August 2023 Reading

As is typical, I didn’t get much reading done in August.  I finished three books, two nonfiction and one fiction.

Quentin Bell’s biography of his aunt, Virginia Woolf, was a good read.  The book obviously tells about Woolf’s life, but it also draws a portrait of an era.  Woolf herself comes across as enchanting and flawed and ultimately tragic.  Bell is an engaging writer willing to tell complex tales and to look with reasonable detachment at the deeds of his own family members.  My copy of the book itself was a score from a little free library and it fractured in half.  I may try to find a whole copy to keep (or just keep this one, rubber-banded together, on my shelf.).

 

My church book group is reading Falling Upward:  A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr.  As a group, I think we’re on chapter 3, but I finished the whole thing because that’s how I roll.  This is my first exposure to Rohr.  I came in with high expectations, which may have been a mistake.  I liked his ideas, but his writing made it challenging to tease out what those were.  The book is making for good discussion, though, so on the whole I’d call it a success.

 

The best book I read this month, however, is A.J. Glasser’s Witch King’s Oath.  (Obligatory note:  I know and love A.J.  She is an awesome human.  Go buy her book.  I mean it.)  The book is a complex fantasy novel with lyrical, liquid prose.  The characters stick in the mind long after reading.  A.J. has created a fascinating world and I can hardly wait for the next book!

 

August total:  3

Summer total:  12

YTD total:  55