Here are the seven articles that I plan to read each morning alongside my coffee to start my day off right and absorb new ideas.

As I took a week off from Substack there are no thoughts this week, but here are 7 more articles for the upcoming week. Did you read any of the ones from last week, is there any I should go back to?!

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Monday 27th April

The Hunger of Joseph

by Emmett Rensin

Recorded starvations throughout history…

Tuesday 28th April

In Defense of Idleness

by Wendell O’Brien

‘Just Don’t Do It’…

Wednesday 29th April

A Portrait of the Artist as an Artist Portraying the Artist

by Adrian Nathan West

On Ben Lerner…

Thursday 30th April

The 7 Sages of Ancient Greece and Their Quotes of Wisdom

by Aiden Nel

The Seven Sages of Ancient Greece were seven men from Archaic Greece recognized by the Classical descendants for their wisdom and impact on the world…

Friday 1st May

Three Pages of Don Quixote

by Daniela Gutiérrez Flores

Here was a woman who had lived through a dictatorship, been through three marriages, and built a brilliant career in a relentlessly male-dominated field. And she was happy…

Saturday 2nd May

Fuel for thought

by Hannah Critchlow

A brain fit for the 21st century is one that understands – and respects – its own…

Sunday 3rd May

‘Hope, insight and burning humanity’: 2026 International Booker prize shortlist announced

by Emma Loffhagen

The six finalists include Marie NDiaye and Yáng Shuāng-zǐ alongside Daniel Kehlmann’s second nomination for the £50,000 prize…

Find The gem elsewhere

Here are the seven articles that I plan to read each morning alongside my coffee and yogurt to start my day off right and absorb new ideas.

Monday 14th April

The Palm House

by Zack Hatfield

I read The Palm House last monthly and truly enjoyed the reading experience. This was my second Riley not, after My Phantoms. I have now added all of Riley’s other (6 more I believe) novels to my tbr.

To accompany my understanding of Riley’s novel, what better than a 4columns book review. And Hatfield’s piece alluded me to some structural points I had not considered when reading.

Firstly that this is an autumnal novel. I read this on the cusp of Spring but I agree there is a gloomy element to it, of the transferring of seasons accompanied by one of the characters leaving their job. I think Autumn is a more transformative time than spring for new starts. I think that comes from the academic calendar instilled in me.

Hatfield does compare Riley to Cusk in a few ways. I can see some very small similarities but as someone who finds Cusk marmite, Riley is more like butter — easier to get along with.

I plan to write a detailed notes from on The Palm House shortly, but for now here is my review and here is my thoughts on My Phantoms:

Tuesday 15th April

The Mirror & the Flame

by Rebwar Fatah

The main premise of Fatah’s piece is that Western and Eastern philosophies are not as different as one may think. I agree with this. When I was studying Avicenna (Ibn Sina) his ideas were similar to medieval western philosophy. This could also be said of the ontological and Kalam argument. The arguments are similar when you get to the core.

It’s a short read but insightful to learn about the Persian Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar, and of course Hegel.

Wednesday 16th April

“What’s Truly Mysterious Is Goodness”: Héctor Abad’s Aside from My Heart, All Is Well

by Krista Timeus Cerezo

“And yet, the novel also makes us wonder: What is left of our most important institutions without good people inside them? The paradox of institutions is that they are designed to outlast our fallible humanity, but they can only function through the acts of fallible humans.”

This is my translated book review pick of the week, and a good one. I would say that Catholicism in literature is one of my niche literary interests. And now that I attend mass with my husband my understanding of the religion has deepened beyond my mere degree. It went from theoretical to personal. I am not Catholic but I am also not not Catholic — one could say I am in purgatory.

But this line I plucked out of the review is a paradox I have always pondered. I think there is a separation between personal belief and institution, however they are inextricably tied up in one another. The humans run the institution and the institution runs the humans. And it seems to be often the wrong humans running the organisation!

Nevertheless, this book has piqued my interest and perhaps this will be the first Archipelago I read.

Thursday 17th April

The Tumultuous Life and Work of Leo Tolstoy

by Stefan Pajovic

I chose this because I am 200 pages into War and Peace and I will accept any companion reading that comes my way. It’s not an engaging as Anna Karenina, but I am determined to once and all complete this tome.

Here are some notes I collated to go alongside my reading experience:

1. He experienced the hardships of military life himself

2. Shunned the life of socialite in favour if spirituality — the true meaning of Christianity

3. His father was a veteran of the Napoleonic wars

What I must do is make a character map because I am notorious for getting characters muddled up.

Friday 18th April

Living without my self

by Mette Leonard Høeg

It can be hard to read pieces when you have not read certain pieces of literature or philosophers. I felt that way here. What I did focus on was Høeg’s interest in the link between literature and philosophy. Particularly in how they present consciousness — both topics I am interested in.

“Literature does not just passively reflect our intuitions and ideas. It shapes our expectations and conceptions, influences our perception and experience of ourselves and the world. It shapes and manifests our shared experience as a culture. It has confused me that my own experience didn’t match what I read about in books or encountered in the culture around me”

How I read this line is that literature is not necessarily a mirror to our thoughts but actually it has the power to mould our thoughts. It provides this script for us to create experiences. Over time this script becomes internalised and we think of it as intuition. I don’t believe Høeg is saying this is bad, but when you don’t find any resemblance to the literature you read it can feel alarming. Thus is does raise questions about who’s experience is being centred in literature.

Saturday 19th April

Facing the Past

by Sarah McEachern

Ben Lerner’s new novel, this review revealed, begins with a man reading on a train. I like reading on trains. And I have learnt this year that I like unpacking literature which features characters reading on trains. Although I am not convinced by the description of the novel I want to read Transcription yet.

I have seen it’s the main piece in the new LRB so perhaps after reading that I will change my mind. We will see.

Sunday 20th April

The Age-Old Urge to Destroy Technology

by Kyle Chayka

I don’t particularly care for an AI article and nothing unique is much said. But I do quite like the ones that compare and contrast with existing fears on technology. I also like to read The New Yorker once in a while to see what’s going on over there.

There was one line I plucked from this piece:

“The history of struggle against technology is also the history of struggle over what makes the human different from the machine.”

Next Week

I am on annual leave this week (very needed) and I decided to also take a break from writing on Substack. I don’t ever do this, only for my wedding, but I feel like I need it and hope to come back excited as ever to write. So here are 7 articles for next week. I might read them the week after. Or provide 7 new ones next Sunday. We shall see what the future brings us!

1. How reading books regulates your nervous system

2. The invention of the soul

3. Superstars (review)

4. Karan Mahajan’s ‘The Complex’

5. The Oyster Diaries

6. A State of Transparent Nakedness: An Interview with Kim Hyesoon and Jack Saebyok Jung on the Hybrid Project Lady No

7. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke review – the downfall of an all‑American tradwife

I was a chronic over writer. My first drafts were always 1000+ words over the word count. At first this made it difficult because I wanted to keep everything. I wanted to showcase my knowledge. I am also just not a good editor. I don’t like proof reading — you can probably tell that here!

But as I entered into my final year I came to like the second draft process. I would print out the first draft and annotate my work, often cutting out whole paragraphs that did not contribute to the flow.

I would then write the essay again with the edits I made. Often I would then be over the word count so that’s where the real microscopic focus began. I would shorten sentences. Cut out instances of repetition or sentences that failed to emphasise their points. I am by nature a writer who prefers the short blunt sentence to the long, complex flowery one. I don’t believe in big fancy words when ‘big’ can do the job. So I always had the bare minimum to work with.

I don’t practise this method as much with writing on Substack. There are no imposed word counts or preferred writing styles. But in part it’s ingrained in my writing style at this point. If the sentence I write doesn’t serve a purpose I tend to go back and delete it. I often delete whole paragraphs because they are just waffle — and I do waffle.

“Killing your darlings,” then, isn’t about rejecting your writing. It’s about trusting it enough to let parts of it go.

Read more

Here are the seven articles that I plan to read each morning alongside my coffee and yogurt to start my day off right and absorb new ideas.

—-

Monday 6th April

#35: April in books

by Marta Carvalho

Litulla is one of my favourite substacks for book recommendations — new releases and old! Marta just hits the spot every time.

I noted down a few recommendations to perhaps pick up. Mrs Jekyll was one I have seen before and dismissed it because retellings can be hit or miss but as a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde lover and Marta’s review I think my mind has been swayed.

Tuesday 7th April

The Profession That Does Not Exist

“I was fifty-two years old when I started waiting tables for the first time. It was 2013. At that point I had won a Pulitzer Prize and published a New York Times bestseller, but to say my writing career had stalled would be an understatement.”

What a line!

“I’m now in my last semester at Columbia. I’m almost done with my thesis, a memoir. I’m over $100,000 in debt. I am aggressively applying for jobs, “normal” jobs like office admin for nonprofits and civil service positions, jobs that would qualify me for loan forgiveness. I hope I get one of them.”

This is my life pretty much summed up. I have too have around £100k of student debt now because I don’t earn enough to pay my loan back yet and interest keeps increasing it (I do appreciate that the US and UK student loans are quite different though).

