I spent part of this weekend sitting on our patio, underneath a blanket but bathed in sunlight, feeling really grateful that fall is almost here. I love the summer, so much, but there’s something restorative about a change in season that feel particularly welcome right now.
August was a lot of things for me, including a relatively slow reading month. I finished five books in print and two on audio, which really isn’t bad at all, but it felt like I started a ton of books and managed to finish very few of them. Here’s the list:
- The Dinner List by Rebecca Searle (fiction)
- The Poisoned City by Anna Clark (nonfiction)
- Yes We (Still) Can by Dan Pfeiffer (memoir)
- The Glass Magician by Charlie Holmberg (fiction)
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (YA fiction/audiobook)
- To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han (YA fiction/audiobook)
- The Woman’s Hour by Elaine Weiss (nonfiction)
I loved all three of the nonfiction books I finished. The Poisoned City, an in-depth look at the Flint water crisis, was full of excellent reporting and in-depth storytelling. I appreciated how Clark was able to tie the current mess to historical trends in a way that was clear and convincing. Yes We (Still) Can, an Obama administration memoir, was a book that basically just kept me nodding the whole time I read it. And The Woman’s Hour, an account of the fight to finally ratify the 19th Amendment in Tennessee, was a thrilling, infuriating, and inspiring read. Yay, nonfiction!
My fiction reading was a bit more hit and miss in August. I liked, but didn’t love, The Dinner List, a book about what happens when a woman gets to sit down with five people — alive and dead — for dinner on her 30th birthday. The Glass Magician was a nice second book in a fantasy trilogy, although the main character’s hubris in taking on people more powerful than she is had me rolling my eyes a bit. My audiobook revisit to the Harry Potter series is totally delightful, thanks to Jim Dale’s stellar narration. And while I was charmed by Netflix’s adaptation of To All the Boy’s I’ve Loved Before, the audiobook just didn’t land for me.
A Look to September
This post is coming late (and my reading is off to a slow start again) because I was out of town at a marketing conference all of last week. I brought several books with me, but between sessions and activities and time at my hotel knitting (#introvert), I didn’t read much of anything except on the plane rides to and from Cleveland (Heather Won Tesoriero’s delightful look at high school science prodigies, The Class).
I also feel pretty scattered when I even start to think about my reading plans for September. I still have a bunch of galleys I listed out last month that I haven’t finished, I need to get focused on my Read Harder Challenge books again, I’ve been buying new books like there’s no tomorrow, and my library checkouts are reaching absurd levels. I’m so scattered.
Writing all of that out makes me think that September might be a month for clearing the decks — return all the library books, suspend my holds, get all of the books sitting in piles on my desk and my nightstand put back on shelves, and then let my brain just settle down. September is a month of fresh starts and new beginnings, and after August I could absolutely use both.
Happy Monday, reading friends! What books are you excited about this month?
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nice list. My summer reading was a bit crazy: https://wordsandpeace.com/2018/09/01/2018-june-july-august-wrap-up/
I’m glad you had a good summer, hopefully crazy means crazy good!
Clearing the reading decks sounds really nice. I have been way overeager with holds and my shelves at home are exploding. I might have to try to let go of the need for new releases – or only ask for books like Educated where I am #500 in line. Then I could read and pass on a ton…
That being said, I now need to read The Woman’ Hour! And The Poisoned City. Sigh. Thanks for the recommendations!
The moment I said that I had a couple of library holds come in and then I grabbed some books off the new books shelf so… I’m sort of a hypocrite in that respect. But I’m trying!
Kim,
You are one of many that I have noticed are “meh” on The Dinner List. With so many other books on my bookshelf, I’m considering just letting it go at this point.
Also, shouts for the HP audiobooks! I listened to the entire series earlier this year in preparation for Binge Mode: Harry Potter, and thoroughly enjoyed rereading them from a new perspective.
Melissa
I wish I’d liked it more! It may have been my headspace at the time too, I’m not sure. It just didn’t quite land for me.
My understanding of what books I own, where they are, and if I’d read them had been scattered for years, but last week I finally started my “get that sh*t together” project. I actually found 2 books already on the shelves that I had in my Amazon cart to buy. Bad. Bad. Bad.
I’m so impressed! I have grand ambitions to get all my books cataloged and then I just get overwhelmed even thinking about doing it. I need to dedicate a weekend, someday, to just doing it… and then figuring out the best way to keep it updated.
That’s too bad that The Dinner List wasn’t a love but well that happens. I just keep seeing that one everywhere it seems. The Poisoned City sounds very interesting! Here’s to more books this month!
Agreed, the more the merrier 🙂
Your nonfiction reads all sound so good! I just finished Bad Blood, about the start-up Theranos, and part of what I loved about was that is covered such recent events, so I’m particularly interested in The Poisoned City for more of the same. I also thought The Dinner List was only ok.
Bad Blood is so great! The Poisoned City isn’t nearly as entertaining — I think the scope of the crisis just names it more series — but it definitely feels contemporary and important.
I have now watched To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before twice and I am probably going to watch it a third time before the month is out. And then I’ll probably read the books too, just to make a clean sweep.
I’m reading Ausma Zehanat Khan’s latest mystery, which deals with the Syrian refugee crisis and is amazing as usual, and one of my most anticipated books for later in the month is Aliette de Bodard’s f/f Beauty and the Beast retelling. It promises to be glorious.
I think I’ve watched in four or five times already. It’s just so charming! And oooo, I didn’t know she had a new one — gotta go look for that! Also f/f Beauty and the Beast sounds amazing.