The Summer R.E.P.O.R.T
Reporting to you live from the periphery of the season! Here are all the things I enjoyed this summer!
Nothing makes you more aware of the unforgiving passage of time than going out on a random morning in late August, wearing your go-to summery “I’m just running errands” uniform of a t-shirt and some shorts, only to realise at minute five of your forty-minute journey that, woah, it’s actually cold outside and, great, now it’s raining.
Time is slipping away from me and though I can’t grab the minutes with my physical hands, I can grab the moment with my pen (or, in this instance, my keyboard) and write about the things I enjoyed during the months of June, July and August.
R(eading)
Some books I loved this summer…
The Ministry of Time (2024) by Kaliane Bradley
Genre: Science Fiction. Historical Fiction. Romance.
Pages: 341
In the near future, a new government ministry with control over a time machine begins gathering expats from across history, bringing them to modern-day England with the desire to research the effects of time travel. What would be the effect if we removed a man from the 1840s and brought him to the present day? How will that affect the fabric of space-time? How would that affect his physical body, his identity? Our unnamed narrator is a civil servant, hired to work as the “bridge” for one of these expats. Not only must she keep notes of his physical and mental well-being, but she must also teach him all about the modern world. But, how can you properly teach someone about everything when your own point of view is so limited?
There’s something vengeful about agreeing on an interpretation. Set your narrative as canon and in a tiny way you have pried your death out of time, as long as the narrative is recalled by someone else. I certainly understood better why people became writers, and why jealous lovers force so many false confessions, and why the British history curriculum looks the way that it does.
— The Ministry of Time (2024)
The soft (and I mean, really soft) sci-fi element of this book was used as a tool to explore displacement and the many ways in which someone must shroud or completely abandon aspects of themselves in order to better fit into society, to better succeed. I will admit that if you look too closely at the time-traveling elements you do start noticing holes, but I will also admit that I was having far too much fun while reading to actually give a damn. Where there may be holes in the logic behind the time-travel, there certainly are no holes where the prose is concerned. Bradley infuses a dry, unbelievably British sense of sarcasm into her writing and alongside me scoffing out a laugh more often than I expected, I was also sometimes left in awe by how gorgeous some sections of her prose were…
I could have written to you without including them; after all, the things that happen between lovers are lost to the work of history anyway. But I wrote it down because I need you to bear witness to it. He was here, by and with and in my body. He lives in me like trauma does. If you ever fall in love, you’ll be a person who was in love for the rest of your life.
— The Ministry of Time (2024)
Family Lore (2023) by Elizabeth Acevedo
Genre: Magical Realism. Literary.
Pages: 371
Each of the many women in the Marte family have been gifted with magical abilities. For example, one can sense the truth and the lie in everyone, another’s herbalism skills border on miracle-working, and another has an uncanny control over the wetness of her vagina and how attractive she is to the opposite sex. So, what does it mean when the sister, infamous for her ability to predict someone’s death, begins planning and inviting the whole family to her own living wake?
You grounded me here, with both feet, on both knees, stooped on all fours, heaving to bring you forth. I have known death since I was born, but I had not truly known life until I gave it to you.
— Family Lore (2023)
I’m realising that I have a massive weakness for sprawling, multi-generational family narratives, especially when some form of immigration has occurred in the history of the family, adding an even richer cultural divide between the older and younger generations. I’ve read negative reviews on this book (because I’m always interested to hear about what people hate about the things that I love) and a lot of people have complained about the large cast of characters. I, however, loved this aspect of the book. We follow the Marte women. We follow their daughters. We jump back in time to find out about their childhood and the vary shades of their relationships with their own mother. Acevedo writes from several points of view, juggling several characters, yet not once did a voice feel or sound similar to another. We are following several American-Dominican women, but each of their experiences are complex and perfectly distinct. I felt each character’s existence past the pages of the novel.
Also, the magical realism element of the book was wielded with such skill. It was used to inform not only how the Marte women interacted with the surrounding world and their personal problems, but also the way that they interacted with one another. For example, how can you stay close with the sister who can sense when you lie, when you’re trying desperately to keep a secret?
