Hello, hello, hello!

Welcome back to another volume of Seen, Done, Loved! It’s Monday again, and the weather remains scorching in Barcelona. I had an unsuccessful trip to the beach on Thursday that lasted an hour. I left before 1 pm as it felt like I was sitting on the surface of the sun. The heat was something fierce that day, and later in the evening I discovered it had been 36 Celsius.

This week I looked at the Solar Eclipse, went on a F1-inspired scavenger hunt, started a much-needed Instagram and ploughed my way through a 600-page book.

The Solar Eclipse whizzed past our skies here in Barcelona, and whilst we didn’t experience totality, we skirted on 99.8% visibility. We wandered up to the highest point near us in Barcelona, Montjüic and waited for the eclipse to start happening. I had secured some very last-minute glasses from the pharmacy, and wow, they were fantastic! I understand the hype now.

My one solar eclipse regret is not looking at the cool shadows from the trees as it was occurring. I’ve seen so many videos and photos, and it really does look very impressive.

How wonderful it was to be connected with so many other people as we waited for it to happen. It felt so pure and wholesome as we collectively watched something most of us won’t see again in our lifetime (in Europe at least until 2090). People clapped, shouted and exclaimed in delight as the solar eclipse reached its zenith.

Last week I created a Bookstagram account that felt remarkably overdue, and simultaneously unthought of. I’ve been a reader since I discovered Sweet Valley Twins at the tender age of 8, thanks to my friend Megan. I was hooked. I raced through the series and graduated to Sweet Valley High a few years later. I was never a Babysitters Club girlie, despite my best efforts. The drama of Jessica and Elizabeth was far more enticing. Especially when Jessica would steal a boy that Elizabeth liked, or something else controversial.

As the years progressed, my reading habits continued to change and evolve. I love to read. In fact, it’s been a core part of my work identity, working in bookstores before becoming a librarian. Books have been my world for most of my life, and so has recommending them.

Most of my money goes into purchasing books. I’ve spent most of the past decade moving every couple of years, so purchasing books was put on hold as I moved with two suitcases and a Kindle. After a few years living in Antwerp, Belgium, I made the decision to start building up my book collection from scratch. It coincided with the opening of one of the most beautiful bookstores, not only in the city, but in all of Belgium - Luddites Book & Wine.

My dream, like most bookworms, is to one day open a bookstore.

I’m not sure why I never thought about a Bookstagram account. It feels like a shame to have wasted the past years keeping all these wonderful book recommendations to myself, or to the other 3 readers in my life. It’s partly how this Substack came to fruition, initially starting off as somewhere to detail my new life in Barcelona, and has now morphed into my bookish recommendations.

So here we are, a weekish into my WhatsMissyReading account, 500 followers strong and loving being a part of a community that adores reading and sharing. It’s heavenly.

On Saturday morning, my favourite F1 driver, Lando Norris, was having a summer pop-up in a coffee store near our apartment. On offer were a free coffee and stickers. I was a huge F1 fan in the late 90s and left the sport for over 20 years, returning in 2021. Since rejoining, I’ve attended 3 F1 Grand Prixes in Singapore, Belgium and Spain and have become a devoted Lando Norris and McLaren fan.

Being a part of a community of women who love sport is one of the most incredible feelings. When I attended the Barcelona Grand Prix earlier this summer, I was completely amazed at how many solo women (myself included) were there to support their favourite teams and drivers, travelling from all around the world to attend. I met women from Greece and the UK who passionately spoke about their love for the sport, and this was again evidenced on Saturday as the line to the coffeeshop snaked around the block.

It makes me so excited when women build communities together that often feel like that didn’t exist when I was in my early 20s. I longed to find tribes like the F1 Girlies, and whilst it’s totally better late than never, I’m so excited for the future of F1 and its many female supporters.

I’m at the tail end of reading The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett; it’s been an odyssey in the best kind of way. Over 600+ pages, I’ve been immersed in the world of Birdie Calhoun as she grapples with the effects of the Great Depression on her family and friends. I’ve got a little under 200 pages left to go, and I’m already mourning the end of these wonderful and amazing characters that soar off the page. If you’re in the market for an excellent summer read, as we close out these final weeks of August, I cannot recommend The Calamity Club enough.

I have my eye on this bag from & Other Stories that feels like it would be a super addition to my small bag collection. I'm not one into bags, but it does feel like something I would enjoy for years to come. It’s not cheap either. I shall keep pondering.

I need someone to tell me not to purchase this pink keyboard from Logitech. I have absolutely no need for it, yet I’ve had it open on my tabs for days now as I ponder it. Someone tell me no.

Until next Monday,

Missy

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About Missy & Dispatches from Elsewhere:

Hello! I’m Missy, the author behind Dispatches from Elsewhere. I write about book recommendations, life abroad in Barcelona, as well as writing helpful travel suggestions about places that I think are worth the hype (or not!). I’m originally from Ireland, but now you’ll find me living in Barcelona, Spain. I’m so glad you’ve found me! Welcome!

Let’s crack into what I’ve pulled off my bookshelves (in an always desperate attempt to shorten my never-ending TBR book pile). As we’re approaching the midway mark of August, I’ve made good progress on my wish list. I’m very much a mood reader and tend not to stick to my lists that I mentally compile, so the fact that I’ve already finished two on this list and am navigating a third is remarkable.

The August TBR (hopeful) Book Pile

1. The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

Kathryn Stockett released her debut, The Help, in the early 2010s to huge success and a thoroughly enjoyable movie. Naturally, when I heard that she was releasing The Calamity Club, I was thoroughly excited and have saved reading it all summer, itching to get to it. It’s lengthy, at over 600 pages, and I’ve been slightly hesitant to start it.

12-year-old Meg has been dropped at the local orphanage in Oxford, Mississippi, by her beloved mother. It’s 1933, and the Great Depression is in full force across the United States. Crops are failing, jobs are impossible to come by, and people’s livelihoods are at an all-time low. Birdie has come to Oxford to ask her newly married sister for financial help on the family farm, but it turns out her sister’s life isn’t all rosy.

I’m only a 1/6th into the book and already wishing it won’t ever end.

2. Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer

I’ve yet to read anything by Andrew Sean Greer, but was drawn to Villa Coco by its gorgeous cover. I’m a sucker for several reading tropes, especially if it’s set in lush Tuscany (or really any part of Italy).

A young American man applies for a role cataloguing the contents of a crumbling Tuscan villa and meets a host of interesting and enigmatic characters.

3. Fruit Fly by Josh Silver

Mallory wrote a bestseller in her early 20s and has been stuck with writer’s block for the past seven years. Until she chances upon Leo, a young gay man with a terrible drug addiction. The more she learns about Leo and his story, Mallory finds herself suddenly inspired and writing her latest novel.

I spent an afternoon walking around the shops in a daze as I listened to Fruit Fly. I binged the audiobook in an entire day, thoroughly engrossed in the stories of Mallory and Leo.

4. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

It’s been years since I’ve watched Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. There was a surge of nostalgia when I found it in a bookstore.

The day Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison opened the Whistle Stop Cafe, the town took a turn for the better. It was the Depression and that cafe was a home from home for many of us. You could get eggs, grits, bacon, ham, coffee and a smile for 25 cents. Ruth was just the sweetest girl you ever met. And Idgie? She was a character, all right. You never saw anyone so headstrong. But how anybody could have thought she murdered that man is beyond me.

I’m confident that after I finish The Calamity Club, I’ll pick this up to stay in the 1930s Depression era Deep South.

5. Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce earlier this year, and resolved to work my way through her back catalogue of work.

Margery, a spinster living in post-WWII London, has been fascinated with a Golden Beetle of New Caledonia since she was a small child. Plucking up the courage to locate the beetle, and with her hapless assistant, Enid, they take off to the other side of the world in a quest that will challenge their fortitude and taste for adventure.

6. Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna

A whale has washed ashore on the River Thames during a hot, scorching summer in London. Over a weekend, we follow several storylines of the individuals who are grappling with major life decisions and updates.

I feel like the only person left who hasn’t read Evenings and Weekends. As the final days of August approach, it’s time to knock this off my TBR.

Seeing as I’ve managed to knock off 2.5 books on my August TBR, I’ll be chuffed if I manage the remaining 3!

What’s your August TBR looking like? Are you a mood reader? How do you select your next read?

Leave me a comment below.

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Hello, hello, hello!

Welcome back to another volume of Seen, Done, Loved! It’s Monday again, and August seems to be sprinting away! This week, the Solar Eclipse (of the heart) will pass by Barcelona - the weather forecast is predicting no clouds, so that’s positive. However, we will only be seeing 99.8% of the eclipse (which sounds like a lot to me). It’s expected to last a whopping 45 seconds, so sneeze and you may miss it. I’m trying to source glasses for the viewing, but my local pharmacy and most other places around me have shut for the entirety of August. I shall report back next week with any successes that are to be had.

Onwards we head to last week’s Seen, Done, Loved where I gobbled up an audiobook in a single day, finished a huge DIY project, and spent time in a vibey Barcelona neighbourhood.

I spent Thursday morning between appointments soaking up the magic that is the neighbourhood of El Born. Or if you’re feeling cool, Born.

Located across from Barcelona’s popular Gothic Quarter, Born is a maze of small dark alleyways that are populated with fantastic boutiques, restaurants, and award-winning cocktail bars. It’s so fun to explore the area, and despite being quite familiar with directions, I inevitably end up getting turned around and lost at some point.

These are some spots to add to your Google Maps when coming to Barcelona and exploring Born;

Restaurants

• Bar Pimental

• Gringas All Day

• Cal Pep

• Bar del Pla

• El Xamanyet

Coffee

• Nomad Coffee

• Pipol Coffee

• Xiloteca Coffee

Bars

• Paradiso

• Dr Stravinsky

• Mariposa Negra

• Bar Brutal

Museums & Stores

• Picasso Museum Barcelona

• Carolina Blue

• Backstory Book Shop

• Chandal

• La Comet

Last weekend I impulsively decided to upcycle my IKEA Billy Bookcase from boring white to a lovely vibrant blue. It was a learning process as I undertook new skills of sanding (who knew there were different levels of sanding paper - not I) and painting.

After waiting for the painting to dry, I was finally able to organise my books on my shelf and remove the clutter that had been gathering since we moved into this apartment. It had very much become the dumping ground of crap and debris. I love the end result, and it really pops in this space that is all white. I’m itching for my next project. I’ve created a monster.

I spent a gorgeous Friday morning at the beach, and it’s becoming one of my favourite days of the week. The only downside is lugging my belongings with me, but I’m trying to streamline with each visit. The essentials that I can’t do without are:

• Beach towel

• Beach pillow (absolute game-changer)

• Book (duh!)

• Suncream - I’m testing out different versions as I’m trying to develop my tan whilst also protecting my skin, which feels very much like a paradox. Current one is Caudalie 50 SPF oil. From my one-time use, I approve.

