Lydia
@lunapuella
books, sewing, knitting, feminism, occasional rants. dutch (but also posts in english). she/her.
47) Caro Claire Burke - Yesteryear Possibly the most hyped novel of the year, and it mostly lives up to it. The concept is strong - Instagram tradwife is catapulted back to the 1850s for some actual pioneering life - and Burke does her utmost to give us a reasonable explanation for it all.
46) Michael Crighton - Jurassic Park This needs no introduction. The exposition is clunky, the characters pretty non-descript, the movie certainly infinitely better - and I still couldn't stop reading.
45) Claire Keegan - Walk the Blue Fields Early short stories from Keegan. They're good - mysterious, full of suggested depth and a bone deep Irishness - but suffer in comparison to her later works like Foster and So Late in the Day, that are so much more arresting.
44) Fern Riddell - Death in Ten Minutes Ostensibly, a biography of the radical suffragette Kitty Marion. But also a condensed history of the suffragette movement, its violence, and a reflection on how that has been scrubbed from popular history. Interesting but unbalanced.
43) Dolen Perkins-Valdez - Happy Land This is my second Perkins-Valdez and I think it's my last. She illuminates interesting and important bits of African-American history but I don't get on with her style, I find it distant and stilted.
42) Caroline Dodds Pennock - On Savage Shores The Columbian exchange viewed through the eyes of indigenous people who came to Europe. Fascinating stuff, but the combination of a very dense writing style and lots of unfamiliar names did make for slow reading for me.
The Empress Matilda. Subtitle: one awesome woman who should've been the first Queen of England, and the men who kept fucking shit up for her.
41) Emma Southon - A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women Zippy history of 1000+ years of Roman history told through Empresses, Vestal Virgins, Christian martyrs and more. Very fun writing style, clearly well researched - only problem is it turns out I'm not that interested in the Roman Empire 😅
The Five reunion tour is the perfect night out for geriatric millennials. Seats on the floor, only joy, good vibes and singing along to bangers. Tight 90 minute show and everyone home before midnight. Most fun I've had in ages.
40) Daniel Kehlmann - Lichtspiel My first German novel of the year! Not an easy read, as it deals with the director GW Pabst and his years of making movies under the Nazi regime, but a fascinating look at moral failure and the meaning of making art.
A breezy cotton, a cute print and massive pockets - I predict I'll be wearing these Pietra Shorts a whole lot over the summer! #MeMadeWardrobe #GarmentSewing #ootd
39) KJ Charles - How to fake it in society Another KJ Charles, this time for my book club! As I told the chat: I love a book that takes a ridiculous premise and commits to it. This one involving a marriage to a very rich woman at death's door and an outrageous rogue of a French comte (or is he?).
38) KJ Charles - A Fashionable Indulgence Look, it's a KJ Charles book, you know what that means: sexy historical m/m romance, proper plotting, bastards getting their comeuppance. It's all there, yet it wasn't my favourite, I just didn't quite feel the connection between the MCs.
It's too hot but at least my new skirt is cute! I think this is my seventh Estuary skirt 😂 #GarmentSewing 🪡🧵
Working on a new pair of Pietra shorts (in a thin cotton because *gestures at weather*), and Look!!! At this exquisite bit of accidental pattern matching! #GarmentSewing 🪡🧵
37) Gaea Schoeters - Het Geschenk A charming little high concept novel: Botswana gifts Germany with 20.000 wild elephants and now the Bundeskanzler has to deal with them. Full of gentle irony, but the political commentary could do with more bite.
36) Michael Ondaatje - Warlight I hadn't read Ondaatje in years but this took me right back to why I love him. Such beautiful prose, touching so lightly on big emotions and plots it's almost ghostlike. Made me want to reread In The Skin of A Lion.
35) Alice Winn - In Memoriam Two posh schoolboys in love - in the midst of WW1, as their friends are dying in front of their eyes. Desperately sad, beautifully written, and brutal when it needs to be - not just about the horrors of war, but the British class system as well.
34) Cameron (Camille) Kellogg - Just As You Are I really love the idea of a queer modern day Pride & Prejudice retelling - maybe more than the execution. The cast was cute and some ideas clever, but overall the MC was too angsty for my tastes.
A while ago one of our kitchen shelves collapsed, smashing a bunch of our drinking vessels. Including my beloved hand painted Taylor Swift mug. Yesterday I went to a hand forming ceramics workshop to replace it (Mother's Day gift from my husband). Can't wait to see the end result!
33) Wallace Thurman - The Blacker the Berry I read this Harlem Renaissance novel bc it was added to Project Gutenberg. It's good to flex my reading muscles outside my usual genres but I didn't like it much; characters were unlikeable and there's a truly horrifying description of a disabled baby.
32) Isaac Bashevis Singer - Rivkele (en andere verhalen) Dutch translation of various stories by the Yiddish writer. I'm not sure it was entirely my cup of tea but it was interesting.
A while ago my cousin gave me an old duvet cover to sew with. It's going to be an Estuary Skirt and... something else, because there is so much fabric left! I'm thinking a matching top, or Pietra shorts, or maybe even a dress? We'll see. Skirt first! #sewing #garmentsewing 🧵🪡
31) Anjet Daanje - De Herinnerde Soldaat A Flemish soldier loses his memory in WW1, is found by his wife after years in an asylum, and tries to reintegrate into his old life. But is his wife telling the whole truth? 500+ pages of stream of consciousness is a little too long, but overall worth it.