2020 ... a weirdly wordy year

Well, it's been a strange year so far. January and February featured bush fires in south-eastern Australia and almost as soon as the air cleared there was a new threat: a global pandemic. Andrew and I are fortunate to be in good health and still employed (or in my case, self-employed), but the various crises have altered our day to day life. We're really glad to have bought a house with a garden four years ago as (at least when the air is breathable ...) pottering in the garden is always an option.

In the absence of some other regular activities (e.g. cinemas in Canberra were closed for about four months, and cafes for almost as long) I've been reading lots of books. Even more than usual. Here are some of my favourites lately:

The Inspector Ikmen mysteries by Barbara Nadel. Set in Turkey, these stories are gritty, intricate and fascinating. So far there are twenty books in the series and I'm about half way through ... I space them out to make the series (and my enjoyment) last longer.

All That Remains: A Life in Death by Sue Black. An intriguing glimpse into Professor Black's career as a forensic anthropologist. As well as finding the subject matter engrossing, I liked the author's Scottish 'accent', which led me to ...

... the fictional murder mysteries of Val McDermid. I've only read one so far (The Distant Echo) but it was excellent. Skilfully crafted and very hard to put down. Book two in the series awaits.

Kevin Kwan! I've raved about his fabulous Crazy Rich Asians trilogy before and was delighted to buy his latest novel Sex and Vanity the moment it came out. Another absolute triumph. It's hilariously entertaining. The characters, the fashion, the food, the locations, the laugh out loud footnotes. I really, really hope he keeps writing novels as I want to keep reading them!

On a more serious (yet sometimes funny) note The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters by Tom Nichols has also been a worthwhile read. Professor Nichols explores how technology, narcissism and populism have 'created an army of ill-informed and angry citizens who denounce intellectual achievement'. A book we all need to read and digest in these Trump-ridden times.

Angela Savage spoke at an editing conference I attended last year and I made a note, at the time, to track down her novel Mother of Pearl. It was well written, interesting and thought provoking. The story is set in Australia, Thailand and Cambodia and explores commercial surrogacy. (Turns out Angela Savage has also written a series of mystery novels set in Southeast Asia ... I'm planning to start reading one of them shortly!)

Last but not least, I really liked Lori Gottlieb's memoir Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. I was familiar with Gottlieb's advice column 'Dear Therapist' in The Atlantic, and her book weaves together cases from her counselling practice and stories from her life and career. Another compelling read.

Happily, as well as reading for fun I also get to edit for a living, and 2020 has been super busy. I'm wondering if it's because people in lockdown and/or working from home have more time to write, thus more need for editing? To date, I've copyedited eighteen theses this year. One of the great joys of being an academic editor is getting to learn about many different topics, and topics lately have included:

• the history of a Sydney psychiatric hospital
• agriculture and rural development in Viet Nam
• building teacher capacity through coaching
• migration and 'brain drain'
• French architecture and cinema
• disease transmission in Australian native parrots
• tourism in Botswana
• atrocity crimes and the International Criminal Court
• playgrounds in regional Australia
• autocratisation in Turkey
• hepatitis screening in prisons ... and more!

Sending warm fuzzy thoughts to all the lovely people who've entrusted their writing to me for polishing.