Diary of a tea addict

How has everyone's Easter been? I got two Easter Eggs- one amazing Hotel Chocolat one and one HUGE Cadbury's one so we have quality & quantity covered.

This morning we had the full Cathedral choirs singing- girls, boys & men- which was lovely especially as they let us Parish Singers join in too and I do love the Hallelujah Chorus with a big choir. Then I came home and collapsed again because between the cough that has well and truly set in and the hideous sinus headache that appeared yesterday I am not enjoying this long weekend as much as I might be.

But I have done some reading (in fact another whole book on top of this but that was today so April!)

• Why Be Normal When You Can Be Happy - Jeanette Winterson
  
• Letters of a Peruvian Woman - Françoise de Graffigny
  
• Kindred - Octavia E. Butler
  
• Sands of Saravasti - Risto Isomäki
  
• Letters Written in Sweden, Norway and Denmark - Mary Wollstonecraft
  
• Church Fathers Reading Plan
  
• Church Fathers Reading Plan
  
• Church Fathers Reading Plan (counting as three)
  
• The Ballad of Reading Gaol - Oscar Wilde

March reviews

Why Be Normal When You Can Be Happy - Jeanette Winterson Oh this book ♥ It's (kind of) the non fiction version of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit except that it's still slightly obscured and contains jumps and non linear time occasionally. It's incredibly beautifully written, even when she's talking about her own breakdown and some truly horrendous things that happened to her. I don't really know how to talk about it- it's funny and moving and clever and relatable in the way she clings to words and books and yet so utterly unlike my life in many ways.

Letters of a Peruvian Woman - Françoise de Graffigny Another really interesting book I’d never come across before. Zilia’s personality shines through the letters and Graffignyworks hard to think through all the elements of French culture that she would find strange. I loved how certain she was allowed to be of her own culture and her own heart (and although my copy had alternate endings at least one of which was the one I'd been hoping for the real ending was the best). Nice to know people have always rewritten bits they don't like though.

Kindred - Octavia E. Butler It's taken me fr too long to try one of Octavia E. Butler's novels and I don't really know why. Kindred is SFF because it's time travel but really it's a historic novel, or a polticial one, a "neo-slave narrative" as the reviewers call it. It's absolutely incredible and engrossing but of course it's also horrifying to read and I'm glad I read it over a weekend, shut away in my room, because I don't think I could have read a lot of the more violent scenes in public. It's an interesting way to show a historic period making a feature of our separation and modern viewpoints. It's also full of flawed and complicated characters.

I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery.

Sands of Saravasti - Risto Isomäki NOT a book to read when feeling anxious (oops). This is a near future climate change novel I picked up at WorldCon in Finland. It's SFF because it is set in the future and some of the tech is a step or two ahead but it's an absolutely recognisable world and I couldn't put it down because even though it was clear from the start what was coming I had that irrational feeling that if I read quickly enough I could postpone the inevitable. It's really good and I do reccommend it but it will give you a whole new apocalypse to worry about.

Letters Written in Sweden, Norway and Denmark - Mary Wollstonecraft This was interesting to read after the Letters of a Peruvian Lady- real 18th century letters after fake ones. This is Wollstonecraft's travelogue of her time in Norway, Sweden & Denmark where she was om business for her partner who had fallen out of love with her and it's supplemented by her letters to him which show the depths of anguish she was feeling (and which occasionally spill into the letters in the main book). She's an engaging writer though she does seem to make sweeping judgement on quite a small acquaintance (like everyone else in the world I suppose). It certainly made me want to visit Norway and I learned a lot about the history of that area which I had really never considered before.

Church Fathers Reading Plan I'm counting this as three books because there are actually two complete books in here plus lots of extra bits. It's a huge range of writings from the "church fathers" and some were much more engaging than others. I never really connected with St. Athanasius: Life of Anthony but I really loved the earliest bits- the Didache and the Epistle of Polycarp etc which were a reminder that after the New Testament the church continued in a very similar vein with letters and the people in the epistles being actually known individuals. I also loved St. Cyril of Jerusalem's Catechetical Lectures because they felt like they connected the services I attend today right back to the earliest days of the church. Similarly St Justin the Martyr's Apologetics were fascinating for placing early Christianity amidst the other religions and beliefs around at the time. It was difficult at times but I'm really glad I finally read this (it's been bookmarked for... many years)

The Ballad of Reading Gaol - Oscar Wilde This is one of those poems where certain lines are so well known but I've never actually read it. It was the perfect reading for Holy Saturday and although I've read elsewhere that Wilde felt in places this wasn't great poetry I think it does exactly what he wanted it to and it's haunting in its repetition and simplicity.

The Chaplain would not kneel to pray
Bu his dishonoured grave:
Nor mark it with that blessed cross
That Christ for sinners gave,
Because the man was one of those
Whom Christ came down to save.