A brief selection of things I can tell you from the last two weeks:
My brain gets very melted—like butter or similar—in overly hot weather and is unable to think adequately which, when the weather cools again, leaves me feeling like I’ve misplaced a great many small objects
I read Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au and liked it extremely; the title alone cooled me down (see: 1)
We retrieved several paintings that I had hanging on walls about five years ago and I expect they will sit propped on the floor for a good number of days (perhaps even weeks) before reaching walls again
Thought a lot about layers of summer, how all of the summers we live through are layered chronologically or somewhat or haphazardly or not at all and that this adds up to something very strong yet very elusive
I took a rocking chair apart and then put it back together, it has quite sharp corners and you have so far cursed at the corners 3-4 times
Likely acquired a small respiratory infection from sea-swimming but if given the choice would not live those days any differently
There is a particular variety of the blues that lies in between completing a book and its publication and this blue found me somewhere along the M6 motorway
But blue is soft, you can swim in it, and if wearing suitable goggles you can usually see where you’re going and chances are it’s somewhere good
WORK-RELATED NEWS:
Everything, Beautiful comes out in little over four weeks, and I’m significantly pleased (some might say delighted or beside myself) to share early reviews from Publishers Weekly and Mindful Magazine.
It’s perhaps one of the strangest and most necessary times to be able to keep hold of beauty, to define the word in a way that truly benefits and expands you, and so while there are bad-news-every-place days when I’m wary of feeling overly enthused by anything I’m also confident that this book will help people navigate the very peculiar, very beautiful world we inhabit. I also happen to be extremely proud of it.
Everything, Beautiful is available to pre-order below (this is the Penguin US edition, more news on the UK edition to come soon) but asking your local bookshop to order you a copy is also a hugely nice thing to do.
(Even nicer is to order a copy for someone else, and though personally I find it impossibly hard to assume books will fit other people, Everything, Beautiful is thankfully very one-size-fits-all.)
THIS WEEK I FELL IN LOVE WITH:
Paintings, ones that seem to bring up feelings from both nowhere and everywhere, by London-based Suzy Murphy.
“He doesn’t know how to be the person he’s become, but this could change tomorrow.”
— Carol Shields, Larry’s Party
(Oh! how I will forever love Carol Shields.)
Thank you. It almost-always makes me feel better reading your little thoughts on existing 💛