CATCH UP TIME!

[00:00:00]Hello.

[00:00:01]So, everybody, it's time to catch up. It has definitely been a while since I've made a video, and for those of you who subscribe to the channel, maybe watch a lot of my videos, you will know that I recently had twins. There were a few complications. It's been a really tough ride, and yeah, I just have not had time to film anything. However, I have still had time to read, which is quite good, little pockets of time. Also, walking a baby up and down to soothe them, headphones on, audiobook, that kind of thing. So, I mean, my reading output has dropped, but not drastically. I've still got some stuff to talk about. So, I'm going to break this video down into sort of two sections. Section one is going to be me talking about the books that I have read. There's not a lot, everybody, but the ones that I have read, what I thought about them. It's going to be very, very quick, but I'll try to give you an idea of what I've been reading.

[00:00:45]And then the second part is going to be a catch-up on my twins for those of you out there who might care. So, yeah, for those who are just here for the books and the little bit of a talk about the books, that'll be the first part. Second part, stick around if you want to hear how the twins are doing. Okay, so let's kick things off with a reread, which is The Milkman by Anna Burns. As Booker 2026 fast approaches, the longlist being released on the 28th of July, I started thinking about, "Ooh, I wonder what my favorite Booker winners are." And I've got sort of like three, and I'm going to reveal them slowly over a few videos. Uh but and I'm going to reread all of them just to kind of see if they still stand up to the test of time. So, the first one was, of course, The Milkman. I mean, this novel has had a lot of hype, so I don't really need to explain it too much. It won the Booker Prize in 20 18. Could be 2016, could be 2018, but I think it's 2018. Uh it's just well-loved by so many. I honestly think that this is an utterly original novel, which is hard to do come 2018. Uh which is, you know, it's filled with like kind of like fear, gossip, and overall just survival during the troubles in Ireland. And the novel does this quite unique thing in which nobody in this novel is given names, or at least very few people. You have the Milkman, who actually isn't the Milkman.

[00:01:56]You have the actual Milkman. you have like a middle sister, second sister, oldest sister, that kind of thing, a brother-in-law, oldest brother-in-law, you know, that kind of thing. And it's just it sort of immerses you into the story in a way that just feels yeah, just feels really, really unique. So, what did I like and what didn't I like? So, first off, it's just a completely and utterly unique narrative voice, which I think captured everybody at the time. It captured me when I first read it and it still stands the test of time. Yeah, just excellent in that regard. Next thing I really enjoy is that it's so darkly funny. Both times I've read this, I've just been laughing my ass off all the way throughout it and it's because of that unique voice of the narrator and the way she sees the world. Just yeah, just so, so funny. Next thing I really love about this novel is the sort constant sort of unease and paranoia that the character feels that by the time you get to sort of halfway point, you're totally absorbed by and you are feeling as well. And the final thing that I liked, I mean there's many more things about it that I liked, but I'm trying to keep this short. The final thing that I really liked about this is it's just such brilliant observations. I feel like if you wanted to introduce someone to what the Troubles were like and the experience of the Troubles in Ireland at that time in the 1970s, if you wanted someone to really understand and give them almost a history lesson whilst being entertained, whilst laughing at times, this just this is it. It's it. It's of course the of course it won. Nothing up against it had a chance. Yeah. Um it's just excellent. What didn't I like?

[00:03:22]Nothing. Honestly, there's nothing I didn't like in this novel. I can see things that people might not like, like it's quite unconventional in its styling and its narrative voice and things like that, but but for me personally, I just I loved it. This is a five-star novel.

[00:03:35]Yeah, five stars on my first read, five stars on my second read. Through and through, um just amazing. Next up we have The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbø, one of the Detective Hole novels. He's released many, many of these and I've read pretty much all of them. And again, like most of these novels, it's a thriller, detective, crime fiction kind of thing. You know exactly what you're kind of going into when you read a Detective Hole novel. Uh the location changes, the sort of style of the killings change, but in essence, it's this kind of alcoholic, very sort of damaged character, old Detective Hole, uh trying to figure his way around his own life and relationships, but also kind of kind of catch the culprit and figure out the crime, that kind of thing. It's you know the score. So, let's crack right on with what did I like and what did I like? So, first off, I do think that Harry Hole is is still quite an interesting even all these books later, uh still quite an interesting protagonist sort of driving these stories forward. Um I do always sort of enjoy jumping into his shoes. And the next thing I liked is there are some sort of moments that felt quite tense, well realized, um and some of the sort of investigative sort of uh plot threads that build uh were fairly interesting.

