Recent Articles
One sentence on the rest of the books I read in 2022
Or well, a bit more than a sentence actually. In total, I read 45 books in 2022. The first part of my round up from Summer 2022 is here.
Now, onto the books..
This year, I…
I love the reflection that accompanies this time of year. As is my tradition, I’ve been diving into my Unravelling workbook and setting some goals for the coming year. But before the calendar clicks over into 2023, I wanted to remember some of this year’s highlights as much for myself as anyone else.
Winter Smorgasbord
Can you believe it’s December? This year has flown by, though I suspect that’s because I’m very happy. As I said on Instagram, November was a great month.
My latest Rogue column was published last weekend. It’s about how the internet isn’t as good as it used to be, specifically as a place for reading and writing. I hope you enjoy it!
Now, onto the links..
October Smorgasbord
Happy Halloween to all who celebrate. I’m not a fan of recreational fear. I experience enough actual fear to find that enjoyable, but I do enjoy the crunchy leaves, the beautiful colours, the return to knitwear. Walking home the other day, I met a cluster of children in elaborate costumes. Shout out to the young girl dressed as a tin of Heinz Beans. I also saw a squirrel without a tail and immediately felt embarrassed for the poor thing.
Revising my novel (again!)
After lunch on the terrace, I free-wrote in my journal. It was a Tuesday. I’d taken the week off work to focus on my novel. I thought it’d be helpful to narrate what I thought I was doing. I thought it might feel like I had some company while I was immersing myself in this story I wrote in 2020 and lived in 2008.
September Smorgasboard
A round up of things to read, watch, listen to etc
Smorgasbord: on the value of link roundups
When I look back on my own history of sharing things on the internet, link roundups have been a consistent part of my output for more than a decade.
Ukraine, 6 months on
This week will mark the 6 month anniversary since Russia invaded Ukraine. Though fighting continues, it has largely slipped from the headlines.
Greece 2022
I’m just back from a glorious time in Greece. My partner and I visited Athens, Naxos and Santorini. Some photos and thoughts from the trip are here, if you’d like to see.
One sentence on every book I've read so far this year
Before we get started, I wanted to share two recent rogue columns. I wrote about how I was wrong about about both time and social media. I hope you enjoy them.
Now, onto the books..
Sally Rooney’s ‘Beautiful World, Where Are You?’ surprised and delighted me. It’s her best book yet. (An excerpt)
A (belated) Happy Pride & some links
Last weekend, I watched the Dublin Pride parade wind its way through our small city. It’s the first ‘normal’ parade since 2019 and that feels (at least to me) like another lifetime. In honour of the season, I read Adrienne Rich’s infamous essay on compulsory heterosexuality.
I got covid. Here are some links.
After more than two years of anxiously worrying that I had covid every time I had a headache, I was somehow still shocked to finally get a positive diagnosis. I felt shitty, but in the usual way I feel when I’m getting a head cold. I’d stayed up late one night writing and had been working in a chilly room and skipping lunch. I was due to feel a bit poorly. I hadn’t been minding myself. This was my penance.
My latest column (& a reading list on diet culture)
My latest column is now live. It’s about my relationship with my body, disordered eating, fat phobia and trying to rid my life of toxic messaging around diet, weight, health and fitness.
Are Irish streets safe for LGBTQIA+ people?
It has been a gruellng week for Ireland’s queer community* Or at least, it has been a grueling week for me. I have tried to write a longer, more eloquent thing but I’m not ready to yet. It is, as they say, still processing.
Mother’s day, March recs & some writing news
Just quick update today. As I write, the sun is finally shining in Dublin and I want to get out and enjoy it. The weather is forecast to turn this week - from the positively balmy 16 degrees we're currently enjoying back down to 6 degrees. Before I get the sunscreen out, I wanted to share some news and recommendations.
Writing is always beginning again
I read somewhere that you shouldn’t write too much about writing. The advice was that readers would be bored by the existential (and practical) challenges that exist between the writer and the page. I don’t agree. I love to read about writing. I find that writing about writing is often writing about life.
Can you see the rainbow?
A reading list on love
Though St Valentine’s Day is a Hallmark holiday celebrating a Catholic Saint I don’t believe in, I still like to celebrate it. There is no other day dedicated to the awesome power of love as a force of good (& sometimes evil) in our lives.
I’ve gathered a bunch of articles connected by the theme of love. I hope you enjoy!
Comfort food
When I was first dreaming about creating this space, I thought I’d write about food a lot. Food felt like a safe topic. Inoffensive, universal. Something all humans need and could (in theory at least) unite around. When I started writing with this community in mind, I gravitated towards heavier subjects: sexual violence, the cllimate crisis, covid. I found that when I sat down to write, I had things I wanted to think out loud about. Food was in the background. Alongside the writing section of my ‘to do’ list, there’s the cooking section but the two passions rarely intersect. As (a brutal, exhausting) January ended, food was the only thing I wanted to write about. What follows is a collection of rough recipes and routines that have helped sustain me as well as sometimes bringing a little much needed joy.
2021: A year in reading
I started the year with Chanel Miller’s ‘Know My Name’. It’s become a tradition that I start the year with a book about surviving sexual violece, often a memoir. It’s as if my body needs a corrective after the sentimentality of Christmas and the feeling that the whole world is ensconced in happy, Hallmark families while I'm out here on my own. In 2020, I began the year with Lucia Osborne-Crowley’s ‘I Choose Elena’ followed closely by Vigdis Hjorth’s ‘Will and Testament’.
