Lately, my words haven’t been coming so easily. I have a brain that is tired, and it needs permission to be quiet. It sometimes needs the words and music of others to fill it with colour and hope. It needs to be distracted, rested and soothed.

So I haven’t been writing much, although I hope to find the words to express some of the things I have been doing, thinking and feeling soon. I have, however, been reading a lot.

Sarah Winman is one of my favourite authors. I loved When God was a Rabbit and Still Life. This week, I finished A Year of Marvellous Ways, which has become one of my favourite books, up there with The Book Thief and all the others I mentioned in this post.

In A Year of Marvellous Ways, Winman tells a magical, human story about love, loss, the sea, a young man called Francis Drake and a ninety year old woman. (Coincidentally, I began reading it when I was away celebrating my Grandma’s 90th birthday. I love how books so often find their way to us at appropriate times.) As a lover of the sea and the outdoors, this story took me straight where I needed to be. I loved the company of these characters, too. They are grieving and confused, reeling from the state of our sad world, but they are also wise, joyful and loving. It is a story of healing. Somehow, it gave me permission to revisit the loves, griefs and dreams of my own life. I rested in it, and found a little of my own healing, too. It is a deeply cathartic book.

I have also been reading Beth Lynch’s beautiful memoir, The Cove, which, like A Year of Marvellous Ways, is set in Cornwall. This is one to read at a slower pace. It, too, explores themes of love, grief, wild places, the sea and what it means to be human.

Then there’s James Crews and Brad Peacock’s poetry anthology, Love is for All of Us: Poems of Tenderness and Belonging from the LGBTQ+ Community and friends. I have found these poems to be vivid, moving snapshots into lives of love. Although many of the poems do touch on the challenges the writers have faced, there is a lightness about this collection. It is full of the joy of love, and of being ‘seen’.

What have you been reading?