THE BOOKWORMERY
Penzance prettiness, feminist fancies, the misanthrope's misanthrope and much, much more
Hello, dear readers! I hope you are surviving the latest horrible bout of heat (if you love it, if you are stretched out in the garden at the moment, basking like a lizard on a rock, I am so happy for you. I wish it for myself and everyone else but it cannot be). I was lucky enough to spend the last three days in Penzance, in a hotel right on the coast and while it still wasn’t cool, it was a damn sight nicer than being almost anywhere else. AND I did a lovely event at the Literary Festival on the Thursday evening, being interviewed by Lin Rogers and talking to people about Bookworm, Bookish and books generally. And I visited The Edge of the World Bookshop!
ANDANDAND – I met a subscriber, Janet, in the flesh and that was really, really lovely! She had even gave me this book:
as a present, which I had on my To Be Bought list (Janet did not know this – I take it as proof of how supremely simpatico we all are here at The Bookwormery) and which I cannot wait to read. Thank you everyone who came, and especially to Janet.
Last week I mentioned that I had started reading The Body Myth by Milli Hill and said that “at this early stage it seems to be something like The Beauty Myth for women my age and I mean this as high praise.” Well, I have continued reading it to the end and in short – can confirm. Like Naomi Wolf’s seminal (we have GOT to think of a better word for use in these situations) 1990 bestseller, it’s impassioned but clear, concise and endlessly readable and puts into words loads of things you kinda vaguely thought or felt or wondered about and gives you, at last, a grip on them. Milli – who is on Substack here – has provided The Bookwormery with a code that gives 40% off all pre-orders to give to you, so here it is. Do use it – you won’t be disappointed!
It also sent me back to my memories of The Beauty Myth and all the other books that shaped, directly or indirectly, my feminist sensibility and they are what most of the week’s content beneath the paywall is about, plus the name of the misathrope’s misanthrope and introvert’s introvert, plus a paean to the first and only cookery book that has EVER spoken to me (I fkng HATE cooking), plus all the usual more random thoughts, accounts of what I’ve been buying and reading and further recommendations for my fellow bookworms as we burrow down and hope for the weather to break soon.
Good luck, and happy reading!
Love,
Lucy
PS I cannot keep the good news about the cookbook to myself – paean below, but the book itself is Eleanor Steafel’s But First, Dinner and I will know no real peace until I have made her my best friend forever