• Huge massive bottle of water.

• Snack picked up from local bakery in Poble Nou - Little Fern.

• Umbrella - I purchased a smaller 160cm one, and it’s much easier to lug around.

• Wired headphones cause I’m still nervous of bringing my wireless ones to the beach.

• Waterproof pouch for phone that I wear around me as I sunbathe because I’m nervous of my stuff being stolen. This is Barcelona after all.

I’m not one who listens to many audiobooks. Mostly because I can’t listen to them except for directly in my ear canals or driving a car. And seeing as I don’t own a car, the former is my ideal approach to taking in a good book. And let me tell you, Fruit Fly by Josh Silver completely absorbed me. I left the house on Sunday to peruse the shops, and meandered from one store to another, entranced by the story of Mallory and Leo. It was so dark and twisty. The audiobook narrators did an absolutely smashing job. I couldn’t stop listening and spent the evening crocheting my blanket in an effort to finish it. Such a fun listen!

I purchased the most divine blue suede bag from Zara. Can you tell that blue is my favourite colour? I’ve become so sick of my Uniqlo cross-bodies that I’ve been in search of something a little bit more fashionable or at least attractive. The only downside is that it doesn’t hold my Kindle or a book.

I also purchased these adorable cherry glasses from Zara Home - I already own the lemon version and use them for my iced coffees. It’s the perfect size, and they’re so lightweight.

Until next Monday,

Missy

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About Missy & Dispatches from Elsewhere:

Hello! I’m Missy, the author behind Dispatches from Elsewhere. I write about book recommendations, life abroad in Barcelona, as well as writing helpful travel suggestions about places that I think are worth the hype (or not!). I’m originally from Ireland, but now you’ll find me living in Barcelona, Spain. I’m so glad you’ve found me! Welcome!

You’re currently reading as a free subscriber. For the cost of a monthly cappuccino, you’ll unlock the full Dispatches from Elsewhere experience — book recommendation round-ups, destination guides, weekly life wrap-ups in Barcelona (or wherever I am that week), and more!

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Is it the beginning of August, and I’m only getting around to posting this now? Eh, sure. But who exactly is tapping their toes in anticipation?

Overall, my reading year in 2026 has been pretty excellent. Some of my most anticipated book releases in 2026 have lived up to the hype and delivered their promise of being truly excellent. Yesteryear, I am looking directly at you.

I feel that with each passing year, I’m discovering more and more excellent authors with back catalogues that I can’t wait to dive into. And, oh, how our tastes change! The beauty of reading is seeing how our worlds fill up with incredible characters, interesting locations and a lot of questionable choices. The best books I read in the first 6 months of this year ranged from beautiful memoirs, multi-generational family curses, wannabe mobsters and a sun-drenched Italian island.

So let’s dig into the best books I’ve read from January through to the end of June. I have rated all of these books 4 stars or higher.

1. London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe

I love an excellent non-fiction book, and I firmly believe that Patrick Radden Keefe is up there as one of the GOATs of investigative journalism. London Falling is an incredible addition to a catalogue of work that already contains Empire of Pain and Say Nothing. I think about London Falling a lot. The storytelling is page-turning, and at no stage could I have guessed what came next.

Nineteen-year-old Zac Brettler jumps to his death from the balcony of a luxury London apartment into the River Thames below. Who exactly was Zac Brettler, and what caused him to jump?

2. The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

I put off The Bee Sting by Paul Murray for a couple of years (and I imagine most other people did) because of its sheer size. It’s a whopper of a book, 600-plus pages and yet never once did I yearn for it to be over. The story of the Barnes family is told through each member as they undergo tumultuous change as the father Dickie’s car dealership loses business; the mother, Imelda, is contemplating an affair; the eldest daughter, Cass has a toxic friend; and the youngest PJ, is trying to avoid the local bully.

The scope of the Barnes lives that Paul Murray takes us on is breathtaking. As you read each character’s different perspective, you’ll be left staring at the wall in silence as you turn the last page. I still think about that ending. Amazing.

3. The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce

My introduction to Rachel Joyce, and I immediately purchased several of her older books based on the strength of The Homemade God. I read it on my honeymoon in Crete, and was transported to a hot summer in Italy on Lake Orta, as four siblings come to terms with their magnetic father’s death and the trail of destruction he left behind, including a very new and young wife.

The perfect summer read.

4. Show Me Where It Hurts by Claire Gleeson

I have to admit when I was looking back at my list of books and StoryGraph to see what I had read over the past 6 months, Show Me Where It Hurts had completely slipped my mind. Mostly because the contents are fairly hard to stomach. Claire Gleeson’s writing is beautiful as she handles a truly horrific topic that most people won’t pick up off the bookshelves (for good reason).

Rachel has to live in the aftermath of her husband Tom’s psychotic episode when he decides to drive the family car off the road, with their two young children in the backseat.

It’s uncomfortable reading, and yet I was glued to the pages, as Claire Gleeson handles a horrible subject matter with grace. It won’t be a book for most people, but Show Me Where It Hurts is an incredible book.

5. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

One of the most divisive books on this list, you either loved Yesteryear or you hated it. I fell firmly into the ‘love’ camp. I will gobble up anything Caro Claire Burke puts out in the future.

Y’all surely know the deal about Yesteryear by now? Right? Get on the hype train, figure out if you hate or love it!

Natalie is a social media influencer and tradwife who finds herself transported back to the 1850s. Will her homesteading skills pay off, or has Natalie bitten off more than she can chew?

6. The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikesha Elise Williams

I love me a multigenerational family story that spans decades. The Seven Daughters of Dupree follows seven generations of women as they attempt to overcome a curse placed on them in the late 1800s.

Fourteen-year-old Tati is determined to uncover the identity of her father. But her mother, Nadia, keeps her secrets close, while her grandmother, Gladys, remains silent about the family’s past.

As Tati digs deeper, she uncovers the truth of her lineage, still whispered at kitchen tables and murmured in basements, where the ritual of braiding or pressing hair takes place every Saturday night.

From Jubi in 1917, whose attempt to pass for white ends when she gives birth to Ruby; to Ruby’s fiery lust for Sampson in 1934 that leads to a baby of her own; to the night in 1980 that changed Nadia’s future for ever, the Dupree women confront a legacy of pain, resilience and survival that began with an enslaved ancestor who risked everything for freedom.

7. Kin by Tayari Jones

I really love Tayari Jones and her writing. I thoroughly enjoyed An American Marriage (the ending bothered me, but I seem to be alone in that remark) and was delighted to see that Kin was released in 2026.

Niecy and Annie are motherless crib-mates who grow up in the 1940s and 50s in Louisiana. As they enter adulthood, they head off in different directions: Niecy to college in Atlanta, and Annie to find her missing mother in Memphis. It’s a story of friendship, the kind that’s unfiltered and unstoppable. Niecy and Annie and the rest of the characters will sweep you off your feet. I could have easily read another 300 pages.

8. Strangers: A Memoir of a Marriage by Belle Burden

There’s nothing quite like an excellently written memoir. Now make it one full of gorgeous rich people, and I am firmly sat.

Belle Burden’s husband announces one evening, days into a global pandemic, that he is leaving his wife of 20-plus years, their three children and has been having an affair.

What follows is Belle Burden trying to understand whom she was married to, the financial impact of their breakdown and attempting to rebuild.

Strangers: A Memoir of a Marriage is fascinating, a page-turner and an excellent memoir.

9. Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton

The reason I probably didn’t pick up Raising Hare for a while was its subject matter. I can’t say that I’ve ever been particularly interested in hares, or rabbits. And yet, Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton is a gorgeous memoir of a summer where she finds a baby hare, a leveret, and nurses it back to full health. All while observing and attempting to understand a wild animal with very little instruction. It’s a soft and gentle memoir, and perfect for brisk autumnal days, or wintry evenings by the fire.

10. Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

I’ve been a huge fan of Liane Moriarty’s work for quite some time. I’m confident that I have read at least 95% of her work to date. Apples Never Fall is the only one I couldn’t get into, despite many attempts.

I’m late to the party for Here One Moment, as her latest book, Little Big Truths, is released later this month. I listened to Here One Moment on audiobook, and it’s one of those productions that when done right, you can’t wait to dip into again and again. I loved going for a walk, as an excuse to listen to Here One Moment.

As passengers fly from Hobart, Tasmania to Sydney, a mysterious woman makes her way through the cabin predicting the age and circumstance of their death. It’s the classic, what would you do with your time left if you knew when you would die scenario.

There are several different perspectives to follow, all entertaining, and it’s a fun, light-hearted book to dip into.

What have been your standout books in 2026? I’ve already read some incredible books in July that will be making it onto my year-end list. Leave a comment below!

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About Missy & Dispatches from Elsewhere:

Hello! I’m Missy, the author behind Dispatches from Elsewhere. I write about book recommendations, life abroad in Barcelona, as well as writing helpful travel suggestions about places that I think are worth the hype (or not!). I’m originally from Ireland, but now you’ll find me living in Barcelona, Spain. I’m so glad you’ve found me! Welcome!

Hello, hello, hello!

Welcome back to another volume of Seen, Done, Loved! Before we delve into the final week of July, a month that weirdly seemed to stretch forever from the middle of the month, I want to thank you as always for reading, subscribing to Dispatches from Elsewhere. I’ve got lofty goals for this newsletter, and have set a goal of reaching 800 subscribers by the end of August. If you’re enjoying this newsletter, my rambles, I’d love for you to share or subscribe!

The last week of July involved a trip to a bookstore, a DIY project, a visit to the beach. As always, Seen, Done, Loved is a glance into the small highlights of a week that sometimes get overlooked.

Despite living in Barcelona, I rarely visit the beach for anything other than an early morning stroll. July has not been a good month for waking up early; most mornings I’m awake at 9 am, and at that stage the day is already almost 30 degrees Celsius. I’m hoping that when September rolls around, the temperature will be slightly cooler in the mornings to resume my beach walks.

On Friday, I decided to take myself to Bogatell Beach, a short walk from the fabulous district of Poble Nou - the New York Times listed Poble Nou as one of their 52 Places to Visit in 2026. I picked up some baked goods from the delicious Little Fern Bakery to snack on the beach.

I had a fabulous morning finishing Good People by Patmeena Sabit (you can read my review in the link below) and just enjoying being on the beach. The beaches of Barcelona aren’t the most beautiful in the world, and all of them are man-made, but I’ve never lived in a city that has beaches that you can visit year-round, and hums with life. Barcelona is really amazing; the longer I spend here in the city, the more I warm to it and its nature.

I’ve made it a plan going forward throughout the month of August to spend at least 2 mornings soaking up the sun down at the beach before an afternoon of writing and working calls me back.

More of in the category of doing rather than done - but soon to be done! My busting-at-the-seams Ikea Billy Bookcase has been annoying me with its chaotic overpackedness. I’m also in desperate need to purchase another bookcase for the overflow (what a wonderful problem to have).

