An Extra Monday, A Reading List, and Claiming My Irish Roots

There is an extra Monday this month and I am away — travelling down from the north of Scotland to the south of England to spend some time with family and friends, and collect my Irish birth certificate and send off the passport application. Am very excited about that! So there is no full post today, instead here are some of the things I have been reading this month. Do let me know yours. 💙

Photo by Blaz Photo on Unsplash

Books

I’ve been dipping in and out of Pema Chödrön’s When Things Fall Apart and also been on a memoir reading spree as my brand new Mindful Memoir course started and I wanted to refresh my memory fully of some of the memoirs I mention in it, and also read some new ones.

I’ve re-read:

• Wild by Cheryl Strayed - and I loved it even more this time around. Something about the bravery, and stupidity, of her setting out to walk that mountain trail for 3 months with no real clue of what she was doing, really touched my heart. All kudos to her. And the way she got to know herself, and forgive herself for her mistakes, took me on a real journey too.

• Educated by Tara Westover - an amazing story of overcoming a childhood that left her with no formal schooling and a family that wanted to keep her from ever leaving home and becoming her own person.

First time reads:

• Hunger by Roxane Gay - this is a brutal and hard story to read. It’s about the author's response to childhood rape as she uses weight gain as a form of protection, transforming her body into what she calls a fortress by eating until she is super-morbidly obese. While the story is profoundly sad, it also delivers a searing critique of a culture that measures women's worth by their appearance and weight. Ultimately, it offers moments of joy and hope as Gay chronicles her journey toward self-acceptance, learning to embrace herself as she is rather than as society expects her to be.

• The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch - raw, visceral and beautifully written story of overcoming childhood trauma, discovering who you really are, and surviving and then thriving.

Substacks

These are some of the stand-out posts I’ve read this month:

• Atlas of Longing by

  Paul Wittenberger

• Everything

  Ros Barber
  is writing at How to Evolve

• This is Only a Test by

  Diamond-Michael Scott

• The Year My Lungs Stopped Letting Life In by

  Teri Leigh 💜

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