Haven’t had one of these for a while, but I think we need some things to cheer us up. Here are three that have caught my attention recently…
1.) The link – is to the site of Simon Palmer, an artist whose work I saw shared on Twitter. They’re country scenes that combine a sense of the magical with a firm understanding of nature. If I saw any of them on the cover of a novel, I’d want to read the novel.
2.) The book – it might seem like an odd time to read about a serial killer, but Dean Street Press have recently reissued Israel Rank by Roy Horniman – under the title of the more-famous film it became, Kind Hearts and Coronets. I’ve not started it yet, but I loved the film many years ago so am looking forward to exploring.
3.) The blog post – I was part of a little group encouraging Ali to try the wonderful Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. And, hurrah, she did!
We do indeed need distractions. I love Kind Hearts and Coronets, but I didn’t know about the book so thank you for the heads up! :D
I’m starting to see, here and there, that people who are usually keen readers can’t do it: their heads are not in a good place right now. I’m sure this will pass once the initial shock wears off and we all get used to things, but in the meantime, gentle distractions are a good idea. I subscribe to a number of art sites but I haven’t got them on my blog roll. When I get my act together I’m going to harvest their URLs from my blog reader and put them somewhere for other people to find them.