The new Frank Turner album is out and so far I like it. I need more time – much more time – to offer a proper opinion. Introspectively it has been interesting to experience today’s events: the album release, the fandom reaction, my reaction to some fandom reaction. The presale for show 3000. The fandom reaction to that and my reaction… you get the drift.
Frank at Hat Works in Stockport, 2019
Re the album: I’m fascinated that after more than a decade of me listening to songs Frank has written – often about his own life experiences, which on the surface seems so vastly different from mine – I still find lyrics that resonate with me deeply. Which is so weird and so wonderful, because Frank’s life obviously has changed quite a bit in this decade and so has mine (maybe less than his). But our life experiences in this decade do not mirror or even resemble each other, I think. And still there are these words, that express what I’m feeling more eloquently and more beautifully than I ever could. Again! Still! How does he do that?
The lyrics in question: The title of this post! Obviously! I don’t recall which podcast (episode) from the variety of mental health / self-care podcasts I occasionally listen to, touched on the same subject. I do remember that I had been listening to it on my way to the radio gig Frank played in March. Which really was just a coincidence, obviously, but I still like that fact. The guest in that podcast coined it a bit differently more along the lines of “hoping that our past had been different / happier / better is not helping us to move forward, because we then keep ruminating about the past instead of letting it go”. You get the idea, I hope. And of course I have read and heard that many times before, but during that podcast for the first time it felt like it really landed with me. Now Frank sings these words and again they land. Usually you’d think and usually I’d agree that “giving up hope” is a bad thing. But in this case it’s not, because you can hope as much as you want, you can’t change the past. What happened happened and hoping it didn’t doesn’t change anything. I don’t know if I’m making sense. It just felt weird in an absolutely wonderful way to have that sentiment sung to me by my favourite artist.
I realized I forgot to post my March recap, so here are my thoughts on all the books I’ve read in the last two months. I’m a bit behind on my reading goals, but I’m sure I’ll get there. I just need to step up my reading a bit like I at the beginning of the year.
2024 in books so far
Mad Woman (Bryony Gordon, 2024) ★ 4.25 Another great memoir style book from Bryony about how she managed to live through various (mental) health issues in the past 3 years. Some felt familiar from own experience but also from her previous books. In small parts dialogues or events felt a bit “staged”, which might be due to the need to condense events or keep privacy of people involved. Either way her experience of having symptoms dismissed by (male) mental health professionals because she’s a larger woman fills me with rage. We’ve still got such a long way to go.
This Must Be the Place (Maggie O’Farrell, 2017) ★ 4.0 This was my first ever O’Farrell novel and I think I might like to read more of her as I enjoyed her writing. The characters came to live for me and even though the plot meandered I was hooked to see how they got where they were the the story started or where they’d go. The plot move backwards and forwards through time with each chapter which sometimes was a bit difficult to follow, especially as there were multiple narrators. Each chapter had a different point of view and sometimes that even was a supporting character, which was something to get used to, but also made the storytelling quite unique for me. Sadly the switching back and forth between points of views sometimes made it harder for me to connect with the character’s emotions because we only ever got a quick spotlight of them. But all in all definitely a book I’d recommend.
Date with Justice (Julia Chapman, 2024) [Audiobook] ★ 3.75 Another quite enjoyable story from the Dales Detective / Dating Agency. I was wondering which sort of story it would be without the big archenemy out of the way and I have to say this still worked for me in the most part. Some connections – Sarah knowing Louise Dinsdale (listened to the audiobook, so not 100% sure on spelling) and also the victim from uni – felt a bit far-fetched. I loved the whole “Who’s the owner of Fellside Court?” plot and even the cupcake thief, though the revelations fell a bit short. Still haven’t figured out how they actually got into the cafe? But it moved another romantic plot forward, finally!
All in all, this would work well for me as a finale to the whole series. But of course I’d also like to hear more about all of the characters I’ve grown to love over the years.
Honey Girl (Morgan Rogers, 2021) ★ 3.75 I liked this one. For me the writing had a distinct lovely vibe and I appreciated the overall story arch and could even relate to it to some extent. I wish we had learned more about Yuki’s backstory and I sometimes thought there were a tad too many supportive characters. They all seemed interesting enough on their own, but there wasn’t room enough in the plot to fully get to know them.
