be adding White on White to my TBR, and Name sounds fascinating. I read On the Calculation of Volume v1 in March and did not like it, as we discussed in the comments in a prior piece. It was a slog to get through. 0 joy for me.
I’m currently reading Val Kilmer’s autobiography, which is fascinating. He was such a mammoth talent in acting, and I so enjoy his writing. He’s just as witty and charming on the page as he is onscreen. Very sad that he’s no longer on our earthly plane.
You are one of my earliest friends on Substack. I think we met even before I started writing about books, didn't we?!
We've had so much fun talking books and notebooks this year! I can't wait for our field trip later this year (speaking it into existence!).
My dislike for On The Calculation of Volume has softened since I posted my original review but I definitely can't imagine reading all 7 of these books. 🤣🤣🤣
Yes, it was before you wrote about books. You were an instant girl/writing crush for me💗
You ARE coming to NYC so we can have an in person bookstore extravaganza. It’s not a matter of if but when!
When I heard there were 7 books, I was like…yea it’s a wrap for me 😂
I keep hearing about Ayşegül Savaş - should check her work out.
Thanks for the shout out also!
I think that so much of what I read can feel really agitating and her work just feels deliberate and calming -- the equivalent of a long walk in a city I don't know well with breaks for coffee, reading and people watching at a sidewalk cafe.
I love everything you write!
Ah, that's the type of writing I particularly love - love the calmness of Tove Janssen, also.
And huge CONGRATS on the one year. Your Substack success is so well-deserved!
And thank you for reading. I'm a little disappointed that the more intersectional essays don't do as well as the non-intersectional essays, but I'm also surprised that people are interested in the off-the-beaten path literature and feminism regardless :)
I was similarly not-totally-entranced by Cost of Living. You’ve convinced me to check out Swimming Home. Plus, it has “home” in the title and I’m a sucker for that.
There's a lot of HOUSE in the book too. Please read it and tell me what you think.
Oh, you're going to fall so hard for HOT MILK when you get to it. I'm excited for you!
Highly recommend Pádraig Ó Tuama's newest, 44 POEMS ON BEING WITH EACH OTHER. The poems themselves are wonderful--eclectic, beautiful, often heartbreaking--and Ó Tuama's explications are both layered and approachable, perfect for those of us who feel like we're still learning to read poetry. (FWIW, I felt similarly about the afterword of HELEN OF TROY 1993: recognizing the formal allusions I didn't catch on first reading really opened up the collection for me!)
I am honestly vibrating in anticipation. I can't stand that I have a full-time job right now... I really want to be reading!!!
I have that exact Pádraig Ó Tuama collection... and I am telling myself to read one poem a day, just really slow down and them IN... He is so wonderful. I often listen to his podcast on my drive home from work when I am buzzing with nervous, anxious (angry?!) energy and want to reset before I see my kid and my husband. I love him and have learned so much from him!!!
Note to self: it's ok to be LEARNING. It's ok to read BADLY.
an exceptional reading month!!! I haven't read any Levy myself yet but I got Hot Milk as a Christmas gift this year and can't wait to finally get around to it! Also so excited you're loving Savas so much– I've been eager to dive into more by her since reading The Anthropologists in January and they all seem so up my alley (our alleys are very similar Petya!!). I had such similar feelings about Good Girl, too, so I'm glad you had a good time with it :) Whenever I get to your list of monthly favorites at the bottom of your newsletters, I'm equally intimidated/admiring; it feels so difficult to just pick one per month (and I usually make it through about half as many books as you!). But as a challenge, if I were to pick for March, I'd have to say the new Hunger Games (sue me), or Rita Halász's debut Deep Breath, translated from the Hungarian, which is right up there as well
and– wondering if I'm missing something, but can't seem to find your Bibliophobia review in the line-up?? 👀 interested to hear what you thought of it!
Ok, Sherlock! I just updated the post with my notes on Bibliophobia that somehow got deleted as I was editing! I am so impressed that you read this closely enough that you noticed.
I love how similar our reading tastes are and even if we don't read the same titles, we are drawn to similar... reading experiences. Savas is wonderful but so are many other authors... It's a daily struggle for me to figure out how to live with the terror of knowing that I will never be able to read all the books I want to read. For the therapists in our mix, please tell us how to deal with this ever-present dread?!
Is The Hunger Games a nostalgic read for you? I just saw that Nic Marna shared he would be reading it and was similarly excited. I think I was in gradschool when everyone got originally excited over the books so I missed that moment entirely but I know so many people are celebrating this new release.
Such a nostalgic read! & it didn’t let me down— I read the original trilogy in middle school, and it’s the only ya series I’ve ever felt compelled to reread ❤️
I am SO HAPPY to learn that The Summer Book is a movie! Hands down one of my favorite books, I recommend it often!
Me too! The trailer is obviously just such a little snippet but it feels so well done!
That's a lot - and the books seem to be wonderful! I am intrigued by "White on white" which sounds really interesting.
I can't help myself, I love books set within or on the margins of academia.
