February links & listens
I scour the internet, so you don't have to.
This is a long, full-of-links, email which might get cut-off by some email providers - I can recommend downloading the Substack App, which puts all your Substack newsletters in one place. I use it myself and really enjoy it.
Alternatively, you can read on my Substack webpage; Substack is the service I use to send out these emails; think of it as a blogging platform hosting my one-woman magazine.
On nourishment
I love
‘s approach to food - ‘nourishing’ is the perfect word for it. She’s just recently opened a grocery store in upstate New York, and for all of us who can’t just ‘go upstate’, she wrote so wonderfully about it, it almost felt like I was there.
A newish substacker to me is Sarah at
- I think I was served one of her recipe videos on Facebook?!?!. She writes beautifully about nourishing food - in this issue, springy desserts and butter!
On Taylor
It’s time for your regular Taylor Swift section in my newsletter… this month, pieces from
and
“Even with limited romantic experience, I could relate to the feeling of wanting to be wanted.”
I mean, yes! 🔥
On love and potatoes
The title of this Guardian article is “We were ‘intimate partners’ during lockdown - then he asked me to be his Potato Queen.” Truly wonderful look at two nerds being happy together.
On love and bodies
I love that
now has a Substack newsletter, , because it means I get links to all the great Cup of Jo articles I might otherwise miss - for example, this fantastic article about weird feelings when you weigh more than your boyfriend.On bigger bodies
I’ve given up ‘diet talk’ for Lent. It’s so freeing - I wish I couldn’t look at a plate and instantly tot up a fairly confident calorie count. What a waste of brain power.
On liking oneself
is a new Substacker to me, via the lovely , who linked her piece, above. After reading that, I immediately went and immersed myself in a bunch of her other pieces, and felt so seen (This one is particularly marvellous). Thank you, Kate, and Katherine. (Side note - the paperback of Katherine’s newest book, Enchantment, comes out tomorrow! I’m going to her event at Topping’s in Bath, and I can’t wait)
On making friends
The way that media reflects our lives back to us - or doesn’t - is so interesting. Until Derry Girls came out in 2018, the only piece of media I’d ever seen that accurately depicted how completely nuts my friends and I were at high school was the Louise Rennison book series which starts Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging. More recently, the Netflix series of Heartstopper has been similar - although the teenagers in that book live in a more LGBTQ+-affirming world than my pals and I did, their completely deranged behaviour (‘deranged’ here being a term of love) is very familiar to me.
And on putting our friends at the centre of our lives
On curating our libraries and work spaces
I really enjoyed this collection of tips from The Good Trade on setting up a workspace that works with ADHD, rather than against it.
On books
Loved this
round up of handbags that can fit books inside - this is the important work!
And, finally, to the books I read in February (all Amazon affiliate links)!
Role Playing - Cathy Yardley
A Season For Scandal - Laura Wood
The Lily of Ludgate Hill - Mimi Matthews
Are You Happy Now - Hanna Jameson
Pineapple Street - Jenny Jackson
Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble - Alexis Hall (read for audio by Ewan Goddard)
The Fallback - Eleanor Goymer - currently a 99p pre-order for Kindle!
The World After Alice - Lauren Aliza Green
All really enjoyable - there were a couple of books I started in February and didn’t enjoy - but I DNF’d them and shall not speak of them here. The last two were advance review copies from NetGalley - thank you to the publishers!
I’ve also been working my way through Allie Esiri’s A Poem For Every Day Of The Year on audio (having poems read out loud to you is a treat!!) and I wanted to share the poem that was on my birthday, because I loved it:
Spellbound - Emily Brontë
The night is darkening round me, The wild winds coldly blow; But a tyrant spell has bound me And I cannot, cannot go. The giant trees are bending Their bare boughs weighed with snow. And the storm is fast descending, And yet I cannot go. Clouds beyond clouds above me, Wastes beyond wastes below; But nothing drear can move me; I will not, cannot go.
Speak soon -
Lily
This was excellent, so many fab Substack recommendations!
Lily! Thank you for including my article in this amazing round up, I am so honored! There is so much good stuff in here. I've actually been wanting to read more poetry, so I'll have to check out "A Poem For Every Day of The Year." I also love the Heartstopper mention, I adore that show - it definitely is 'deranged,' as you say, in the best way possible.