Happiness Falls (Angie Kim, 2023) ★ 3.75 I was hooked on this story for most of the time I read it. I loved the narrator’s voice and all the family members. The investigation had enough twists and turns to stay interesting. I also appreciated the insight this story gave me into the world of nonspeaking people. The “HQ” storyline was super interesting at first, but got a bit much in the end. And I admit I had hoped for a different kind of ending, so the way it DID end left me a bit disappointed.
Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect (Benjamin Stevenson, 2024) ★ 3.5 Last week I re-read, well rather skimmed, the previous book to get reacustomed to the unique style of these books and to the main character. I loved the narration here, breaking the fourth wall all the time and being all meta about this crime novel, while he was part of the crime novel. The plot and what’s going on and what has been going on in the past felt a bit farfetched, more so than in the first book. But it was still fun.
Dances (Nicole Cuffy, 2023) ★ 3.25 This was an interesting read about a young black woman in the ballet world. I do like watching ballet in the theatre from time to time and am always so impressed by the dancers skills. This story gives a good insight how much you have to want to do this and how much it takes (physically, emotionally) to get to the top. Or even to be able to do this for a living.
Part of the backstory about Cece’s family could have been a bit more fleshed out and even though I absolutely understand why the writer uses so many ballet terms in writing, it made it difficult to read sometimes.
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? (Crystal Smith Paul, 2023) ★ 2.75 I’m sad to say that I never really connected with any of these characters, except for Kitty in the past. To me the story dragged and especially the present felt overly complicated. All in all I often lost track of the many different characters mentioned. I also found the writing a bit bland. I loved the social and political issues raised here, but the way the story was told bored me a lot of times.
Rise to the Sun (Leah Johnson, 2021) ★ 2.25 This obviously wasn’t for me. I had enjoyed Jackson’s previous one, but to me this plot felt all over the place and tried too include too many current social issues. I also didn’t like either main characters all that much.
A few thoughts about my two main fandoms and my current read
Fandom I – Frank Turner | If I’m using numbers in any form or priority here, Frank has to come first. Not just because it’s only 5 more days till the new album will be out. [Note to self: Schedule time to listen to it at home in the morning before heading into work.] I am one of those fangirling types that listen to all the podcast interviews and read all the print (or rather online magazine) interviews he’s doing. There have been a few interviews recently and then of course the first two episodes of the “50 States in 50 Days” documentary, which I’ve mentioned earlier this week. I watched both episodes by now and very much enjoyed them and will definitely watch them once again before the last two episodes come out and probably all four in a row once more before my time (60 days?) to re-watch runs out. I might do sort of a review once all four are out, but what can I say so far? I like Frank! Obviously! Once again it’s been nice to see him interact with people who like his art (and him) in the patient, friendly, kind and empathetic way that he does. Not to mention the interesting tiny insights into life on the road.
Fandom II – Outlander | I’ve been re-watching the first half of season 7 (because I’ll be off Amazon Prime again by the end of next week) to refresh my memory before the second half will be released in the autumn (I think). I’m not an avid fan of the TV show anymore or at least I’m not following the news online all that much anymore. But I have to say: they do know how to make engaging television, whether they have stayed close / true to the books nor not. If I’d have to pick I’d always pick the books over the TV show, but as I’m more of a reader than a TV viewer anyway, so that’s no surprise. Re-watching this now tempts me to reread – if not the complete series – but at least the 2nd half, I guess. I’ve reread the first half a few times when I first discovered the series almost 15 years ago and then I think again when the TV show started about 10 years ago. The last one from 2021 contains some new clues about one character’s backstory, which made me want to go through previous ones to see if I can make sense of it or rather if it really was planted many many books before. I do have them all as audiobooks so maybe I should make more use of that, because when else shall I find the time to re-read old tomes? I’ve got so so so many new / unread books on my shelf as well.
Current Read | The adult in me will now postpone sharing more random observations and thoughts to later this week, because I really should got to bed soon. I will read some more in bed, but at least I will already be in it. I’m currently reading “The Great Divide” by Cristina Henriquez, which is set in Panama over 100 years ago during the construction of the Canal. I sort of like it, even though the narrative is not structured like I would have expected it from the summary on the cover, if that makes sense. The summary mentioned 3-4 people and I thought the story would focus on them and I’m sure it will at some point and the various plots will come together. But at the moment there is still a lot of backstory to each one of these 4 people and side characters and backstory of the side characters. It will be interesting to see how it will all converge, but I’m about 1/3 in by now and hope it will start converging soon.
