August Wrap-Up
Welcome to my August Wrap-Up! To avoid lamenting how the months just seem to keep vanishing (I think we all feel vaguely the same about this) I’ll just jump straight into a few nice things that happened in August.
First of all, August is my birthday month! While at 22 I am no longer as excited about the day as I was as a child, it’s still nice to have cake. And some more cake. I also went to the cinema for the first time since February and man, I have missed it a lot! This month I had a lot of interesting conversations with friends and while it hasn’t been the best month for my mental health, it sure was a good one.
Enough rambling, let’s get into the books I read in August.
The Gilded Wolves – Roshani Chokshi
I read The Gilded Wolves mostly because it’s one of those books everyone keeps talking about! The sequel is coming out later this year and somehow knowing a book has a sequel motivates me to read it. As someone who enjoys heist stories and magic, The Gilded Wolves did not disappoint. Honestly, I do love myself a group of outcasts with special talents and this book certainly delivers on that front. I wrote a full review of it, which you can find here.
Beach Read – Emily Henry
Another book that just kept being recommended to me! I was lucky enough to be provided with an ARC by the publisher via NetGalley and devoured this book in a few days.
The premise immediately caught my eye; two writers writing romance and dark literary fiction meet and decide to make a bet to switch genres and end up falling in love. What’s not to love? Beach Read was the exact summer read I was looking for, it’s both funny and sweet and reading about writers is just very, very fun. I also wrote a full review of it, which you can find here.
Radio Silence – Alice Oseman
This was a reread for me because Radio Silence is the August pick for the Crusty Book Club, run by Chanelle over at chanelletime on YouTube!
Radio Silence is one of those books that deserves to be read in one go. It’s a story about friendship, art and the liminal space of anxiety after graduating from high school with the rest of your life ahead of you. Alice Oseman manages to capture that particularly strange time perfectly and despite being quite a bit older than the characters, I still found myself relating to the anxiety. The future is scary but we’ll be okay. If you want to read my full rambly thoughts, my review is here.
Percy Jackson and The Last Olympian – Rick Riordan
I did it! I finally read the Percy Jackson series! A big whoop whoop to me, it only took me over a month but let’s not talk about that.
Overall, I had a lot of fun with this series. It has a particular style of humour that I would have loved as a child but enjoyed maybe even more now, as an adult. Admittedly, I never had a Greek mythology phase and most of my knowledge about it comes from my theatre studies degree (yes, I’m a theatre kid, are we surprised?). But Rick Riordan used the mythology in fun ways that had enough of the originals left over to give me a basic understanding of everything. I really, really liked how the Series ended and how the Big Final Showdown was resolved! So if you haven’t read it yet but are interested in some fun and light reading, give it a shot.
Gespensterjäger auf eisiger Spur – Cornelia Funke
Gespensterjäger auf eisiger Spur is, as you can probably tell by the title, a German book! (The English title is Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost, if you were wondering). Cornelia Funke is the author who defined my childhood more than anything else, so when I saw that my library had this audiobook available I took a trip down memory lane.
This book follows Tom, a boy who discovers a ghost in his basement. It turns out that the ghost is actually quite nice and has been thrown out of his home by a mean ghost. They enlist the help of Hedwig Kümmelsaft, an old lady who specialises in ghost hunting and try to capture the evil ghost! It’s the first book in a series that I loved as a child and it stood up surprisingly well now.
My favourite part is the intergenerational friendship Tom and Hedwig develop, it’s an aspect not often depicted in literature and it always warms my heart.
That’s my August Wrap-Up! How was your reading month, did you discover or rediscover a new favourite? I hope you have a lovely day,
One Comment
linesandlifemiriam
I’m still so happy you enjoyed Beach Read!!
And again, hearing your thoughst on The Gilded Wolves definitely makes me want to pick it up sooner rather than later! I’m definitely the same, when there’s a second book I’m much more likely to pick up the first 😀