[00:04:45]What didn't I like? Quite a lot. First off, this novel just felt bloated and repetitive. It had no business being this long. I was just really, really, utterly bored in so many moments. And for a crime thriller, that's the worst thing you can do.

[00:04:58]For a sort of beach ready Detective Hole novel, you cannot bore me. I mean, I could maybe not believe things, uh some plot threads could maybe be paper thin, but the one thing you cannot do is bore me, and this novel bored me.

[00:05:10]Next thing I really disliked about this is the characters are just constantly, constantly, constantly, constantly, constantly making the most frustrating decisions. It drove me mad. And the final thing I didn't like, and I know Nesbø does this a lot in a lot of their novels, but for some reason, I didn't like it in this one, maybe cuz it felt bloated and it overlong, it's just the over description at times. It's just a bit too much. You're just a bit like, I don't need I don't need that. Shave that.

[00:05:34]This is a crime thriller. Let's go, go, go, go, go. So, this is a one-star read for me. It does the one thing that a crime thriller novel should never do, and that is bore me. It is by far my least favorite of all the Detective Hole novels, my favorite still being The Snowman, but definitely don't watch the movie cuz that is absolute gak. Now, let's move on to one that I listened to on audiobook. It is Judge Stone by James Patterson and Viola Davis. Also narrated by Viola Davis, which is the main reason I wanted to listen to it cuz her voice is just silky smooth. So, like all James Patterson novels, if you sort of know his style, his writing style, and how the speed and the pace of things, then you kind of know what you're getting into. Overall, this novel is a fast-paced courtroom drama, which has a real sort of moral dilemma uh regarding abortion at its center. We are very much in the shoes of Judge Stone and the way that she lives her life and her sort of feelings and opinions on the kind of ruling that she might have to make concerning this act of abortion that is very much illegal where they are. And like any sort of James Patterson novel, there's loads of like sort of little twists. I say twists, little things thrown in to sort of mix things up and shift things around. What I liked. I found the central sort of legal case, the dilemma, the moral dilemma taking place at the center of this novel, the sort of heartbeat of this novel, uh really interesting and something of value to explore. I really loved Judge Marystone. I thought she was a great character. I really enjoyed being in her shoes. Uh yeah, uh she's not hard to get behind because she's just really morally good.

[00:06:55]Uh she's quite funny, but she's also really kind of like quite set in her ways at times and immovable. And the next thing I really enjoyed, and this is what the Detective Hole Novel should have done, is it kept me engaged. Like it knew exactly what it was.

[00:07:07]It was like, this is going to be fast-paced sort of crime, not really crime, but sort of kind of courtroom drama. Um we're going to keep it moving.

[00:07:14]And it does. It's really short chapters.

[00:07:16]It keeps pushing and it kept me interested in that regard. What didn't I like? I mean, it's just it's just utterly overly formulaic. It's to the point where you're just like, ah, I I yeah.

[00:07:29]There's nothing There's nothing new being brought here and it's following a kind of a a a formula that sort of works for a beach read, and that's fine. But if you're after something that maybe might mix things up a little little look elsewhere. Next thing I didn't like is there are so many plot threads that sort of introduced and then just sort of abandoned or just not fully thought through due to the pacing. And yeah, and I just I felt a bit enough because of it. And finally, I felt that the novel lacked the emotional depth that the subject matter deserves. Your reading mileage might differ and your own personal experiences may push through onto the page. However, when reading this, I felt like the central sort of dilemma that we're exploring like in and out from different angles was again not really explored in any unique way. You would have seen this story done a thousand times before kind of thing. I know that's sort of my catchphrase, a thousand times before, but you would have. It's not bringing anything new to the table. And at the same time, I don't feel like it's its characters and the sort of emotional depth of its characters and what's happening on the page does justice to its content.

