{"id":408,"date":"2022-12-13T18:27:05","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T18:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/?p=408"},"modified":"2023-01-16T10:18:14","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T10:18:14","slug":"whats-on-jennas-reading-list-this-festive-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/whats-on-jennas-reading-list-this-festive-season\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s on Jenna\u2019s reading list this festive season?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With just a week left until the VERVE office closes for the holidays, our editor Jenna is already planning her festive reading choices. Here\u2019s her (highly aspirational) list so far\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow<\/em> by Gabrielle Zevin<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow<\/a><\/em> tells the story of Sadie and Sam, two video-game-loving friends who achieve an almost unimaginable level of career success when they collaborate to create a video game while at college in the late 90s. The novel explores gender, race, physical and mental health, the reality of career success and human connection\/loneliness through a fun and tender story, and you\u2019ll probably have seen it all over social media earlier in the year. I\u2019m already halfway through and am loving what I\u2019ve read so far; I\u2019m just waiting for a free afternoon to tear through the second half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taste <\/em>by Stanley Tucci<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I couldn\u2019t resist picking up one of the last signed copies of this paperback when I saw it on a table in Waterstones Piccadilly. Stanley Tucci is iconic, for both his acting choices and his Negronis, and Searching for Italy<\/em>, his food-centred TV show, is pure, joyful escapism, so I was always going to read Taste<\/a><\/em> \u2013 his life story told through his love of food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After buying this, I couldn\u2019t help immediately dipping into the first couple of chapters, despite knowing I was in no position to be doing so \u2013 I was already reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow<\/a> <\/em>along with multiple books for work! So, sensibly, I set it aside to read over Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hex <\/em>by Jenni Fagan<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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This has been on my radar for a while and I finally ordered it last week, to arrive on my doorstep in time for the holidays. It\u2019s a very slim novel that I\u2019m certain I\u2019ll read in one or two sittings, by the author of one of my favourite books, The Sunlight Pilgrims<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hex<\/a> <\/em>sees protagonist Geillis Duncan, a convicted witch, recount the story of her arrest and trial in Edinburgh on the last night of her life, the 4th<\/sup> December 1591. It sounds atmospheric and oddly festive \u2013 the blurb makes me think of Dickens\u2019 A Christmas Carol<\/em> <\/a>as it described how Geillis is visited by a \u2018mysterious woman\u2019 from the future, who warns her of the ongoing persecution of women in the present-day. Fagan is Scottish, and I love witchy books with contemporary relevance, so this promises to be a good read and is the one I\u2019m looking forward to most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sorrow and Bliss <\/em>by Meg Mason<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The first book of a buy-one-get-one-half-price offer I took advantage of last weekend, but it\u2019s been on my reading list for months. It\u2019s another one you\u2019ll have likely seen across social media \u2013 a Sunday Times <\/em>bestseller, shortlisted for the Women\u2019s Prize for Fiction 2022 \u2013 but for me, the blurb sold it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sorrow and Bliss<\/a> <\/em>follows Martha Friel as she moves back in with her bohemian parents because she\u2019s finding life difficult to cope with \u2013 everything feels broken, despite her seemingly successful career and love life. I love books about people who \u2018should\u2019 be happy but aren\u2019t, and books about people starting over at difficult times in their life, so I\u2019m prepared to devour this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matrix <\/em>by Lauren Groff<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The second selection of the aforementioned special offer, Matrix<\/a><\/em> has a brilliant reputation and beautiful cover. I don\u2019t actually know too much about it \u2013 and I\u2019m trying to keep it that way because I enjoy being pleasantly surprised by books \u2013 all I\u2019m sure of is that it\u2019s about women\u2019s agency and desire, and I\u2019m excited to dive in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luster <\/em>by Raven Leilani<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Lent to me by a close friend after she read and loved it, this is another Instagram-famous novel that I\u2019ve been meaning to get to, and now have a reason to. About a young woman struggling to navigate her career as well as a relationship with a man who\u2019s in an open marriage, it sounds funny and current and a good novel to begin the new year with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The God of Small Things <\/em>by Arundhati Roy<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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After seeing a reviewer draw a comparison between Arundhati Roy and VERVE\u2019s very own author, Anjana Appachana<\/a>, I knew I had to read one of Roy\u2019s novels. The God of Small Things<\/a><\/em>, her Booker-Prize-winning debut family drama about twins in 1960s Kerala, was the obvious choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Taste<\/a><\/em>, this is one I started even though I knew I was too busy to commit to it, and now it\u2019s been three or four months since I last picked it up. I\u2019m just searching for the right moment to settle into it \u2013 then I think I\u2019ll read it across one or two snowy afternoons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breasts and Eggs <\/em>by Mieko Kawakami<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Breasts and Eggs<\/a> <\/em>follows three Japanese women as they navigate complicated personal issues, each of which are somehow related to womanhood. It centres on Natsu, an unfulfilled thirty-year-old living in Tokyo; her older sister, Makiko, who has her heart set on breast enhancement surgery; and Makiko\u2019s daughter, Midoriko, who has recently decided to stop speaking and communicates only through written notes and gestures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a strange one. I started reading \u2013 and enjoying \u2013 it in July 2021 but have only been picking it up every two or three months since then. It\u2019s very character-driven, and I think I need a good chunk of time \u2013 e.g. the Christmas break \u2013 to immerse myself in these women\u2019s lives. I had hoped to do this last Christmas, but didn\u2019t manage\u2026 And looking back over the length of this list, I realise I may be being too ambitious again!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With just a week left until the VERVE office closes for the holidays, our editor Jenna is already planning her festive reading choices. Here\u2019s her (highly aspirational) list so far\u2026 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow tells the story of Sadie and Sam, two video-game-loving friends who achieve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"1080","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":false,"total_views":0,"today_views":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":446,"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions\/446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vervebooks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}