E(ating)
A very simple side-dish that I’ve been eating (too much of)…
I went to restaurant and ordered sweet potato chips some time back in July and I’ve kind of just latched onto the taste. I don’t have the funds to continually go back to said restaurant to get my fix and I’m also a little too lazy to continually cut my own potatoes, so when I stumbled on this gem during a random grocery run, I knew my life was about to be changed. Just these chips, an air fryer tray, a sprinkling of sea salt and Cajun seasoning… it always hits the spot. Like all foods I suddenly get obsessed with, I’ll eat these until I’m physically sick of them. But as right now, they’re great!
P(laying)
Playing = seeing some of my favourite artists perform live…
Hozier at Finsbury Park
Solo dating is something I’ve been doing religiously since the pandemic, but this was the first time I went to a festival-esque event entirely alone. Even when I’ve gone to concerts alone, I’ve met up with one or two people before having to eventually go and sit by myself. All the anxieties I had on the train-ride to Finsbury Park, however, fizzled out once I found myself standing in the crowd, lucky enough to be pressed in tight with a group of strangers so open to sharing the joys of Hozier’s music with me. The friendliness I experienced that day was so unexpected; that’s the rewarding thing about pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and being willing to do so alone. I stood in that crowd, belting Take Me to Church, with my arm slung about the shoulders of a stranger that I wouldn’t have met otherwise, a stranger that I’ll probably never meet again. A moment can be life-changing, no matter how fleeting.
Megan Thee Stallion at The O2 Arena
I went to this one with a group of friends. Funnily enough, I met these people several years ago on Twitter because of our shared love of BTS and that evolved to us going out for lunches, and dinners and meeting at clubs or at apartments for birthday celebrations. This interesting and—some might argue—unexpected overlap of tastes was also mirrored by the concert attendees. Anime-cosplayers and avid rap-enthusiasts were one and the same that night, and that appreciation for such varying cultures came to a head when Yuki Chiba gave us a special appearance. It was such a great night (despite me wearing the absolute wrong pair of boots and permanently bruising my heel as a result).
O(bsessing)
What have I been obsessing over?
Genesis, pt. ii by RAYE
Just… give it a listen.
My August Nails
Just look at them…
Gooseneck Kindle Stand + Kindle Page-turner
I like to think that I’ve got quite a good leash on my inner, rabid consumer. You can persuade me to watch a show or movie or to read a book, but when it comes to persuading me to buy something that I can’t just stumble across at my local thrift store… you’ll have to write me a two-thousand-word essay, double-spaced, size twelve font, Times New Roman, before I’ll even think about pulling out my purse. That being said, yes, I spent $20 on a device made to… turn my Kindle pages for me. I’d feel sorrier and sillier about it if it genuinely wasn’t a good purchase. I could bore you with the details of me being an ex-Rugby player, and how that sport wasn’t particularly kind on my wrist, and how a weak wrist holding an e-reader at a certain angle for minutes (let alone, hours) starts to take a toll. Instead, I’ll just mention how fantastic it will be to turn the pages and read hand-free when the summer weather leaves us behind, winter takes over, and I'll want nothing more than to stay buried under the covers.
R(ecommending)
Some movies that I loved this summer that I want to recommend…
The Fall (2006) dir. Tarsem Singh
Suffering from a recent back injury, a stuntman finds himself bedridden in a hospital located on the outskirts of Los Angeles. A little girl with a broken arm and an active imagination asks him to tell her a story, any story, and, with nothing better to do, he does just that.
You know what I do when something frightens me? I say the magic words: Googly, googly, googly. Begone!
— The Fall (2006)
I knew very little about the tone of this movie when I pressed play. All I knew was that it included Lee Pace wearing eyeliner and honestly that was enough for me. But when I saw the picture below, I expected that this would be a light-hearted and, dare I say, childish movie about the transportive powers of storytelling.
And, sure, it is about that, but it’s far from being childish. This movie is not just about the stories we tell ourselves to escape, but it’s also about stories we tell ourselves to make it a little easier to stay. I really wasn’t expecting the burning of unshed tears and the itchy nose I suffered with during the third act.