The problem is, I despise the Ikea Billy Bookcases with enormous passion. And yet when it comes to shelving, they are the most affordable option. I would have loved to have bespoke furniture that wasn’t created by the Swedish furniture giant, but I’d also like to be able to afford to own my own apartment at some stage too. So the Ikea Billy Bookcase is what remains in our budget.

I’ve seen over the years how people have transformed their bookcases into creations that resemble bespoke furniture. So on Saturday, like most of my plans, I impulsively decided that I too wanted to have my own take on changing the boring white frame into something a little more ‘me’.

First things first, I’ve never done anything remotely DIY in my life. I marvel anytime I go into a DIY store with my husband, and he just knows what brush or tool he needs for whatever he is tinkering on. I’m fairly confident it’s a part of my brain that has never been activated, hence the lack of knowledge (or perhaps interest).

I spent Saturday evening sanding down the shelves, repeatedly asking my husband when I would know how much I had sanded down and whether it was enough. He assured me repeatedly that I was doing fine. I used 150-grit sandpaper. I don’t know what that means. But it apparently worked.

Next, I used a white water-based primer (after wiping down the white dust/wood/laminate that came off during sanding), and applied a coat of it to dry overnight.

On Sunday morning, I lightly sanded the primer with 300-grit sandpaper and applied one coat of my blue paint to the dry primer. I’m so pleased with how the colour turned out; I typically get my nails in this shade of blue throughout the year. HA!

My hope is that by volume 3 of this newsletter, the entire unit will be complete and I’ll not have become distracted by another hobby or project that comes my way. Already I’m envisioning painting the remainder of my Ikea chest of drawers in colourful pinks and yellows. Let me finish the first project first and see how I get on before overcommitting myself.

Llibreria Finestres Palestina is the first bookstore in Europe dedicated to Palestinian works of literature, fiction and non-fiction. Tucked away in Gràcia (easily my favourite neighbourhood in Barcelona), this small bookstore is a gateway into incredible works by Palestinian authors, and topics that centre around the subject of Palestine.

I bought Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad, a book that has long been on my TBR for way too long. The people of Barcelona (and Spain) are incredibly passionate about Palestine; everywhere you turn you’ll find a Palestinian flag proudly displayed on a balcony. I’m very proud to live in a city that wears its heart on its sleeve, and is now home to the first bookstore in Europe to focus on the country of Palestine and its beautiful people.

I have been listening to The Odyssey soundtrack on repeat - it’s great for my writing sessions as it’s 2 hours in length. If there is anything to know about my listening choices, it’s that I love Hans Zimmer. And whilst The Odyssey Soundtrack is composed by his protege, Ludwig Göransson, it feels like it could be the works of my boy Hans. It’s haunting, beautiful and deeply atmospheric.

That’s all from my folks. Let me know how your plans for the upcoming week look, and what pockets of joy you've found throughout the week?

Until next Monday,

Missy

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July, how you surprised me! What a month I had when it came to reading! I was locked in and found myself immersed in several (fictional) towns across America and Europe. It was wonderful! I’m hoping August provides more of the same. Onwards we plough into the books that I adored, liked and bored me to tears!

1. The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett

I started listening to The Road to Tender Hearts back in March and knew from the first hour of listening that I was going to absolutely adore this book. So I pressed pause, waiting until I could find the perfect opportunity to revisit it. And my god - what a book. What an audiobook.

Annie Hartnett has the ability to make you roar laughing in a single sentence, and then half a page later leave you broken with another single sentence. What a talent. Seriously, Annie Hartnett has written a book that is an absolute joy from start to finish. Journey with PJ and his newly acquired cat, Pancakes, as he discovers that his former girlfriend, Michelle Cobb (from 45 years ago), has recently been widowed. At the same time, PJ discovers he is the sole relation left to take care of two orphaned children, Luna and Ollie. At 63 years old, PJ’s not sure he’s capable of looking after two small children, a cat and a crippling alcohol problem.

Rather than face his problems, PJ ropes in his daughter Sophie, and they make the drive across the US to tell Michelle Cobb that she was the love of his life.

Hilarious, joyous and one of the best audiobooks I’ve ever listened to. I dragged The Road to Tender Hearts out for as long as possible, unwilling to be parted from PJ, Pancakes and the rest of the family. Easily one of my top recommendations of the year.

5 Stars

2. The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson

When Jenny Jackson released her debut, Pineapple Street, I gobbled it up in a few sittings and placed it on my Summer Reading List. It stayed there for a year or two before eventually being replaced with some other title. If you’re a fan of The Wedding People by Alison Espach, you’ll love The Shampoo Effect, her latest novel, released in July.

Caroline Lash has won a prestigious writing residency in a small Massachuset coast. She meets local boy Van, an environmentalist with a big heart and a close group of childhood friends. Bailey, Augusta, Colin, Fran & RJ have been friends since they were small, and are particularly aghast when Van brings Caroline into their group dynamics. It doesn’t help that Bailey is pregnant with Van’s baby. It’s messy and so real as the group navigate being parents to their children, as well as their own parents, and the complicated dynamics within the group.

Jenny Jackson writes characters that soar from the page, and the complicated relationships within the childhood friends feel uncomfortably real at times. There is a part of The Shampoo Effect, almost 2/3rds of the way through, that I audibly gasped out loud, ‘No way’ before racing onwards, hand firmly clasped over my mouth.

If you like messy friendship groups, gorgeous people, and books set in a small wealthy coastal town, you’ll enjoy The Shampoo Effect.

4.25 Stars

3. Into the Blue by Emma Brodie

Someone find this book an editor. Stat.

Where to start besides the outrageous length? Look, the positives of Into the Blue are that AJ & Noah have chemistry. It’s toxic af, but they most certainly have chemistry.

Thrown together in their small town, AJ & Noah become scene partners during the summer of 2000. AJ has big plans to write and escape the town, and working with acting dynasty Noah Drew looks like it may be her ticket out. Over the summer, under the guidance of Noah’s aunt, Eudora, they develop an unmistakable bond that ignites their desire. The reader spends the next 450+ pages on the set of a Sci-Fi show, a comic-con convention and a stage production, waiting for these two to get together.

Throw in several dozen pages of sex (in a row), and by the time I reached the final page, I was completely done with this book. The book’s length never seemed to end. The characters never seemed to learn. And Noah Drew is toxic AF.

Sharpening and whittling it down to the 300-page mark could have made this book so much more enjoyable.

3 Stars (I’m being really generous)

4. Whistler by Ann Patchett

Ok, wow. Wow, wow, wow. What a quiet little book. I went to bed with 50 pages left, knowing it was a dangerous decision to make. I could feel it in the storytelling that I was going to come undone.

Daphne and her husband Jonathan are walking around the Met when they notice an older gentleman following in their wake. Upon speaking to the man, they learn that he is Daphne’s former stepfather, Eddie Triplett, a man who was briefly in her life as a child and had a remarkable impact on her world.

What follows is a beautiful story of recollection and how relationships shape and change us, even if they’re brief. Whistler is a hug in a book, and I will always remember Eddie Triplett, his kindness, love and adoration for a long time.

We ride at dawn for Eddie Triplett.

4.75 Stars

5. The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout

Hmmm. I’m really not sure what to make of The Things We Never Say.

I’ve been sitting thinking about my feelings around reading this book, and I’m honestly a little bamboozled. Artie Dam is a high school history teacher who lives a very ordinary life. He has a wife, Evie and a grown-up son, Rob. He is surrounded by people, and yet he feels terribly lonely. The political situation in the US isn’t helping his depression. When Artie discovers something monumentally life-changing, he has to make a decision about its impact.

And therein lies the title of the book, The Things We Never Say. Can we really know a person despite spending 35 years in their orbit? How well do we know each other? And why don’t people speak the truth? How much capacity do we have for one another?

A series of profound questions.

I’ll admit, going into the book, I didn’t think it would be as heavy a topic as it turned out to be. A lot of the complaints online have been about its political nature, and that wasn’t the issue for me. I found it to be overwhelmingly depressing. With little hope for optimism. It also made me glad that I no longer have a role in the classroom; the students that Artie teaches are painfully real.

I don’t know who I would recommend this to. I’m fairly confident that it wasn’t for me. And I’m struggling with a rating; I didn’t hate it, nor did I love it. So somewhere in the middle.

3 Stars (???)

6. Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon

After watching The Odyssey, I yearned for something Greek-ish. Having sat on my bookshelf for far too long, I finally made my way through Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon.

Firstly, Ferdia Lennon is an incredible writer. Some of the freshest sentences and paragraphs I’ve read in some time. It feels so effortless. I even bought a pencil so I could underline some of his fantastic words. Consider me a huge fan of his work. I can’t wait to see what he writes in the future.

Glorious Exploits is such a fun story, and perhaps I enjoyed it even more because the characters, despite being from Syracuse, Sicily, all have strong Dublin accents. And why the fuck not? It’s so simple and yet staggeringly genius.

Set in 412 B.C, we follow Lampo and his best mate Gelon as they attempt to stage the works of Euripides with captured Athenians. The Athenians are being held in the quarries of Syracuse after losing their war against the Syracusans. Lampo is a flawed character, drinks and spends too much and says hurtful remarks to those he cares about. Yet, despite the cruelty of his words and actions, Lampo has deep pockets of empathy that push our characters and story forward.

I gobbled up Glorious Exploits over 3 days and cannot wait for what Ferdia Lennon will write next.

4 stars

7. Good People by Patmeena Sabit

The thing that gets most people talking about Good People is how ambiguous the story is. Patmeena Sabit has created a story told entirely through eyewitnesses, family friends, neighbours, lawyers and miscellaneous others in the case of the Sharaf family.

The Sharaf family arrived in the US from Afghanistan with just the clothes on their backs. Over the years that passed, they pulled themselves up and lived out the American Dream. By the time their eldest daughter Zorah dies, the Sharaf family are living in one of the most exclusive areas in Washington, DC, attending prestigious schools and living with a wealth that is envied by other members of the Afghani community in the area.

Zorah’s death, depending on who you speak to, was either a terrible tragedy or something more sinister. And that is up to the reader to determine who exactly is telling the truth, who is seeking retribution and whether you can assimilate into a culture and leave the old one behind.

I really enjoyed Good People, and the questions that arose from reading it. I’m still not sure where I stand on the death of Zorah, but I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts on it!

4 stars

A stunning month of reading. Highs and lows across the board. I really loved Whistler and The Road to Tender Hearts as some of my standouts from the month.

How was your month of reading in July? Anything great that you read or enjoyed? Leave a comment below and let me know!

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July was one of those months when it seemed every single bill appeared at once. On the back foot of two back-to-back expensive holidays (our fault for not looking at the diary or finances), June and July hobbled by with limited funds. I spent most of my days indoors, hiding from the Barcelona sun and doing an extensive amount of reading and attempting to clear my backlog of reading. Of course, when I finish a book, I somehow have another 100 begging for me to read and pluck off my never-ending shelf of books to be read. Such is life!

