It’s been 2 weeks since I posted anything here and it hurts my heart a little. I love writing and blogging but given the chaos of the past couple of weeks, I just wasn’t able to. And at this point, I can’t or rather, I won’t say that I will be more regular because I know that something else will come up that will peel me away from here. Honestly, managing 3 different social media profiles is taking all my energy and when you factor in the chronic pain? Hah. Someone up there is having a hearty laugh at my expense. You’re welcome, whoever’s-up-there!
Anyway… So I decided to do a little wrap up and tell you what I read in August 2023. Even though I read only 7 books, there were some solid heavyweights in there that are now my favorite books of all time. I just realized as I wrote this that in my August 2023 reading wrap up video that went up on Wednesday (you can watch it here), I said I’d read 6 books, forgetting the book that disappointed me the most among this lot. You’ll see which. 😛
Here’s what I read in August 2023:
1. Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Sutanto
This is a murder mystery with an opinionated and judgmental but well-intentioned Chinese auntie at the helm. I’ve written a full review of this book here on the blog. If you’d like to go check it out, here’s the link: Vera Wong Review.
The writing is witty and funny and the way it all builds up is entertaining as hell, leaving you wondering when the shift happened and why you suddenly want to protect that aloof woman. If you haven’t read this book already, please do, because Jesse Q. Sutanto is a frigging genius!
2. Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon
This book is a short one but so, so important!
In here, Alok Vaid-Menon makes so many points about sex and gender, how society and people in power see them, how they will go to any lengths to keep their prejudices instead of accepting that every person is different from the next. As I finished this book, I sat there, speechless but also bursting with emotion because there’s so much the author invokes with their words. Everyone must read Beyond the Gender Binary – plain and simple!
This was my first 5-star read of the month. ❤
3. The Radleys by Matt Haig
This is about the Radleys, who live in a small town trying to go about their everyday lives. But there’s something different about them. They have secrets, like every other family, and one day, the daughter returning home from a party does something that threatens to blow their cover.
Matt Haig is one of my favorite authors of all time but this book had me going: WTF? The book was a little too long-winded and yet, in true Matt Haig fashion, he managed to make me emotional. I really don’t know how he does it but hey! I’m not complaining!
4. San Sattavan: Ansuni Dastaan by Ashraf Jamal
A historical fiction about the early Indian independence struggle, this book is written in Hindustani and starts off a few years before the 1857 rebellion and continues on to a couple of years after. Some known freedom fighters, some heavyweight influential people, and some unknown characters come together to show us the true meaning of unity. It is a relatively short book, but very impactful and manages to raise those feelings of patriotism in you. I just wish people would remember that our strength is in unity, not in communal hatred.
I did a spotlight video for this on my channel where I expand on the book (in English). Here’s where you can watch it: San Sattavan Spotlight.
5. In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune
This is the book that I forgot to add to my August 2023 reading wrap up on YouTube and understandably so because it was such a disappointment! TJ Klune is one of my favorite authors of all time and yet, this concept of his icked me out to no end.
This is the story of a world where Gio, a robot, is raising a human, Victor, away from the hullabaloo of the world. Victor and his friends bring home a decommissioned robot, Hap, from a scrap yard and fix him up. But Hap and Gio have a history and things are about to get complicated, with Gio needing saving.
The whole man-machine romance made me super uncomfortable, especially now that we’re in a world where AI-replacing-humans is a terrifying, realistic fear. Combine it with the cheesy, cliché writing style, the 400 pages seemed a lot longer and strenuous to get through. It’s…strange.
6. Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang
This is a book that I finished 2 weeks ago but one I’m still thinking about because of everything it encapsulates. What I wrote here after finishing Babel was: “5 STARS!!! I’m not ok!” and I think that holds true even now. I did a full reading vlog for this book. If you’d like to go check it out, here’s the link: Babel Vlog.
R.F. Kuang brought language, translation, and colonialism together and gave us Babel, a book that strips all the colonial performances and lays bare the motivations behind them. Although it does slow down in the middle, overall, it is brilliant and a necessary sucker punch to the gut.
7. Vincent & Sien by Silvia Kwon
We know a lot about Vincent Van Gogh’s life but one of his only romantic relationships hardly gets a mention in his introductions. This book is about Sien Hoornik, a prostitute who Vincent rescues from the streets, how they fall hard and fast in love, how they discover things about each other, and how eventually, reality comes knocking.
Silvia Kwon is a sympathetic narrator to both sides, telling us about Sien’s exhaustion with the unfair patriarchal society and her exasperation with Vincent on one hand, and Vincent’s torment as an artist and single-minded focus on all things art on the other.
If you’d like to know more about Sien and Van Gogh’s life in The Hague, this is one book you should definitely pick up!
So that was my August 2023 reading wrap up. Have you read any of these books? What did you read in August 2023? Let me know in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you!
If you’d like to watch my wrap up instead, where I forgot there were 7 books on the list, here’s the link: August 2023 reading wrap up.
I’ll see you in the next blog post.
Until next time, keep reading, and add melodrama to your life! ❤
The Melodramatic Bookworm 