You all likely know the drill by now, so let’s just jump right into this month’s wrap up! We’ll start, as always, with the books.
Books read: 6
Yearly total: 37
1. Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ | Review
2. Wivenhoe by Samuel Fisher
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ | Review
3. You Brought Me the Ocean by Alex Sanchez & Julie Maroh
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ | Review
4. The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ | Review
5. Water and Stone by Annette Makino
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ | Review
6. Life in Solitude by Aliyah Jackson
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ | Review
Favourite of the month: The Glass Woman
I had another really enjoyable month in terms of embroidery. The following projects were the result, some of which are still available over on my etsy shop.
I’d been having an urge to start dabbling in painting for the first time in years, so after getting hold of some supplies for my birthday, I started playing around with watercolours. I was instantly hooked, with the following pieces just a handful of what I ended up producing.
Last but certainly not least, we have the main event: the pet pictures!
Ted
Oscar
Frankie (with a cameo from Ted)
There we have it! Did you have a good month in June? What was the best book you read?
This is one of those reads that’s tricky to quantify my feelings for. In a nutshell: I liked it, but I wanted to love it; and I think it’s a good book, but it had all the component parts of a great one.
This is a gentle and ruminative look at how much our mood/mental health can be affected by the changing seasons. The text itself is relatively simple, though it does have an air of prose poetry to it. So while it may not discuss any particularly unique experiences or offer up any ground-breaking insights, it is likely to resonate widely.
I’ve been an admirer of Giordano’s work ever since I took up embroidery myself. Specialising in characterful, hyper-realistic woodland animals, her pieces are brought to life in her own distinct style of thread painting. In this book, she breaks down her creative process – in general terms, and on a piece-by-piece basis. It’s definitely easy to draw inspiration from her work, and though most of us will never come close to her standard, it is a joy to pore over such high-quality reproductions of her designs – the book itself having been produced to a wonderful standard.
In this collection of poems, Hosein tackles numerous big topics, including abusive relationships, the painful loss of her mother, the emotional strain of trauma, and the racism she faces as a POC living in Canada. All are approached with honesty and verve, employing simple yet effective imagery to hit home her themes:
Following the huge success of their previous collaboration, The Lost Words, poet Robert Macfarlane and artist Jackie Morris have created another ode to the beauty of the natural world, and the importance of preserving the language we use to describe it.
If Morris’s collaborations with Macfarlane hint ever so subtly at something magical, here she leans fully into it. A series of vignettes crafted in text and watercolour, The Unwinding is best described less as a short story collection, and more as a series of dreams rendered on paper. You shouldn’t expect a rounded narrative arc or in-depth development, but you certainly can expect stunning artwork that evokes enchanting worlds, enigmatic characters, and an ethereal atmosphere. This elusive beauty is perfect for stimulating the imagination.
Like any collection of poetry, there were themes, styles, and individual poems in this that impacted me more than others, but on the whole, it’s another impressive selection that proves Brown’s ability to pack a punch.
Mackesy’s artwork is incredibly charming, and the sentiment throughout this book is lovely. There’s no story; it’s simply a series of random, fleeting vignettes about a lonely, sensitive young boy who befriends some animals, the ragtag group wandering the landscape and sharing musings on life.
This short from Tor Books is about a mission to make contact – and attempt to draw up a peace treaty – with the first newly discovered alien race. It has many hallmarks of classic sci-fi, and is a quick, engaging read, but it’s the subtext that helps this one stand out – even if it does become a little heavy-handed by the end. Essentially, the story is a riff on the idea of what constitutes power, and where, as a society, we place credence. Chiefly, Older asks the reader to consider why we feel compelled to supress pain.
This graphic memoir of Frida Kahlo offers a particularly insightful look into life with chronic pain, and the transformative power of art. It’s very interestingly structured, both in its forgoing of traditional panels in favour of a freeform layout, and in its narrative framing, with the book presented as though a first-person discussion between Kahlo and Death. Having suffered many losses throughout her life, and flirted dangerously close to death many times herself, this has effective thematic resonance.
Callum McLaughlin 