August Bookish Wrap UP
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ID: Graphic with a grey background. The words August Bookish Wrap Up are in the centre and surrounding them is a picture of some books, a cup of tea and some gold stars
Hello friends,
It’s time of the month again, well not exactly as I normally do my Bookish Wrap Up’s the first week of the new month. But I have a Book Tour Book Review for you all the first week of September, so I’m bringing you my wrap up a week early again.
It’s been an amazing reading month and I was so surprised to see how many books I’ve been able to read this month as I was gathering them all up for this article ~ 7 in total at the time of writing this and part way through my 8th! Also only two of these books come under the Sci-Fi genre, the rest are mainly contemporaries. I did plan this to be the case as I have a few contemporaries I wanted to get ticked off my TBR and August seemed like a good month to do that. But yeah, it’s still surprising that I read so many non-sci-fi books in one month!
So let me tell you all about them…
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
This is the second book in the Wayfarer Series and like the first book, it’s a very quiet sci-fi as it’s very focused on the characters and there’s not a massive amount of action that you would normally have in “pure” sci-fi novels.
ID: The book A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers. The book has two silhouetted people looking at the vast night sky on the cover.
Rather than following to the crew of the Wayfarer as in the first book, we follow a couple of characters that are featured toward the end of the first book ~ Pepper and the ship’s AI Lovelace. It’s also set almost immediately after the events of the first book, so due to spoilers, I won’t go into too much detail as although we follow different characters, Lovelace’s story starts within the first book and I don’t want to give anything away.
This book is duel perspective and one perspective is set in the past as you learn about the background of one of the characters and gain some understanding as to their actions in the present that’s shown within the other perspective.
I will just say, while I enjoyed this story and found the characters interesting, I did find myself missing the crew of the Wayfarer and all the way through I was hoping that they’d show up. I haven’t picked up the third book yet but I am planning to read it in the coming months.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
This was my book club’s Optional Buddy Read Book for August and I really enjoyed this one!
It follows an Artificial Friend named Klara and the girl who she is taken home by, Josie. Klara is such an interesting narrator; she’s so observant of the world around her and her poetic language makes you see the world slightly differently as well. Essentially, through Klara, this book is kind of a study on humans and the world.
ID: The book Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. The book has a red cover with a square of blue in the middle, with a small half circle of yellow to the right ~ it looks like the sun.
There’s a surprising representation of undiagnosed illness in this book and boy did it catch me off guard! The conversation that the topic of illness fully comes out is set around the person who is ill wanting to go somewhere but is unable to because of their health and that hit really close to home for me. The frustrations of all involve from the person who is ill wanting to be okay to go and another character being frustrated that the ill person is saying they’re fine when they’re not ~ I’ve been there, as I’m sure many of my chronically ill friends have and I think because I wasn’t expecting it, it hit me harder than I was expecting.
I also found that by the end of the book, I was a lot more attached to Klara than I thought I was and I really did care what happened to this Artificial Friend. I actually discussed this fact with my book club and someone likened it to the villagers in Animal Crossing. Many players of that video game become attached to them {myself included} even though they’re not living, breathing lifeforms and I think my attachment to Klara is along the same vein.
Overall, this book is defiantly worth the hype it has been getting and one I’d recommend.
ID: The book Being Amani by Annabelle Steele. The book has a pink cover with an illustration of a black girl, Amani, smiling.
Before I get into what this book is about, I will just say that it comes with trigger warnings for domestic abuse, attempted rape, suicide and depression. There’s actually a warning included on the back of the book to let readers know that it deals with sensitive issues ~ something a lot of books should have to be honest!
This story is told from the perspective of Amani and follows her as she tries to build a new life after she and her mother leave her Dad, who has been physically abusing Amani’s mother. Life seems to be going well enough until her Dad comes back into her life and drops a few bombshells on her. Amani is then faced with some difficult decisions and making the right ones for her could maybe help her find some closure and move on.
This book tackles some important issues in a really sensitive way and handle them well. Amani is just one of those characters that you want to root for and just want to see things better for and her mother as well. While not the easiest of reads, I did find it was a quick read and I feel an important one and I’m glad I finally decided to pick it up.
Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney
This book follows Quinn, a High School student {US High School} who is a compulsive list maker, she even has a dedicated journal for her lists ~ she finds making lists help her cope when she’s feeling stressed or anxiety. These lists vary from incredibly personal secrets to lists of her favourite films. Essential, the person Quinn is is contained in the pages of this journal.
ID: The book Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney. The book has a blue and yellow cover with an illustration of a black teenage girl in the top left corner and a black teenage boy in the bottom right.
However, when her journal goes missing, she begins receiving messages telling her that she has to complete one of her lists ~ the one she really doesn’t want to complete. But if she doesn’t pages from her journal will be posted onto social media! As the story progresses you follow Quinn as she not only begins to complete certain things on this list but also as she finds friends in people she’d never think would be her friends. Quinn as a main character is really endearing and the growth she goes through within the book feels authentic as she learns to cope without her journal.