[00:08:31]Overall, Judge Stone was all right. You know, as I was walking up and down my living room trying to get my daughter to sleep. Yeah, it's It was okay. I just put my headphones in. I just walked up and down and it was fine. It passed the time at 2:00 a.m. in the morning every day. Next up, we have The Buried Giant by the one, the only Ishiguro. This is a really haunting sort of fantasy novel all about exploring memory, love, and the cost of forgetting. This is also one of Ishiguro's novels that seems to get a lot of hate. A lot of people just really don't like it. I think fantasy readers expected something else and maybe fans of his more contemporary traditional work sort of aren't able to sort of vibe with the fantasy elements within it. So, I think it was sort of like not pleasing either camp. However, I loved it. In this novel, we follow two characters, Axel and Beatrice, both in their later years. And because of this mist that's descended across the land, they're forgetting things. Everybody around the land is forgetting things.

[00:09:29]And pretty much this novel is them going on a little adventure, a little journey to sort of find their son who they seem to have forgotten, but they've just remembered that they need to go find him. And along the way they encounter different creatures, various different characters, uh some really thrilling and exciting things take place with different knights. I found it quite exciting. Uh and yeah, and all in all, as they sort of get further from the mist, sort of memory start to come back to them, and we start to explore this idea of what is best forgotten and what is best remembered. What did I like? I thought the writing was beautiful, just really understated prose, but it just flows so so wonderfully. Ah, chef's kiss. Next thing I really loved is I was surprised by how emotionally invested I was in these characters, even some of the sort of smaller side characters. By the time we get to the sort of end point, um wow, yeah, I was just it yeah, I was just in. Next thing I loved is I thought it was using fantasy to explore some very human themes in an excellent way. I thought it worked. For me, it totally works. And lastly, I enjoyed how quietly profound this novel was, from the very start to the very end. I I don't know, there's something about the prose and the characters that sort of just wrapped me up, and I just found it all of it quite moving, and I was just so invested. What didn't I like? Honestly, nothing. I really really loved my time with this novel. Um I I do get that traditional fantasy readers probably won't like it. And I also get that fans of Ishiguro's work, like novels like Never Let Me Go or Remains of the Day, probably won't like this one cuz it's a bit of a quite different in that regard. But for me, the two elements just worked. His Ishiguro's writing style and the way he kind of his sentence structuring and the way it flows, combined with the fantasy element, then also combined with Ishiguro's sort of absolute mastery of being able to gently raise out the depth of its kind of of the novel's meaning, of the novel's politic, but also of the characters, um yeah, just I thought it was firing on all cylinders. Yeah, I thought it was fantastic. I'm giving it five stars. It's five stars. Okay, and onto the final novel that I have read, which is John of John by Douglas Stuart.

[00:11:34]Douglas Stuart is a previous Booker winner for his novel Shuggie Bain, and his novel Young Mungo was equally well received by a lot of people. However, Young Mungo was very similar in its themes and what it was dealing with to Shuggie Bain, and therefore I think it didn't quite do as well. I mean, people who loved that first one still loved Young Mungo, and there were still loads of things in Young Mungo. Is Young Mungo? I could be saying this wrong thing. I think it's Young Mungo.

[00:11:57]Um just loved all of those things equally in that. But I think it was the impact that Shuggie Bain had that sort of that escalated it, and you know, reason it went on to win the Booker. So, I think everybody was hoping for a little bit of change of pace, or something a little bit different when it came to John of John. And I honestly think this is a heartbreaking, beautiful novel about fathers, sons, family, and the weight of home. Like, how our home, both the house, both the location, sort of clings onto us and our identity, and sort of breaking free of it, or coming back to it, what that does to us. Um I thought this was definitely a good step in a different direction. Still very similar themes going on to Shuggie Bain. There's definitely things you go, oh, there it's still exploring that. But overall, I thought this was a good step forwards in Douglas Stuart's work. In essence, and I've already covered it, it's about a son who comes home to a remote island just off of Scotland, and so he's gone to university, he's run out of money, he doesn't know what to do with himself, and he sort of comes home to the family home where his father lives along with his grandmother. And the rest of the novel is just a character exploration in essence of the father, the son, the grandmother, their relationship to each other, their relationship to the island, their relationship to tradition, their relationship to religion. All these kind of things are explored, and and the more it goes on, the more we get these different sort of reveals happening throughout that really sort of richens and deepens um the sort of character study that's taking place.

