#BookEnds2021: August

How did it go?
I’m back baby! I got up early before work and read most days this month. Whilst I only finished two of the book ends list, I tried many more. I even went into a bookshop a couple times this month and left empty-handed (truly unheard of).

I absolutely adored the queer gothic masterpiece Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier – I couldn’t put it down towards the end. I also loved Yoko Ogawa’s The Housekeeper and the Professor – similar in theme to The Memory Police which I read last year, but so much more life-affirming.

Another highlight was Little Blue Encyclopaedia (for Vivian) by Hazel Jane Plante, which was one of our wedding gifts. It’s an encyclopaedia about a fictional TV series, but it’s also about grief and unrequited love, and about the objects and pop culture that give us comfort when we’re living with grief.

What I read in August 2021

• The Lost Words, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris (not on list, gifted to my husband)
• Love That Journey for Me: The Queer Revolution of Schitt’s Creek, Emily Garside (not on list, preordered Inklings series earlier in 2021)
• Treats, Lara Williams (not on list, bought)
• New Gothic Review, Issue 3 (not on list, online)
• Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier (on the list)
• The Housekeeper and the Professor, Yoko Ogawa (on the list)
• Permafrost, Eva Baltasar (not on the list, book group)
• Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, Emily R. Austin (not on the list, audiobook)
• How To Kill Your Family, Bella Mackie (not on the list, audiobook)
• The House of Former Lovers, Kirsty Logan and Maria Stoian (not on list, bought)
• The Appendix: Transmasculine Joy in a Transphobic Culture, Liam Konemann (not on list, bought)
• Little Blue Encyclopaedia (for Vivian), Hazel Jane Plante (not on list, wedding gift)
  

Total ticked off the list: 23
Total still to go: 72
Full list here.

However… I also gained the following books in August 2021…

• Treats, Lara Williams
• Permafrost, Eva Baltasar
• The House of Former Lovers, Kirsty Logan and Maria Stoian
• The Appendix, Liam Konemann

Next Up…

I’m currently reading Damned by Chuck Palahniuk (on the list), a first hand account of one spoiled fourteen year old’s trip to hell. In between melting fake designer shoes, there’s an interest history of religion and demons.

I have also been listening to The Outrun by Amy Liptrot on audiobook through my library – I’ve been wanting to read this for ages, so was delighted to find it on BorrowBox. It’s one woman’s account of addiction, Orkney and folklore.

The next book I’m spying from my Wedding Library is Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, inspired by William Shakespeare’s son. I loved her memoir I Am, I Am, I Am and how she wrote about life and death, so I can already tell I will like this one.