Writing has been incredibly difficult with my son hitting the four month sleep “regression” (I hate calling it that), teething and with my husband kicking off his MBA program… oh the weather in London is still atrocious. I am tired and my thinking has decreased to near nonexistent levels.
This week I can see the tide turning slightly; I’m getting used to be woken up every hour between 2am and 7am, my husband and I have had a heart to heart about how we can support each other to ensure no one gets left behind and I’ve gotten baby some tethers he likes and some teething powder.
I thought coming back with some things I’ve loved this week would be easier than finishing any of the blog posts I’ve written and not finished in the past three weeks. So here are things I’ve loved this week:
Book: So Thrilled for You by Holly Bourne
Following the lives of four university friends, this book had me laughing out loud, crying because I could relate (sleep deprivation am I right?) and judging where I couldn’t relate just yet.
Music: Relaxing Pop Piano Covers by The Bedtime Orchestra
Nothing much to say with this one except I love piano or string covers of pop songs and this album is played at least once a day in my house.
Tv/Youtube: This YouTube series by Digging the Greats
We’ve cut back on tv substantially since having a baby as it’s important to us that he remain as screen free for the first two years and the only way that happens is if we are as strict with ourselves as we are with him. All of that is to say I’ve watched a limited amount of tv this week and this YouTube series was the standout.
Baby things: Infatot teething toy
As mentioned the little baby is testing. As he’s still quite young he hasn’t fully mastered the art of grabbing them putting things in his mouth with ease… this toy however he seems to just get? We’ve loved them (we got two).
Those are my Friday favourites!
I will aim to do one of these at least twice a month.
In 2025 I vowed to be a more intentional reader. I’ve realised that this doesn’t mean taking myself too seriously but rather that it means knowing why each book is being read and taking myself too seriously time to dissect the topics addressed no matter how simple or complicated they are.
As such I’ve created a numerical goal of 35 books with 10 of these being non-fiction in the hopes that this will get me reading even when life gets a bit too busy. Thirty five is my number!
I have curated some books that, should something happens that makes it hard for me to read these are the books I will love to read.
These are fiction books that have peaked my interest for a wide range of reasons; be it popularity, suspected difficulty and even just finishing of a series.
I thought I should share these books with you just in case you need some inspiration.
Book 1: East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Described as Steinbeck’s “magnum opus” – I was really itching to get into this one as an introduction to the author. I should be done with this book soon and it has been a terrific read and I can’t wait to talk about it when I’m done.
Book 2: Those Who Leave Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
The third in the Neapolitan Quartet series. This book I actually finished reading in January and will be reviewing it together with the first and second book. This is by far my favourite series, I fell in love with the story of Lenu and Lila when they were ten years old and I have not stopped being blown away by the story.
Hot take: I prefer these covers to the UK ones.
Book 3: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
A book that is seen as an epic love story by some and a tragedy by others. This is my second attempt at finishing this book and I am very confident that I can get it done in 2025 (hopefully by the end of February).
Book 4: Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
A book by one of my favourite writers! This is Toni Morrison’s third published book and my forth encounter with her work (sort of, I’m yet to finish Beloved). I don’t know much about this book and I intend to find out when I start reading it, however I have never been disappointed by Toni Morrison and I know I will enjoy this one.
Book 5: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
This is a story about three brothers, their father and a murder and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s last novel. This book I expect to be my most challenging read, as I attempted to read this behemoth of a book in 2024 with no success! I am hopeful that 2025 is the year for me and Dostoevsky, I can feel it!
Book 6: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Another book I’ve taken a stab at before, this one I believe I tried reading in 2023 and it was so beautifully and lyrically written, I could tell just by the first few pages that Ralph Ellison did not hold his punches. I’m diving back into his words in 2025 and just like The Brothers Karamazov, I have a good feeling about this one.
These are just five of the ten books that I desperately need to finish in 2025, I will share the other five later on this week.
I am really looking forward to being an intentional consumer of literature in 2025, I hope you are considering becoming more intentional about what you read as well.
I have stepped into 2025 a bit more upbeat and excited! I’ll be honest and say the past few years I have dreaded the beginnings of each year. In 2022 and 2023 both years started off with anxiety as my resolution and goal for each of those years was to have a baby (a very silly resolution in hindsight). And in 2024 I was completely exhausted by the trying to conceive journey having suffered a pregnancy loss in October 2023. And so I wasn’t hopeful and had no desire to think about what else I’d like out of the year.
