Pat Barker’s Regeneration is the first in a trilogy about the First World War. It is highly acclaimed as a story, and I was eager to give it a go (having read other Pat Barker, and also In Memoriam not so long ago). Unfortunately, whether it was the narration, or the slow pace, I didn’t connect with the story as much as I thought I would. It is deeply memorable from its depictions of PTSD (or Shell Shock), and the character of Siegfried Sassoon is beautifully rendered, but it ultimately disappointed.

A call to arms for a more equal society, Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde is a series of essays, letters, interviews, and lectures by the great poet. I have never read any Audre Lorde before and so this was wonderful to get a real sense of the person she was, and the fight for equality (which is still ongoing all these decades later). It’s made me want to read her poetry.