The Monthly Line: February 2025

Back to darkness

Hello dear readers,

Spring has finally sprung! But I am taking you back to the dark and cold days of February, and what I read to bring a little light into the darkness.

We've got Japanese food, sparkling short stories, and a dystopian reimagining. Let's dive in!

One. Butter by Asako Yuzuki translated by Polly Barton

This Japanese novel has been everywhere lately, I kept seeing people reading it on the tube, so I didn't mind when it was a book club pick, even though at almost 500 pages, it's pretty hefty! It follows a female Japanese journalist investigating the crimes of an alleged female serial killer. But according to the reporting, the greatest crime the woman seems to have committed was being fat, while still being attractive to men. The book explores a version of Japanese society that is deeply fatphobic, leading the journalist to reassess her own relationship with food. There's a lot of descriptions of food in the novel, which I would normally enjoy as I love food and good food writing, but I found the majority of it quite tedious, and a real slog to finish. But on the other hand I have been craving udon noodles a lot since finishing it so it obviously had a slight affect on me!

How I read it: mostly commuting and then also at a spa!

Two. False colours by Georgette Heyer

Another Heyer down! I confess when I came to write this newsletter, I had completely forgotten the entire plot and had to google it. So not a super memorable one! But now I have refreshed my memory, it was a lot of fun. The plot is absolutely absurd - it revolves around two brothers, one of whom has gone missing just at the point when he was about to make an advantageous marriage, so the remaining brother is persuaded to impersonate him. Chaos ensues! And love and hijinks obviously.

How I read it: also on my spa weekend while feeling deeply relaxed

Three. Survivors by Rebecca Clifford

What if you experienced something terrible as an infant, before you could form long term memories, would it still affect you? These days we would say absolutely yes, in fact the first two years of your life are absolutely foundational for your identity. But in 1945 after world war two, the picture wasn't as clear. This non-fiction book follows the life stories of infant and child survivors of the Holocaust, and the approaches that different countries, organisations, and families took to looking after them. It's heartbreaking - how could it not be - but also incredibly interesting. Some of the more academic bits went over my head slightly but I still found it very enriching.

How I read it: mostly on the tube, and a little on my lunch break

Four. Midsummer night in the workhouse by Diana Athill

This sparkling collection of short stories was such fun to read. They're mostly about relationships and love - sometimes with people who have given up and sometimes with those who are just beginning. It felt very alive and present and I really rolled through it. I'm aiming to pick up one of her memoirs soon.

How I read it: my commuting book, short stories are ideal for that

Five. Julia by Sandra Newman

I got this reimagining of 1984 from a woman's perspective for Christmas, not because I'm particularly interested in 1984 (I think I last read it when I was about 16?), but because it was written by Sandra Newman who I am catching up on (I read The Men by her last month). I think my appreciation of this book would have been heightened by having read 1984 recently, but nevertheless I did find some things to like about it. From what I remember, the woman's experience of the world of Big Brother is not really explored at all in the original, so it was interesting to read along with the thought experiment of how women would be treated. Being preyed upon by men in power, and the worry (and reality) of getting pregnant are unsurprisingly very high on the agenda. For me, the story started to fall apart a bit halfway through and then became fairly baggy, but it was still worth reading as an expansion of the original.

How I read it: my bedtime book (not an ideal one if I'm honest)

Book of the month: I think it has to be Midsummer night in the workhouse, just for how much I enjoyed being swept along by each little nugget.

That's it for this month, see you shortly with March's reads! As always, drop me a line and tell me what you're reading, I'd love to hear.