October has been busy so far and exhausting. Workwise mostly, but also local politics stuff and possibly the first onset of winter gloom. The work week in Manchester was super interesting and fun in a way and I also got to see two of my (many) favourite artists on stage. Jojo Moyes at a bookevent in Manchester and Grace Petrie at a gig in Camden on the way back home. Last week there were a lot of executive decisions to be prepared and processed at work. I had to take on a bit more responsibility and I didn’t shy away from that, but I’m a overthinker and a worrier. And that can be exhausting. It was exhausting. I tried to get enough sleep and spend the weekends being lazy on my couch in front of the TV, binging Downton Abbey.
Every sort of “Daily Post” would have consisted of the same old: not enough sleep, too much coffee, being too busy for anything else than work. Moaning about the car repair shop. Random stuff.
Today I went on a book buying spree, which was a bit silly actually as I have enough new books I haven’t read yet. Quite a few I have given up on (and might start again at some point). But if I hear of an interesting book, whether fiction or non-fiction my lack of impulse control always gets the better of me. My reading interests also seems to have changed a bit recently. I still very much enjoy contemporary (women’s) fiction, but I’m very consciously making an effort to read from a more diverse group of authors. Writers of different backgrounds. Stories which don’t all play out in the world that’s so familiar to me (White, financially secure, privileged woman in a western society). More non-fiction about current issues: Politics. Race. Climate Change. Misogony.
During my lunch break I went to the indepented bookshop close by my office to pick up two books I had ordered. Whenever possible I try to get my books through them instead of Amazon or the second bookshop close by, which belongs to a big book selling chain. I saw a third book I liked and a fourth one I had wanted to buy was sold out. So I went to the chain bookshop where they had that fourth book still available, so I bought it. Of course. Later that day I was for some reason (some tweet, I think), reminded of Lauren Duca’s book. I checked the local bookshops online catalog, but it would have taken them weeks to get it, so I looked at Amazon after all. I know, I know. It’s a horrible company. But my impatience (and/or the aforementioned lack of impulse control) makes me forgo my principals sometimes. I’m only human after all. So I order it from there. To round it up, while I was at it, I ordered a sixth one, also after I made sure the local bookshops wouldn’t be able to order it within the next two weeks either. Preferring English books while living in Germany sometimes is a pain in the ass. Anyway… those books will be delivered tomorrow.
Here is what I’ve bought…
1. Dear Martin (Nic Stone, 2017). Fiction. Someone in my Twitter feed mentioned this book recently got banned in some schools and concluded with “Read the banned books”. Which, for me who comes from nation who not just banned but also burned books during the Nazi regime, is something I definitely always try to do. The story is about a male, black teenager. Honor student, on his way to Yale and victim of racism in the US.
2. On Fire (Naomi Klein, 2019). Non-Fiction. Another book I sort of found via my Twitter feed, when I saw the stories about Jane Fonda being arrested for a climate protest. This book was what inspired Jane Fonda to act.
3. Haymatland (Dunja Hayali, 2019). Non-fiction. I do read books in my native language German too, don’t get me wrong :-) This one is also about racism and immigration issues. A series of essays, I think it could be called. By a female German TV journalist, whose parents came to Germany from Iraq. She has a great Instagram too, mostly photos of her cute dog Wilma ;-)
4. Herkunft (Saša Stanišić, 2018). Fiction. Another book in German. Another book, this time an autobiographical novel, about very current issues like immigration and war among nations and finding a home in a new country. Written by a Bosnian-German, who came to Germany as a teenager with his parents during the Yugoslavian war. He won a very prestigious German Book Award for it a few days ago.
5. How To Start A Revolution (Lauren Duca, 2019). Non-fiction. If you don’t know who Lauren Duca is… where have you been in the last two years? She is such an important US voice in my Twitter feed, so I’m very much looking forward to reading this one.
6. All We Ever Wanted (Emily Giffin, 2018). Fiction. I admit I have never heard of her before, even though she wrote quite a few bestsellers. She turned out to be a huge Jojo Moyes fangirl and Jojo shared meeting her via Instagram, so I looked her up and her newest book sounded quite interesting. So in the digital shopping basket it went…
I’m impossible ;-).