SWIMMING HOME by DEBORAH LEVY

Picture this: a villa in France, a heatwave, two middle aged couples; one rich, one bankrupt, one teenage daughter, one dirty swimming pool, some guns, some poems, the French Riviera and an unwelcome (oft naked) guest. Intrigued yet?

I thought this book was brilliant. I enjoyed reading it so much! It reminded me of Hot Milk by Levy and also The Accidental by Ali Smith. I got all the French villa vibes.

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ANOTHER BROOKLYN by JACQUELINE WOODSON

ANOTHER BROOKLYN by JACQUELINE WOODSON I read this book in the space of a few hours and as soon as I finished I turned back to the first page again. I didn’t read it all again - just that first page and it worked. It’s a cyclical book. It doesn’t need to be read in any particular order. Memories manifest in any way they want to. This book is a series of memories told from the point of view of August; a teenager growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s. She states early on in the book that life would have been different if she’d known about jazz, but all she knew of was the top 40 (white artists mostly). And “it never quite figured us out.” I found that one statement to be huge! It’s a 170 page novel, but that statement to me felt bigger than the messages I’ve taken from 1000 page novels. If we can’t see ourselves represented, how can we see ourselves at all? My own white privilege means that this is something I rarely have to think about, but this book helped me to understand how that...

BONJOUR TRISTESSE / A CERTAIN SMILE by FRACOISE SAGAN

BONJOUR TRISTESSE by FRACOISE SAGAN French Literature at its finest. There are actually two novels in this book and Bonjour Tristesse is the first and that is the one I’ll review first. The novella (100 pages) takes place over a summer on the French Riviera. Cecile and her father have rented the villa for two months to escape from the heat of Paris. Her widowed father brings with him his young and beautiful mistress, but then another guest turns up... The star of this book, though, is the setting. The French Riviera. The beach. The glistening ocean. The sailing. The sex. The sun. The wine. The cigarettes. The sadness that only comes with being seventeen and in love, or not in love. I just can’t get over the fact that the author was 18 when she wrote this. A CERTAIN SMILE by FRACOISE SAGAN Well, well, well, I had no idea that I could love the second novella more than the first. What an exquisite story. I felt like I was reading a French Sally Rooney. It is very much like Conversati...

THE GRAVITY OF US by PHIL STAMPER

THE GRAVITY OF US by PHIL STAMPER Pretty much all I need to hear to know that I’m going to love a book are the words: queer love story. I do wish I’d listened a bit harder because this one is also about space travel - not the most interesting topic in the world (or out of it) for me. Regardless of that, I did enjoy this book. It’s lighthearted and young but it still managed to cover some serious issues including mental health. I appreciated the honesty of the characters and the cute love story and this is definitely a book I would be happy to recommend to any of my teenage students, but for me it was a little too spacey and a little too young. It’s not this wonderful book’s fault; I’m just not the target audience! I still love Leon, though ❤️

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