I found out the hard way that those who get the entry level marketing and publishing jobs are those who could spend their summers doing unpaid internships — meanwhile I cleaned shit out of toilets for minimum wage. I, too, aggressively applied for admin jobs, willing to take anything.

I have bemoaned about privilege and entitlement one too many times on here now, but reading pieces like this should probably provide me with reassurance that I’m not alone in this experience but at the same time it’s hard to not feel frustration!

Wednesday 8th April

The hypercurious mind

by Anne-Laure Le Cunff

To start with I truly enjoyed Le Cunff’s writing and this might be one of the most well written pieces I’ve read in a while. Le Cunff clearly has a belief but it’s not pushing and it just feels refreshing!

I haven’t done all that much reading into ADHD compared to autism so this was a great introductory piece that will frame how I interact with pieces on the topic going forward.

In sum, Le Cunff subscribes to the term hyper-curiosity where the those with ADHD who get distracted have “impulsive motivational drive toward novel, uncertain or unresolved information”. Often they will be working on one task and then go down a rabbit hole for a more interesting topic in pursuit of new understanding.

And she doesn’t propose who to treat this but instead suggests how can environments be amended to help aid this hyper-curiosity and to see how this could possibility tranforms these individuals. I truly really like this idea!

Thursday 9th April

everything i read in february & march 2026

by Celine Nguyen

I have included Celine’s work in my Substack before and will continue to do so — she is by far my favourite Substacker! I aspire to read as widely and write as brilliantly as her in the weaving of literature and philosophy!

The only book I noted down this time was Adam Phillip’s The Life You Want which is described as a “psychoanalytic and literary approaches to show that we are obsessed by the idea of our lives being ones we want and enjoy rather than merely endure, tolerate or make the most of.”

I have always been on the fence about psychoanalysis but I have been immersed in a lot of psychoanalytical readings recently (particularly in my reading of the recent Yale Review), and this non-fiction piece just appeals to me.

Friday 10th April

What Does Translation Do?

by Jodie Hare

I wish I was fluent in another language to be a translator. I realised after the end of university that perhaps that would have been a good profession for me, something I cared about. There is still time, but for now I have conversational Spanish and limited Tagalog!

I liked this piece by Hare. She discussed Bobin’s new non-fiction piece in detail and also provided the flaws — not something you get often in a review.

What I noted was that:

“She presents translation as a site for unlearning these hegemonic impulses if we ultimately hope to change the extent of their impact and stop them from being used to bolster social hierarchies.”

I have meandering thoughts about this line. I understand that language can be manipulated. I learnt this when studying Mencius and that the translations of his work had been injected with capitalist terms — capitalism not existing way back then! But, despite the examples given, I think I would need to do further reserch on how translators have subjected the text to misrepresent minorities.

Saturday 11th April

Shortlist: 2025 Literature Award

I came across China Book Reviews last week, via this article, and thought I’d include here. This piece lists the 5 pieces translated from Chinese or the Sinophone world on the shortlist.

The only one that caught my attention was Soft Burial, Fang Fang (tr. Michael Berry). Fang is nominate twice so I am curious about this award, although it’s only in it’s 2nd year.

Sunday 12th April

The Wuthering Heights of Edna Clarke Hall

by Sarah Hyde

I won’t lie. I skimmed this and was not interested. It might be something to do with my utter exhaustion!

Next Week

Monday 14th April

The Palm House

by Zack Hatfield

Awkward parties, dreary bars, rudderless female narrator: Gwendoline Riley’s latest is a delicate novel about love, friendship, and contempt…

Tuesday 15th April

The Mirror & the Flame

by Rebwar Fatah

Rebwar Fatah imagines Attar’s & Hegel’s shared path…

Wednesday 16th April

“What’s Truly Mysterious Is Goodness”: Héctor Abad’s Aside from My Heart, All Is Well

by Krista Timeus Cerezo

“Along with its religious and political preoccupations, this is also a novel about art,” writes critic Krista Timeus Cerezo…

Thursday 17th April

The Tumultuous Life and Work of Leo Tolstoy

by Stefan Pajovic

He was a count who shunned high society and a writer who renounced his work. Unravel the complex and fascinating life of Leo Tolstoy.

Friday 18th April

Living without my self

by Mette Leonard Høeg

Our culture valorises the big, coherent self: reading Robert Musil helps me embrace the beauty of my no-self existence…

Saturday 19th April

Facing the Past

by Sarah McEachern

Ben Lerner’s new novel is a portrait of an artist within the world, trying to live a life in spite of and toward language…

Sunday 20th April

The Age-Old Urge to Destroy Technology

by Kyle Chayka

The book “Techno-Negative” reminds us that resistance to new inventions has existed in some form across millennia.

As per usual please let me know if you’ve read any of these and your thoughts!

Leave a comment

So over the past two weeks I have been marking up my copy , and ripping one too many pages, with underlines ready to provide you with my thoughts and rambles!

Letters

The newspaper began with letters submitted by readers. These were a loss on me as I did not read the previous issue in it’s entirety, but going forward I can see myself enjoying this conversation between past and present — also as a way to see what other’s reactions are.

There must have been a piece on sign language in the previous edition and I did note down this line about sign language:

‘the imagined primacy of a spoken language over signed ones, and the assumed superiority of speakers and the spoken are considered forms of “audism”’

It would be interesting to do some research into spoken language vs alternative ways of communication. Because why do we, when we want to learn a new language, go straight to a spoken one instead of learning sign language? I did take a extracurricular course on BSL at uni but I am guilty of not really remembering much besides the alphabet.

Supersensual Ear, Patricia Lockwood

This was what I was most looking forward to reading, even before the newsletter came in I saw this piece. I have read both Willa Cather and Patricia Lockwood so I wanted to see how Lockwood interacted with Cather.

Read more

Here are the seven articles that I plan to read each morning alongside my coffee and yogurt to start my day off right and absorb new ideas.

Monday 30th March

“Our Home”: Female Bonding in Mieko Kawakami’s Sisters in Yellow

By Grace En-Yi Ting

Kawakami is a favourite author of mine, so Sisters in Yellow was an anticipated release for me! I didn’t really do any research into what the book was about, I knew I could rely on Kawakami’s stark but simple prose. But I saw this piece and I thought one little review wouldn’t harm my reading experience and this piece confirmed that I am in for the same all consuming experience I always get when I read her work. I really can’t wait to pick it up in April!

Tuesday 31st March

A Very Short History of Critical Thinking

by Luc de Brabandere

The main intention for collating these pieces is to learn something new or spark inspiration. Sadly, there was little new information to be garnered from this one but I hope there was something there for you.

Wednesday 1st April

Black in Blues

by Hanif Abdurraqib

If there is something that I love more than well written fiction it’s well written non-fiction. I’m not talking proper grammar and all that stuff, I’m talking where the writer is having fun with the words and really hitting the nail on the head with the information they are trying to convey with metaphors etc.

From what I gather from Abdurraqib review of Imani Perry’s non-fiction Black in Blues is that this is happening here. Black in Blues, already an incredible play on words in the title, is a look at the the way of the colour blue appears in black history. This is certainly a book I plan to add to my non-fiction list.

Thursday 2nd April

How Bad Is Plagiarism, Really?

by Anthony Lane

I didn’t realise that this would also be an article about AI but this was some quality and just writing, with some interesting points to ponder on.

Here are some points I noted down:

1. AI and plagiarism are nearly identical

2. A chatbot cannot have moral responsibility

3. In the US plagiarism does not exist in the eye of the law — it’s a sin but not a crime

4. The safest form of plagiarism is self plagiarism — and this is just personal style!

I agree with all 4 of these. I think it sets a slight difference between AI an plagiarism to an extent. But although the AI might not have moral responsibility, there would be still be the intent of the person obtaining information or writing content for the chatbot. The responsibility is from the prompter and their prompt. Input is more important than outcome.

I work in fintech compliance, and our marketing teams use AI more and more. It’s not just checking that the content produced is compliant, it’s about ensuring that the prompt entered is of good intent as well. So I think whilst the chatbot doesn’t know necessarily it’s plagiarising, the inputter has some moral responsibility in what they are asking for.

Friday 3rd April

Bitch: a history

by Karen Stollznow

I love etymology! I studied English Language for my Alevels and this was something we did often, tracing the history of words. It’s a habit I’ve taken with me in life. Whilst I already knew the etymological history of bitch, probably the most transformative one (alongside gay I reckon) I wanted to see what this piece had to offer. It was wonderfully written. I took a page of notes which included:

1. Dogs were believed to have medicinal and magical properties

2. Canine metaphors = moral failure, social inferiority and lack of self control

3. Bitch still holds a lot of negative connotations for men

4. “Bitch is a hardworking multitasker, happy to switch from noun to verb to adjective”

My sister and I, in fact, call each other bitch, much to my mother’s disgust. It’s not degrading nickname but a sisterly term.

Saturday 4th April

But It Feels So Real to Me

by Sam Franzini

When I scanned this book review last week I wasn’t sure whether to include it or not! I can’t say this is my cup of team, well it could be, but I also think this could be a rather controversial read on the rising incel culture. I couldn’t find many reviews online so it will stay off my tbr for now.