[00:13:24]What did I like, what didn't I like?

[00:13:25]What I liked. I think it's some of the best character writing you're going to get this year. I honestly do. I just fell in love with these characters, the way they were written, and learned, you know, and hated some of these characters for certain things about their personality, but they're so Everyone lives in the gray in this novel. It's so beautifully balanced.

[00:13:41]Yeah, I do think it is some of the best character work this year. Next thing I absolutely loved is Douglas Stuart, as always, continuing what he does really well. He writes with such raw emotional honesty, and I love it. Next thing I really enjoyed is there are lots of sort of quiet moments that take place throughout this novel. There's some big scenes in this and some big punches and some big pushes, but there's also these very small, minute, quiet moments that have equal emotional impact. And for a novel to be able to do that on both fronts, bam, absolutely smashed it. Next thing I really loved is the setting, the island, the Scottish setting, the way it's built, the way it's described. You sort of feel like you're living on this island with the characters, and the weight of changing times and what's happening to this island are just It was so beautifully done. And finally, I've got to rein down on my notes, but I've also sort of jumped the gun and already said it, but um everything feels really real.

[00:14:29]Everything feels messy in this novel, the relationships between the characters, their history, their goals, their dreams, what they want for each other, what they don't want for each other. It's really, really messy. And the more the novel builds, the more we get tangled up in these messes, but the more we sort of understand and eventually get clarity of what these characters need and what will help them. And yeah.

[00:14:49]Go.

[00:14:50]Excellent. What didn't I like? Only one thing, and this is a me thing. So, I think this is a five-star for most people, and really I am being a bit petty by not giving it five stars. I'm actually Spoiler alert, I'm giving it 4.5.

[00:15:03]If you know, or if you've watched a lot of videos, uh my taste, I love novels that are character-driven, really emotionally rich, and have a kind of politic at their heart. But, I am also a huge fan of plot. So, I want both. I want something that's got a really interesting plot that kind of shifts things and keeps things moving, whilst also exploring characters and a sort of central theme that's driving the novel.

[00:15:24]Uh And this unfortunately is really light plot-wise. It's all about characters. It's all about the characters. And I think this novel is going to go on to do very well. I do think this novel is going to make the longlist for the Booker Prize. If it doesn't, I'll be very surprised. If it doesn't, I think it will be the judges reacting to the fact that everyone on the planet assumes it will be.

[00:15:45]And they'll do it out of spite. But I think it absolutely deserves to be on that longlist at the very least. Um Yeah, and 4.5 stars for me. I utterly, utterly enjoyed it. Um just yeah, bit more plot and it would have been a five-star. So there you go, that's the book sort of section of this video done.

[00:16:03]So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to talk a little bit about the girls, my twins.

[00:16:14]So I don't want to repeat myself too much in my last video, but in essence my twins were born 9 weeks early. They went off to a specialist hospital. They were in the sort of neonatal unit for 5 days.

[00:16:24]Then they got shipped off to special care unit, and I think that's where I left you. They were in the special care unit and I was visiting it each day.

[00:16:31]Well, they were in there for 50 days.

[00:16:33]They came home. Um but unfortunately, they're not Unfortunately, they've got really, really bad reflux, which often premature babies get, but to the extreme, where they were having these things called apnea moments, which is where the reflux, the gas, the acid goes up into their throat, clogs their throat, and because they were so tiny, they just didn't have the energy or could be bothered to breathe cuz their throat their throat was clogged. So they would just go limp and turn blue.

[00:17:02]Uh and we had to be taught by the nurses how to stimulate their bodies in order to sort of wake them up. Uh I don't know if a parent has ever watching this video has ever had their child turn blue and go completely limp on them and you have to sort of just pray that by uh you know, stimulating them they will come back. I say come back to life. They're not They're not coming back to life, but they're just They're They're breathing again, sort of thing. Um so we went home and they were still having these moments, but they did say because there hadn't been any in 48 hours, they were like, "It's okay for you to take them home." So we took them home. They were home 3 days, but then in 1 day, one of them had four apnea attacks and the other had two. So the hospital said, "You've got to bring them back in." So we were back in the hospital for another 4 days.

