A loose collection of thoughts on other people’s appreciation of things

I’m taking delight, lately, in appreciations of things.

Read and Seen — July 2020

A test (themed for Envious Casca)

I’m testing different gold-and-sihouette techniques in the interests of catching up on my book posts. For this one I used black, white and (real) gold paint pens.

Read

• Slightly Foxed #66. This quarterly is going to cost me a lot of money.
• Envious Casca — Georgette Heyer. I’m fascinated by the idea of country house murders as tragedies of manners.
• The Blue Castle — LM Montgomery. I still love this sweet ridiculous book, and Valancy’s bid for happiness. (If you’ve read it, you might enjoy this live-tweet of Emily (@otherpens) reading it for the first time.
• Taboo — Kim Scott (Picador in Australia, Small Beer Press in the USA). Luminous, unsettling, with a subtle approach to time. Stunning opening. If you’ve read The Mere Wife, I particularly recommend checking this out. (Not just if you’ve read The Mere Wife, obviously.)

Seen

• The Lady Eve. (Not in a cinema, but as an arranged outing at least.) I do like old-fashioned screwball comedies (although I like them better at the caper-end of comedies of manners). This is charming but did not make nearly enough use of its snakes.