Sunday 5th April

19th-Century Blues: When Science Killed God and Made Some Englishmen Sad

by Adrian McKinty

I feel like I might give up on LitHub articles. They are all clickbait and lacks coherent content in comparison to other articles.

Leave a comment

Next Week

Monday 6th April

#35: April in books

by Marta Carvalho

Priests fall in love and adulterers get their own city in this month’s most anticipated new releases…

Tuesday 7th April

The Profession That Does Not Exist

Writing won’t make you a living…

Wednesday 8th April

The hypercurious mind

by Anne-Laure Le Cunff

ADHD isn’t merely a dysfunction. It’s best understood as an impulsive motivational drive for novel information

Thursday 9th April

everything i read in february & march 2026

by Celine Nguyen

and! my Dialectic podcast episode on creative fulfillment and the life of the mind…

Friday 10th April

What Does Translation Do?

by Jodie Hare

Virginie Bobin’s new book argues that translation can be a form of political intervention…

Saturday 11th April

Shortlist: 2025 Literature Award

Presenting the jury’s shortlist of five books for the Baifang Schell Book Prize: Award for Outstanding Literature from or on China or the Sinophone World…

Sunday 12th April

The Wuthering Heights of Edna Clarke Hall

by Sarah Hyde

I am currently reading the current edition of the London Review of Books and you can expect a full breakdown of my reading experience of those articles in my upcoming Coffee and Commonplace! I wrote about the recent Yale Review below:

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I do set monthly goals and plans but these are not all that detailed. Around autumn last year I decided to embark on quarterly goals much like a business — inspired by my works OKR cycle! This pocket of 3 months provides a long enough but also short enough amount of time to implement any small changes without also losing interest in any goals.

So with the start of April and spring comes my Q2 goals. I think I have consistently set up some good habits in Q1 and last years’ Q4 but there are always small tweaks to make. This week I have been absolutely exhausted, I cannot tell if it’s burnout or a brewing flu, either way I am ignoring these first few days of the quarter and taking it easy. Once the long weekend is over I will take them into consideration.

I shall start with the reading plans, although nothing has changed much. My biggest issue last year was that I struggled to find time to read. I couldn’t wake up in the morning and I feel asleep at night. And while I am tired at the moment, the first months of this year I have managed to find the best times to read. So now it’s less about finding time to read but ensuring that the quality of reading is there.

I have my mini moleskin book journal but I want to ensure that when I sit at my desk before work in the morning I am collating all the thoughts I had from that reading experience in there before they fade away. If I am more intentional about this morning habit then I am sure it will become natural.

Another big goal for me this quarter is to tackle the heap of arcs I have piling up! I typically read those that are released in May in April etc. This is usually 3/4 but it can take away from reading other books on my list — not that these one’s aren’t good. But getting through this list at a faster pace might make reading feel a little more natural because I don’t let myself read my chosen tbr until I read the arcs!

I set this as my goal for the year and that was to finally read War and Peace. I felt a calling to the rather chunky book at the end of March and I have now started it (you’ll find out about that below!) So if I stick to my reading plan, I shall complete this classic at the end of Q2! I will of course take you along on the journey each week.

I live in the UK and the sun is a rarity, but it’s time for it to make some appearances and I knew that this year I really wanted to get outside and read as much as possible. I know some places where my family live that are great to read outside but I am less sure about where I currently live so I need to do some exploring to find safe spaces to read after work. I can also utilise the fact where I work has a lake to take my lunch and read. There is something nostalgic about reading in the sun!

In terms of writing I think it’s hard to set goals because growth seems to be very much out of my hands. Instead I want to continue to define and hone my brand. I think the more I write the more I understand the structure and brand I want to focus upon. I have always focused on quotes, and I have enjoyed the close reading of articles and essays recently and that is something I want to continue. Therefore, I plan to read one essay collection a month and integrate this into my writing.

I also got a thesaurus in a charity shop the other day to increase my vocabulary. I’m not a massive fan of big fancy words but I am also aware that my word usage can be quite repetitive. But, as my husband notes, I get fixated on certain phrases for months. On Substack recently I have noticed this is potent!

In terms of my broader life I aim to pass my final exam and in turn I should hopefully get promoted — but I don’t trust my company with their words so we shall see! But that is what this month is building up to for me and fingers crossed it all works out because I am one person doing a lot of work and I feel unjustly paid and titled.

So that’s what I aim to achieve in this quarter. It will be busy but then I can properly enjoy summer and take it all a bit slower before the ‘back to school’ mindset I have drilled into me occurs! I also have a London tripped planned and London also rejuvenates me. It’s where my husband and I met, and if we were richer we would live. I think it’s the only place we truly feel alive. But as two people who love travelling, we are both in need of a trip to re-inspire us.

And what’s in store for my wonderful paid subscribers in coffee and commonplace during April? I have it all planned out, I promise! You will be getting:

1. Notes from the latest edition of The London Review of Books

2. Breaking down different literary publications

3. How to kill your darlings

Weekly Literature

Read more

Here are the seven articles that I plan to read each morning alongside my coffee and yogurt to start my day off right and absorb new ideas.

Monday 23rd March

Identity In The Age of Connectivity

by Sara Arsan

This piece believes there is an old and a newer definition of identity. In sum, this is:

1. Intrinsic traits

2. What a person consumes

And the paradox this piece proposes: people want to be unique but they also want to partake in online trends.

Arsan puts the blame on capitalism. And how apps has changed our perception of identity and even impacted dating lives.

She interestingly suggests that we are misconceived that love is about finding commonalities. But actually love does not need commonalities. I agree with this. The longer I spend with my husband the more I realise we have very little in common but we just work.

Tuesday 24th March

Night Knowledge

by Aria Aber

In this piece Aber discusses the difference between night knowledge and day knowledge, based on her experiences at clubs when she was younger.

Day knowledge is what you get from everyday life: reading, interacting, observing…

Night knowledge is instead governed by impulse instead of thoughts. Perhaps guided by alcohol or drugs or the thumping music.

I have little thoughts on this piece as someone who does not, and has not really, pursued the night knowledge. I went clubbing once and a man lurked around behind me because he could tell I did not belong there. After hours I broke down to the security guards as the man came into a range where he could touch me. He left as soon as I reported him.

But, here are some notes I did take from this piece:

1. Raves are linked to the subaltern

2. Night knowledge shows the power of crowds

3. Aber is mourning her naiveté

Night knowledge, from my conclusions, is that it’s a temporary state.

Wednesday 25th March

I Am Not Your Cholo

By Marco Avilés, Translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes

This was a powerful read from Avilés as he navigates being an immigrant in the US and also his experience in Peru. The opening focuses on a talk he gave at a school and follows on with a trip to the cinema. The way he conveyed the white reactions to understanding their own privilege was potent.

“Migration is human” Avilés writes as he discusses why the definition of immigration is only every considered when a person from the South migrates to a Northern country. What about the Americans or Europeans who move to live in the South?

I cannot speak much from a US perspective on immigration as I can only read what is in on the news, and the immigration culture is different (not necessarily more positive) in the UK. My husband is an immigrant (although I don’t see him that way!). He is just months away from applying for citizenship. We are saving everything we have in hopes that next time we travel out of the country we won’t need to be in separate queues! But politics is changing quickly and years of residency are increasing before one can apply. I would be lying if I say I wasn’t anxious about losing him.

Thursday 26th March

Did Men Ruin Motherhood?

by Sarah Noack

This is another example, to me, of writing that excludes the other opinion. Too vexed with personal beliefs to form a tolerable argument. There are points I agree with but they get lost in the venom of the words. I gave up reading this one, I won’t lie.

I also read this piece this week which is very similar in sentiment and topic but it was much better constructed and presented a fair and balanced argument.

Friday 27th March

Offenses

by Sasha Frere-Jones

My weekly 4columns book review!

Frere-Jones is reviewing Offences by Constance Debré, originally published in French. In sum, this short novella is a brief on the idea of laws as displayed through class — somewhat autobiographical. I don’t think this one is for me.

Saturday 28th March

Bleeding in the Dishes

by Joanna Biggs

I’ve read two pieces on On The Calculation of Volume this week and I feel truly spoilt! Biggs’ research was impressive with the linking of moments in the novels to significant moments in history. I also liked how Biggs’ described the challenge for Balle being: how little can she get away with?

I probably wouldn’t read this if you don’t want spoilers, but I quite like spoilers!

Sunday 29th March

Paperback vs. Hardcover: Which is Better For Readers (and For Writers)?

by Maris Kreizman

I learnt some new information about publishing from this piece, but it was not as insightful as the title suggests!

My two cents, I prefer paperback! You won’t catch me paying £20+ for a book (McEwan asides), but even then it’s rare I buy a paperback new! But you might know if you’ve read some of my other pieces that I read predominantly ebooks on my Kindle because I have permanent nerve damage in my right arm. Holding books can trigger pain. I have slowly phased physical books back in and I do admit I missed them. Paperbacks are easier to read, not as heavy. But when I do read a hardback I feel more connected to it. I feel like they are a special treat! Although dust jackets are a nuisance!