The way this movie plays with form was also really effective. The film is meta in the way that we constantly cut from the bed-bound stuntman and the bored little girl to the vibrant, adventure story they’re scribing together. You’ll be watching a scene of the masked bandit chasing down a carriage, shooting his guns, only to hear the distant voice of a doctor in the background, asking a patient if he’s taken his medicine.
12 Angry Men (1957) dir. Sidney Lumet
A young boy is being charged for the murder of his father and the opinions, prejudices and temperaments of the twelve-man jury stand between him and the electric chair.
I don’t believe I have to be loyal to one side or the other. I’m simply asking questions.
— 12 Angry Men (1957)
In its simplest form, that’s exactly what this movie is about. Questions. Is he guilty? Is he innocent? Why do you think that? What evidence is the most important? Why? Why is that important to you, and not this? What about you, about your life, has influenced your decision? What prejudices, known and unknown, do you harbour? This movie doesn’t only pose these questions to the twelve-man jury, but the question is also posed to you, the viewer. Despite the stagnancy of setting (you’re stuck in the juror's room with them from beginning to end), the movie makes itself interesting through its splicing of footage. Jurors will ask piercing questions, their eyes glancing right at the camera before the footage abruptly cuts to a second juror, the person who was truly being spoken to. The effect of this editing was potent. I was part of each discussion, each argument. Provided with the exact same amount of information as the jurors on the alleged facts of the case, I was right there with the men, trying to figure out the truth, trying to find out what authority I had in dictating what punishment that truth deserved. A film full to the brim with intriguing conversation and unflinching character dissections—I loved every second of it.
The First Omen (2024) dir. Arkasha Stevenson
A young American woman, interested in beginning her life-long service to the Church, is sent to a nunnery in Rome. Rather than finding the divine, she finds a darkness lurking in the corridors, a darkness the surrounding nuns seem far too happy to accept.
How do you control people who no longer believe? You create something to fear.
— The First Omen (2024)
A lot of the new horror movies I’ve gone to see this year have been duds! Yes. MaXXXine, included! So, when I saw someone tweet that The First Omen (2024) remains the best horror movie that they’ve seen all year, I got curious. I wasn’t disappointed!
This movie is exactly what I want from a slow, creeping horror. From the very beginning, there is a palpable level of unease and that’s because there is tension on multiple levels of this movie. Not only do we have the tension between good and evil, religion and sacrilege, but there is also political tension that works as a backdrop to the horror elements of the film, a backdrop that often encroaches on the main story. The seemingly fantastical concept of the anti-Christ is closely tied to the very real tensions of fascism, social injustices and the repressive authority of not just the Church, but also the State. The (very few) jump-scares in this didn’t really do it for me, but the body horror had to be some of the best (worst) I’ve seen in a while. I had to watch some scenes through my periphery, my head turned to the side, because looking at it face-on would’ve been too much.
T(reating)
Not all treats need to cost money…
I spent a lot of the summer running about—getting my visa sorted, preparing myself to start my masters, and just being outside the way the Gods intended (partying, brunching, lounging in local parks). After those days in the sun, I’ve been treating myself to coming home, kicking my shoes off, and immediately dunking my face in cool water, holding for about ten seconds, before continuing on with my day.
I’m mentioning this in the T(reating) section because summer is a hard season for me when it comes to how overstimulated I can get. Sounds are louder, colours brighter, the world moves faster despite how much longer the day actually feels. The cold-water-face-dunk has worked to calm me down and recentre me after a chaotic, fast-paced day in the heat. It’s a practice I plan to continue.
What about you? What did you enjoy this summer? What books? Movies? Songs? Food? Let me know!
It’s been a crazy few months for me and I don’t see life slowing down any time soon. I don’t mind it all too much because what I fear more than anything is stagnancy. Still, I’ll try my hardest to pop in with recommendations and musings whenever I get the chance because I really do miss using this platform. Thank you so much for reading!
Goodbye, Summer! Autumn, dear? Treat me well!
i hope you know i take your recommendations very very seriously. into my tbr and watchlist they all go.
Your nails ❣️🔥