Recommended: May 2024
The best things I read, watched, listened to & ate in the last month!
Welcome to Recommended, a monthly series about the things I’ve been consuming recently. Writing about trauma can be heavy, but one thing that makes it possible is living a good life outside of my work. Here are some of the things that have brought me joy over the last month.
Before we start, here are the articles I published this month:
Alice Carrière’s memoir Everything/Nothing/Someone is certain to be one of my best books of the year! It’s a coming of age memoir about family, mental illness and rebuilding your life after serious trauma. I really recommend it!
I knew only a little about the Lucy Ledby and had my mind thoroughly blown by Rachel Aviv‘s methodical investigation of what happened when a young nurse was accused of murdering seven babies. Read it if you need a reminder of the deep fallilbility of the criminal justice system.
I made the mistake of watching most of Baby Reindeer on a vulnerable night and was utterly destroyed by it, though I do think it accurately depicts the horror of sexual violence.
’s thoughtful piece on whether Martha had to be fat is really worth your time too.On a completely different note, I watched a bunch of people get ready for the Met Gala and found it weirdly soothing.
I saw Challengers in the cinema last weekend and am still thinking about it. I enjoyed it, but felt that the director should have reduced the intensity of his vision by about 30%. If you’ve got sensitive ears, consider bringing ear plugs to the cinema or watching it at home. There were moments when the music was almost painfully loud.
I was very moved by these two episodes of ‘We Can Do Hard Things’ about Amanda Doyle’s breast cancer diagnosis. (Part 1, Part 2)
I have strong (negative!) views about social media and the only person who’s made me reconsider my position is
. This conversation (with ) is a great primer on how Stein thinks about the intersection between social media and her work as a novelist.I’m a big fan of The Cut, and got a lot from this conversation with Editor in Chief, Lindsay Peoples.
We’re in salad/light meals season in our house, so I haven't been cooking much. I’ve been making lots of falafel salads with store-bought falafal, olives, peppers, lettuce & hommous with olive oil as the dressing. Serve with toasted pita bread on the side.
Another favourite is Panzanella aka tomatoes, mozzerella, basil and stale bread dressed with olive oil, salt and pepper. It’s hard not to love bread salad!
We’re having friends over this weekend and I’m excited to make this ice-cream cake too!
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Really looking forward to Everything/Nothing/Someone. The wry tone and dark humor described in it makes me think it might be like The Glass Castle, which I loved.
Falafel salad sounds delish. I’m seeing scapes (do you have these in Ireland?) at the farmers market now and salads with sharp, garlicky greens are all I want to eat.
My two favorite meals I had in May were made by others. My daughter made a dinner of roasted vegetables and quinoa. She chopped the beets, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and leeks into small pieces and brushed them with olive oil before roasting them, and the quinoa was the Israeli kind. The second was a thin crust with no sauce. What? Yes, just mozzarella, cheese, parmesan cheese, goat cheese, olives and artichoke hearts on a store-bought thin crust. My brother-in-law made it and it was delicious.