A book about space
and some musings from the internet
Welcome to my head - a round up of what I have been reading, thinking about, and eating.
Reading
I am not the type of person who races to read books that have won awards. I need my books to be easy to read, comfortable to understand and narratively driven. But this book attracted me - not least because it’s only 160 pages and I thought I could manage a literary book if that was that short.
Penguin Books describes Orbital as “A slim, profound study of intimate human fears set against epic vistas of swirling weather patterns and rolling continents.” I am full of intimate human fears and I was attracted to the concept of the book by watching this video of Samatha Harvey accepting the Booker Prize.
I feel like I sound pretentious when I say that reading this book felt like appreciating a magnificent painting or listening to a piece of music that totally engrosses you. I feel like I could read it all again and take in something new from every passagee. I loved the reflections on earth, on our purpose, on god and on humanity.
That said I begged my husband to read it and after a few pages he asked me if anything happens. I had to answer honestly - nothing really happens. Six people just orbit the earth and reflect on it. He decided he couldn’t read that and my sister declared it the most boring book she’s ever read - so it’s clearly not for everyone, but surprisingly it was very much for me.
Thinking
I went to see Wicked on the weekend. I snuck my knitting in my bag because I thought there was no way I would be able to concentrate on one screen for three hours. I was wrong. I loved it and remained riveted in my seat and my knitting stayed safely (and silently) in my bag. I’m sure I’m the only 56 year-old-woman that walked out of the cinema worried I would have bad dreams about the monkey scene, but so far so good. The only thing I can’t do is stop singing Defying Gravity at all times. I couldn’t help thinking about that now viral interview with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo about people holding space for the song and I was delighted to discover that I am in very good company when it comes to not understanding what the hell that was all about.
Came across this video of an AI generated response to scammers which is both very human and quite ingenious.
But then I immediately felt sorry for the scammers because I had read this harrowing article about people being trafficked into scamming.
“Hundreds of thousands of people have been lured into scamming operations. In Mr. Muyeke’s case, he was ensnared through a promising job opportunity. After a harrowing journey spanning thousands of miles, he was trapped inside one of the hundreds of compounds in Southeast Asia, often controlled by Chinese organized crime rings and set up for industrial-scale scamming.
These fraud farms — some of which are repurposed casinos that were shuttered during pandemic lockdowns — are often staffed with trafficked workers laboring under the threat of severe beatings, electric shock or worse.”
Now I feel sorry the scammers and the scammed which is another brilliant excuse for never answering my phone.
I am no teenager but I absolutely loved
’s Five Life Lessons for Teenagers which I think can be retitled as 5 Life Lessons for Everyone
After listening to this amazing interview with Rebecca Huntley on Conversations, I am seriously thinking about using MDMA. Don’t judge me until you’ve heard her out. Huntley writes for The Guardian saying “On the advice of a psychologist friend, I started reading up on trauma and its impacts on the brain and the body – books including Gabor Mate’s The Myth of Normal and Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score. These authors write about the potential of psychedelic drugs including MDMA to help people with PTSD and complex childhood trauma.”
The podcast explains her complex trauma and how therapy and her normal self-care routines weren’t working leading her to turn to MDMA. She has written a book about the experience called Sassafras: A memoir of love, loss and MDMA therapy and I plan to inhale that soon. Probably quicker than I plan to use the MDMA…
Eating
Had the softest, lightest, most delicious Halloumi ravioli at Aghora in Glebe. (Also special mention to their pita and taramasalata).
Made this stewed mince and spinach dish from Adam Liaw’s book Tonight. Trust me it tasted fat better than it sounds. I made it without the mince for myself.
Spotted these cranberry and white chocolate cookies and immediately put them on my to be baked list.
Thank you for reading all the way to the end, I know how hard it is to concentrate at this time of year.
See you next week
Lana
I'm not normally one for awarded books either, but there's something about Orbital that has me intrigued. Oh, and make the cookies... I made them for my weekly shift at the op shop & they went down an absolute treat.
Sophie Green and I just discussed Orbital on our podcast - she loved it, I hated it!