August Wrap-Up and September Goals

August reads

August Wrap-Up

• Finished: 4
• Started but not finished: 2
• Total pages read: 1,977
• Average rating: 4
• Book bought: 8

It almost felt like I didn’t read anything at all last month! I think that was because I finished ten books in June and had quite a hefty schedule with Jane Austen July that finishing only two contemporary novels and two nonfiction books felt like nothing. But I did read almost two thousand pages, and two of the books I started last month are quite long (I won’t be able to finish them until early October). I also took a week of vacation when I read a lot less than normally (you can find a vlog of my combined writing retreat/summer vacation here).

I finished two contemporary novels. Tilly and the Bookwanderers by Anna James (4/5 stars) was a cozy and whimsical middle grade fantasy about girl who can travel into books. A Thousand Heartbeats by Kiera Cass (3/5 stars) was a Young Adult fantasy fairytale with warring kingdoms and enemies to lovers. Find out more on what I thought about those books behind the links. The two other books I finished were nonfiction (see below for mini reviews), and I’m in the middle of reading Fyodor Dostoyevksi’s The Idiot and a nonfiction book about Finnish history Suomalainen historia by Perttu Immonen.

 

If Walls Could Talk by Lucy Worsley

Lucy Worsley’s If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home (*Amazon affiliate link) takes you through the history of the bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen. I love the accompanying documentary series and have watched it probably four or five times by now, so I was excited to read the book. And not for nothing. The book is full of historical facts and tidbits that I loved learning about.

The only problem I had with the book was that it kept jumping from one topic to the next. There were a lot of random facts that were only barely related to the matter at hand, such as ending the discussion on midwives with an out-of-nowhere mention that home births are not allowed in New York City. Because the book tries to tell the history of the home from medieval times to the modern era, it only gives a very broad strokes view of history. But if you’re interested in an introduction to the history of the (British) home, I still highly recommend this book.

 

Who I Am by Melanie C (Chisholm)

Who I Am (*Amazon affiliate link) is a memoir by Sporty Spice Mel C. I was never a huge Spice Girls fan, but growing up in the nineties it was impossible to miss their cultural significance. I read Geri Halliwell’s memoir If Only earlier this summer, so when I spotted Mel C’s biography in the library, I decided to check it out as well. It was interesting to see how Melanie’s account of the events slightly differed from Geri’s, and how she described their early years. That was the most interesting part of the memoir for me, although I found her struggles with self-esteem and eating disorders touching. Would recommend to Spice Girls fans and maybe also to casual listeners as well, if you’re interested in reading about how women in pop culture were treated in the late nineties.

 

September Goals

September Hopefuls

My goal is to finish four books and continue reading two that I will finish in October. Two of them are contemporary fiction books. First, Dayane de Oliveira’s Meet Me Halfway. I picked up this debut contemporary romance a few years ago, and it’s been sitting on my kindle app ever since then. Now it’s finally time to read it. The second is Axie Oh’s The Girl Who Fell beneath the Sea. It seems to be an Asian-inspired fantasy novel, and I have high hopes for it after loving Elizabeth Lim’s Six Crimson Cranes duology.

Two are nonfiction books. First is Anne Ancelin Schützberger’s The Ancestor Syndrome: Transgenerational Psychotherapy and the Hidden Links in the Family Tree. Okay, so this book has a scary-sounding subtitle, but I’m actually reading it purely for fun. This book was referenced in one of the study books I read for a university course, and the concepts discussed in it sounded so interesting that I’ve been wanting to read this for years. I’m thinking that it might give me some ideas on how to build better characters and their back stories, as well as help me think about how my characters interact with their family members and how their families affect them.

The last book I want to finish is Umberto Eco’s How to Write a Thesis. I found this book as a pdf while I was writing my thesis. I guess I should have read it back then, but better late than never, right? I’m also continuing with two books from August, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot and Perttu Immonen’s Suomalainen historia.

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Want to know more about my thoughts of my August reads and September goals? Check out the video below!

 

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