2025 however is starting off on a different note; I am typing this on the 19th of January with my snoozing son in my left arm suckling at my left breast. Life is good. I also have the added benefit of skipping my works busy season this year. In any normal year I would be laying out my work uniform to eliminate any issues getting dressed in the morning and planning meals to avoid any decision fatigue which inevitably ends in eating takeout!
And so taking advantage of my good fortune and good mood, I have created a vision board for the first time in my life.
I’ve categorised my goals into the following categories:
Motherhood
Love
Body
Reading
Creativity
Work
Within these categories I have goals that are both tangible and measurable; for example do yoga at least twice a week and write a blog post at least three times a week. And those that are less rigid such as finding my groove as a mother and then later on as a working mother when I am back at work in October.
I will be sharing on this blog my progress with these goals as a way to keep myself accountable and also meet that blog three days a week quota 😉.
I am really excited for 2025 and hope you are too!
I hope we are all able to hold onto our resolutions and goals over the next 346 days!!!
Happy new year! Or as they say in South Africa, COMPLIMENTS OF THE SEASON 🥳🥳🥳
Twenty twenty four was a wild ride of a year for me. I started off the year with a desire to re-launch my YouTube channel and a fire inside me to experience great books. All these lofty plans were of course put to rest when on the last Saturday in February I found out I was pregnant and was hit with a tsunami of hormones soon after. My desire and capacity for anything book related went out the window as I channeled what little energy I had towards my day job and trying very hard not to vomit every minute of every day.
The wonderful thing about being pregnant though, other than the fact that I have the most perfect little boy on earth, was that my reading had to be focused as I could only read books that I was genuinely interested in. So when my reading finally resumed in July every book that did not relate to pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding felt like a breath of fresh air.
With that being said however there were some recurring themes and some standout books. The biggest theme me was “motherhood” , somehow even the books I didn’t think would have anything to do with motherhood touched on it as a topic one way or another. I’ve decided that these were subconscious choices I was making and somehow reading about parenting even when I didn’t intend to because you can never be too prepared!
Now that I’ve beat about the bush appropriately let’s get into my top 5 books for 2024:
Book 5: Minor Detail by Adana Shibli
In this book we are split between two timelines set in Palestine with two women. One woman who is subjected to a traumatic death and another woman many years later who seeks to investigate the death.
This is the sort of book that stays with you. We follow two events that are in two different time periods in Palestine.
I appreciated the writers ability to pack so much story into such a short book. It’s very rare that a book can be neither character or plot driven and still manage to make me as a reader heavily invested in the story.
Book 4: Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid
Witty and precise, this book is an unraveling of a mother and daughter relationship. Annie John was my second Jamaica Kincaid book and we follow a young girl, Annie John, as she goes from being the apple of her mothers eye to something on the opposite of the spectrum as expectations of what it is to be a “young woman” start to become the focal point of their relationship.
I appreciated Kincaid’s ability to give you a character that is so young yet is able to feel the full magnitude of love and loss when that love is lost.
Book 3: The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
A fantastically told family saga detailing the fall of a great family built on shaky ground. We meet a few characters in this book including; a teenage daughter on cusp of beginning her adulthood and a young son who is lonely amidst a family of people all dealing with their own failings.
I really appreciated that the characters in this book were all fully fleshed out and each of their stories felt real, as though if you were had pulled up a chair and were listening to someone tell you their life story.
Book 2: Rootless by Krystle Zara Appiah
A love story following the lives of a Ghanaian-British couple who veer into parenthood despite one of them being uninterested in parenthood. We follow the challenges that occur between two people who love each other, with opposing views on parenthood and their families.
I loved the writers crafting of characters and storyline. At every point I felt truly engaged in what would happen next and found myself rooting for this young couple despite finding myself on opposite sides of each of them.
Book 1: Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy
This book is a book on love between mother and child. It details the many challenges this mother faces in mothering her very young son (a toddler), the friction this causes between her and her husband and the depth of her love for her son.
I loved the writing his book. I think it perfectly captures what it is to be a mother in love. There are so many challenges and moments of self doubt in this book but in all of it there is a thick layer that is the love a mother has for her child.
Those are all the books I’ve loved this year. On my YouTube channel Best Books of 2024 I discuss two other books which make my top seven but not my top five reads. Overall I think my enjoyment of books was very much coloured by the phase in life I am in. Ig would be interesting to me whether by top five books would strike the same chord with me if I were to read them in the future.