The temperature in Barcelona has been spicy hot (where in Europe is it not?), and I’ve found myself absolutely exhausted by the heat. Many a nap has occurred on my couch throughout July. More to come in August.

Anyway, onwards we roll onto my new Monday (this is going out on Tuesday, but will be Monday-based) segment called - drum roll please;

Seen, Done, Loved

In an effort to be more accountable, to myself and my writing, I’m putting into words what I usually cover on my Instagram stories. Which involves mostly videos of my cat, watering my plants and braving the heat to visit somewhere new. Some weeks will be more exciting than others (no guarantee), but we’ll be in this together in trying to find the sparkles of joy and glimmers of beauty in all around us. We’ll- I’ll try to. I am deeply pessimistic by nature.

Let us begin.

On Sunday I witnessed a murder. And I was central to its role.

I still feel deeply traumatised by it. It’s one of those things my husband likes to call my ‘witchy powers’. I think it’s mostly a coincidence. On Instagram, I have been following a Norwegian woman, Marianne, who is renovating a gorgeous palazzo in Sicily. She has been finding almost on a daily basis last week, Swifts. If you’re unfamiliar with a Swift, it’s a small bird that swoops and does birdy things in the sky; you’ll see dozens of them in the evenings in Spain as they head to their homes for the night.

I also learned that they never perch or walk, and are solely aerial birds.

From Marianne’s stories, I also discovered that if you find a swift on the ground, you’ll need to help them as they are unable to take off into the sky from the ground. Hold the bird high above your head, and they’ll eventually take off.

Upon entering a cafe, I spotted a swift crawling on the ground, and I did what any other nature lover would do, scooped it up and brought it outside. The little darling was tired, and it rested unafraid in my hand. It was the first time I’ve seen a swift up close, and it resembled a tiny dragon. It reminded me a lot of Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon.

After a breather, the swift took off, and I watched as he flew low to the ground before bumping and landing awkwardly in the middle of the road. In horror, within a split second, a seagull caught the swift, battered his little body and then swallowed him whole!

HE ATE HIM! WHOLE!

In a big ugly gulp.

I’ve debated whether I should have left the swift on the ground to perish to a cat or another predator. Or had I stumbled upon a baby that was not ready to fly and fallen from his nest. I feel a lot of guilt, and witnessing a murder that I was central to feels awful.

RIP (Taylor) Swift

Seagulls have been added to my list of creatures that I do not like and would happily see eradicated. Alongside Orcas (they scare me), Great White Sharks (thanks, Jaws!) and ladybirds (terrifying).

Sometimes I try and be a little bit cultured. Living in Barcelona, there are so many cool and interesting things to do. It’s home to awesome museums, and I’ve been slowly ticking them off my list over the past nine months of living here.

This week I took myself off to the Joan Miró Foundation in Montjuic for a guided tour in English. I try to approach modern art with an open mind, instead of looking at a painting and thinking, I could do that (I couldn’t). It’s why I opted for a guided tour; I wanted to learn more about Joan Miró and his work.

After 35 minutes of being in one small room with 4 paintings, I slipped away from the tour group, struggling to be impressed with Miró’s work, especially as the curator talked about the elements within the painting and what they represented. A load of whomp was the quote I sent to my family WhatsApp.

I tried; I really tried to find some sort of interest. Alas, the works of Joan Miró are not for me. I am an impressionist girlie through and through. Give me a Degas, Monet or Renoir, and I’ll be in my element.

Like pretty much everyone else I know, this summer was dictated by evenings spent watching the fabulous World Cup. I’m not a football fan by any means, yet like the Olympics, I love a gathering of nations doing their best and the success stories that emerge.

Watching the truly awful World Cup final was made all the better whilst living in Spain. The tension was palpable. I live on a street with a strong Argentinian presence: a restaurant, ice-cream shop, butcher and a bar. Across the road are several Spanish bars that were packed for the viewing.

Minute after minute passed, no goals in sight. Penalties looked likely until Ferran Torres scored and the streets erupted. Spain was the more deserving of the two teams.

We took to the balcony and watched the celebrations. Cars honking, people crying and hugging strangers as they celebrated a monumental win. It was beautiful and why I think we all love sports. A short stroll around the block, we followed the masses as they descended on Plaça de Catalunya, with the final car horns dying out around 4 am.

I got to share the experience with my husband and a former student I taught in Laos. We both left the country and the school in 2018, and it was incredible to connect and reminisce over our experiences. I’ve loved bumping into former students around the world, catching up and seeing how they’re getting on. Also, how grown up they are!

Things are winding down here in Barcelona; restaurants and stores have their signs in the window announcing their closure for the entire month of August. It will be our first August in Barcelona, so we’re both unsure of what to expect. My goal this week is to try and catch some sunshine, as I am remarkably pale for someone living in a ridiculously hot country.

I hope you have gorgeous plans, and if you have any horror stories involving murderous seagulls, please do share.

Until next Monday,

Missy

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Summer reading usually involves at least one Emily Henry novel. If you’re unfamiliar with the works of Ms. Henry;

1. I am jealous because you get to experience her for the first time.

2. You may think Lit-Chic/Rom-Com/Insert Sexist Female Genred Book Type works are beneath you - perhaps it’s time to broaden your mind. Dip your toes into something fun.

Typically, Emily Henry releases a brand new novel just in time for summer. Alas, this summer there were no new releases from Ms Henry, as she was busy wrapping up producing the Netflix version of her book, People We Meet On Vacation and working on her next title. As well as being actively involved in her next movie adaptation, Beach Read (more on that in a bit). One would imagine she was a little bit occupied.

So in honour of Queen of Summer Novels (unofficial and quibble-able), I’m going to rank Emily Henry books in order from worst to best. (Worst is quite a strong word? Least best? So-So?)

As always, reading is subjective! What might be my favourite might be your least, so on and so forth.

Note: I’m only ranking Emily Henry’s adult novels. Her YA books aren’t being ranked here.

6. Great Big Beautiful Life (2025)

Whomp whomp whomp. Emily Henry tried something new, and most people seemed to be on the same page when it came to reviewing it. Great Big Beautiful Life just didn’t cut the mustard. At all.

It sat somewhere between wanting to be The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo with an added dash of close proximity/forced to work together until they fall in love. Alice and Hayden (had to look up their names) sit on the page, and unlike other notable characters like Daphne & Miles from Funny Story or Gus and January from Beach Read, feel flat and unrootable. It’s hard to care for them when the other half of the book is so uninteresting. Alice and Hayden are vying to write the biography of Margaret Ives, a reclusive heiress who was tabloid fodder during the 50’s and 60’s before disappearing.

Not even secretive Margaret Ives’ back story can save Great Big Beautiful Life (spoiler: it’s deathly dull).

My Rating: 1/5

Goodreads Rating: 3.95

5. Happy Place

This may upset a few people, but Happy Place was not my happy place. Harriet and Wyn have been a couple since forever, until they break up. With their yearly retreat with their group of friends on the horizon, Harriet and Wyn have to pretend they’re still a happy couple and break the news to them in person that they have, in fact, broken up.

Why Happy Place isn’t one of my favourites rests on the reader’s lack of backstory of Harriet and Wyn before they became Harriet and Wyn. I wanted to see them fall in love, understand why their connection was so strong, and instead I kind of hoped they wouldn’t fall back in love with one another, that they’d realise that they had in fact grown apart.

The focus on Happy Place is the changing of group dynamics, friends getting engaged, married and moving, and these were the parts I liked the most. Trying to keep everything the same, when in reality, people change, move on and leave you behind. These sections of Happy Place were the strongest and most enjoyable aspect of Happy Place. I could have done without Harriet and Wyn.

It’s also the only Emily Henry that I don’t own a physical copy of. Take of that what you will.

My Rating: 2/5

Goodreads Rating: 3.93

4. Book Lovers

I’ll admit it’s been a while since I first read Book Lovers, and my initial feeling towards it was positive. A consistent theme running through Emily Henry’s books is that the female protagonist works in publishing, as a writer, or in a library. They are always involved in some form of writing and books, and as a certified bookworm, this gladdens my heart tremendously. I love how Emily Henry champions the written word.

Nora is a literary agent who grew up above a bookstore (the dream!). Charlie is an editor and their first meeting didn’t go exactly smoothly. So when Nora and her sister escape to the small town of Sunshine Falls for a month-long break, why does Nora keep bumping into Charlie everywhere she goes?

The strongest part of Book Lovers is Nora’s relationship with her sister, Libby. Growing up with a single mom, the sisters are incredibly close, and Nora feels throughout the book that Libby is withholding something from her that brings her closer to Charlie. Aside from bookish themes throughout her work, Emily Henry deals with a variety of familial relationships that capture a spectrum. Broken families, single families, seeking approval from family, friends as family. Emily Henry covers them all.

I’m due a reread of Book Lovers, and I wonder where it will sit after I’ve completed it.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Goodreads Rating: 4.09

3. People We Meet on Vacation

A divisive rating that may anger some of the Emily Henry hardcore readers. I came late to the People We Meet on Vacation train, and it wriggled its way into my bookworm heart. Poppy and Alex are hilarious, the type of couple that you can’t help but root for. We follow Alex and Poppy over 12 summers as they become friends, travel the world, fall in and out of relationships with the wrong people, waiting for the moment when it’s their turn. Until one summer when it all goes wrong, and they haven’t spoken since.

Interestingly, People We Meet on Vacation (PWMOV) is one of Emily Henry’s lowest-rated books on Goodreads. Not that that means much. What I’ve always enjoyed about PWMOV is the dynamics between Poppy and Alex, the build-up of connection over the years. It’s their friendship that gives this book legs and carries them to the end. I’ll always have a soft spot for PWMOV, even if it’s one of her least liked books. It’s always what I love about reading, what tickles my fancy; it may not tickle yours.

If you enjoyed the book, the Netflix movie is adorable and worth a viewing. Emily Bader is magnetic as Poppy.

My Rating: 4.75/5

Goodreads Rating: 3.84

2. Beach Read

I want to be bold and say that most people’s favourite Emily Henry is Beach Read. Did I make that up? Absolutely. It was her first adult book, and it felt like it had gone mega viral by the time I got around to reading it. I reread Beach Read last year, wanting a palate cleanser between some heavy reading and it did the job.

The chemistry between Gus & January is electric. They feel like actual people, and despite the snark and venom, you’re eagerly seal-clapping each scene that follows. January, a romance writer, is dealing with the death of her father and the unravelling of a double life that has left her reeling. Her motivation to write anything lovey-dovey is at an all-time low. When she arrives at her father’s lakeside cabin, staying next door is Gus, beloved literary fiction author and former ex-classmate. It’s classic Grumpy x Sunshine, and when done well, it’s delicious. Emily Henry nails the trope with aplomb.

