What We’re Reading: August

I was recently blown away by Ella Baxter’s sophomore novel, Woo Woo. Sabine is an experimental artist with an exhibition looming. In the week leading up to the opening, she is vibrating with energy, despair and anxiety. She is also being stalked by an increasingly menacing man and mentored by the ghost of Carolee Schneemann. Baxter’s approach to this potentially heavy material is electrifying: at turns funny, surreal and terrifying. Every chapter is headed with a quote from literature, art or music, leading me to investigate every reference in a kind of mental mood board for the novel. The writing is invigorating, sexy and charged and the experience of reading it was more like being at a gallery and fizzing about making connections between the works than the traditionally passive experience of reading a book. I cannot recommend it highly enough to fans of Olivia Laing, Melissa Broder or Torrey Peters.

I’ve taken the opportunity to start listening to audiobooks following our partnership with Libro.fm and my first listen was the recent non-fiction History for Tomorrow. In clear and measured terms, Roman Krznaric lays out the benefits of applied history in coping with ten challenges that face humanity. From water shortages to the changes wrought in our brain by social media, Krznaric draws on over a millenium of history to show how we can face up to – and overcome – the seemingly intractable problems of our age. His astute examples highlight the social innovations (rather than the technological ones) that have pushed humanity forward, and allows for a more hopeful view of the future than that which is often presented. Krznaric’s reading of his own book is well-paced and engaging, with a sprinkling of dry humour. A marvellous listen that could spark revolutions!