All in all good reading year all things considered.
I’m looking forward to more great reads in 2025 and wishing you the same.
As mentioned in my previous post, I will be embarking on a low buy year in 2025 and just like everyone else embarking on this journey I’ve come up with some rules just to make sure there’s a plan at hand for when things get murky.
I’ve laid out my plan in terms of things in my life where I normally spend money.
Home:
There are a few household items that we are anticipating in 2025. Since we’ve decided to become a co-sleeping family (something that is so common in South Africa, calling it “co-sleeping” feels very disingenuous, it’s just sleeping!) we will need to invest in a new mattress as well as mattress slats to avoid moulding (this is the U.K). This will be a cost split between me and my partner.
Clothing:
As previously mentioned I have just had a baby. Two months in and I’ve found a style and look that works for my body and more importantly for breastfeeding. Going into 2025 there should be no need for me to buy any clothing. In the even that my body does change and I need clothes that fit better I will take what I currently own for altering.
Shoes:
I must admit that shoes are my Achilles heel, I love a good shoe. Or a bad shoe to be honest, I just love shoes. I do have to reign in it so I have decided to limit it two pairs of shoes that I need (want). Firstly a pair of Birkenstock sandals in a neutral colour because since I only own a single pair of crocs sandals and they are green. However being in the UK I rarely wear sandals, even in the summer I tend to always have my feet covered.
Secondly I would love a red pair of flat shoes. I have a pair in mind because I have the beige version of those shoes, however I am not sure what my new shoe size will be since my feet are not fully back to “normal” yet.
Baby clothes:
I will have to buy my son clothing as he gets bigger. We didn’t stock pile on clothing before he came so he doesn’t have clothing beyond this newborn phase (and 90% we bought after he was born). However we have found what we like to dress him in and what is easiest for elimination communication and so we will have to buy those every few months. With this of course we will have to buy him clothing as seasons change. Baby clothing is really an area that we cannot predict unfortunately but we will aim to go as secondhand as possible.
Baby feeding:
My son is exclusively breastfed and I have not found that I’ve never much other than myself and a few nursing bras. However at some point my son will start eating solid food (how exciting!) and he will need a feeding chair, bibs and other feeding utensils.
I will try very hard to find a second hand version of the feeding chair we would like. But these are necessities we cannot go without.
Baby toys:
I think we have everything my son will need until he is six months old in terms of toys. Probably for longer than that however I’ve settled on not buying him any new today’s until he is six months old.
Books:
I have recently treated myself to an early birthday present and bought a kobo libra.
I really love it so far. My main reason for purchasing it was because my old kindle was increasingly taking out the joy of using an e-reader for me. I went with the kobo libra because I think it’s pretty, I want to move away from my reliance on Amazon and I like the fact that you can repair the battery of the kobo libra, extending its useful life.
And so first of all I will not be buying any physical books unless I have read the electronic version and have loved it. In reading electronic books, I will make use of the library with the exception of classics, these I will buy outright in order to retain my annotations.
I will aim to read my shelves, meaning no new books will be coming into our home that I have not read and loved electronically. Even so I will limit books to one a month, therefore 12 new books for the year.
I do not have a kindle unlimited or any other such subscription and I will not be paying for one in 2025.
Amazon and other shopping apps:
I do not have Amazon prime (my partner does) and I will be deleting the Amazon shopping app along with other shopping apps. I will only be using Amazon to buy my dog’s treats every month.
Subscriptions:
I currently have three subscriptions; Disney plus, Canva and WordPress. I will maintain these throughout the year and not adding any more. This will be so hard when Netflix comes out with a new Love is Blind season because I do love a messy Netflix reality show, but I will stay strong in my resolve!
Other items:
For items that require refilling I will only buy items as they run out, I have always done this and see no reason to change this approach.
I will not be buying any new makeup – I have found make up and a make up routine that works for the handful of times I wear make up, I don’t need anything else.
I will not be buying any new stationary with the exception of a fountain pen to replace mine. However no new journals. No stickers (I like to use these in my work diary to add whimsy). And I will only buy tabs for annotating when they run out.
I am hoping that these rules will cover everything I consume. I will perform a review every two months to make any amendments if necessary.
I wish I had some clever way of ending this blog post but I have none, it is what it is. I am just going into this with hope and hoping that the conviction follows suit and I am able to stick to my rules.
Nthabi And Her Books 