Next Week

Monday 30th March

“Our Home”: Female Bonding in Mieko Kawakami’s Sisters in Yellow

By Grace En-Yi Ting

“Kawakami provides no illusions regarding loyalty or love, whether platonic or romantic, between women,” writes critic Grace En-Yi Ting…

Tuesday 31st March

A Very Short History of Critical Thinking

by Luc de Brabandere

Summarises a long history through key figures of thought…

Wednesday 1st April

Black in Blues

by Hanif Abdurraqib

In Imani Perry’s latest book, a gift of information and interconnectedness…

Thursday 2nd April

How Bad Is Plagiarism, Really?

by Anthony Lane

From ancient Rome to the era of A.I., people have prized originality, but the line where influence ends and cribbing begins is notoriously blurry…

Friday 3rd April

Bitch: a history

by Karen Stollznow

The word can morph from noun to verb to adjective, from dog to human, from female to male. What will it do next?…

Saturday 4th April

But It Feels So Real to Me

by Sam Franzini

Juan Ecchi’s novel ‘Dryback’ investigates the ways porn has eroded men’s capacity for real connection…

Sunday 5th April

19th-Century Blues: When Science Killed God and Made Some Englishmen Sad

by Adrian McKinty

On Richard Holmes’s The Boundless Deep…

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The Yale Review — Spring 2026 (Volume 114, No. 1)

The Yale Review might be on of my favourite publications. They published their Spring 2026 edition a week or so ago and I have compiled the essays, memoirs and book review pieces I have read from that edition and aim to share my thoughts on each one. There are of course others (I believe none behind a paywall) that are available to read.

Do You Actually Have to Finish That Novel?

by Michel Chaouli

It seems a common topic at present to discuss reading hustle culture. Tracking books, skimming pages and this particular article is on whether or not to DNF (do not finish a book). The opening of this piece was gracefully composed, setting the scene of picking up a book without knowing what you are getting into and then instantly wanting it to be over.

Chaouli states there are two types of people:

1. Those who persist — finisher

2. Those who stop — non-finisher

A finisher is someone who has faith on the author and the written word, whereas a non-finisher is someone who knows there are other books waiting to be read and the sooner the better.

The piece is also concerned about the ending of the novel. How the end is supposed to help us make sense of the world. And there is this moral sense, therefore, to complete this logic. But non-finishers don’t mind the world being suspended in senselessness.

I am a finisher. I do persist to see if a book can redeem itself. But if a book is insufferable I will probably give the words less attention. I have in the past DNF’s some books, this include:

1. The Milkman, Anna Burns (I couldn’t get into the narrative style

2. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy (I am coming back to this next month)

3. It Ends With Us, Colleen Hover (I read the first line)

James Schuyler’s Genius

by Mae Losasso

I am not a poetry reader so I have not heard of Schuyler (although he seems less known) but from the short snippet in this article I think I will like his poetry. I like bleak and monotonous read, capturing the Mundane. John Berryman and Phillip Larkin are such examples.

Schuyler was part of the New York School whom I have studied before at uni during a introduction to poetry course. I understand their movement and style.

From this piece, I gathered the following about his style:

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Here are the seven articles that I plan to read each morning alongside my coffee and yogurt to start my day off right and absorb new ideas.

Monday 16th March

Why Science Hasn’t Solved Consciousness (Yet)

by Adam Frank

Frank himself is subscribed to the physicalism side of consciousness philosophy as opposed to an idealist side. I have always been on the fence, because as the title suggests there has yet to be a solution to consciousness, but idealism has always appealed to me more.

Frank concludes that consciousness cannot be explained by reducing it to brain matter; instead, science must adopt an “experience-first” view where mind, body and environment form a single dynamic system**.**

The piece brings up a lot of different philosophers and their takes on consciousness, but it also mentions phenomenology.

“Phenomenology is the philosophical study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view, focusing on how individuals perceive, experience, and assign meaning to their “lifeworld””

I took a phenomenology module and I must say it was a very convincing philosophy. It’s scientific but not too much that it erases the human being who is doing the experiencing. I agree with Frank that the machine metaphor is reductive but I also think that phenomenology is still a relatively new philosophical school of thought and there is still more to be drawn from it.

Tuesday 17th March

Love Is Blind

by Paul Chan

I am guilty of watching Love is Blind (and have been since season 1). My husband and I were looking for something to watch and I thought I’d introduce him to the concept of reality TV. He loves it, I entertain it in the background of doing a Sudoku! We just want easy tv whilst we have our dinner.

The American version and the UK version show (in my opinion) a stark difference in dating culture and also the type of people looking for love. They tend to be younger in the US. What does not change is often how toxic all of these people are. It explains why they cannot find love, even if they are ‘on paper’ good looking.

Chan in this piece very briefly, and I wish he went into more depth, compared the show to Plato’s The Republic.

I suppose I could one step further and liken it to the allegory of the cave. Whilst they are in the pods, these couples can only hear each others voices. They are only seeing a shadow of what the form really is. And this shadow is often constructed, the person is puppeteering their own persona.

The same, I think, can be said for online dating. I found my husband on Hinge. Luckily neither of us were catfishes and were both aggressively honest with each other from day one. We got lucky to find each other. But of course I also talked to people before that’s true colours prevailed through.

I think now 10+ seasons in shows the results of the experiment. The issue, as the show suggests, is not looks. The issue is the toxicity that is brewing in people veins.

Wednesday 18th March

Not All Women

by Dayna Tortorici

Tortorici’s piece is looking the divisions within feminism and how it is shaped by inequality. She looks at the “avowed Black feminist” Barbara Smith and how there are a variety of different feminism that exist and compete, and their only common goal is the dislike of male dominance.

After I read Women, Race and Class by Angela Davis I have never looked at feminism the same again. In sum, Davis argues that you cannot tackle the gender issue without tackling the race issue, and you cannot tackle the race issue without tackling the class issue. That is a very simplified way of putting it, but the root of oppression would be class. I would really recommend reading this piece if you haven’t already.

Thursday 19th March

A Map the Size of the Territory: Letters on Space and Literature

by Ayşegül Savaş and Amanda Dennis

Literature that roams the streets is some of my favourite, particularly when they are streets I have roamed before and can imagine. This conversation between Dennis and Savaş was an interesting one. I’ve looked into how place and environments can map emotional and psychological states via fiction and it’s an avenue that I am interested in. What tis piece did bring my attention to was the notion that environments are containers of memory and they can preserve the fleeting experience.

Friday 20th March

Madeline Cash on Writing ‘Lost Lambs’

by Megan O’Sullivan

I still haven’t got around to reading this one, and I’m becoming less interested in doing so. This was a very short interview with Cash on writing the novel, as the title suggests.

Some bits I noted down:

1. She wrote the novel with a full time copywriting job

2. Pynchon was one of her inspirations

3. Her pen preference is sakura pigma micron

Saturday 21st March

Prestige Fiction Is Dead

by Dennis Wilson Wise

“Although the literary novel remains the touchstone for what “elite” cultural status might mean, its former midcentury monopoly on prestige, Brier claims, has been shattered.”

This was a non-fiction book review of: Novel Competition: American Fiction and the Cultural Economy, 1965–1999 by Evan Brier. University of Iowa Press, 2024. 253 pages.

One thing I noted was the idea that literary sociology is considered to be the material process by which books are acquired, edited, published, distributed, sold and reviewed. It’s such a lengthy process and I think we often forget that all these steps come before us the reviewers touch the book.

I might consider this companion read one day. American literature is something I have been toying with the idea of studying in further detail at some point.

Sunday 22nd March

A duty to oneself

by Thaddeus Metz

Aeon always delivers on introducing me to new philosophical ideas and also relating to real life.

This weak I discovered Ubuntu (an African philosophy) that stands for ‘I am because we are’. This is a relational ideal that suggests we can come into ourselves via relationships. It turns the typical moral focus on duty to others to duty to oneself.

There are two key ideas that drive this concept:

1. Harmony — we have a duty to relate to ourselves well as we would others with self-respect and self-care

2. Vitality — we have a duty to enhance our life force by embarking on actions that allow us to grow and be strengthened

This is a wonderful concept and something I agree with whole heartedly. I do believe that if you do foster this growth and harmony within oneself, you wouldn’t be able to treat others in this way either.

Next Week

Monday 23rd March

Identity In The Age of Connectivity

by Sara Arsan

Sara Asran explores the dynamics of identity online…

Tuesday 24th March

Night Knowledge

by Aria Aber

What I learned at the club…

Wednesday 25th March

I Am Not Your Cholo

By Marco Avilés, Translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes

Marco Avilés grapples with questions of difference and discrimination for immigrants in Peru and the US in this essay from his book No soy tu cholo, published in Peru by Debate, an imprint of Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial. An earlier version appeared originally in Ojo Público…

Thursday 26th March

Did Men Ruin Motherhood?

by Sarah Noack

For decades, society centered men as the foundational ingredient for safety, security, and child-rearing. It might have been a patriarchal illusion…

Friday 27th March

Offenses

by Sasha Frere-Jones

The latest book by Constance Debré explores the horrors and bonds of shared violence and its role as mediating force...

