July has been a strange month. There was a lot of rain. Some very good things happened in our lives and some really bad stuff too.

Bristol Pride was incredible, I am so happy to have marched in the parade with Tim and a lot of our friends. The bi flag painted on my eyelids might have been a bit subtle for most people to catch but the two metre inclusive Pride flag I wore as a cape was not. Apparently 25,000 people joined the march, plus a few dogs – including Beckett. Who did very well considering she’s not a big fan of crowds or noise. But she’s also not a fan of being left home alone for four hours. I think we made the right choice.

I read quite a lot this month (though three of the books were tiny). Without question my favourite read was Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, which is awesome and I shall now recommend to absolutely everyone.

Happy August!

Books read

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Twin girls run away from their small Louisiana town in the 1950s and end up living very different lives, a gap that is compounded for the next generation. This novel explores nuances of race and racism, as well as the price of following dreams and what it means to live authentically. A book with heavy themes that manages to be an enjoyable read.

We Who Are About To… by Joanna Russ
Tim recommended this novella to me a year ago and then when I finally picked it up he winced and said it was a tough read. Which is a fair assessment. I’m glad I did read it, but I’m also glad I wasn’t in a bad place emotionally at the time because this gets very very dark. When a starship explodes, a small group of humans manage to land safely on an alien planet. Stranded in a completely unknown environment with limited food and materials, most of the group want to attempt to start a colony anyway. But one woman rejects the prospect of sexual slavery and suggests they instead face the inevitability of death.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Hot on the heels of Neon Roses last month comes another contender for my book of the year. In 1960s California, Elizabeth Zott is a professional chemist, or at least she is trying to be, but the world – and her employer in particular – is throwing every possible obstacle in her career path. She is unconventional, brilliant, and refuses to bow down and accept the status quo. I loved everything about this book, even the sad and maddening bits, but possibly especially the dog.

The Red Tenda of Bologna by John Berger
Flicking through this slim volume it looks like poetry, but in reality it is fragments of prose – brief, interconnected thoughts about a family member, food, art and a city.

Notes on Camp by Susan Sontag
A pair of essays – one about the definition of “camp” and one about “high” and “low” culture. Both are knowledgable, thoughtful and very entertaining to read. I really must read more Sontag.

Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai
This was sent to me as part of The Good Book Club, run by a local bookshop called The Good Book Shop. It is exactly the kind of novel I tend to be drawn to, though I must admit I might have overlooked this one as it has a very plain solid blue cover. I do like a bit of fun cover design. This is a Japanese novel written almost as stream of consciousness. It’s third person but is following the thought pattern of its lead character Natsumi, a housewife going about her ordinary life in Tokyo. She cooks, cleans, talks to her husband and friends, gossips with and about the neighbours, goes shopping and very occasionally refers to her two children. With minimal events it thoroughly explores the hopes, fears, history and potential future of this woman.

Five Preludes and a Fugue by Cheon Heerahn
Translated from Korean by Emily Yae Won
A chapbook from Stranger Press in their Yeoyu collection. This is a series of letters between two women – a younger woman in Korea and an older woman in Switzerland. Though the younger woman refers to her elder as seonsaengnim, or “teacher”, their relationship is more complex than that, and their shared history is gradually revealed, as are secrets that have been withheld until now. An intriguing, affecting story that did not go where I expected it to.

The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir
Translated from French by Lauren Elkin
A semi-autobiographical novel only recently published for the first time, in which de Beauvoir tries to capture her relationship with a beloved friend she met when she was 9. For a time they were so close they were nicknamed (and referred to each other as) “the inseparables”. Main character Sylvie is fascinated by, probably in love with, Andrée. Andrée looks delicate and has scars on her legs from severe burns, but her temperament is far from delicate. Sylvie learns to question the world around her from Andrée and her family’s apparently carefree Bohemian life and attitude. But as they get older Sylvie discovers that Andrée is far more trapped by convention and expectation than she is. This is a really interesting insight into French society in the 1910s and 1920s.

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney
A YA novel set in a US high school. Quinn is already dealing with romantic and academic troubles, plus bitchy friends who are racist but insist they’re not racist. Now she has lost her super private journal and an anonymous bully is blackmailing her to complete a to-do list that she wrote with no intention of actually doing any of it. Somehow she winds up working with Carter, a guy she considers rude and difficult (but very very hot) to try to figure out who has her journal and get it back. I really enjoyed this. It’s predictable but still a good read.