Week 13

This week, I celebrated personal good news in my family and Eid :) Life feels good, there are things to celebrate and people to celebrate for. I saw You Me At Six on their final tour, enjoyed time off of work and continued to follow my running programme.

Just One Thing by Michael Mosley

Since starting my current job, and since coming back from long-term leave, I’ve found my habits slipping. This was an easy to read book about incorporating just one thing into your routine that could benefit you.

Yet to try anything out! But it was easy to read, informative and incredibly reader friendly.

Rating: ★★★★★

Ootlin by Jenni Fagan

I have wanted to read this book for years! And when I saw it on the Women’s Prize for Non Fiction Longlist, I thought… Well, I had to.

Ootlin is Fagan’s memoir of her experience in the care and adoption system in Scotland. Slightly different to the one in England, and hopefully things have modernised, so I hope and pray that the care system is never like this again. This was an unflinchingly raw and painful read. There were things I felt sick reading about, only to remember that Fagan was 9, then 12. I felt anger for the system that had failed her, that had seen her as a number in the system, a nuisance, and refused to acknowledge the pain she had experienced. The turnover of social workers in particular made me angry. Every photo reminded me of just how young Fagan was, and I just felt it all over again.

But… There were moments of hope. Glimmers of good in Fagan’s life, and she clung to those. Like a thin gold thread woven throughout the book, impossible to spot at times. But they were there, and they felt important to notice and acknowledge. And Fagan is a beautiful writer. It wasn’t written as a typical memoir - there were points where it was poetic, lyrical, and otherts were it was written matter-of-fact. Both styles were excellently done.

I loved loved loved this, despite how painful it felt to read. It was worth the wait.

Rating: ★★★★★

Week 12