April, in pieces
A lecture, a Substack article, and a few things from my desk - here are the things that gave me joy, and got me thinking, this month
At the end of each month, I reflect on the things that gave me joy and the things that gave me pause for thought. My deeper thoughts on those go into my Notes from Cultivating an Intellectual Life posts.
This post is the less tidier version - the pages from my journal that didn’t fit into a single thread, shared more or less straight with you.
In it you’ll find my favourite book, magazine, and lecture of the month, plus a few things from the desk and the dressing table. For members of the Studio, the essays that sent me down a rabbit hole this month - including the Substack essay that produced my favourite commonplace page of April.
Favourite Book
Shortlisted for the Booker International Prize, She Who Remains by Rene Karabash was a standout read for me this month. I’m going to go into this one in a bit more detail on Friday but if you only pick one book from the Booker shortlist, make it this one. Karabash somehow manages to pack in themes of gender identity and patriarchy with a folkloric and dreamlike narrative plus an unreliable narrator all in a book you can read in an afternoon.
Favourite Magazine
I picked up The Idler on a bit of a whim last month - the cover spoke to me (yes, unfortunately, I do judge a book by its cover). Inside, I found so much depth. Book and music recommendations, evocative philosophical essays, articles that got me thinking and chuckling. It's witty, it's relatable, and it's easy to chuck in the handbag and dip into while waiting for my morning coffee at Pret.
Favourite Lecture
This month I went to lectures on fairy tales, Sylvia Plath, Medusa (you can see my posts on that here and here), and the psychology of Carl Jung. By far my favourite - the one that has kept me thinking - was the last one.
There are a few reasons why it was so good. First, the lecturer’s pacing - and her choice of detail. She had me hooked from the start, and despite being in a stuffy room on one of the hottest days of the year so far, I listened intently for the whole 2.5 hours.
Second, was how she handled the density of it all - dream interpretation, the architecture of the unconscious, the slippery technical vocabulary Jung built around it - without flattening any of it into pop psychology. By the end, I had pages of notes and a long new entry in my ‘rabbit holes to explore’ journal. Jung is officially next on the list.
From the Dressing Table
London’s hotting up, and with it the need to switch up the scent and skincare. I'm by no means a beauty expert, but my favourites this month were the Caudalie Grape Water face spray (this is an absolute MUST when on the tube, just that hit of refreshment) and the Replica bubble bath perfume. There's bergamot and pink pepper at the top, lavender and rose at the heart, with coconut milk and white musk underneath. On paper it sounds like it would be saccharine but it’s closer to the smell of a freshly washed cotton towel than anything I'd call sweet.
From the Desk
Two things gave me so much joy this month. First is a new Louise Carmen journal with this stunning embossing of stars.
I'm usually so precious with my leather journals - always nervous about taking them outside, afraid of an uneven patina. But I actually want this one to patina, and I specifically chose the black colour so the stars would pop against it. I'll update you on progress!
The other piece from the desk that’s been making me smile is this Esterbrook Niblet in Seaglass. I absolutely adore dinky pens but this one hasn’t compromised on the nib size, so it feels like writing with a full fountain pen which I have really enjoyed - plus the colour of it reminds me of deep blue oceans which, given our dwindling savings account while we renovate the house, is about the closest I'm going to get to a holiday this year (you can use AT10RUBY for 10% off all Esterbrook products).
The rest of this post is for members of the Studio and includes the things that got me thinking this month - from essays and exhibitions to my favourite comment of April
✨ Let me know if I should do this again next month by leaving a like! ✨
