Monthly Bookworm Chronicles: Reading Round-Up for September 2024
I love reading lists from other writers & voracious bookworms about their favorite books. It is one of my favorite way to encounter new authors and new ideas while scampering around the inter-webs. In order to contribute to the sea of lists, I am going to be writing a little monthly book-worm round-up of the books I read every month. To decrease pressure for myself, I am including their names, authors and ratings, and then sorting them into categories and not committing to write a specific blurb for each one.
I’m going to start with the general form of “Buy”, “Borrow”, “Bury”. I want to discern between these categories while also naming that… it is so cool that people have different taste in books. There are as many readers & preferences as there are writers & creators in the world! My preference does not need to dictate your own and is not intended to attack or disparage people for loving/liking whatever they want.
Having said that, there are some books that just feel… uninteresting to me. There are others that feel beyond uninteresting and actually evoke some frustration / awareness of the harm that those books could cause in the world. So those are in the “Bury” category. I think some of these are more seeds/compost (as in: something great could grow from them in the future; or maybe their composting could contribute to something new and better growing). Buy means that I loved it so much, I want a copy to fondle, take notes in, and re-read lovingly. Borrow means I wouldn’t re-read but would contentedly recommend to someone (although I like to tailor my recommendations circumstantially. I’m particular like that).
Okay. Without further ado, here is a (very late) September Book Round-Up:
According to my StoryGraph (which I love & is the only way that I can keep track of my books that I read, no matter how many other cute, aesthetic scrapbook-y journal-y methods I try to commit to), I read 21 Books in September and my average book rating was 3.77/5. I read 43% nonfiction and 57% fiction, and my top 5 categories/genres were: Fantasy, Romance, LGBTQIA+, Graphic Novel, and Memoir.
You can also see my “average finish time” is 48 days, which is kinda funny since I read ~100 pages / hour… so I guess I just tend to start books, read a couple pages, enter them into my StoryGraph, and then proceed to abandon them somewhere in a distracted state and pick them up (approximately 48 days later) to munch through them!
Buy:
The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec (4.75 stars)
So fantastical and emotional and poignant. I read this on a week off in Grand Lake, CO and it was magical, romantic, and adventurous. Not your typical romance, would be perfect for folks who enjoyed Circe or Palace of Eros.
An Carow Gwyn by Robin Artisson (5 stars)
Technically I “finished” this book this month, but I have read this book several times and re-visit it regularly because a couple years ago it became super important to my understanding of the world and shaping of my own relationship with Spirit. I recommend this book for folks who are looking to explore their relationship with Spirit as well as learning about how colonization and spread of mono-theistic religions affected folk spiritualities and relationship to the Unseen.
The Little Book of Aliens by Adam Frank (4.5 stars)
One of my favorite things about good non-fiction is how EXCITED the author gets and how they invite you to learn how to get excited about the little things (that often aren’t little at all, once you understand what it means in context). Even if I didn’t love every detail of the book, the contagious enthusiasm and educational nature made it very worth-while. A great read for anyone interested in the study of extraterrestrial life in a scientically-grounded manner.
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell (5 stars)
One of my other favorite non-fiction books of September! I really enjoyed learning and thinking about how language shapes and affects the psychology of cults. I also really appreciated the authors attention to nuance and differentiating between cult and cult-ish… allowing for dialectical thinking and encouraging critical thought in readers.
Portrait of a Body by Julie Delporte (5 stars)
Beautiful… a blending of art & theory & memoir. A queer-coming-out for those who came out later in life.
A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon (4.5 stars)
I love Samantha Shannon’s writing. Honestly, I could have probably rated this higher in terms of stars… but it didn’t grip me in the way her other book The Priory of the Orange Tree did. Having said that: this is queer-centric, inclusive, court fantasy at its best, IMHO. I’m excited to read her other books!
The Weavers of Alamaxa by Hadeer Elsbai (4.5 stars)
The Alamaxa duology was incredible - I highly recommend both the first and this book, which was the sequel. I loved listening to it - loved the narrators and the world-building and the overlaps/parallels to the many liberation movements in our world today.
Wawata - Moon Dreaming by Hinemoa Elder (4.25 stars)
I’m not sure whether this would have been rated as highly if I read it… but I listened to it as an audiobook when I was falling asleep and it was super soothing and I had creative, spiritually fertile dreams. I was left feeling more curious and loving about my relationship with the moon and her many mythologies.
Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne (5 stars)
If you’re curious about my thoughts on this one, I wrote a full review here for your perusal.
Borrow:
Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon (3.75 stars)
This was a fast-paced non-fiction book that I would recommend for people who are looking to jumpstart their creative process or are looking for guidance around how to share their work online. Some people may benefit from buying this book, but most I think could read this book in an afternoon and walk away with some points that they enjoy while leaving the rest.
Ephemera by Briana Loewinsohn (4 stars)
A Gift for a Ghost by Borja González (3 stars)
An Embarrassment of Witches by Sophie Goldstein & Jenn Jordan (4 stars)
note: the above 3 books are all graphic novels! They are all pretty cute and I got them from the local library. I looooove reading graphic memoirs and graphic novels - I feel like it is such an incredible art-form… but these I didn’t have a lot to say about. I would say they’re definitely worth checking out from your local library, if you’re into that kinda thing!
The Complete Curvy by Sylvan Migdal (4 stars)
Spicy and sassy - definitely more of a collection of comics - the overarching plot left a lot to be desired. But it was very queer-centric and sexual/sensual and explored lots of layers of identity and silly space-shenanigans.
The Hidden World of the Fox by Adele Brand (3 stars)
Felt like mayyyyybe it would be more interesting to someone who is living in England? We don’t really have a ton of foxes around me and there isn’t much political commentary around the downside of our fox neighbors, so I wasn’t a difficult sell on the value of foxes and why we should be happy to have them around. I did specifically love that this author said she e-mailed the creators of “what does the fox say” (the 2013 viral song) to ask if it was actually their intention to have the chorus part sound like a fox and ended that chapter by saying that she “still hasn’t heard back” 🤣
Outdrawn by Deanna Grey (3 stars)
I WANNA GIVE GAY ROMANCE HIGHER RATINGS. Specifically, sapphic romances. I really do. I just… it didn’t do it for me. I think the enemy-to-lovers arc felt really stilted and difficult to settle into.
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent (3.25 stars)
This gave Hunger Games and ACOTAR vibes… and I munched right through it, TBH. Having said that… it didn’t feel super original and I didn’t feel excited to read the subsequent books.
Lights Out by Navessa Allen (3.5 stars)
Okay so there were so many weird parts of this book. It got 3.5 stars for me because it was, on some level, kinda sexy? Like… maybe I’ll-talk-to-my-therapist about that kinda sexy. And I really like how consent was foregrounded - even though it was around mask/stalker-related kink. I’d definitely read the content-warnings before engaging with this one.
Bury:
Truly, Madly, Deeply by Alexandria Bellefleur (2.25 stars)
I WANT TO GIVE GAY-ISH ROMANCE BOOKS HIGHER RATINGS (and I will be soooooon actually, since I’m so excited to talk about Palace of Eros in October’s round-up). But… this just wasn’t for me.
The Burnout by Sophie Kinsella (1.75 stars)
Something about the assumption that all you need to heal burnout was a weekend at the beach and banging it out with another burnt-out person… I just… I hated everything about it.
Wrong Bed, Right Guy by Katee Robert (1.75 stars)
So… I do feel like I should have screened this out based on the font, title, cover art… but I did not.
