nineveh_uk (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nineveh_uk) wrote2022-03-28 06:25 pm
nineveh_uk) wrote2022-03-28 06:25 pm
What I've been reading Monday
I'm determined this year to keep a bit more up to date with posting about books or TV, and to catch up on a few of them from last year. So here is a start on a couple of recent reads.
Hamilton and Me, Giles Terera. Behind-the-scenes memoir by the actor who created Aaron Burr in Hamilton for the West End opening, covering the period from audition to initial performances. As someone who has slightly less talent for acting than I have for flight, this was a really fascinating account of the staging of a West End musical, both the overall process that would apply to any show, and Terera's own personal journey to finding and performing the character. Terera is a thoughtful and engaging writer, and while I was unfamiliar with all aspects of the subject, his personal insights mean that I think there'd be a lot here for readers who are more familiar with either or both of Hamilton or the theatre industry than I am. It made me want to listen to the music again.
Recovery, The Lost Art of Convalescence, Gavin Francis. Read, fittingly, in the garden when not feeling up to anything else, this is a small and slim volume by a GP reflecting on the experience of recovery from illness, and the vanishing of convalescence as a social concept, prompted by being a GP working during Covid. I wouldn't universally recommend it - for a start it is very much about the concept of a recovery from illness rather than disability, although chronic illness and disability are touched on - I found much to reflect on in it and wish it had been available to read it two years ago. Hell, I wish I'd read it on Thursday evening when it might have prompted me to take the day off sick on Friday when I really should have, which is why I read it this afternoon instead. I came across it in the Guardian's long read, which gives a good sense of it.
Next up, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, good book, terrible translation...
Hamilton and Me, Giles Terera. Behind-the-scenes memoir by the actor who created Aaron Burr in Hamilton for the West End opening, covering the period from audition to initial performances. As someone who has slightly less talent for acting than I have for flight, this was a really fascinating account of the staging of a West End musical, both the overall process that would apply to any show, and Terera's own personal journey to finding and performing the character. Terera is a thoughtful and engaging writer, and while I was unfamiliar with all aspects of the subject, his personal insights mean that I think there'd be a lot here for readers who are more familiar with either or both of Hamilton or the theatre industry than I am. It made me want to listen to the music again.
Recovery, The Lost Art of Convalescence, Gavin Francis. Read, fittingly, in the garden when not feeling up to anything else, this is a small and slim volume by a GP reflecting on the experience of recovery from illness, and the vanishing of convalescence as a social concept, prompted by being a GP working during Covid. I wouldn't universally recommend it - for a start it is very much about the concept of a recovery from illness rather than disability, although chronic illness and disability are touched on - I found much to reflect on in it and wish it had been available to read it two years ago. Hell, I wish I'd read it on Thursday evening when it might have prompted me to take the day off sick on Friday when I really should have, which is why I read it this afternoon instead. I came across it in the Guardian's long read, which gives a good sense of it.
Next up, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, good book, terrible translation...