Saturday 28th March

Bleeding in the Dishes

by Joanna Biggs

Time is fake, and it is the realest thing there is. You can’t avoid the evidence, even if you aren’t looking: only four days in a year are 24 hours long; before the industrial revolution the weekend…

Sunday 29th March

Paperback vs. Hardcover: Which is Better For Readers (and For Writers)?

by Maris Kreizman

Maris Kreizman Digs Into the Pros and Cons…

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Here are the seven articles that I plan to read each morning alongside my coffee and yogurt to start my day off right and absorb new ideas.

Monday 9th March

What Have the Romans Ever Done For Us?

by Rick Lewis

This was an introductory piece for the current edition of Philosophy Now on Roman philosophy. I was drawn to this one because I was like: yes, what have the Romans ever done for us — philosophically speaking?

The Romans were all I ever learnt about at primary school (age 6–11), and I don’t know if that was all the education curriculum allowed or because I grew up in a place where the infamous Roman Baths are located. But beyond my primary education, I felt I scarcely came across them again.

As this piece notes, the Romans were heavily inspired by the Greeks and had a special love for Stoicism. But I think we often get the Greek and Roman philosophers muddled up — or at least I do. Typically, I would coin Cicero and Seneca as Greeks, but of course they are not. They both also have pivotal philosophical viewpoints. And then there is Marcus Aurelius, whose Meditations has helped many people’s way of living.

This piece also mentioned Jim Hankinson’s Bluff Your Way in Philosophy, which is a little guidebook that aims to make you a philosophy expert in under 100 pages. This could be a good read for anyone wanting to get into philosophy but not knowing what avenue to go down. I have not read it, but I’m sure if Philosophy Now is praising it then it has to hold some merit.

Tuesday 10th March

An Arrow in Flight (review)

by Brian Dillon

I like choosing a literature review from 4Columns each week because you only get one. There is no choice, and thus it feels like luck if the book goes onto your list to read.

Dillon is reviewing An Arrow in Flight, a collection of short stories from the late American-Irish writer Mary Lavin, which were selected by Colm Tóibín.

This was a nice introduction to Lavin, but as someone who does enjoy short stories I don’t think I’ll be picking this one up.

For those who are interested in short stories, Lavin was also a writer for The New Yorker, and you can find her writing here:

https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/mary-lavin

Please do let me know if you read any of these and if I should put my dislike of short stories aside!

Wednesday 11th March

What We Lose When We Gamify Reading

by Marissa Levien

If you pose an argument in your writing, there needs to be a full picture — both sides to the story. But it seemed like Levien in this piece was dead set on proving she reads slowly and only long classics. And she wants us to be like her?!

Beyond the tone and the utter damnation that I have complaints about, I have put some further thoughts together based on the core points of this piece and hopefully can shed a more considerate take.

The premise of this piece is that social media and reading apps (gamification) impact our reading habits.

Gamification is defined as the practice of making activities more like games in order to make them more interesting or enjoyable.

I have a number of reading trackers, probably too many to be efficient, but each one serves a slightly different purpose:

1. StoryGraph — this is my preferred reading tracker app

2. Goodreads — I don’t love this one for obvious reasons; I simply use it to paste my reviews and, more recently, as a TBR tracker

3. Notion — I have my own tracker created in Notion for database reasons, to link to my newsletters and to track quotes

4. Paper — I also have a sticky note where I write how many pages I want to read per day

Beyond this tracking, I don’t really have any other numerical goals. I set my StoryGraph reading goal to 50, but I don’t think about hitting that number — I just think about all the books that are waiting for me to read!

So there are a few points I want to linger on from this piece.

Firstly, that reading becomes a goal over being for pleasure.

I can’t say I exclusively read for pleasure. Writing is always in my mind when reading, but this does not make the experience unpleasurable. I think it makes it more pleasurable. Underlining lines that resonate with me has always been an interest of mine, and that’s why I write the way I do. So perhaps I am not the best judge here, as I am not someone caught up in the numbers but rather the experience of reading.

Secondly, Levien believes we are forgoing the classics in favour of shorter books. She also writes in this section that we should not choose to read only books like ACOTAR.

I thought we had already had this conversation and should not be shaming people’s reading habits. Just because you read only classics or 700+ page books does not mean you are any better than someone who only reads fantasy.

I would argue that if you exclusively read classics, you are missing out on the contemporary. While we might think that fantasy is solely a genre for pleasure, there is actually more going on than we think. Within these world-buildings and characters there is often politics at play. I read somewhere a while ago from an author of colour that fantasy was in fact a genre that was able to make certain issues and realities visible — that the typical literary form did not always permit this. So perhaps we should not only be reading from one category or genre, but one genre is not exclusively better than the other.

Also some notes on long books. I am guilty of not picking up long books all that often. That’s not because I look at the page count and think ew, 400 pages, no way, but because finding time to read is limited as a corporate individual. I could spend all month reading War and Peace (which I do intend to read this year), or I could read multiple other books across countries and genres. I think there is more experience in reading widely than sitting with 1000 pages of classic literature. There is, of course, merit to War and Peace, but as someone who took an MA pathway in modernist and contemporary literature I am interested in reading literature that can help me engage with the world I live in.

We all have our tastes in literature and they should be respected. Some reading is better than no reading. My sister, for instance, is someone who reads mostly romance and fantasy. We are completely different, but we still both read. She in fact told me to read ACOTAR and I did (and honestly it was pretty good). I just think we all need to be kinder — I think that’s a message you’ll find in any book.

Thursday 12th March

The Beautiful and the Inconvenient

by Peter Molesworth

This is a piece about hanging your laundry out to dry. Molesworth now lives in Europe, where this is the norm, but remarked that in the US it’s almost taboo.

I agree that hanging the laundry out is ritualistic. I tend to do laundry on work-from-home days, so it’s a respite from work for ten or so minutes. In the summer it also allows me to go outside and cherish the sun for a moment.

I do, however, not have a garden. I have a patch of grass outside my front door where we place our clothes horse and prevent the postman from getting to the door.

Laundry in the winter is less romantic. The house is cold and heating is expensive, so it’s a game to figure out how to effectively dry the laundry — cost- and time-wise.

We previously had a tumble dryer in our previous flat and honestly, as UK residents, it was a lifesaver with our not-too-great weather.

Friday 13th March

A Splinter

by Ewa Lipska, translated from Polish by Robin Davidson & Ewa Elżbieta Nowakowska

I have never chosen a poetry piece on here before because I don’t get much enjoyment from reading poetry. I used to love analysing it, but simply reading poetry is not my thing. But I thought I’d read this short poem translated from Polish this week.

It’s a sweet one and I liked the metre. I also liked the carpentry imagery throughout. I’d be content if I received this as a love letter!

Saturday 14th March

A Way to Be a Person

by Paul Taylor

I was intrigued by the title of this one and wanted to see if it was negative or positive — it was more of a positive article on “overdiagnosis”.

In sum, overdiagnosis occurs when screening or testing detects a condition that would never have caused symptoms or concerns. This has become more common in recent years due to advances in medicine.

I feel like I can empirically back this claim up. I work in the insurance industry, and from my short stint of listening to life insurance applications there were so many people that had scans or tests just to find a benign lump that didn’t really have the potential to form into cancer. It created this grey area of how to record this on an application without penalising the patient.

But as medicine — and in particular education around cancers — increases, more and more people will become scared about a small lump (rightfully so), and that will lead to tests that reveal this information that is relieving but also kind of pointless — perhaps a fun fact you pull up at a party?

Sunday 15th March

What Happened When I Began to Speak Welsh

by Dan Fox

I live on the border of Wales and work with many Welsh people, so the language is familiar to me. I know the basics from signposts, but I also wonder about it when driving across the bridge and arriving across the border.

I have only experienced South Wales, which by reputation is more English-speaking than the North, but that’s only from what I have heard. That being said, I love that Scotland, Ireland, and Wales still have their native tongues and I hope they continue to teach them in schools forever more.

Beyond this, Fox’s piece was personal but also deeply interesting.

“I am part of her language. I must not let it go.”

The article begins with the passing of his grandmother and he realises that he has a legacy to carry on. I agree with this idea that language is more than the way sounds are formed — instead it is deeply personal and familial.

I speak with a West Country accent, less strong than that of my mum and nan, but when I was at uni this accent and dialect was confusing to some. But I’ve come to appreciate this way of speaking and sounding as part of my identity, as a tie between my ancestors. I would not want it to be replaced by a standard RP accent.

Fox also refers to the Welsh language as the subaltern. In sum, the subaltern is a term often related to postcolonial theory and refers to marginalised, lower-class, and oppressed groups that are denied agency and representation within dominant power structures. Can the Subaltern Speak? by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is an integral text on this concept.

I had never considered the Welsh language in this context before, as I had often studied the term alongside African and South Asian literature. But there was colonisation right here in the UK as well.