Such a great write up. Nothing overlapping between us, and I felt very disconnected in my reading last month. But I'm very inspired after reading what you've shared, and added many books to my TBR. The Summer Book is something I'm now going to prioritize. I did attempt Good Girl, who knows...maybe I'll pick it back up.
This has been my first smooth month since October, I think. I just got frazzled with the election and the holidays and just the dread of January... I always perk up in March with spring coming. I hope your find your groove again soon! Hugs!
The Summer Book is so sweet and different and funny. I honestly think you will love it!!!
YOU DIDN'T THINK YOU NEEDED US? But book friends are the best friends... 😃
I love witnessing you find these books that speak to your soul. One of the greatest gifts is learning what moves you as an individual. I feel like I'm starting to get there too.
I need to read Good Girl because I certainly did enough drugs for the both of us and it sounds like Required Reading. Also got Checkout 19 on my shelf that clearly needs some reading as well
lmao this made me laugh Natalie hahaha
Just me clownin around per usual 😆
LOL i know. A friend of ours did a post-doc in Berlin (in philosophy) and after what he thought was a fun in-class exchange with a fellow graduate student he asked the guy to go grab a beer and talk a bit more about whatever it was they were discussing. And the guy looked at him and said, No thank you. I have enough friends.
"no new friends no new friends"
When people ask me why I spend so much time working on my Substack when I clearly don't need more on my plate, this is exactly what I tell them. Writing these little posts really has helped me become more clear about what I like to read and finding books that I enjoy is starting to feel less like a crapshoot. Obviously, we can't love everything in equal measure... there would be no fun in that... but it is so great to experience this kind of self-knowledge.
Good Girl is amazing.
Checkout 19 is on my desk for April! She is just such a nut and I love her. From what I've read, Fish Out of Water echoes some of the themes from Checkout 19.
Im on board with anyone you describe as a "nut"
I'm looking forward to reading Aber and Debre. I've been a fan of Aber's poetry and Debre's first two works. I loved Savas' Wilderness and she has short story out in this week's New Yorker about getting older, which I also loved. I'm reading The Book of Disappearance this week, it reminds me of a ghazal.
I think the new short story in The New Yorker is from Long Distance - the upcoming collection which will be out in July.
You will LOVE *Name*... so much of Playboy and Love Me Tender makes more sense after reading it.
"it feels like signs appear around me to show me that I am on the right path," I feel Julia Cameron out there nodding along.
I need to return to Deborah Levy! I've read some of her non-fiction but haven't gotten around to her novels.
I wasn't thinking of Julia Cameron but I have done the Artist Way before and I am an avid journal-er ... so I believe in that.
Obviously I have no way of knowing for sure but I have a feeling that you would really like her! Swimming Home was the one that set me on fire.
Wow Petya what a month!!!! I loved reading your love for the summer book - it made me feel all warm and fuzzy when I read it last summer. I had NO idea about the adaptation so that is very exciting! I love the casting already.
Well done for saying you just didn't like On The Calculation of Vol when everyone else is saying how much they love it! That can be so hard, to take a stand against a book you feel the whole world is loving. I do absolutely agree with your point that the book is about the mundanity of life as it explores all these infinite possibilities of what a 'day' can look like. Because I read it after Biography of X it made me think a lot, about Tara and X, and how similar they were in so many ways - this continual reinvention of self they both are doing, for very different reasons. Both Lacey and Balle are meditating on the limits of our existence, all that we could be versus all that we are? Then I started to think about how much fun X would have if she was in Tara's shoes... because she DID do that, changed her identity so many times no one could keep track. In my mind, I think they'd be good friends.
Oh AND this is another reminder I need to read Constance Debré this year - shall I start w Playboy? And congratulations on one year of A Reading Life Petya 🩷🩷🩷🩷 all of our reading lives are better because of you and everything you have to say about books and what it means to be a reader!
Thank you so much, I think you commented on my first book related post which is so wild to think about given how many of us are on this platform! I guess we just always find our own people which is so good to remember. 🥹
Definitely read the books in order - Playboy, Love me tender and then Name.
I think I remember that comment!!! I think it was because I saw you had read Clear and I had a copy! It is so wild, sweet and honestly quite romantic that we always find our people no matter how much noise can be around 🥹 The book obsessed will always find each other <3
Thank you so much for your thoughtful words, Martha. I started typing and my day exploded... I know that part of the appeal of having a personal newsletter is that it is NOT a job and it's just for fun but sometimes I truly wish I could spend my full days reading and yapping about books with my friends here.
I only discovered the adaptation as I was typing up my notes on my book and I am so excited... the island itself looks so similar to what I pictured and I can't wait to meet the rest of this quirky cast of characters. My favorite was Eriksson - the guy who refused to name his boat - a man after my own heart.
I love your imagining of Tara and X's friendship - I love it when a book feels so real that you begin to think of the characters as people living their lives...
Haha I hear you - days full of reading and talking about reading is the only life I want to live! We all have so much to say, it is SO much fun.
I admired Eriksson too, but my favourite was definitely the grandma. I just watched the trailer and it made me cry so.... can't wait! It seems to have captured the essence of what I imagined it to be, which is really special.