The Love Haters

and other things that I have tried not to think about this week

I always come to this newsletter with the best of intentions. During the week I save things I want to share, I write notes in my phone and sometimes I even remember to look at them when I am writing. I think about providing something that is easy and fun to read and maybe sometimes, encourages me (or you) to think about things differently.

But this week I was so busy forcing myself to get out of the house so that I didn’t crawl into my bed and sew the sheets up to keep me there, that I don’t have much to share… unless you want my thoughts on Iran.

Please know that you don’t actually want my thoughts on Iran because they are dark and apocalyptic and hideously fiery and my actual knowledge base is non-existent. I have been scared of Middle East conflict since the early 70’s, which is saying something because I was born in the late 60’s, but the addition of Trump to an already volatile situation is enough to cause me to grind my teeth to a fine powder and give me a permanent headache. I think

Tina Brown

summed it up best when she wrote on her Substack

Whatever unfolds next in the Iran/Israel conflict, alpha egos will play as big a part in the outcome as geopolitics. Trump may have declared “no foreign wars” as a foundational MAGA mantra, but nothing gets him more juiced up than the macho notion of dropping awesome, fiery bombs on “bad guys” in “shithole” countries.

It’s been quite the week in my head. But, on the plus side, I do like to eat my feelings so I made this minestrone soup and not only was it delicious but the vegetable count is so high I am almost a wellness blogger now.

Reading

When the world is very scary and war in the Middle East is happening rather than imminent, it’s a good time for people who are petrified, to curl up under a doona and read a rom com. Clearly meant to be a beach read in the Northern Hemisphere, The Love Haters makes the perfect winter read for the rest of us.

It is a classic romantic comedy in that it’s actually quite funny and it’s very romantic. It is also cheesy and improbable and far-fetched and ridiculous but in all ways a book like this is meant to be cheesy and improbable and far-fetched.

It is the kind of book that would have made the perfect 90’s rom-com starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal - but actually it’s better as a book. And the reason it is better as a book, aside from all the normal reasons books are mostly always better than movies, is that there is a strong undercurrent of body image and acceptance in the book and you never actually know what the main character looks like although she makes a lot of reference to her body, her weight and her size. It actually tested my preconceptions and I am not proud to say I had, as my first instinct, a standard Hollywood image when I started reading the book. Now I still don’t know what the main character, Katie looks like in the author’s eye - but I picture her in my mind and - she’s perfectly normal and I love a normal character.

It’s a love story, it’s a romance, it’s a book about finding love and family and accepting your body and your past. There are people out there that will call it trash because it’s light and fluffy even though it’s written by Katherine Center, New York Times bestselling author of eleven novels - but one man’s trash is another man’s treasure and I needed this book right now.

Hope that you are safe and not scared of war (and that everyone you know and love is safe too).

Thanks for reading to the end. See you next week

Lana