“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer… like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning.”
Natalie Babbitt
Did you know that the worlds first roller coaster opened in August? On August 16th 1884 to be precise! It’s also the month that contains National Booklovers Day – one for all us bookworms out there. As well as National Beach Lovers Day, if that’s not a good excuse for a book by the ocean, I don’t know what is. If you have an opportunity, August is a great time to try to catch the Perseid meteor shower as it usually reaches it peak around the middle of the month.
Looking back through history, in August 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. This historic event helped inspire many people to work for civil rights and equality – I’m writing this post in November, as we look towards our American friends, we can only hope that your future president will uphold the equality that was so dearly fought for.
So, here’s what was on the list in August.
Books Read:
| Title | Author |
| I Have More Souls Than One | Fernando Pessoa |
| The Stepford Wives | Ira Levin |
| A Small Place in Italy | Eric Newby |
| Everything I Never Told You | Celeste Ng |
| Verity | Colleen Hoover |
| A Thousand Pieces of You | Claudia Gray |
| A Thousand Skies Above You | Claudia Gray |
| A Million Worlds with You | Claudia Gray |
| Fierce Fairytales | Nikita Gill |
| The Untethered Soul | Michael J Singer |
Total keeping: 5 out of 10
There were some fantastic reads this month, a few favourites and a couple I’m less enthusiastic about.
The Firebird Series by Claudia Gray – encompasses A Thousand Pieces of You, A Thousand Skies Above You and A Million Worlds with You. I absolutely adore this series, Claudia does an incredible job of making something as abstract as dimensional travel seem not only exciting and more than a little dangerous, but also believable. Following the story of Marguerite, an artist who gets drawn into her parents complex world of physics and associated dimensional travel, the story takes us across the planet in both this dimension and the ones next door. Crossing from the ordinary, to the less ordinary, and to the wildly different – this series comes packed with action, romance, family dynamics and enough science to feel realistic. I love that the main character is an artist, it helps to smooth over any potential ‘holes’ in the theories of interdimensional travel and encourages the reader to look beyond the surface of what is first ‘seen’. It’s hard to share much without veering into spoiler territory, but I encourage you to add these to your list – a series that can absolutely be judged by their beautiful covers!
Fierce Fairytales by Nikita Gill has had a place on my shelf since it was first released, it has been passed to many of my friends, rebought after gifting at least 3 times and is one I come back to time and time again. It really nails the feminist retelling of many familiar fairy tales, and in 2024 we need that more than ever. In full disclosure, I do find there is a strong theme that women have to choose between motherhood, marriage and independence, and I don’t agree with that belief – but I appreciate that I am looking at things from a place of privilege so it may feel very different to others.
My all time favourite line from this book is: “Our bones could have been fragmented together from the ashes of the library of Alexandria.” – from the poem The Fable in Thermodynamics. Honestly, it’s the book I wish I had as a teenager but I highly recommend adding it to your reading list, whatever age you are!
I Have More Souls Than One by Fernando Pessoa is a tiny, tiny book that has been sitting on my bookshelf for a long time. If you [like me] have never heard of Fernando Pessoa [born 1888 – died 1935], he was a Portuguese poet who created more than seventy-five alter-egos. Each of these alter-egos wrote in a distinct and different manner from the next. This book contains a collection of poems from three of his most well known personalities. I must admit, when I read it – I hadn’t appreciated the complexity behind the poet and had taken it as simply three different fictional characters. I found it interesting, and it’s well worth a read, a great addition to the Penguin Modern Classics library.
Total heading for new homes: 5 out of 10
A Small Place in Italy is a gorgeous memoir of when Eric Newby and his wife bought a run down Italian house in the countryside and set about creating a home. Published in 1994 but reflecting on their time in Italy in 1967, it’s a personal view into an Italy that likely doesn’t exist anymore – like a view back through time. Eric was obviously a well known, and incredibly talented travel writer, and it’s clear from these pages why. His descriptions of the nearby families, rituals of bringing in the harvest and celebrations in the local towns bring the place to life. I absolutely loved this book, but I don’t see myself returning to it for a reread, so it was passed on for donation.
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin is a short read, filled with vivid characters and detailed world building, so much so that it leaves the impression of a much longer book. Written in 1972, it is as creepy now as I imagine it was on release, if not more so as we’ve seen the development of technology. I first read this book after watching Don’t Worry Darling and I absolutely fell in love with it – there are definite parallels between the two, and both play into the romanticised notion of ‘the good old days when women stayed at home’. Although this was a reread for me, I feel like it’s the kind of book that reveals something new to you each time you come back to it. I would love to see a copy of this with a female written foreword, all the versions I have come across have intros written by men – not that there’s anything inherently wrong with this, but I’d love to get a feminist slant on it. I’ve passed this particular version to a friend, but I have put it on my kindle so I can come back to it. I’d love to pick up a special edition but I haven’t come across on just yet.
Everything I Never Told You is a page turner of a novel, filled with suspense, love, longing and lies. When James and Martin’s favourite daughter Lydia is found drowned in a local lake the family starts to tear apart at the seams. Wrapped up in their own worlds, it’s youngest child Hannah who, in her quiet way, seems to be the only one to be able to grasp the truth. I loved the premise of this story and the familial dynamics are written incredibly well but it’s not one I think I’ll ever come back to. I’d be interested to see a TV/movie adaptation of it as I think the characters would translate well to the screen – and I’d love the opportunity to see more of Marilyn’s views as the story progresses.
There were two this month that were somewhat less enjoyable, the first being Verity by Colleen Hoover, honestly, when it came to writing this post I realised I barely remember it. After looking up a summary to remind myself of the story the general gist of it did come back to me. I recall enjoying it, so it’s not a reflection of the book itself, or the story I would imagine – but, not one that has stuck with me. I should perhaps reread it in the future. In Verity, we follow the story of Lowen, an author commissioned to finish a series of books by best selling author Verity Crawford. On arrival, Lowen finds Verity’s autobiography amongst her belongings and chapters of this are interspersed with the main story. If I recall, the ending is not fully wrapped up and leaves space for the reader to interpret their own conclusions. I do remember it being quite creepy, it was nice to see a change of direction from Colleen Hoover, but there are definitely others of her I have enjoyed more. This was an easy one to add to the donate pile, I’m sure there will be someone who loves it.
The Untethered Soul was a struggle – I really wanted to like this one, on reading the blurb it sounds like the kind of book that would hugely appeal to me. But yet, it was just a struggle from the get go. There are legions of people who love this book, so don’t be put off by my less than enthusiastic summary – it may be that I am simply not yet enlightened enough to fully grasp the concepts. I did love the references to Microsoft Encarta – but perhaps those same references signal it might be ready for an update. I would like to look out more of Michael J Singer’s work to see if there is a better fit for me. Definite donate, I’m sure it will find it’s home.
August was the first month in a while where I felt I really hit a decent pace with reading, I’m hoping I can bring that with me through the end of the year and into 2025. I’m going to need to if I’m ever going to make space on the bookshelves!
Let me know your recommendations.
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