✨ AUGUST WRAPUP ✨

QOTD: What was your favourite read from August?

Mine was Pantomime by LR Lam!

Books finished: 25

DNF’s: 7

Pages read: 7,981

Hours listened: 62.17

Currently reading:

🎧 House of Frank by Kay Sinclaire (29%)

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august wrapup ☀️

August 2020 reading wrap-up

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern This was a reread in honour of the small paperback edition coming out. Years ago, I did a co-annotation / travelling book project with my copy of The Night Circus and I want to do something similar with this book, so I annotated as I went. Still love this book! Rating: 5/5 stars

The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien I’m (re-)reading the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy with a group of friends at the pace of one book per month. I especially enjoyed the story of Merry and Pippin this time around. Looking forward to what the rest of the mellons have to say about it in our monthly video call. Rating: 4/5 stars

So you want to talk about race by Ijeoma Oluo This is one of those books that is currently almost always sold out at the bookstore where I work, which is a good thing because it’s really great. Oluo seems to have such a strong, nuanced, intersectional view on the entire situation and reading this book was illuminating to say the least. Highly recommended! Rating: 5/5 stars

Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman I absolutely adore Oseman’s Heartstopper comics about Nick and Charlie, two British schoolboys who are very gay for each other. This book is set a few years after the comics, where Nick is about to leave for uni while Charlie still has a year of school to go. It’s mostly a novel (or novella, really), but there’s also lots of adorable illustrations. Rating: 4/5 stars

The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal This is the third book in Kowal’s alt history sci-fi Lady Astronaut series. It’s set on earth and on the relatively newly established lunar colony and deals with sabotage and a polio pandemic, while also leaving lots of narrative room for racial and gender inequality, ageism, trauma and grief. Possibly my favourite so far of the entire series. (Trigger warning: eating disorder!) Rating: 4/5 stars

JOMP Book Photo Challenge

August 31 - Read in August

Not pictured - Audiobooks 🎧

The Wish Granter by C.J. Redwine

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan

Rise of Empire by Michael J. Sullivan

🌠Favourites:

💙 Fantasy - The Lies of Locke Lamora, Rise of Empire

💙 SciFi - Aurora Burning

Day 31: BFTbookchallenge: August Wrapup

August came and went and so it's time for a monthly wrap up. I unfortunately only managed to read 4 books this month, this summer has just not been great for reading as a whole. So it's not surprised I've read so little. However, most of the books that I've read, I've enjoyed! Which is always a plus. See what I've read below!

A Dawn of Onyx by Kate Golden – ✰✰✰

Wrath of the Triple Goddess by Rick Riordan – ✰✰✰ (usually, I give Rick’s work 5 stars because I’m a simp for Percy Jackson, but this latest book, just fell short for me and why did the character's sound younger than they actually are? Percy specifically.).

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter – ✰✰✰✰ (Please do your research on the triggers!!)

- the television - 

I took the month of July off from watching Gossip Girl, mostly because the later seasons of the show are insufferable. But, because I’m a completist, I powered through seasons 4, 5, and 6 in August. The focus on Dan and Blair in the latter half of season 4 and season 5 was honestly delightful (and the only healthy, genuinely loving romantic relationship on the show), but the last three episodes of the season are a goddamn disaster. What did they do to Serena’s character? What kind of ending was that for Dan and Blair? BLAIR WALDORF DESERVED BETTER. 

My outrage may be four years late, but it is mighty. 

While Friends was only supposed to be my bed-time wind-down show, I got caught up in the jokes, characters and Monica&Chandler’s love story and watched seasons 3 through 10 this month. While certain episodes are a lot more problematic than I remember, it is still (mostly) boatloads of fun. My next “Netflix-Bedtime-Story” show was the first season of Don’t Trust the B- In Apartment 23, a bizarre but charming comedy starring Krysten Ritter, Dreama Walker, and James Van Der Beek (as himself). Finally, although I really do enjoy Call the Midwife, it’s taking me forever to get through the series. The show is female-driven and delightful but it is also unbingeable. That said, I managed to watch season two in August. 

- the books - 

After graduation, I splurged and bought myself a big, extravagant present: a mini-iPad. I resisted the e-reader movement for a long time, but I can’t deny their convenience. Thanks to that little device, I’ve been getting way more reading done in unlikely places - . This month: This Savage Song by V.E. Schwab, Sex Object by Jessica Valenti, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han, Mystic Summer by Hannah McKinnon, and Re Jane by Patricia Park. 

This Savage Song is gritty and creepy and has an super original premise. I don’t read much fantasy, but I thoroughly enjoyed the world that Schwab created with this novel. The sequel, Our Dark Duet, is due out in July 2017. 

Sex Object was a supremely uncomfortable, but completely necessary and important read if you’re a woman who spends any time at all on the internet. 

I was first introduced to Jenny Han’s writing with her Summer trilogy (The Summer I Turned Pretty, It’s Not Summer Without You and We’ll Always Have Summer), which I read in high school and loved. However, I haven’t found my ventures into her writing since particularly enjoyable and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before was no exception. The protagonist, Lara Jean, is sweet but I found the majority of the dialogue throughout the novel, as well as the 1st person narration, to be stilted and awkward. I don’t think I’ll be reading the sequel (PS: I Still Love You) anytime soon.

I picked up Mystic Summer off a recommendation from someone on Instagram and was thoroughly disappointed. The characters are infuriating, the dialogue is forced and ending was totally unsatisfying. It was an quick and easy read, but it’s also just... not good. 

Finally, I read Re Jane, which was amazing. The main character is a Korean-American woman in her twenties who becomes a nanny for a wealthy Brooklyn family before a family tragedy takes her to Korea. It’s a wonderful read. 

- the movies - 

Before my sister went back to school, we sat our parents down for a double-viewing of 21 Jump Street and 22 Jump Street. I’d already seen both, but they’re just as funny the second time around. My third movie rewatch of the month was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on the place ride to Toronto. It’s been a long time since I watched the HP films, so it was great to revisit the magic of the first film.