Next Week

Monday 16th March

Why Science Hasn’t Solved Consciousness (Yet)

by Adam Frank

To understand life, we must stop treating organisms like machines and minds like code…

Tuesday 17th March

Love Is Blind

by Paul Chan

Help, I need somebody . . . Through the tenth season of the unscripted TV show, questions of intimacy, drama, personal growth, and Plato…

Wednesday 18th March

Not All Women

by Dayna Tortorici

Feminism has always been divided…

Thursday 19th March

A Map the Size of the Territory: Letters on Space and Literature

by Ayşegül Savaş and Amanda Dennis

The project was to resuscitate the letter form, on the topic of how our first novels engage with the urban space of Paris, where we both live and work. The letters took on a life and direction of their own, as we found our way into a conversation about the writing life and the pleasures of making fiction out of spaces and encounters…

Friday 20th March

Madeline Cash on Writing ‘Lost Lambs’

by Megan O’Sullivan

The author on her writing routine, her day job, and how she approaches writer’s block…

Saturday 21st March

Prestige Fiction Is Dead

by Dennis Wilson Wise

Evan Brier’s recent book conducts a depressing literary autopsy, complete with case studies…

Sunday 22nd March

A duty to oneself

by Thaddeus Metz

African philosophical values of harmony and vitality have much to offer our thinking about what we owe to ourselves…

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I have come thoughtful and unprepared with a topic this week, but I promise there will be something to make up for it next week — I just need to get back into the swing of managing revision alongside writing. I hope my excessive piece last weeks makes up for this week.

Behavioural Psychology

I attended a webinar for work this week and it made me realise how important behavioural psychology can be in my scope of work and it is an area that interests me (I’ve read a little bit here and there throughout my education) so I think I’m going to add it to my list of things to research so watch out for that. If you have any recommendations then I will take them into consideration when …

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Here are the 7 articles that I plan to read each morning alongside my coffee and yogurt to start may day off right and absorb new ideas.

I do apologise in advance for my lack of words on this morning coffee reads this week — I am exhausted and burnout from work. But I still hope that without my words these pieces were at least thought provoking for you <3

Monday 2nd March

“Where Dust and Sunshine Ran Riot”: Dorothy Tse’s City Like Water

by Michelle Chan Schmidt

I read Tse’s City Like Water last week after kindly being sent an arc by Fitzcarraldo and it was a vividly immersive reading experience— like your head had been dipped into water. Whilst I rated it highly, I couldn’t tell you 100% what was going on, which I think was the point, but I saw Words Without Borders has also posted a review so it only made sense to consolidate my reading experience.

It appears the article has the same sentiments as myself, that this is a novel on social and political unrest with a lot of concern with memory in an authoritarian world.

What I did find interesting was that this novella was in fact published in a short story collection in 2020 — The Ghost With No Umbrella《無遮鬼》, published in Chinese by the independent House of Hong Kong Literature. I am not a lover of short story collections, and I wonder if I would have enjoyed this as much if it were part of a collection? The article also comments on the West’s interest in novels instead of collections and why Tse and her translator Natascha Bruce (also translator for the first novel) felt the need to separate this story from the others.

I plan to write a notes from on this novel soon, but for now you can find my review and further thoughts on Tse novels below.

Tuesday 3rd March

The Good Rich Man?

by Bruce Robbins

Privilege is a topic I feel quite strongly upon. I didn’t like what this piece was doing and I will leave it at that.

Wednesday 4th March

On Angst

by Jamieson Webster

I have not read Hélène Cixous before but I have heard of her — I feel like she’s widely talking about in literature but does anyone ever read her? That being said I have added Angst to my tbr because I think she deserves a read. Angst is such an indescribable emotion to me so it will be interesting to see how it can come alive in fiction.

Thursday 5th March

Mama Don’t Take My Chromophobia Away

by Lida Zeitlin-Wu

“The 2026 Color of the Year is officially designated as Cloud Dancer, “a lofty white whose aerated presence acts as a whisper of calm and peace in a noisy world.”

I’ve never really kept up with the Pantone colour of the year but I have always liked their branding and what they do. I stumbled across this one whilst scrolling through the LA Review of Books site for a piece and thought this was going to be interesting.

I think anyone who is politically aware will see the implications of choosing the colour white as the colour of the year.

The Pantone colour of the year is meant to capture the global zeitgeist for each year. And while I think we could all need a bit of calm and peace in this noisy world, I agree with Zeitlin-Wu that perhaps now is not the time and place for Cloudy Dancer!

Friday 6th March

Night Night Fawn (review)

by Megan Milks

I don’t need to add anymore books to the list of ones I want to read but this checks all the boxes for books I like. Here are some of the core themes that I picked up on from the review of Jordy Rosenberg’s second novel Night Night Fawn:

1. Queerphobic parent

2. Caregiving

3. Confessional literature

4. Abuse of maternal power

Saturday 7th March

The presence of power

by Shomik Dasgupta

You can always trust Aeon to introduce you to new thinkers. This week: Rammohun Roy who’s statue and mausoleum is actually located in the city where I live — and I never knew!

I’ll let you read the piece yourself to understand the contextual information about Roy but his ethics are realistic and humble for the imperialism India was subject to at the time. His interdisciplinary and cultural eduction, as the article notes, is what makes his ethics so encompassing:

“He was always seeking correspondences between traditions: what did Islam and Hinduism say about the moral duties of a ruler? How did the Christian notion of the kingdom of God relate to Persianate ideas of justice? How did Western liberalism align, or conflict, with indigenous notions of ethical conduct? These weren’t abstract questions. Roy saw them playing out in the colonial world around him”

Sunday 8th March

Eight Writers on What Time of Day They Write (and Why)

by Kelly Link

Choosing what time to write is certainly a luxury. I typically read and write these pieces in the morning. If am working from home then I will typically write these at 8:30 when I lot onto work — but don’t tell my boss! If I have to go to the office then it will be between 6-7. All of my other newsletters are written between 4:30 and 6:30 in the evening. I am fortunate that I write quickly.

But I do like to see what other routines writers have. As expected most people write in the morning and Cecelia Ahern treats it like a 9-5 which I respect. I do also agree with the late at night writing. I think there is a thrill to it — I’d do it too if I didn’t have a husband!

Next Week

Monday 9th March

What Have the Romans Ever Done For Us?

by Rick Lewis

Tuesday 10th March

An Arrow in Flight (review)

by Brian Dillon

A collection of Irish writer Mary Lavin’s most skillful, subtle, and furious short stories, selected and introduced by Colm Tóibín…

Wednesday 11th March

What We Lose When We Gamify Reading

by Marissa Levien

Marissa Levien Makes the Case for Slowing Down…

Thursday 12th March

The Beautiful and the Inconvenient

by Peter Molesworth

Once upon a time, we dried our linens on clotheslines. Hang drying is just one example of many disappearing romantic yet banal tasks—one that mostly exists outside of America today…

Friday 13th March

A Splinter

by Ewa Lipska, Translated from Polish by Robin Davidson & Ewa Elżbieta Nowakowska

Polish poet Ewa Lipska hammers out a metaphor for artistry…

Saturday 14th March

A Way to Be a Person

by Paul Taylor

The Age of Diagnosis: Are Medical Labels Doing Us More Harm Than Good…

Sunday 15th March

What Happened When I Began to Speak Welsh

by Dan Fox

By learning my family’s language, I hoped to join their conversation…

What actually is my job?

I’ve been consumed by work this week. Meetings, quizzes, the return of exam revision consuming every spare moment. I’ve had almost no time to research or pursue literary endeavours, which is frustrating but unfortunately unavoidable. Since most of my life is currently dominated by the corporate world, I thought I’d tell you how I stumbled into this profession, how I got here, and what I actually want to do with my career.

As you probably know by now, I did a BA in Literature and Philosophy, then an MA in Literature. If I’d had money, I would have continued straight into a PhD and gone into academia. But working two jobs while completing my masters full…

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Here are the 7 articles that I plan to read each morning alongside my coffee and yogurt to start may day off right and absorb new ideas.

Monday 23rd February

Books and screens

by Carlo Iacono

Brain rot debates have been consuming ‘intellectual’ social media platforms recently — it’s quite hard to escape them and I’m quite tired of them! I didn’t know this piece would lean into this conversation but I am glad I read it.

Iacono’s take is: “I spend my working life in a university library, watching how people actually engage with information. What I observe doesn’t match this narrative. Not because the problems aren’t real, but because the diagnosis is wrong.”

I found Iacono’s take graceful and forgiving. He does blame the screen but the plot behind the screen which wants to generate revenue. The screen can help us learn. I have discovered many things on social media and I often use it for travelling. Iacono comments on those who learn best from screen media — from video lectures or audiobooks.

Iacono also shows that this is not a new form of moral pandemic. It happens pretty regularly. In the 19th century people were scared about the reading of books — there was a reading epidemic much like there is a screen epidemic. There is always this mass fear that is circular.

“Amy Orben, a psychologist studying technology panics, identifies the ‘Sisyphean cycle’: each generation fears new media will corrupt youth”

I won’t go on to summarise any longer, but linger on your screen a little longer today to read this piece!

Tuesday 24th February

Something Is Missing

by Daniel Kipnis

This Baffler piece was a review on the film Franz (2025) produced by Agnieszka Holland. I haven’t watched the film (it appears to be in German and Czech) although the cinematography does sound tempting.

