Things I Read In August

Aaaaaand it's September now. I'm not sure how that happened, but here we are and it's basically autumn and just this last week I've been waking up before sunrise, and frankly, I am just not ready for this yet! August was pretty good- it started (more or less) with my sister's wedding, and ended (more or less) with my auntie's hen do because, you know, that's how my life is going this year. In between, I had a couple of Fridays off, one to go and visit my friends in Bristol (the best!) and one to make the most of the bank holiday and to actually see my boyfriend during it because of the aforementioned hen do, and whilst August felt like it was dragging in parts, I think mostly it was just long and full.

I also read some things, because of course I did. Observe:

Firstly, I just want to pat myself on the back for the spine colour complementing this month - it was completely unintentional but also looks really good, so go me. BUT ANYWAY, let's talk books!

French Milk by Lucy Knisley - I seem to be going through a little Knisley revival stage at the moment, or just, you know, I've been re-reading her comics a lot while I'm waiting for her next one (early next year!) This is her earliest (published) book and while I love it a lot, I miss the colour that's in her later stuff. This is still good good book though.

The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante - I finally finished the Neopolitan novels and things did not go at all the way I expected, which I guess is kind of the way of life. THESE BOOKS ARE SO GOOD and I still don't know why and I still mean to write whole post about them, you know, some day or something *mumbles non-specifically*

When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro - I have had this book on my shelves for the longest time, without any real inclination to read it for whatever reason (I think I didn't like the cover?) I've been having a bit of an Ishiguro revival over the last year or so, and in fact I now don't own any unread Ishiguros. This was good, too - a kind of a mystery, along with a dollop of self delusion, and the now to be expected thing where so much is unsaid that you have to fill in the gaps yourself. I think I've said before that this doesn't always work for me within his writing, but in this book, it really really did. Nice one, Kazuo.

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff - OMG this book was so good. I do want to review this one because I've got it into my mad head that I'll review all of the 30 before 30 books I read (we'll see), but I will just say that I read Arcadia and liked it plenty, but THIS I loved and was engrossed by and transported and all those other good things you want from a book. 

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris - Another 30 before 30 book so 'I'll review it later' but this is a very very funny series of essays, even though I did at times sort of wish I was reading Amy Sedaris's essays instead because my GOD she sounds like a character. Very very funny stuff though, and I am here for it.

Paper Girls Vol 3 & 4 by Brian K Vaughan et al - I found these in the library which was very exciting because I remembered really enjoying the first two volumes when I read them last year. Unfortunately I didn't remember much about them, so jumping into volume 3 I was like 'o...kay?' but that didn't really detract from my enjoyment - it's just so nice to read comics where a group of girls are the main focus and even the people they encounter on their accidental time travelling adventures are, usually, women. Also, they're just fun and exciting and perilous and totally reminded me that I need to read the next instalment of Bitch Planet that's just been sitting around my house for ages (no one knows why, really). GOOD STUFF SMASH THAT PATRIARCHY (all male writers and artists...)

And that was August! I supplemented my reading with some yoga (at the start of the month at least, whoops) and the entire new season of Orange is the New Black, plus some Studio Ghibli films. I've also just started watching Sharp Objects and I am TENSE af, so that's obviously super fun!

What have you been reading/watching/enjoying this month?