Gus & January attempt to put their dislike for each other behind them and strike up a deal to overcome their writer’s block. They will take on each other’s genres and produce something neither of them thinks is possible. Gus will write something happy, and January will write the next Great American Novel. And neither of them will fall in love. At all.

Beach Read is Emily Henry at her all-time best.

Sidenote: Beach Read is currently in production, and the casting has sparked quite the online discussion. Patrick Schwarzenegger has been cast as Gus, and when I say the backlash to this decision has been divisive, I mean, people were almost on the streets burning the place down. Obviously, only time will tell, but Patrick Schwarzenegger gives more Patrick Bateman than sweet Gus. Not a fan.

My Rating: 5/5

Goodreads Rating: 3.96

1. Funny Story

Oh sweet, sweet Funny Story. How I love thee. Choosing between Beach Read and Funny Story is the Sophie’s Choice of Emily Henry Books. How do you even go about it?

Vibes is my answer.

Funny Story pips the post by a fingernail. I’m completely biased, but Daphne is a children’s librarian and, until quite recently, I was one too. I also love Miles a smidgen more than Gus from Beach Read.

Daphne has uprooted her life to move to the small lake town of her boyfriend Peter. Together they live in Peter’s beautiful home, and Daphne has her dream job. Until Peter realises that he is deeply in love with his childhood best friend, Petra.

Bewildered, bereft and more than a little pissed off, Daphne finds a new roommate in Petra’s ex-boyfriend, Miles. Finding an unlikely ally in one another, Daphne and Miles hatch a plan to win back both their exes. What if they pretended that they had fallen in love, posting their adventures and newfound happiness, all while trying to make their exes jealous? It couldn’t possibly work, could it?

I think it might be Emily Henry’s steamiest book to date. It’s the right level of horny that will leave readers excited and not skimming the pages with constant moans, groans, and inventive ways to describe how well lubricated the lady is.

Daphne and Miles will have you cheering and laughing out loud. J’adore Funny Story.

My Rating: 5/5

Goodreads Rating: 4.18

So my friends, thoughts? If you’ve read her work, where do my ratings sit with you? Agree? Disagree?

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1. See my youngest sister, who moved to the city in September last year.

2. Witness the miracle that is Harry Styles

Of course, when the trip was planned back in January, it was hard to fathom that we would be wandering around the city in what felt like an oven. We had, of course, stumbled into the Great London Heatwave of 2026.

I’m not sure I’ve ever felt more grateful to be staying in a hotel with AC than with my sister and her many housemates in what feels like a constant hair dryer being pointed at your face. I stayed in the New Road Hotel in Whitechapel, a short distance from where my sister resides, and it was an entirely new neighbourhood for me. It was a fine hotel and served its purpose. The AC was the biggest selling point.

London never ceases to excite me. Each time I return to the city, I am met with awe and fascination at the endless things to see and do in the city. It’s like New York City; I can never tire of visiting or running out of things to do.

I hopped aboard the Thameslink from Gatwick Airport, and in 35 minutes, I was exiting at Blackfriars station and making my way up to Covent Garden. I love the streets around Covent Garden, especially if you get there when the streets are mostly filled with delivery vans and a few people milling around. It’s quiet and allows you to appreciate the facades and hidden alleyways that lead to little gems. Neal’s Yard is one of those gems located off Monmouth Street. Lights strung across the courtyard, small bistros and a quaintness that belongs only in London. I make a point of visiting it every time I’m in the city.

I opted to take a longer route to my hotel in Whitechapel and hopped on a bus that was more like a driving sauna than a mode of transportation. It took double the amount of time, and I sweated profusely, but there’s something about sitting on the top deck of a London bus and watching the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and St. Paul’s Cathedral pass by your window. Perhaps it’s the history attached to these well-known monuments, or that they’re simply recognisable names - I’ve yet to visit Tower Bridge, see the Crown Jewels or Buckingham Palace despite having visited London at least 20 times. One day I’ll get around to ticking those places off my London bucket list.

On Saturday, we walked from Whitechapel up to Columbia Road, where you’ll find their infamous Columbia Road Flower Market on Sundays, from 8 am until 3 pm. I’m happy that I got to browse the absolutely stunning stores that line this infamous street. It’s quaint and perfect in a way that made me stop and say at least twice per hour, “Oh, how I wish I lived in London.”

Sidenote: I completely regret not moving to London during my twenties.

We continued our exploration, passing Hackney City Farm, looking at sheep and piglets before continuing up to Broadway Market. Vendors selling delicious sandwiches, wraps and every cuisine you can imagine pop up each weekend in Hackney from 9 am until 5 pm. Vendors encourage you to try their offerings (sometimes quite aggressively) as you slip in and out of the stores.

We sat in London Fields before meandering home via Regent’s Canal. Walking along the many houseboats and dipping into an English pub for a half pint of cider felt like the perfect end to a quick 24 hours in London.

London will never cease to entertain me. I hope I never get tired of wanting to live there (unlikely - too costly), or that I manage to tick off all the bucket list sights I keep adding to my Google Maps. London fizzes with a vibrancy that comes off as effortlessly cool, charming and regal. It might just be time to purchase an I Heart London T-shirt on my next visit.

And yes, before I close off. Harry Styles was incredible. A performer that wears his heart on his sleeve, delivers a 10/10 experience and leaves you feeling like you’re part of a community. If you get the chance, go see him do his thing.

Finally, what does London mean to you? Have you been? Hated it? Loved it? Ambivalent?

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I wanted to share a little update on where things are headed around here. Travels with Missy isn’t going anywhere — the blog stays up, and I’ll still be writing about Spain, Italy, and all the corners of Europe I love exploring. But going forward, this Substack is going to be where I show up most.

It’s become the space where I feel most like myself when I write — less SEO checklist, more “here’s what’s actually going on in my Barcelona life.”

Thanks for being here. More soon.

— Missy

June, June, June. How disappointing you turned out to be (in reading, only). After a whopper month of reads in May, the month of June yielded many disappointments and book slumps. Perhaps it’s just a mid-year book slump - I have so many excellent books on my ever-growing book TBR pile that stretches the length of my corridor in my apartment that need to be read at some stage. Here’s hoping that July turns out to be exceptional and jam-packed with stellar reads from start to finish.

Onwards to the books that I managed to get through this month;

The Artist by Lucy Steeds

Oh, what a disappointment this read was. I had this saved on my bookshelf for months now, waiting for the perfect time to read it. And it turned out to be a load of nothing. The writing is gorgeous, but empty. The characters feel like caricatures and are never truly fleshed out. Set in 1920, after the onslaught of World War 1, Joseph travels to the South of France to interview the legendary painter, Edmond Tartuffe (Tata). There, he finds an unwilling and terribly awful Tata who has little desire to share any information about his processes or his past, and it is instead his quiet niece Ettie, who blends into the background and beckons to his every wish and command, who gradually fills in the details.

And that about sums up the entire 290+ pages. There are sumptuous details of the paintings, plates laden with half-rotting food and the magnificent sunshine that captivated many an artist in the south of France. Joseph is a weak character with little to endear yourself to him. It is Ettie, who quietly shines and rages in the background, that could have swung this novel in a completely different direction. By the time Ettie’s rage manifests, the pages whimper to a close, and the reader is left disappointed by all that could have been.

I’ll continue to check out Lucy Steeds work in the future; her writing is gorgeous and evocative, but this book wasn’t for me.

2.5 Stars

The Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage

June didn’t turn out to be the whopper reading month I thought it was going to be, mostly because Life, Death & Giants by Ron Rindo put me into the almightiest book slump. I so wanted to love that book. So towards the end of June, my library hold for The Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage was up, and it thankfully pulled me out of the depths of my big fat reading slump.

A quick, easy and fast-paced read, it follows a hypothetical royal family that is very, very loosely based on the British Royal Family. If you know anything about the British Royal Family from watching The Crown or reading a tabloid newspaper/gossipy magazine, you’ll know several of the storylines that appear in The Heir Apparent. Lexi finds herself next in line to the throne after her father and brother are killed in a skiing accident.

Having run from her responsibilities a decade before, Lexi is thrust into the limelight again, and the decision of whether to wear the heavy crown she never wanted (or thought she would inherit), or choose the smaller life with the man she’s been making goo-goo eyes at for 7 years. You probably know what she ends up doing.

How I wish Rebecca Armitage had written Lexi to make the hard choice, the uncomfortable one that wasn’t all princesses and rainbows, but difficulty and disappointment.

3.5 Stars

Life, Death & Giants by Ron Rindo

I think I’m going to have to DNF this book. I’m 43% through and I just don’t care enough about baseball or American Football to persevere. The promise of the Amish wasn’t enough to quench my desire to continue.

I think I’m done (& I RARELY DNF a book).

And that was the month of June. A disappointment that I NEED to rectify in July. How was your month of reading? Did you finish anything notable? Worthwhile?

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Well, the weather gods were not on our side, nor that of the first night of Primavera, which was cancelled thanks to a massive wind and rain storm that caught everyone by surprise.

Our first two days in Cadaqués were cold, wet and boring if I’m being completely honest. We longed to be back in our apartment in Barcelona, where we had warmer clothes and things to do. Because all there is to do in Cadaqués is visit either Dalí’s house, eat and drink yourself silly or go for long walks around the area.

Once the weather did improve, it was easy to see why people are drawn to this gorgeous town that sits at the edge of the Cap de Creus National Park. White-washed houses, a glistening bay dotted with boats and the dramatic backdrop of the hills of the Cap de Crues make Cadaqués a very dreamy and summery place to spend an ample amount of time in.

The weather feels cooler here too, and a quick conversation with a waitress revealed that summers rarely exceed 28 degrees. Once the sun appeared on our final day, I fell in love with Cadaqués and everything it had to offer. The restaurants are fantastic (the service in 50% of the places was awful though!), and considerably better than those found in Barcelona.

If we weren’t broke from two back-to-back holidays, I would have loved to have done a little shopping in the many gorgeous boutiques. The jewellery was absolutely fabulous, as were the art galleries. For that reason alone, I would 100% head back to Cadaqués.

Aside from the beauty of walking around Cadaqués, one of the other main attractions is the former home of the painter, Salvador Dali. A 15-minute walk from the seafront and up a road so steep I was bent over trying to get my little legs to carry me (on the way back, we watched in slow-motion horror as a father with a pram skidded down the road in his Birkenstocks. No one was harmed.)

Salvador Dali House Museum was wonderful and not as strange as I had hoped. I was expecting a little bit more weirdness. Dali connected several old fisherman shacks to build his getaway, where he spent the years from 1930 to 1982. He left after his wife Gala passed away and never returned. The house is operated by a guided tour to small groups, so booking a ticket well in advance is highly recommended.

