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10 Books About Slavery and Racism
I’m not a reader who by nature gravitates towards dark, difficult books. Every time I pick up something that I suspect is going to show me things that I’d rather pretend don’t exist, I do it with reluctance (the other thing I hate as much as the feeling of p..
The Obama Book Club
When I woke up in the morning of 24 June last year, in shock, I thought things couldn’t get any worse, that this was the political nadir of my life. Silly me. Things can always get worse and they just have. I spent yesterday in a daze of horror and disbelief..
Best of 2016: Books
I read 112 books last year, across genres and themes, of varying thickness and respectability. It’s a decent number, but what follows is by no means a comprehensive overview of anything: while I have read some of the talked-about books of 2016, I haven’t rea..
Lauren Elkin’s Flâneuse and Book Regrets
A good colleague asked me recently how often I regret reading a book. We had a long conversation about it, but the short answer is: almost never. As a quick glance at my Goodreads profile will tell you, this is not because I only read masterpieces. In fact, ..
Pretty Iconic by Sali Hughes
Writing a good beauty book is difficult. I’m very much in favour of talking about skincare, makeup, perfume and style in every possible medium, on every level of seriousness/lack of it. But I often feel it works better in magazines and on social media than i..
Autumn Is For Big Books: 14 Fat Suggestions
Some people might say I’m not really in tune with nature, but this is, like, wrong. I totally am! My reading list is very much in sync with the weather and seasons. Autumn for example is the time to read big books – tomes on history, ponderous classics, mood..
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
The one thing I knew with absolute certainty when I finished A Little Life – emotionally drained and unstable – was that Hanya Yanagihara has shitloads of talent. Not much of a result, considering I knew that already since reading The People in the Trees, he..
Summer 2016 Reading List
The summer has started weeks ago, but I was busy finalising things at work and watching football, and some of the books only just arrived – so here we are with the list in the middle of July. Looking at the pile, I admit it DOES look ambitious. Then again, I..
10 Summer Reading Recommendations
Estonian women’s magazine Anne & Stiil recently asked me to recommend summer reads for their June issue. Understandably but unfortunately, I was limited to books that have been translated into Estonian. That meant I had to leave out a few I would have liked ..
On the Uses of Bookstagram (and Six People to Follow)
The activities people most frequently associate with me are coughing* and reading, often conducted simultaneously. I’ve read since I can remember myself and never expected my reading experience to change much. And in most ways, it hasn’t – although I’m somew..