[00:17:43]Eventually, they went 24 hours without one, so we came back out of the hospital. We were back home for 2 days and then both of them had four in a single day, so we had to go back to the hospital for another 5 days. Um and then we got them out of the hospital and then they were back for another 3 days and then two We were told, "Yeah, if they have any more than three, still keep bringing them back."

[00:18:02]And one of them had three, one of them had one, so we had to sort of And I just Yeah, the emotional, honestly, uh me and my partner, we broke. We completely broke. The idea of having to stimulate your baby uh from going turning blue to sort of coming back to life, uh destroyed us. It was horrible.

[00:18:19]Absolutely horrible. Um and uh yeah, however, the good news is the good news is, as you can see from the photograph, we were told and they did tell us they will grow out of these apnea moments. And they did. They haven't had one in 5 weeks now, I think.

[00:18:38]5 weeks and they haven't had a single one. Uh their their esophaguses have got stronger and bigger and their stomachs are better. However, uh they did still both suffer with reflux for quite a while, so they were in sort of constant pain. And one of my twins, I'll bless her heart, she's still suffering with it now. They're on everything under the sun drug-wise uh in order to sort of control her pain, uh but it is quite a lot. Uh just so you know, for 2 weeks straight, she would cry from around about 3:00 p.m. till midnight every single day.

[00:19:07]And that's not an exaggeration. It's not a joke. She would scream and cry for that many hours straight. We were sort of back in and out of hospital. We're still going in and out of hospital. I was in hospital twice last week just trying to see if they could control the pain that she's in. Um Uh but turns out they think it was a cow's milk allergy.

[00:19:24]She's on an anti-allergen sort of milk now formula, uh which will take a few weeks for her stomach to sort of die down if it is that inflamed. And she does seem a little bit calmer.

[00:19:33]So, we'll see. There you go. That's the catch-up on the twins. Uh I know that all sounded doom and gloom. Uh they've started smiling now. Uh which is an absolute delight. Uh they are they're beautiful. They can be really playful.

[00:19:47]Unfortunately, Betsy doesn't get any time to sort of chew and be playful cuz of the pain that she's in. Um but they she does have some moments. Like she'll have like 5 minutes a day where she sort of calms and you can get a little smile out of her. Uh and again, the doctors just tell us it's just time. You've just got to give it time. And uh it's just a living hell. At the moment, it's pretty tough, everybody. Um it's quite constant. It's quite non-stop. If it was just one child, just one, you could sort of Yeah, as soon as you put them down, you can both get relaxed. But what we're finding is you put one down and the next one starts screaming. There is absolutely no Yeah, there is no rest. Uh so many people told me when, you know, oh, having a baby, you're going to have you're going to watch so many TV shows. You're going to have so much time to just sit there and watch TV shows. I haven't watched a single episode of a single show. It's been absolute non-stop. Um yeah, and I'm off I'm I'm a teacher, uh university lecturer. So, I'm off for the summer.

[00:20:38]So, I'm around all day and I still don't have time. Uh my partner has had to sort of take the girls to her parents' place just so I could have time to do a review cuz she knew that I was missing it.

[00:20:48]So, yeah, love you.

[00:20:50]I was going to say her name then. I try not to give away names on this channel.

[00:20:52]Love you.

[00:20:54]Partner of mine. Um Right, I think I think that's everything. So, to finish off, I hope you are all well. You are all enjoying whatever you might be reading. I'm sorry that this was a little bit all over the shop. Uh as soon as I sort of set everything up, I realized how out of practice I was. Um it's taken quite a few retakes to get things right. This has taken far longer than I was hoping it would. Um but yeah, so sorry if it's a bit uh all over the shop. I'm going to try my best, everybody, to read the book longlist. I'm actually going to go for it and see if I can do it. Whether I'm able to do videos, we'll see. I think what's more likely is that you're not going to get another video from me now, and the next video you're going to get from me is going to be my review of the entire longlist. That's the aim, if I've got the time and I can get hold of the audio. And for me, it's all about audio at the moment. It's the most sort of hands-free thing I can do when I'm sort of taking the girls on a little stroll or walk. Uh I'm able to get through books much quicker that way. So, yeah. But that's going to be my next video, I think. So, that probably will be in about a month's time. Uh but I just wanted to do this one to update you on what I've been reading, and hope you are all well, and give you an update on the girls. Right. Thanks, everybody. See you later. Bye.