A Snapshot of My Reading #19

We’ve had a welcome change of season in the UK since my last snapshot. This month’s includes a book of healthy habits, a short story collection from a small Irish press and a novel from another, both with striking covers.

The non-fiction book I’m reading is the much missed Dr Michael Moseley’s Just One Thing which some readers may remember from his Radio 4 programme. It’s a set of thirty suggestions for improving health several of which I adopted some time ago. I won’t be changing the shower setting to cold anytime soon, but I may well build a few other ideas into my routine.

The short story collection I’m reading is Maggie Armstrong’s Old Romantics from Tramp Press. I’m two stories in and enjoying this selection linked by the theme of love as you might expect from the title, although romance seems not to be on the cards in relationships which seem distinctly one-sided. Armstrong’s collection is as accomplished as I’ve come to expect from Irish writers.

The novel I’m reading is Estelle Birdy’s Ravelling published by The Lilliput Press. Set in Dublin’s Liberties, it follows five boys in their final year at school. All five are engaging, vivid characters, from Hamza, who flogs his ADHD meds to private school boys, to Oisín, haunted by his dead brother who went to the supermarket instead of him and never came back. Birdy writes with humour and empathy even when her material is dark.

What about you? What are you reading?

If you’d like to see more snapshots, I’ve listed them here.