There’s also some discussion of race and racism within this story as Quinn is just a handful of black students at the High School she attends. I felt the topic was handled really well, even when calling out other characters for being racist and not understanding the issue fully.
I’ll be honest, this book surprised me as I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did and I read it a lot quicker than I thought I would because I just couldn’t put it down!
Clap When you Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
This is another book that definitely lives up to the hype is has received since being published and another one I’m so glad I finally picked up!
The book Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. The book has a pink and yellow cover with two black teenage girls on it. You can only see half of each girl’s face ~ one on the right and one on the left.
The story, written in prose, follows two young women, Camino and Yahaira, both in their final years at High School. Camino lives in Dominican Republic and Yahaira lives in the New York. They are sisters who have never met and only learned about each other after their father dies tragically in a plane crash while on his way to spend the summer in the DR with Camino.
This is the first time I’ve read a novel in prose and was a little unsure going into it if I’d be able to follow the story and know what was going on. But Elizabeth Acevedo’s writing is so beautiful and straight forward that the story is easy to follow and you can feel the emotion of the girls as they grieve for their father while processing the fact they are sisters.
While I enjoyed both perspectives, I think I loved Camino a little more that Yahaira. It may have been because her situation for far more desperate than her sister’s once her father is gone and I just wanted the best for her and for things to turn out okay in the end…
I’m not going to tell you if it did, as that would spoil it. All I can say is, if you want to find out, you’ll simply have to read it.
A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall
As the title suggests, this book was definitely something a little different.
ID: The boo A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall. The book has a pink cover with an illustration of a man and woman sat on a bench at the bottom with lots of little pictures of items relating to the story itself.
It follows Lea and Gabe, who are both in College {USA} The story is told from about 14 different perspectives, none of which are actually Lea and Gabe but it really works well. You get to know them through the eyes of the people around them ~ from their friends, siblings, even the bench they sit on and the Squirrel Lea talks to have a say in this book! All these perspectives can see what Lea and Gabe can’t; they should be together, even their regular Starbucks baristas knows it!
Although you have so many perspectives, at no point did I feel overwhelmed or forget who was speaking. This is down to Sandy Hall’s writing style, it’s a really easy and quick read and I was drawn in so much that I actually read this virtually in one sitting.
It’s just a very cute, fluffy, light-hearted romance that really surprised me because it’s definitely not the type of book I usually pick up but I absolutely adored it!
Ten Steps To Us by Attiya Khan
I was gifted an e-arc of this book and will be taking part in the book tour, which is starting next for this book. So I won’t go into what this book is about during this article as a full review is coming next week.
Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam
At the time of writing this, I’m over half way through this book and I feel I’m into the story enough for it to be included in this wrap up.
The book follows two family that are essentially thrown together in one house after there’s a disaster of some kind that leaves New York City in darkness. Clay, Amanda and their children have left the world behind and are on holiday in the countryside, when late one night a couple, G.H and Ruth, arrive at the house, saying they own the house. The first meeting of these families is full of suspicion on the side of Clay and Amanda and the topic of race is brought up a bit because G.H and Ruth are black, while they are white. Are they suspicion because of this or just because of the situation in general? But with the internet and TV down, Clay and Amanda can only trust the word of these strangers that something is going on outside.
ID: The book Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam. The book has a pale creamy/pink cover with illustrations of deer in silhouette. The title is written in red.
While there have been hints of what is going on else where, from what I’ve heard from others who have read this book, you never really find out exactly and the ending isn’t nice and neat ~ which I know is just going to annoy me but a few in my book club have read this book and my interested has been peaked to the point where I needed to read it.
The writing style has taken me a little bit to get into and I found it was a slow read for the first 50 to 100 pages. I think if I had been reading this via Audiobook, I might have been even more lost, as there’s no proper character association as such when there is dialogue. what I mean by that is, there’s no “character name said” when someone is speaking, it’s just implied by the text surrounding what’s being said as to who is likely speaking.
It’s definitely more of a study on human nature, with the story focused solely on the 6 characters rather than the plot being driven by events happening and I can really feel the frustration of the characters because they don’t know what’s going on either. I’ve got just less than 100 pages to go and it is definitely an interesting read and one that’s different from anything I generally pick up. While it’s classed as a Modern Contemporary, I feel there is a slight Thriller feel to it as well connected with certain aspects and events that take place.
But in general, it’s another one that I’m glad to have finally picked up as its been sitting on my bookshelf for a while now.
So there we have it, all the books I read in August!
I’ll be sharing my September over on my Social Media later this week and it’s kind of a special one. You see, my book club turns one year old this month and to celebrate I’ve put together a little Read-A-Thon for all those in it. So I’ll be sharing the books I’m reading, along with the prompts, so if you’re not already following my socials, please consider doing so. I’m never not grateful for the privilege to actually run a book club but for it to have been going for an entire year, is mind blowing to me and I’m never not grateful for all those that support it and me.
I hope August was a lovely reading month for you all as well. I’d love to hear about the books you’ve read or if you’ve read any of the books I’ve read this month, I’d love to hear your thoughts on them in a comment below.
Stay Safe. Read a Book.
L x
