Tag Archives: Marie Kondo

Games and Rituals by Katherine Heiny

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , , ,

Short story collections usually mean hits and misses – it’s rare that I rave about a whole collection (the last time was here). Games and Rituals by Katherine Heiny is absolutely worth raving about.

There are eleven stories in the collection, all focused on the theme of love, and the various forms it takes – friendships, ex-husbands, parents and children, and ill-advised trysts. And all eleven stories are funny. Not necessarily laugh-out-loud funny (although I did) but the wry smile kind of funny. Deadpan funny. And I felt like the humour was just for me because everything Heiny writes about peri menopause, parenting teenagers, bridesmaids’ dresses, dealing with ageing parents and the little stuff that I lose my shit over, was exactly right. Continue reading →

Bookish (and not so bookish) Thoughts

Posted by Kate W in Book vs Film, Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

01. You know when the reading of one book prompts the reading of another? There was a passing reference to Florence Broadhurst in the book I just finished (Flesh Wounds by Richard Glover), which made me pull one of the most beautiful books I own off the shelf – Helen O’Neill’s biography, Florence Broadhurst: Her Secret & Extraordinary Lives. Continue reading →

The book-buying-ban update

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with ,

https://twitter.com/thereadingroom_/status/715010162759766018/photo/1

At the beginning of the year, I seemed to do a lot of moaning about my book-buying-ban. I was thinking about it again last week when I blog-slapped* Marie Kondo.

But in actual fact, I’m killing it. After the initial few weeks of hyperventilating every time I went near a book shop, I’ve calmed down and can now safely walk through the Readings New Releases section without needing to breathe into a paper bag. Continue reading →

Marie Kondo and her Blasphemies about Books

Posted by Kate W in Non-fiction and tagged with , , , , , ,

the-life-changing-magic-of-tidying-up-marie-kondo

So I caved to public pressure and was prepared to hold a cheese grater and ask myself, sincerely, if it sparked joy. I willingly piled all of my crap onto my bed and then audibly thanked cardigans and asymmetrical hemlines for their service, as I stuffed them into bin bags. I even went so far as to tell people that Marie Kondo was right about the fact that ‘storage is a booby trap’.

But about a third of the way through The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Kondo went off the rails. Really, seriously bloody berserk. And my willingness to play along ground to a halt. Why? Because of her abominable attitude toward books*. And I quote: Continue reading →