Then and Now #44 (10/7/23 - 16/7/23)

Happy Sunday and welcome to July!  The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted @ Caffeinated Reviewer. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.  It is hosted weekly over at Mailbox Monday and every Friday they do a round-up of some of their favourite, shared reads!

Last Week 

What a week! I honestly don't know how I'm going to make it through the last two weeks of July if all its weeks are going to be like this. It was super busy and I'm definitely a little low on energy, but there was a lot of interesting stuff as well. My module is still going well and I'm really enjoying the interaction with the students. I also had a workshop for a potential Thesis competition I might take part in, which was really interesting. It's about proper science communication, which I think is really important in academia. I'll need to record a video for that, so I now need to find someone to rope into filming me. 

I didn't get a whole lot of reading done this week in the sense of quantity, but the quality of what I did read was top notch! The Saint of Bright Doors was a fascinating book and I just started The Wonder State by Sara Flannery Murphy! Yesterday I also had that Bollywood dance performance I mentioned a few weeks back. It was like 35 degrees Celcius so we were all dying, but it was loads of fun and went really well. The audience was really responsive and like clapped along, so that really helped. I also uploaded two more podcast episodes this week, which I've added link to below in case anyone is curious :)

Posted this week:

• Book Central #2 - Three Poems by Mary Oliver
• Book Central #3 - The Snake Pit by Mary Jane Ward
• Friday Friyay: The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
• Review: The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera

Recommendation

I don't think I really have anything to recommend this week :O I've been watching loads of Catfish on Youtube as a destressor during my breaks, so I guess I could reocmmend that xD 

Mailbox Monday

Technically nothing, in the sense that I'm still trying to limit the amount of books I request! A student did lend me a book though, in exchange for me lending them The Mercies:

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

I've heard so much about this book, and about Reid's other major hit, Daisy Jones & the Six, so it definitely is time to dig into it. I might do that today, actually, so that I can actually give it back to the student before the end of the semester!

That's it for today! How was your week?