I read pretty much all of Kafka in 2020, one after another. Despite nearly 5 years passing I still remember the stories so vividly. I’ve never really looked into Kafka though. I simply read him for literature’s sake. And from this piece it seems like he’s contextually quite hard to pin down.

What I did find interesting, and did not previously know, was that the fin-de-siècle was a time of antisemitism that was expressed by anti-Catholic German nationalists. I like, and have read a fair few fin-de-siècle pieces, and this is a new lens that I will for sure take into my readings.

Wednesday 25th February

The Educational Philosophy of Quintilian

by Phillip Vassallo

Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (35-95 CE) is a thinker I have not come across before. He believed that education existed primarily for oratorical training — teaching elite men to deliver persuasive speeches as a way of life and political engagement. But what’s interesting about Quintilian is that he wasn’t just concerned with rhetorical technique. He argued that teachers should guide students toward genuine understanding rather than rote memorisation, and that education’s ultimate goal was intellectual autonomy.

There are scholars it appears who have critiqued Quintilianus for his elitist stance (but what philosopher wasn’t elitist back then!). It’s taking it out of its historical context and considering this way of teaching and learning in academia today that can be useful.

Thursday 26th February

Going-against-the-grainers

by Dane Leigh Gogoshin

Morality has never really been something I have studied in depth beyond my Religious Studies A-level where we looked at concepts like Natural Moral Law and Situation Ethics through Christianity. It of course pops up everywhere in philosophy, but I have never really honed in on it as a topic. I think it’s just really messy!

This Aeon piece is essentially about moral scaffolding. It looks into the question of whether morality is individual or social in nature, drawing on quite a few contemporary scholars. Here are some of the key lines I plucked out for this one:

“We cannot be good moral agents without the critical scaffolding (praise and blame) of a moral audience”

“Someone who has grown up in a society that values racial equality is much more likely to be anti-racist than someone brought up in a racist society. Individual and structural oppression, Vargas argues in Building Better Beings (2013), can affect the ability of both oppressed individuals and their oppressors to discern right from wrong, and undermine their responsibility for wrongdoing.”

“People are motivated to fulfil the moral expectations of those they take to be a part of this audience (their fellow moral community members).”

“As mobile phones became increasingly prevalent, appropriate standards of use, such as not texting while driving or when dining with a friend, had to be negotiated. This negotiation happens, McGeer suggests, through exchanges with a critical moral audience.”

The piece offers a balanced account of both the strengths and limitations of the theory, but overall I find the argument convincing. Praise and blame function as powerful tools in shaping behaviour, particularly during childhood and adolescence, when individuals are still forming their sense of self. From a young age, we are taught what is acceptable through approval and disapproval. Over time, these responses become internalised, guiding how we evaluate our own actions even in the absence of external judgement. In this sense, moral development is not only about abstract reasoning but about emotional conditioning and social reinforcement.

At the same time, the argument becomes especially compelling when we consider how excessive blame, or the absence of praise, can produce the opposite of its intended effect. It is not uncommon to see young people rebel against overly critical environments, particularly when they feel that nothing they do is ever recognised as good enough. Rather than motivating improvement, constant criticism can erode confidence, foster resentment and lead to disengagement from the very norms parents or authority figures are trying to instil. Praise, when used thoughtfully, can encourage responsibility and self-worth, but when withheld it may push individuals toward defiance or apathy.

I would say then that moral regulation is most effective when it is balanced. Both praise and blame must be proportionate, rather than applied rigidly.

Friday 27th February

The Artist Is Present (Online)

by Sarah Brouillette

I can’t say I have much interest in reading about influencers or algorithms. But it was interesting to consider that for the artist now, being presented in a gallery is less important than brand deals.

Saturday 28th February

Character Types

by Colin Burrow

Burrow explains that character functions as a heuristic. We construct simplified narratives about others in order to predict behaviour and reduce social uncertainty, especially in complex urban societies.

He suggests that modern realist fiction, which allows characters to remain complex and surprising, offers a more ethically responsible model for understanding others in a divided world.

Sunday 29th February

Sister Acts: Why Nuns Are Showing Up Everywhere

by Alexandra Verini

One time, when I was probably like 10, I was going on holiday with my family and we stopped at a service station and as we parked I looked to the car next to us and it was full of nuns. All crammed into this tiny five seater car. I’d never seen a nun before and I was shocked. Nuns in a car at the service station? I decided that they were in fancy dress!

But as this book and article points out, nuns are everywhere at the moment.

“Yet while cultural fascination with Catholic nuns might not be new, today’s frenzy has its own particular edge. We’ve moved away from fixation on loss of autonomy and titillating taboos toward a view of the convent as a trendy site of female empowerment.”

I recently wrote about convents in this piece and was pondering on the negative presentation. Besides that encounter mentioned, the only other time I have come across nuns was at the weekly mass we attend. They don’t come often, just when they are fundraising. The priest tells us they have a card reader now and won’t take ‘we don’t have cash’ as an answer. There were also some contemplative nuns who came once — their vocation is to pray.

I do feel like in general they are quite mysterious, and this is where this appeal — either good or bad — comes from!

Next Week

Monday 2nd March

“Where Dust and Sunshine Ran Riot”: Dorothy Tse’s City Like Water

by Michelle Chan Schmidt

“In its verisimilitude, City Like Water reads more like a series of parabolic anecdotes than a sustained historical allegory,” writes critic Michelle Chan Schmidt…

Tuesday 3rd March

The Good Rich Man?

by Bruce Robbins

Not all privilege is intolerable…

Wednesday 4th March

On Angst

by Jamieson Webster

In her 1977 novel Angst, Hélène Cixous names the quarter hour of Great Suffering—“straight away,” “never again”—when the mother lays the child on the tiles and does not return. Angst divides us: either to remain in unending anguish, or to move to the anguish of an unendingness….

Thursday 5th March

Mama Don’t Take My Chromophobia Away

by Lida Zeitlin-Wu

Pantone’s 2026 Color of the Year is selling us a white fantasy….

Friday 6th March

Night Night Fawn (review)

by Megan Milks

Jordy Rosenberg’s second novel, written from the point of view of a queerphobic mother, is equal parts reckoning and memorial, plus pained, bitter laugh…

Saturday 7th March

The presence of power

by Shomik Dasgupta

The Indian thinker Rammohun Roy believed that good governance must be close: distance made the British Empire cruel…

Sunday 8th March

Eight Writers on What Time of Day They Write (and Why)

by Kelly Link

Psst: Kelly Link Doesn’t Start Writing Until 2 PM, Pass It On…

Let me know if you have read any of these and your thoughts, and you can find collation of resources here:

Click for resources

Granta 174: Therapy

I shared two Fridays ago that Granta had announced that their latest issue was free for 5 days. I did not read them within 5 days but I did screenshot for later reading!

This issue is about therapy, as the title suggests. There is a wonderful range of authors and the writing of each piece was wonderful in its own right. It reminded me of why I so enjoy reading publications and how I want to write.

Here are my thoughts and interactions with the pieces I selected, mainly essays and interviews. There are also fictional pieces and photography if those are areas that interest you!

Dropped from the Sky

by Juliet Mitchell and Lidija Haas

In sum: this was an interview …

Read more

Here are the 7 articles that I plan to read each morning alongside my coffee and yogurt to start may day off right and absorb new ideas.

Monday 16th February

A Very Short History of Critical Thinking

by Luc de Brabandere

This is a very nice introduction to philosopher’s stance on critical thinking and there is a good range across schools of thought and time. I won’t go into detail because you can read the piece for yourself. But, what I did like was Brabandere’s definition of critical thinking. That is it not tied to a particular discipline. Rather it aims to preserve advantages of scepticism without having to pay the price of ignorance.

We typically associate critical thinking with humanity degrees and I think there is more room for it, but why can STEM degrees also require this thinking? I have always found that STEM students I encounter seem to lack critical thinking skills and conflict always arises after a while — conversation is never civil. And this was before ChatGPT was a thing. But I think critical thinking is important, it allows you to see other people’s perspectives and avoid excluding others.

Tuesday 17th February

A Parish Chronicle

by Sjón

This is a short novel set in a rural Icelandic Parish in the late 19th century that looks at how communities sustain identity through memory and storytelling. That’s a very brief summary, but I think this could be a unique read. The Vikings were quite a big part of history when I was at school and it would be nice to revisit the tales through new literary releases.

The novel is published by Archipelago Books who I have seen here and there but never read one of their translations before — stunning website though. I do feel, however, that the size and shape of the book, feels a little stressful for me! But alas they do also have ebooks!

Wednesday 18th February

Will I Ever Stop Wanting?

by Tierney Finster

Another book review, I do apologise! This framed as a somewhat campus novel which I do love as a genre (as someone who yearns to be back on a campus). It’s about the social politics of the New York art world and with some critiques. It sounds interesting, but I’m not sure the writing style will keep me engaged!

