August found me doing the one thing that I have
struggled to do for a long, long time: actually sticking to a book ban and not purchasing
a SINGLE book. It was hard and I almost failed on a few occasions, but I came
out at the other side with my pockets much more full and my shelves much more
manageable. I set myself the task this month of only reading books that I
already owned and had waiting for me on my shelves and I had quite a good month
of reading.
The first book that I read (and ADORED) was We Are Okay by Nina LaCour, which is arguably one of the books of the year so far.
I reviewed the book in full here if you want to check it out and I thoroughly
recommend a purchase of this one if you’re interested in the YA genre and want
a beautifully written and thought-provoking read. My words don’t quite give
this book the justice it deserves but it truly was something that you have to
read to understand and fully experience.
I was lucky enough to go and stay with one of
my friends in Germany at the start of the month and of course, I took a few
books along for the ride with me. Before leaving, I ploughed my way through
some of the beautiful poems in Sarah Kay’s
No Matter the Wreckage anthology. I love poetry but don’t often get the
opportunity to sit down and get stuck into it so this was a welcome change from
fictional texts.
I started and finished Levels of Life by Julian Barnes
on a train from Nuremberg to Munich (and back again) and like Barnes’ more
famous text The Sense of an Ending, this
was a book that I devoured and loved more than I could describe. I can see
myself jumping onto a Julian Barnes marathon and purchasing some of his other
books when I’m finally out of this
book ban because his style is probably one of the most beautiful I’ve ever come
across.
One of the books I’m going to be teaching
around this year is The Iron Giant by
Ted Hughes. I loved this story so
much: it was funny, warming and just a lovely end to a lovely trip. It was
short and sweet. I did get a few weird looks off people on the train for
reading a kids book, but WHO CARES? Children’s books are for everyone! I can’t
wait to start planning my lessons on this one!
The final book I read this month was another
beauty: The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry. I’ve had this book on my
shelves for a long time and whilst the cover is beautiful, it never really
appealed to me. I bought it on a bit of a whim because everyone everywhere was
going on about it but just threw it on my TBR pile and forgot about it. Having
recently heard EVEN MORE HYPE about the book, I chucked it in my suitcase for
my trip to Germany just in case I finished the other two books I’d packed
(which I did.) I was absolutely blinded by this book. It was beautiful. The
writing style is gorgeous; I was reminded a little of Daphne du Maurier, in
fact; and the storyline moved along at exactly the right pace. I loved the
characters and pretty much everything about it and I’m quite annoyed at myself
for having waited so long to finish reading it. I 100% recommend this book to
absolutely everyone and anyone. I’ll be reviewing in full in the coming weeks
if you want to read a little more about it before making the purchase! Definitely
one of my reads of the year.
What have you read this month?