The tour guide navigated our group of 10 in 3 different languages, and I will forever be impressed by anyone who is able to conduct themselves in anything other than their mother tongue. Being married to a man who can speak multiple languages, and despite his insistence that he doesn’t speak French, he was listening and responding to the guide’s nuggets of information during the French part of the tour and translating them to me in English. When I queried his refusal to admit that he speaks and understands French, he counters with a ‘well, not very well.’

Cadaqués is somewhere where the appeal is instantaneous once you’ve glimpsed it on your winding drive through the Cap de Creus National Park. It sparkles like a pearl on approach - shiny and in the right light, has all the makings of a super summer weekend away.

Hotels: We stayed in Petit Llane Hotel, a lovely 3-star hotel on the edge of town. A short walk into the town centre.

Restaurants:

Celeste // Tasty pasta and excellent prices. We saw a wild boar strolling past our window. That was pretty wild.

Raviyu // Walked past at lunch time when they were pulling out roast chicken and instantly had to head in. Roast chicken and chips is one of my favourite meals. Yummers.

Es Baluard // Great food, awful service. Headless wait staff and a 40-minute wait for our order to be taken. Followed by an equally long wait for our bill. If you don’t mind those two things, then go for it. Personally, it’s a big no for me.

El Barroco // Excellent Lebanese food in a gorgeous courtyard - terrible service. Went at lunchtime, only one other table and the food took 1 hour to arrive. Would hate to see what its like when actually busy.

Things to Do: Hiking and bicycling appear to be some of the most popular activities on offer in Cadaqués. I can’t offer any opinions on either of those two things - except a wholehearted pass on both of them. Shopping, walking around the town and sampling the many tiny beaches are the main draws to Cadaqués. Absolutely do not skip on the Salvador Dali House Museum, but make sure to book your tickets WELL in advance. I booked mine a month out.

Getting around: A car is really essential in this part of the Costa Brava. You can get a bus from Figueres, but it’s easier with a car. Fly into Girona or Barcelona.

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I wanted to share my thoughts on some of the nice places I’d travelled to over the years. Recommendations of restaurants, things to see or do. The usual fare.

It turned out that in order for me to gain any sort of traction on the internet, I needed to learn the ways of SEO - Search Engine Optimisation. I couldn’t write what I wanted. Or if I did, then no one except my mother and my friends was ever going to be the only readers. Writing into the void wasn’t the goal.

It also turned out that if you had eyeballs come and visit your website, you could earn some fairly decent money. The more eyeballs, the more money. Makes sense, right?

So I tweaked my writing, made it more friendly to our former overlord, Google, and suddenly I started to see traffic. Real-life human traffic was coming to my website in their hundreds and thousands. It was absolutely exhilarating seeing how the hard work I had spent crafting and writing each post was now being seen by people from all around the globe.

OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022, and immediately after its release, I felt a deep sense of despair. I played around with it, asking it questions, prompting it to create travel itineraries that had taken me months to write and watching in a matter of seconds as it created an itinerary very similar. Hauntingly close to my own writing.

At the time, ChatGPT didn’t offer citations of where it had acquired its training - no links back to the source material. My blogging peers excitedly talked about ChatGPT and seemingly had no sense of the disaster that was unfurling before our very eyes. Tweet after tweet talked about how exciting it was, and how they were going to expand their business with this tool. I felt sick.

(In an effort to jump on the hype train, I ‘wrote’ 2 articles with SEO prompts and keywords I wanted inserted into the piece. Watching my Google Analytics, the ChatGPT articles never took off, and I eventually took them down after a year on my website.)

2023 was a magnificent year for the blog; my traffic was exploding, and I was earning really decent money. Every day was a learning curve as I figured out how to best optimise my posts to gain more traction. And in September 2023, I decided on a whim that I would travel across Southeast Asia for 6 weeks, collecting information on destinations and must-do activities.

From leaving Belgium and landing in Singapore, the landscape of the internet was forever changed. I was too busy attending the Singapore Grand Prix to notice that my traffic had nose-dived overnight. And now, almost three years later, it has never recovered.

It took several months for it to sink in what had happened. I spent hours on Twitter reading other bloggers’ reports on tweaks they had made in an effort to salvage their losses. In reality, it was always out of our control. Google had flicked a switch, and the 2023 Helpful Content Update destroyed many people's livelihoods. Mine included.

Google changed the landscape of the internet, again, and this time, the rules were harder to follow. The signals were unclear. SEO had also been changed, and whilst I’ve left the space, I’m more sure it can’t be recovered or returned to what it used to be.

The traffic has never recovered, and I’ve all but abandoned the site. It still generates a tiny income, enough to pay for a few books and coffees a month, but far from the heights of 2023.

I promised myself I wouldn’t write on the internet again after the theft of AI and how Google, who profiteered for decades off people’s work, turned their backs on creators and jumped on board the AI express train. Google announced at the end of May 2026 that Google Search was changing once again, and it would only present Gemini answers first. It was removing the blue links that users would scroll through to find out information through various sources to determine what was the best answer for their query. The creators who had written and presented information for decades were redundant. Of course, the question that continues to be asked, if no one is creating new content, what will the AI train itself on? At this moment in time, there is little to encourage me to continue working on my website, which I absolutely loved working on.

So what now? Have I suddenly changed my tune on AI? Have I become a sycophant and worshipping at the altar of Sam Altman? Fuck no.

In April, I started tinkering around with Claude and was quite surprised by what I found. Since moving to Barcelona, I’ve been adamant I learn Spanish and have progressed through A1 & A2 classes. As the end of A2 approached, so did an exam. And so with the help of Claude, I practised my Spanish, asking for quizzes and explainers of why certain tenses are used. Despite my reluctance (& fear), I found myself learning and understanding things that had escaped me in the classroom. Is he right all the time? No. I still refer back to Google for further clarity if something doesn’t make sense.

Now onto a test - one of my goals with Substack is to continue writing daily (no AI in my writing folks), or at least a few times per week. I really want to grow on this platform, and everything that I’ve seen about growing on Substack comes back to using ‘Notes’ to grow your audience.

For the life of me, I cannot figure out what to write. It feels odd. I want to use it as a place to talk about things I’ve stumbled upon, or observed on the wild or the internet. I don’t want to muse about contrarian things. It feels so unnatural.

So I’ve asked my new friend Claude to come up with a 30-day Substack Note schedule. And frankly, I am fascinated by how, or if at all, this is going to work. I’ve clicked through some of his suggestions, and they make me want to hurl myself off a bridge. Some are so awful and twee. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to pull the trigger on publishing them. But let’s test this out - let’s see if he has any power amongst potential new subscribers. Currently, my subscribers are finding me via my website.

I will report back in 30 days and see how successful Claude was. Or wasn’t. And if you find the Notes from Dispatches from Elsewhere to be horrific, please don’t unsubscribe! I’m just a girl whose job was taken by AI and now trying to rebrand and rebuild using its help.

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Begur is a gem of a town. During our visit on a Wednesday, which coincided with market day, the town was throbbing with people as they hustled from stall to stall. The stores of Begur were absolutely fabulous and I would have happily spent an afternoon pottering around them if a bothersome husband wasn’t lurking inches away.

My husband has the uncanny knack of hovering precisely 2 inches away from me whenever I enter a store. Be it a book or a clothing store, it’s like he suddenly becomes a magnet, and nothing I do can shake him off. He has an inability to look at anything except my back during any visit to any store. I quickly dropped him off at a coffee shop for 30 minutes while I went back to examining the offerings of the cute boutiques in Begur.

After an amble, we climbed back into the car and drove the short distance to Cala Sa Tuna. If I thought Aiguablava was incredible, Sa Tuna was the dream. A teeny weeny hamlet with 2 restaurants, a small hotel and not a lot else. The beach is a stony one, and they appear to rent beach chairs (no beds) for those unwilling or unable to lie on hard stones for a sunny afternoon.

I fell in love with a blue and white house that appeared as if already custom-made for me. I must have taken dozens of photos and videos of the house, trying to capture how perfect it appeared. The owner emerged at one point with a ferocious look upon his face, and I scarpered away. Maybe he wasn’t angry at me, but perhaps how he looks on a daily basis? It was hard to tell as I ran away.

The Camí de Ronda continues throughout this area; we spotted several hikers with poles coming down from Begur along the path. People are amazing hiking in the heat, I don’t know how they manage. Lugging my beach bag from the car park to the beach leaves me huffing and puffing. So good luck to me if I ever decide to hike the Camino de Santiago or attempt the Camí de Ronda.

If you’re planning on coming to the region, I would recommend basing yourself in Begur. There are plenty of options for dining, as well as hotels and campsites. If you’re looking for a hotel

Hotels: We stayed in Hotel Aigua Blava and LOVED our stay. The hotel is gorgeous, and we ate both nights in the hotel because, well, the views were outrageous and the food was decent although very oddly priced. Starters and Mains were almost the same price. It’s a 1km drive to the town of Begur. Or a 5 hour hike. Your choice.

Getting Around: A car is necessary in this part of the world. You can get a bus from Girona or Barcelona to Begur, but from there you’ll need wheels (or your feet) to get around. We saw plenty of cyclists, but do note that the terrain is very hilly and I would rather chop off my head than hop on a bike.

The road trip continues…

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Last week on Dispatches from Elsewhere, I travelled, for the first time up to the Costa Brava. I’ll admit that before moving to Spain last year, the Costa Brava had not been on my radar. My attention was to be found elsewhere along the Mediterranean, I’m a fiend for visiting Italy.

And to the Costa Brava, I would like to apologise deeply. I was not familiar with your work. Your quaint coves. Fishing villages. Lush green headlands and the rocky mountains of the Pyrenees occasionally popping through.

An hour and a half drive from Barcelona, Aiguablava made its appearance through dense forest, jaw-dropping mansions that clung precariously to the side of steep hills. The startling shades of blue of the sea brilliantly beckoned us as we weaved our way down twists and turns.

We stayed two nights in what I thought was going to be a quaint family-run hotel. Where I received this image, I don’t have a breezy. Hotel Aigua Blava is a large and beautifully appointed 4-star hotel with rooms sprawling across a vast site. There are two hotels in the area, and when I stumbled across Hotel Aigua Blava on Google Maps, I knew I absolutely had to book it. I worked our entire trip around this hotel - the dates and booking are non-negotiable.

I am so glad it lived up to my expectations (often there are times I book something and it falls spectacularly low on the expectations meets reality expectation). The hotel is wonderful, but it is the nearby coves and walks that make Aiguablava truly and exceptionally amazing. A few steps from the hotel’s entrance lies a bay dotted with tiny bobbing boats and a sea that changes every time you look at it.

The small beach of Cala Malaret, a jewel that invites sunbathers to lie amongst the shadows of the trees, and submerge themselves in crystalline waters. I watched from the pathway that skirts the edge of the hotel, the Camí de Ronda for what felt like hours as swimmers dipped themselves like children into the water.