Thursday 19th February

Some Perfect Exact Words: On the Real Legacy of Elizabeth Wurtzel

by Matthew Zipf

Elizabeth Wurtzel sounds just wonderful. It seems that her works have a feminist element but not too in your face and more real world realistic. I have never come across her works before they are now on my research list. These include:

1. Prozac Nation

2. The Secret of Life: Commonsense Advice for Uncommon Women

3. Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women

There also seem to be some really interesting interviews out there. These are two quotes that I took from this piece that are from interviews

1. “That’s what people don’t understand,” she said during an episode of the Longform podcast in 2013. “Just because you have a story to tell doesn’t mean you should be telling it. It’s got to be well written. The whole point is that you should know how to write. It’s not your gift to give the world just because you have a pen or you have a computer or you have a typewriter or whatever.”

2. “You know you’re talented because you’re paid.”

I love how raw and real the two of these are. I could say a lot here on contemporary writing culture and over saturation but that could warrant a whole separate piece — or perhaps I too am someone who just has a pen that should be put down.

Friday 20th February

Black Joy: Resistance, Resilience and Reclamation

by Elaine Nichols

I was kindly recommended this article by Niamh and didn’t want to read it without placing it here.

I haven’t come across the Black Joy before but it actually brought a smile to my face as I read this. It was a potent read and I loved the photos of smiling individuals inserted throughout.

To summarise Black Joy I pulled out these two lines:

1. “Black Joy is and has been an effective tool that has allowed individuals and groups to shift the impact of negative narratives and events in their favor.”

2. “Black Joy is an affirmation and an action that claims control where we can. It is not escapism or a way of avoiding reality. It is active acknowledgement that your reaction to even the most horrific encounter resides with you and not someone else. It is an internal choice that is not a fantasy. It is not delusional. It is real.”

It reminds me of Fanon and the negritude moment. Black Skin, White Masks was one of the most potent pieces I read during my degree, for Fanon’s incredible writing and also the content, and this feels like a progression of that movement. I have added it to my list of ideas to dig deeper into.

Saturday 21st February

Arundhati Roy, The Art of Fiction No. 249

interviewed by Hasan Altaf

It’s been a while since I read The God of Small Things and I feel I should return to it now with my more experienced literary attentiveness.

This is was an interview between Roy and Altaf and it was bewitching! This line just encapsulates what I too believe writing is all about:

“What an impossible task it is to list the writers one loves and admires. I’m grateful for the lessons one learns from great writers, but also from imperialists, sexists, friends, lovers, oppressors, revolutionaries—everybody. Everybody has something to teach a writer.”

I loved the way Roy put this. How she appreciates the people everywhere around her — the good and the bad. It’s just beautiful.

There is the idea of writing as an ethical practice attention. To say “everybody has something to teach a writer” is not naïve optimism; it is a commitment to listening even when what one hears is troubling. It recognises that understanding does not equal endorsement. Instead, it positions the writer as someone who seeks to understand the world’s contradictions in order to transform them into language.

Sunday 22nd February

5 Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week

“An instant classic of that svelte form: no longer than a rattlesnake’s body and just as explosive.”…

I didn’t really feel compelled by any of these other than they which I have already discussed above!

Leave a comment

Next Week

Monday 23rd February

Books and screens

by Carlo Iacono

Your inability to focus isn’t a failing. It’s a design problem, and the answer isn’t getting rid of our screen time…

Tuesday 24th February

Something Is Missing

by Daniek Kipnis

Kafka as he was, rather than as we might like him to be…

Wednesday 25th February

The Educational Philosophy of Quintilian

by Phillip Vassallo

Learn from a classic of Classical education…

Thursday 26th February

Going-against-the-grainers

by Dane Leigh Gogoshin

If our ethical beliefs come from our social environment, how do some people find the moral courage to defy convention…

Friday 27th February

The Artist Is Present (Online)

by Sarah Brouillette

Sophie Bishop’s new book tracks the pressures artists face to conform their ‘brands’ to the demands of the algorithmic boss…

Saturday 28th February

Character Types

by Colin Burrow

What do we mean when we call someone a ‘character’? It’s often a way of indicating that a person habitually says or does things that most people wouldn’t say or do. It might be that the character …

Sunday 29th February

Sister Acts: Why Nuns Are Showing Up Everywhere

by Alexandra Verini

What’s familiar and what’s new about our current fascination with the figure and the mystery of the nun, from Rosalía to self-help books…

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Spring Syllabus

I mentioned in my Winter Syllabus that I wanted to just follow a thread. To study ideas or writing that has caught my attention as I have read or been writing. This has worked quite well for me, and as I am desperate for Spring I shall claim it is now Spring by outlining my Spring syllabus! I still don’t have an ample amount of time. I passed my exam, yay, but I still need to revise and sit one more. So by summer I will have more time. But throughout the past couple of weeks I have been noting down concepts, philosophers and non-fiction theory books I would like to look into.

Here they are:

1. Autism in literature

2. Wittgenstein and neurodiversity

3. …

Read more

Here are the 7 articles that I plan to read each morning alongside my coffee and yogurt to start may day off right and absorb new ideas.

Monday 9th February

Many Voices: A Life in Translation

by Suzanne Jill Levine

There was a time, around 4-5 years ago after I finished university and was considering my career that I wished I knew another language and I could go into translation. Alas I only know English, conversational Spanish and I am slowly learning Tagalog — I wish I could give it more time but silly work exams require more attention.

This was an old article from 2013 but I couldn’t not read it. I can not speak of any experience here, only that once my lecturer for Chinese philosophy warned us the translation of Mencius’ text was tainted with capitalist injections, so I have plucked out some lines that I liked and want to ponder on perhaps at a later date:

1. “What I do know is that author and translator both need to be writers”

2. “Translation, as we know, is synonymous with metaphor and means movement from one place to another.”

3. “So when it comes to collaborating with an author, whether or not the author is physically present, the real boss for both author and translator is, ultimately, the text itself.”

4. “When a translation “works” it is because translator and author in that moment have become a single poet.”

I must make note of Levine and look into her book she mentioned.

Tuesday 10th February

Unfinished: On Kathleen Collins’s “Blue Obstacles”

by Alix Beeston

This focused on the context around a mysterious man who gave Katherine Collin’s unfinished manuscript to her family member after she passed. I didn’t read the fragment (it is linked at the bottom of the above article) but the whole process and Collin’s context was intriguing.

Wednesday 11th February

A Void Filled with Possibilities

by Rachel Gerry

I like to read at least one book review a week. I cannot decide if I want to read An Infinite Sadness or not. Whilst I am intrigued by the sanatorium aspect, I fear the multitude of characters could lose my attention. Has anyone read this one?

Thursday 12th February

Shakespeare in the Bardo

by Tana Wojczuk

This is the type of writing I want to read! I really liked Wojczuk’s analysis of both the Book Hamnet and film adaptation from the lens of Tibetan buddhism. It felt sophisticated and powerful. Here are some notes I want to remember:

1. Sections of the film are suspended in grief.

2. Writing and film are time based arts

3. Woodland shots allow you to slow down

Friday 13th February

The Post Paralysis Peace Paradox

by Cassandra Brandt

I have always been a critic of Stoicism, I don’t think it’s a way of life for me. But it was empowering to hear Brandt’s story and how she embraced it. I particularly liked how she broke down each element of Stocism and explained how this has helped her navigate her life after losing her abled body.

Saturday 14th February

they(review)

by Brian Dillon

I selected this article not having heart about this book before, but I’ve seen it pop up a few times this week. Some things I have took away from this review:

1. translated from Danish

2. relationship between unnamed mother and daughter

3. terminal illness — unnamed

4. devoted to mundane details

I like the sound of this so I will add to my tbr!

Sunday 15th February

Between being and emptiness

by Takeshi Morisato

I haven’t really touched upon Japanese philosophy before, but I ought to. This piece looks into the ethical concept of ningen — the idea that human existence is understand as relational. It challenges the western philosophical. idea that the self is a contained individual subject. That is a very basic definition but I would like to do some more research into this.

Next week

Monday 16th February

A Very Short History of Critical Thinking

by Luc de Brabandere

Luc de Brabandere summarises a long history through key figures of thought…

Tuesday 17th February

A Parish Chronicle

by Sjón

In the 1970 novel by Halldór Laxness, an essayistic tale of ordinary people and a small town church from the Viking Age to the twentieth century…

Wednesday 18th February

Will I Ever Stop Wanting?

by Tierney Finster

Tierney Finster traverses “Flat Earth,” Anika Jade Levy’s debut novel…

Thursday 19th February

Some Perfect Exact Words: On the Real Legacy of Elizabeth Wurtzel

by Matthew Zipf

Matthew Zipf Considers the Mesmerizing Immediacy of the Author’s Work…

Friday 20th February

Black Joy: Resistance, Resilience and Reclamation

by Elaine Nichols

At the heart of the Black Joy movement is what many scholars, journalists, authors, and others are describing as resistance, resilience, and reclamation of Black Humanity…

Saturday 21st February

Arundhati Roy, The Art of Fiction No. 249

interviewed by Hasan Altaf

After her first novel, The God of Small Things (1997), Arundhati Roy did not publish another for twenty years, when The Ministry of Utmost Happiness was released in 2017…

Sunday 22nd February

5 Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week

“An instant classic of that svelte form: no longer than a rattlesnake’s body and just as explosive.”…

Subscribe now