Don't play safe, Drugstore Drastic, Boybands Forever
This week's primary procrastinations...
The Saturday Compendium is where I round up a few of the things that have interested me in one way or another. Some cool, some not so cool, some that have made me think, some that have inspired me to action, some that have shaken me out of a rut. Some old, some new, all borrowed, some possibly blue. But whatever else, they’re all things I think you might find interesting too.
Do you want more? Do join up as a reader-supporter. You’ll get all my posts, past and future, including essays, humour, fiction, behind-the-scenes publishing gossip, and much more. All for about the same price as a coffee. I try to provide good value, and though there’s something for everyone, the juice is below the line.
Click below for a BLACK FRIDAY OFFER of 40% off the price of a subscription. This works out at about £3.60 (or US$4.50) per month, or just £2.60 (US$3.30) if you pay for the whole year in advance.
But hurry, this offer is available for the next few days only!
Don’t play safe
You will never achieve success by ensuring against failure.
What I’m reading: Our Evenings - Alan Hollinghurst
“Alan Hollinghurst, the Booker Prize-winning author of The Line of Beauty, brings us a dark, luminous and wickedly funny portrait of modern England through the lens of one man’s acutely observed and often unnerving experience. It is a story of race and class, theatre and sexuality, love and the cruel shock of violence, from one of the finest writers of our age.
Dave Win is thirteen years old when he first goes to stay with the sponsors of his scholarship at a local boarding school. This weekend, with its games and challenges and surprising encounters, will open up heady new possibilities, even as it exposes him to their son Giles’ envy and violence.
As their lives unfold over the next half a century, the two boys’ careers will diverge dramatically: Dave, a gifted actor struggling with convention and discrimination, Giles an increasingly powerful and dangerous politician.
Our Evenings is the intimate and touching story of Dave Win’s life as a schoolboy and student, his first love affairs, in London, and on the road with an experimental theatre company, and of a late-life affair, which transforms his sixties with a new sense of happiness and a perilous security.”
What I’ve read: Tender is the Flesh - Agustina Bazterrica
“It all happened so quickly. First, animals became infected with the virus and their meat became poisonous. Then governments initiated the Transition. Now, 'special meat' - human meat - is legal. Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans - only no one calls them that. He works with numbers, consignments, processing. One day, he's given a gift to seal a deal: a specimen of the finest quality. He leaves her in his barn, tied up, a problem to be disposed of later. But she haunts Marcos. Her trembling body, and watchful gaze, seem to understand. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost - and what might still be saved.”
Lots of books claim to have devastating endings. This one actually does. And it’s dark as hell. I loved it.
Have you read it? I need someone to talk to about it. I need someone to give me a hug.
What I’ve been musing on
Predators. And how they get away with it. There are reasons this has been on my mind, but not ones I can talk about.
Which is how they get away with it.
What I’ve been watching: Boybands Forever on BBC2
Absolutely fascinating. But how did ALL of these groups pass me by?(Well, not quite all, I mean I wasn’t living in a cave).
What have YOU been watching?
What I’ve been listening to: Drugstore Drastic by Throwing Muses
The return of the second best band in the world .(The first is 50 Foot Wave)
How about you? What are you enjoying at the moment?
Send it to me. I’ll read it. We’ll have wine and hugs and tangents .