There are several ambitions I’ve had since I was a teenager that I continuously try to tick off as the years roll by. On the list that I have managed to tick off are the following;

• own a lemon tree

• live somewhere warm and preferably by the sea

• write a book

And there are a number that remain on the list, waiting to be fulfilled (some unlikely to ever be ticked off, but that’s called having a dream, right?).

• have a swimming pool

• own an olive tree

• own a fisherman’s shack by the sea

And whilst I may never fulfil some of my dreams, especially the fisherman’s shack, I think Aiguablava is the closest I could come to fulfilling that ambition by renting one for a month off-season. It sounds so wildly romantic, the sound of the waves, uninterrupted sea views and rambles along the coastal path. I’m not sure how reality feeds into it, but I like to live in my head a lot of the time.

Nearby Begur is where you’ll find restaurants and cute little shops to peruse in, because as sweet as Aiguablava is, there’s not a huge amount else going on besides coves and the sounds of cicadas.

Whether you come for a day out at the beach or a visit to the hotel, I’m confident Aiguablava will leave a strong impression. I’m already planning my next visit, and working up the courage to fulfil my dream of one day spending a hot summer’s month reading, swimming and writing in a fisherman’s shack.

Stay tuned for the next parts of the road trip.

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My favourite reading place in the world is to be found on a sun lounger by a body of water; be that a pool, sea or lake. It’s my happy place, and there is nowhere that I am more content. Bonus points if the sun lounger has a thick, comfortable mattress to lie upon. Bliss.

Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash

Man, oh man, how I wanted to love Lost Lambs. I went into this book having saved it for the perfect sunny day, not really knowing what I was getting myself involved in. The reviews I had seen were glowing, and it seemed that everyone was super hyped when reading it.

And yet, it did so very little for me. I really tried, I even smiled at one part. But the laugh-out-loud parts totally escaped me. As did the overall story. Perhaps it was too quirky? I also think I’m not smart enough to truly enjoy the nuances of it as well. So that’s on me.

One thing is for sure: Madeline Cash is an incredible writer. No sentence is wasted; every single word has intention and meaning behind it. It’s fucking witty. The use of the ‘gn’ to irritate readers is bloody brilliant. It’s so annoying! The middle child of Louisa, ignored (as well as by the author) - again, brilliant.

I don’t know why it didn’t land with me. I can’t place why it didn’t strike a chord because there are so many elements that I loved about it. Have you read Lost Lambs? What were your thoughts about it?

3 Stars

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

The hype around Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke is unlike anything I’ve seen in recent memory. Everyone is talking about this book. So I was a little apprehensive when approaching it, unsure if it would live up to the hype or be worthy of the extensive praise.

And thankfully, it delivered! I gobbled this up in two sittings on the beach in Crete and even had a really anxious sleep as I dived into the second half of the book, my thoughts consumed by what was happening and trying to figure out where it was all headed.

I loved what Caro Claire Burke has created. Her writing it wickedly talented and so on the bloody nose. I easily could have read another 500 pages about Natalie. The discourse around her writing and of the character is really interesting and worth pursuing once you’ve finished the book. For me, it was simple, Natalie was unlikeable and not once was I rooting for her to succeed or even change, and maybe I was wrong, but I thought that was the whole point of the book?

Give it a go, and see what you think.

4.5 Stars

The Island by Victoria Hislop

I read The Island by Victoria Hislop when it was first released in the 2000s. I remember at the time enjoying it, so it felt appropriate as I faced the island of Spinalonga, where the book takes place, to pick it up again and do a re-read. It was quite fun to do a themed read whilst looking at the subject of the book material and for that, I’ve rated it higher than I probably should have.

The subject matter is the most interesting part of The Island, which is based on true events. The island of Spinalonga was used as a leper colony from 1903 until its closure in 1957. It was mostly a colony for those suffering from leprosy from the island of Crete, but later sufferers from Athens and beyond would be sent too to the island. The island had very little support; basic amenities such as shelter and water, and occasionally food would come from the nearby town of Plaka, as the Greek government turned their back on the island and the people.

The Island follows a family as they deal with a diagnosis and eventual exile to the island to live out the remainder of their days.

Of course, I had to visit the island, and what’s left has been well preserved, and a huge number of visitors I overheard referred back to Victoria Hislop’s work, so for that alone, I think that’s a pretty cool thing.

3 Stars

The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce

I inhaled this book. I couldn’t put it down as I lay on a beach in Greece. And perhaps the setting of where I read the book added to the enjoyment. Or maybe a well-written book about family dynamics (the more unhinged the better) is one of my favourite books to read.

Vic Kemp, a larger-than-life artist, has died suddenly, leaving behind his four adult children, a rumoured final masterpiece and a brand new wife of 6 weeks. The Kemp siblings are scrambling with learning exactly who they are without their father, and how to survive together without him. His great, larger-than-life presence is the one thing that has bonded and united the siblings, even if it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.

I devoured The Homemade God in two sittings, and I immediately purchased Rachel Joyce’s back catalogue on the strength of her writing. I truly adored this book, and I was terribly sad to finish it - a sure sign of greatness when you have to say goodbye to glorious well-crafted characters.

5 Stars

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

What on earth did I just read? I finished it 30 minutes ago (at the time of writing), and I am completely dazed. I feel as if I’ve been struck by something, so apologies for how wild and incoherent my thoughts are going to be.

The Bee Sting is a mammoth of a book, and I think that’s probably why it has sat on my bookshelf for quite some time. Anything that’s over 600 pages is typically quite intimidating.

What a journey Paul Murray takes you on, from the opening pages to those very last sentences. I was completely enthralled. How do you sum up a book like The Bee Sting? The Barneses are going through a tough time. Dickie, the father, is on the cusp of losing the family business. Imelda, the mother, is contemplating starting an affair. Cass, their daughter, has started to party too much as her end-of-school exams approach in an effort to avoid what’s happening at home. And PJ, their youngest son, is trying to round up money for the town bully.

And yet, there is so much more. Paul Murray has created a broken, ordinary family and given them such incredible life. These characters felt alive and jumped off the page, so distinct in their chapters and storylines.

And as the pages come to a close, the book trembles and vibrates with such an urgency that I felt my heart thumping frantically as I tore through the remainder of the book. It was absolutely phenomenal. I’m confident I will be thinking about the Barnes family and that ending for quite some time.

5 Stars

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London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe

Wow, wow, wow. I wasn’t sure that my reading month could have possibly topped itself, but somehow at the end of the month, in snuck London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe and blew my mind.

What a phenomenal book. Now, in fairness, I’ve yet to read one bad piece or book by Patrick Radden Keefe; he hits gold in everything he writes. London Falling is no exception and might even be his best work to date. And that’s against his truly incredible Say Nothing and Empire of Pain.

London Falling had me hooked from the first sentence and never released its hold on me. I gasped the entire way through the book, and didn’t have the foggiest direction we were heading in, at any stage.

Zac Brettler, in late November 2019, plunged to his death from a luxury apartment on the River Thames. As his parents seek answers to his death, they begin to unravel details about their teenage son’s last days and months leading up to his death and uncover uncomfortable information about the wealthy and dangerous men he was hanging out with. The more they uncover, the more they realise that Zac had entered a world that was beyond their imagination and far more terrifying than they could have believed.

5 Stars

May was an outstanding month of reading, and of 5-star reads too! I’m very, very mean when I hand out 5 stars to a book. It needs to tickle my brain and feelings, as well as having excellent writing. To read 3 five-star reads this month is wild!

How was your month of reading?

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The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikesha Elise Williams

If there’s anything that I am true to when it comes to reading, it’s I am a sucker for a multigenerational novel. The more layers the better. I was sold on this premise when it was marketed as a book for those who loved Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, one of the best books I’ve read in the past 3 years.

We dip back and forth over a hundred years following the lives of the women of Dupree who have a curse that hangs over them and their kin. With a whole host of characters, it can get confusing at times, but for the most part, you can follow along the timeline that spans from the 1860s to the early 2020s.

Harrowing at parts, brutal in others - I couldn’t put it down.

4.25 Stars

Kin by Tayari Jones

Niecy and Annie are cradle friends, motherless children who grow up in the 1940s & 50’s in Honeysuckle, Louisiana. They set off on their respective journey’s, Annie to Nashville to track down the mother who abandoned her in infancy, and Niecy to Atlanta to attend college.

Approaching the 78% mark of Kin, I was so sure that this was going to be one of my favourite books of 2026. So imagine my surprise when in the last 30ish pages, it all went tits up. I’m not sure what happened, whether Tayari Jones or her editor decided on that ending, but hot damn - it just did not feel right. It almost felt like Tayari Jones couldn’t wrap up the book. Which, up until that point, had been fantastic - Niecy & Annie and a whole host of characters were sublime. At no point was I eager for it to conclude. I was happily immersed in the world and eager to see where fate would lead these two wonderful friends.

I had a similar issue with Tayari Jones’ previous work, An American Marriage - adoring it up until the end, when one of the characters made such a terrible decision that never felt true to who they had been up until that point.

Kin was wonderful and I enjoyed my time with it, but I think it’ll struggle to make my top 10 at the end of the year. (Sidenote: I wrote this shortly after finishing the book, and I have changed my mind after several weeks away from it. I loved her writing and this book, and I’m fairly confident that it’ll make my end of year top 10).

4.5 Stars

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

Oh I so wanted to love this book but it fell completely flat for me. I wanted to dip my toes into a historical fiction book around Iran during the 1960s and 70s to better understand the situation in the country at the moment. The Lion Women of Tehran came up, time and time again.

Unfortunately this did very little for me, and I can’t really recommend it for anyone who wants to learn about Iran via the lens of historical fiction. I’m hoping to get my hands on some other books, non-fiction, this time to better learn about what life was like under the Shah and before the revolution happened in 1979. If you have any suggests, leave them in the comments below.

3 Stars

The Bookclub for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick

There were several aspects that I enjoyed about The Bookclub for Troublesome Women, and they mostly have to do with how it was wrapped up. Not in a nice tidy bow, but with truth and realisation sprinkled in for good measure. So often a book that centers around a subject like this one, which harkens back to the days of the early 1960s when women’s rights in the USA were sugar-coated and wrapped in depictions of a Good Housewife. When in the reality many women had come from working in the 1940s during WW2, having a purpose other than maintaining a house and children, earning money and having an impact on the wider community. To being placed right back into the kitchen and home.

The Bookclub for Troublesome Women follows 4 women, nicknamed the Bettys, after a reading of The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, a groundbreaking piece of non-fiction work that makes them question their worldview and each other. Their support of one another in their newly purpose built community on the outskirts of Washington DC as they deal with husbands and careers (a lack of).

I thoroughly enjoyed all the characters (bar Bitsy, who plays such a minor role I’m not quite sure why she was included in it), and that Marie Bostwick didn’t tie everything up nice and tidedly, it felt more realistic.

