Reading List 2022

This year has been absolutely incredible for books. I have learnt so much as a person and also as a writer. I have been moved, transformed and pushed to my limits. It cannot be expressed enough how utterly grateful I am for the contents of this list. As always, I will put a * next to any that particularly stood out, as I don't think I actually have a favourite/book of the year amongst them (they were all that good)! I will also include a // next to any I don't recommend/didn't like at all.

The list is as follows:

1) The Elephant Vanishes - Haruki Murakami 2) Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro 3) *Book of Dust V1 - Philip Pullman 4) //Book of Dust V2 - Philip Pullman 5) //The Comfort Book - Matt Haig 6) *Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr 7) *Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead 8) Troy - Stephen Fry 9) *Detransition Baby - Torrey Peters 10) *The Book of Form and Emptiness - Ruth Ozeki 11) Open Water - Caleb Azuman Nelson 12) //The Match - Harlan Coben 13) First Person Singular - Haruki Murakami 14) Tape Measure Murders - Agatha Christie (Short) 15) The Kidnapped Prime Minister - Agatha Christie (Short) 16) The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor - Agatha Christie (Short) 17) The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman - Agatha Christie (Short) 18) The Mystery at Hunters Lodge - Agatha Christie (Short) 19) The Adventure of the Western Star - Agatha Christie (Short) 20) *Olga Dies Dreaming - Xochitl Gonzalez 21) Phasers on Stun! - Ryan Britt 22) Afterparties - Anthony Veasna So 23) The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller 24) The Pink Hotel - Liska Jacobs 25) *Nuclear Family - Joseph Han 26) *Young Mungo - Douglas Stuart 27) //Fairy Tale - Stephen King 28) *Nightcrawling - Leila Mottley 29) *Intimacies - Katie Kitamura 30) The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis 31) The lion, the witch and the wardrobe - C.S. Lewis 32) The horse and the boy - C.S. Lewis 33) *Love in the big city - Sang Young Park

Autumn Leaves and Winter Lights

 So today is December 21st. It's my last Wednesday shift before Christmas, so I'm amid all our festive plans and preparations. All Wednesdays are special though, because I start my shift later than usual. This means I typically use Wednesdays to get done whatever I need to. Shops aren't too busy, neither is the Ward office or anywhere that I need to run errands. It's also a great time to go for a walk in nature if I have free time, as it allows me to refresh my mind ready for the next 4 days of work; I can recharge after my long first shift of the week, which happens the day previous. Today is no exception. We're going to go to Rikugien for like the fifth time this month. First though, I am feeling reflective, so I'm going to organise a bunch of my photos and try to get them on blog posts queued for the next month or so. 

The post to start us off is this one featuring all our favourite Autumnal photos and pictures of the Winter illuminations. This season has really been my favorite that I've ever lived, especially going out and taking pictures within that one week window where peak Autumn leaves and illuminations overlap.  What a special time to be alive. I feel so lucky to have seen all we have so far. I hope some of my pictures have at least captured some of the beauty for you guys to see from a distance. I apologise in advance that lenses cannot record all the elements that I wish they could. Please use your imagination to fill in any blanks. I hope you enjoy (apologies in advance for the poor quality photos of Tokyo and the Christmas illuminations towards the end of the blog, we recently got new phones with better cameras and the end pictures were from Sam's old phone):