What I read in May (2024)

I’m trying to be less of a perfectionist about what I put online, and come at it with a bit more humour and lightness. So here is a list of what I read in May, and a photograph of an albatross I shot on film from the Monarch at the entrance to Otago Harbour (Dunedin, New Zealand).

Orbital by Samantha Harvey - astronauts in space over the stretch of a few days, very poetic, beautiful, short

The Underworld by Susan Casey - one of my favourite authors of all time, nonfiction about the deep sea

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang - story the movie Arrival was based on in this collection, non-linear language & thought, really interesting stories

The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life by Boyd Varty - love this guy and his work, tracking in the wilderness as a metaphor for life, very neat and short little book, gentle, easy read, his work is worth a deeper dive

Beautiful Actions by Angela Trolove - very privileged to read this beautiful book by a dear friend

The Gathering by Anne Enright - beautiful and disturbing, quiet to start, elegant prose

Everything I know About Love by Dolly Alderton - funny and light, wish it was a bit deeper but was a good read while I recovered from an invasive wisdom tooth surgery, nonfiction about her life, 20’s to 30’s.

Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore by Elizabeth Rush - really happy to have discovered this writer, writes on climate change, sea level rise and transcribes interviews with multiple people in the body of her work, fascinating and disturbing