in which I wrap up... October?

October disappeared in a puff of… I don’t know - finalising a house move, I think. Sometimes I feel like my life is wasting away - or being eaten by trying to survive one adult thing at a time.

(1) Things which I have read and enjoyed

I finished Station Eleven, which was wonderfully atmospheric.

Hons and Rebels, by Jessica Mitford was this month’s book club book, and was riotous fun.

The Brothers K, by David James Duncan, which is about America, baseball and faith in the 60s and 70s. It is, quite simply, made of magic, and joy, and pain, and, ultimately, unexpected bawling on the sofa at 1am. And it has caused me to shunt The Brothers Karamazov up my reading list about twenty spots (which is problematic, as my copy is in Cornwall).

(2) Things which I have watched and enjoyed

Well, The World Series was a thing that just finished… I enjoyed that. As first seasons of baseball watching go, it was ok. I still don’t quite know how it happened. Does anyone?

I saw Gone Girl at the cinema. I do like a good David Fincher thrill ride. I never had any desire to read the book (oddly, I like this genre at the cinema, but not really in books) - until I saw the trailer for the film. I never did read the book, and I’m pretty sure now I never will, but the film was a really slick piece of work, if slightly gorier than I was anticipating.

Finally, I have begun to discover the joy that is Orphan Black on Netflix. It is absolutely as great as everyone has said, and Tatania Maslany is made of brilliance.

(3) Things which I wrote that I’m fond of…

This post on Station Eleven is my only writing achievement of the month.

I have three or four first-paragraphs though. Consider yourselves on tenterhooks for my thoughts on Celine’s theology in Before Sunrise, the reasons why the Tories inheritance tax policy doesn’t fit with their claimed affection for the UK’s Christian heritage, and maybe something on historiography (though, that will mostly express annoyance at the fact that three computers ago, my computer ate the loooong essay on Herbert Butterfield and the role of God in history that I’d spent two months on - fortunately after submitting it - so I don’t have it any more and I can’t remember a lot of the detail… that's not exciting for anyone)

(4) Most Distracting Thing on the Internet

Pictures of puppies on tumblr. I want a dog.

(5) In the pile for November

I’ve just started Lila, by Marilynne Robinson. Based on a whole ten pages, it is absolutely as beautifully written as you’d expect, and my heart is breaking over Lila. Then it’s on to Brautigan, and I was just leant a copy of The Fault in Our Stars, so I might go there…