What I read in August (2024)
Seven books this month. I thought I’d been reading slowly but that’s still almost two books a week. I am getting quite a lot of writing done as well. I’ve been reading a bit more slowly, spending more time in meditation / contemplation / journalling/ attuning / thinking etc - all those good things - and less time marinating in other people’s words (which is one of my favourite things to do).
The photos above are of my brother Bill V in 2008 on one of my visits to see him in San Francisco. We were making our way either into or out of Chinatown. Neither of us had a cell phone let alone a smart phone with Google maps on it, although somewhere in that very city perhaps, it was being worked on or dreamed up. I spoke to my brother over video this week for the first time in about three years (we think). He lives outside of San Francisco now in a very different climate, one where, if he doesn’t water the trees and crops in his garden over summer, they will die. It was nice to talk to him and so in honour of that, I’ve chosen these photos, shot on slide film with my mom’s Canon TX. (He isn’t giving me the finger, that’s just how he skims things sometimes).
Happy reading - AMB
All That We Own Know by Shilo Kino (NZ, fiction)
Otherhood: Essays on Being Childless, Childfree and Child Adjacent Anthology edited by Alie Benge, Lil O’Brien & Kathryn Van Beek (NZ, essays)
On Call: Stories From My Life As A Surgeon, A Daughter and A Mother by Ineke Meredith (NZ, memoir)
Amma by Saraid de Silva (NZ, fiction) - this was the best book I read in August. Such a beautiful interwoven story.
Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma by Peter A. Levine (only got through half so far)
Feel Free by Zadie Smith (UK, essays) - I love Zadie Smith’s non fiction writing so much. Some great essays in here.
Hagstone by Sinead Gleeson (Irish, fiction, female environmental artist living on a remote northern island) - a very good book!
I did also read a bunch of online essays —
I really enjoyed My Inheritance Was My Father’s Last Lesson To Me by Alexander Chee
An interview with Saraid de Silva in two parts (author of Amma, my favourite read of August)
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/07/09/portrait-saraid-de-silva-by-anna-rankin/
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/07/10/portrait-saraid-de-silva-part-2-by-anna-rankin/
A Woman and a Philosopher: An Interview with Amia Srinivasan (a book I read last month of which I’d like to reread several essays of)
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2021/09/22/a-woman-and-a-philosopher-an-interview-with-amia-srinivasan/
And a bunch of Melissa Febos’ Essays. I can’t get enough of her writing. Her next book comes out next year and I can’t wait.
https://www.melissafebos.com/essays
Zadie Smith’s book of essays Intimations (I read this really beautiful collection in the last month or two) inspired me to read some lockdown essays:
Ottessa Moshfegh Lockdown Should Be Easy For Me So Why Is It Like Doing Time?
Fran Lebowitz Is Never Leaving New York
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/fran-lebowitz-is-never-leaving-new-york