3.75 Stars

April was a great reading month for me. But I’m more thrilled that my husband after years of not reading anything has turned (momentarily) into a little bookworm. I purchased him Dungeon Crawler Carl in the hopes that he’d read it on our honeymoon in May. Little did I expect him to devour books 1 and 2 before April ended, and now he’s galloping through book 3. Books 4 & 5 have been ordered, and extra luggage weight has been purchased to accommodate these hefty tomes. We’ve been together almost 8 years, and I’ve only seen him read 2 or 3 books in all those years. I’m absolutely thrilled and hoping his love of reading will continue once he’s finished book 8 of the series!

I’m very excited about this month’s reading. I have saved Yesteryear for my honeymoon, and I am itching to start reading it. It has taken all my willpower not to pick it up. I’ve also started The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, another book that I’ve had for sometime and it feels like the right time to immerse myself in this monster read.

If the baggage with Vueling wasn’t more expensive than the flight (!!), I’d be packing all my other books I’m dying to get read over the next few weeks. They shall have to wait for our trip to the Costa Brava in June.

What books are you stoked to pick up this month? Leave a comment below.

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Sant Jordi is celebrated throughout the province of Catalonia on April 23rd every year. It stems from the legend of St George (Sant Jordi) who battled a ferocious dragon to save a princess from being eaten. From where the blood spilled forth from the dragon, a rose bush grew. And now today in Catalonia, the patron saint of Sant Jordi is celebrated with exchanging roses and books. The book giving part coincedes with World Book Day which originated in Barcelona in the 1920s.

This years Sant Jordi was my first, and when I originally heard about it, it sounded like a neat celebration. Experiencing it was a different beast. Pure joy and wonderment as hundreds of thousands of people walked around clutching roses and purchasing books from the stalls that seemed to pop up in every free space around the city.

As a former librarian and a lifetime book lover, any holiday that celebrates the love of books and reading is forever in my eyes, one of the greatest days on the planet. The energy around the city felt wonderful and exciting. Barcelona hummed and vibrated with people as they made their way from book stall to rose stall.

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I’m not sure whether it was because I was days from starting my period, but I felt overly emotional at how gorgeous the idea and the abudance of love that was everywhere on display. I walked to my language school and felt an overwhelming rush of adoration for my new home - at the care for which people had assembled their stalls selling roses, with homemade trinkets. I saw everything from crocheted roses, to illustrated drawings of dragons and Sant Jordi to pastries.

If you get the chance to come to Barcelona in April, try and come for this incredible day. Its joyous from start to finish and such a treat. I’ll treasure my first Sant Jordi fiesta for a long time.

Naturally I had to support my local bookseller, Backstory Bookshop in Exiample with some Sant Jordi purchases. It would be rude not to, right? I’m so excited to get stuck into these books, but will be saving them for my honeymoon in May.

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This month I made more of a conscious effort to get into bed earlier and put down my phone and instead pick up my book. And it worked! It takes some diligence, but it appears to have paid off.

This month I read the following;

Ready or Not by Cara Bastone

Look, it was cute. However, Cara Bastone’s Promise Me Sunshine was superior. Ready or Not follows Eve, who, after a one-night stand, falls pregnant. The problem I had with Ready or Not was how Eve dealt with her unplanned pregnancy - right from the get-go, she’s keeping the baby and doesn’t even wobble when she finds out the news. The saving factor is Shep, who is truly adorable. But this was very meh.

2.5 Stars

The Tell by Amy Griffin

I’m a sucker for a memoir, and this one has been on my TBR since its release. I don’t rate memoirs; it just feels a bit odd. This is an interesting memoir, especially in light of the allegations that have emerged in recent months. Amy Griffin has always run - from what, she is unsure of. As her body falls apart, a deep feeling within her struggles to the surface, one which she can’t shake. Under guidance, she takes MDMA to recover her memories and is alarmed to find several deeply traumatic memories of alleged abuse by her middle school teacher surface.

The Tell is fascinating to read, yet what remains even more interesting are the lawsuits that have occurred after the memoir was published. It’s worth reading the memoir and then doing a deep dive into the allegations.

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

As passengers settle in for their delayed flight from Hobart to Sydney, a strange woman makes her way through the cabin and tells each passenger the cause of their death and the age of their demise. It’s the classic question of, what would you do with the time left if you knew exactly when you’d die. Liane Moriarty has a superb back catalogue of books, and this was a solid 4-star read. The audiobook narrators were fantastic.

4 Stars

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Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise

I was expecting a bit more from Saoirse. Thankfully, it was borrowed from the library, so I didn’t have to spend any money on it. Saoirse has fled the US on a stolen Irish passport under dubious circumstances. At 18, she has been through the wringer - abuse, drug dealing, & sexual assault. She’s hoping her new life in Ireland will provide that respite. And for a brief moment there is relief - until it all comes shitting down again. Rinse and repeat. The writing was gorgeous, but the story left me feeling numb.

3/5 Stars

Lie With Me by Philippe Besson

For some reason, Lie With Me by Philippe Besson left me feeling meh. The longing of first loves didn’t make my heart sing or yearn for me. In fact, it took me quite some time to work my way through this tiny novella.

2/5 Stars

A successful reading month after a disastrous February. I’m also deeply in a ‘reading on my Kindle/Kobo’ phase and feeling quite allergic to the many, many physical shelves. I’m hoping that soon will change, as I really need to start making a dent.

I’m on the cusp of finishing my first two books of April and am hoping that with the long Easter weekend approaching that I’ll get to the beach for the first time in 2026. A sentence I never thought I’d get to say.

How was your reading month? What’s your reading year looking like so far as we exit Q1.

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I feel like one of a handful of people who fell head over heels into an obsession with ‘Wuthering Heights’. Everyone else, the pureists, have taken such an intense dislike to it that my Instagram DMs were full of choked rage - “How could YOU like this?”

Well, consider me obsessed. Actually, scrap that, consider it my new identity. Prepare to see me flouncing around in enormous hooped skirts and bodices (a girl can dream).

Wuthering Heights

Married at First Sight Australia, this show, oh this show. I am saving and savouring each episode with such relish. Usually I skip the weddings, because lets face it, rarely anything juicy stems from these episodes. However, because I’m in desperate need of mindless nothingness to watch, I’ve committed to watching every single second of these infernal weddings. I love this show with my whole heart. Partially because my husband watches it with me, he would say reluctantly, I would wholeheartedly disagree. There is a smugness to watching occasionally toxic couples being awful to each other.

Formula 1 has returned to our screens and I am firmly sat. I’m a huge McLaren girlie, Lando if we’re being specific. The winter break feels so long without it on my screen. I’m an avid consumer of everything F1-related - a million thanks to all the amazing creators out there doing God’s work.

Reading

A fascinating insight into the ultra-wealthy and the travel consultants ensuring their very wishes and desire comes true.

I’m so thankfully out of the loop about anything about these absolute idiot looksmaxxer influencers. Thank god. The manosphere continues to be one of the most depressing things about modern society.

Eyeballing

I died laughing at this comic strip, The Fart, on TikTok by Clarice Tudor and instantly knew I had to pre-order it. A modern-day comic strip told in medieval-style drawings and language. People are so damn creative.

Listening

My entire personality at the moment is ‘Wuthering Heights’, and the soundtrack by Charlie xcx has been on repeat since watching the movie. Despite Charlie being a millennial, I have firmly held the belief that I am far too old for her music. Brat Summer completely went over my head, and I still don’t know what it means. So this foray into her music feels very cool, and fuck me, I’m really old, but I feel trendy? Lame. The soundtrack however, is fantastic. Non-stop repeat.

Harry Styles new album has been on repeat - I’ve still got mixed feelings about it. You can read my first-time listen and review to it in this post. I feel like it’s one of his more mid-albums. Perhaps seeing him in Wembley during the summer will change my mind.

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Track 1: Aperature

Initially, it took me a few listens before I found its groove when it was released back in January. It’s a slow-burning banger. Its laid back chill that I’d hear in the background of a beach bar. I don’t think it will ever reach the heights of his previous bangers of Harry’s House.

Track 2: American Girls

The opening drums sound like Olivia Dean? Oh I like this one - more than Aperature. This is very vibey. Is it about Zoe Kravitz? I know it’s only 2 songs in, but this is my favourite so far.

Track 3: Ready, Steady, Go!

Interesting. I’m not hating it. It’s giving that viral Icelandic Eurovision from 2020? Parts of it. It’s very different and the bottom of my list so far. It was ok.

Track 4: Are You Listening Yet?

I can totally see this being a banger of his tour. The drums, wild dancing and feralness. This is weirdly fun? This played at full volume at his concert is going to be pretty epic.

Track 5: Taste Back

Its fine? It’s not really doing much for me. Very average. I wouldn’t deem it as a skip track, but maybe it’s a grower?

Track 6: The Waiting Game

Another fine track. It’s giving something more than Taste Back. I’m envisioning it in a Rom-Com where the couple are parted and off lamenting one another.

Track 7: Season 2 Weight Loss

Interesting title. Vibe immediately feels different to the previous 2 tracks. Oh, ok, this is goooood. This is a fun track, and more reminiscent of Harry’s House. I like this one a lot. I need to look into the lyrics for this one, cause its such a weird title, but the vibes are immaculate. Immediatedly want to repeat it, but on we go.

Track 8: Coming Up Roses

So we’re slowing down the tempo with this one. This is cute and a little bit dreamy. I’m here for it. Oh, the strings are gorgeous in this. Stunnnnn. Very bloody cute but I do wonder its positioning in the track listing? Feels plonked in the middle and better suited to the end?

Track 9: Pop

What a jolt back to this after the strings of Coming Up Roses. A bit discombobulating. It has potential and it’s quite fun. Another one for his concert that I think will be excellent. I’m still not really invested in it after Coming Up Roses.

Track 10: Dance No More

Oh, I like this. It’s got some late 80s/90s Paula Abdul/Sister Act vibes? Does that even make sense? This is fun. All I’m envisioning is a cartoon tiger wearing sneakers and sunglasses graffitiing a wall in a future music video,

Track 11: Paint by Numbers

Oh, we’re bringing it back down again. This is the best track so far. Love this! Very sweet and short? Its over? Already? Boo, more of this one.

Track 12: Carla’s Song

Damn, we’re at the end already? That was fast. I feel like I was just getting into it. Another solid song, I feel like it’s going from strength to strength at the end. I like this one a lot, but I’m more lamenting its over now.

Overall Thoughts:

A lot to digest over a quick listen. Initial thoughts are, it’s no Harry’s House (a hard follow up). There are no immediate bangers like Fine Line or Harry’s House that jump out, which is a bit disappointing. I think it’s a very mid-album. We’ll look back in years to come and rate this one much lower than his previous offerings. If I had to sum it up in a single word, it would be - fine.

However, that is only after a single play-through. Maybe after several weeks of listening to it, my thoughts and feelings will change. I’m off to listen to it again. What are your thoughts?

2.5/5

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