We knew August was going to be packed and indeed it was. We bookended the month with holidays celebrating weddings. It’s been a lot of fun and I am exhausted. I need a quiet September.

Somehow I did manage to read eight books in August, three of them by women in translation, most of them excellent.

Also, Tim and I celebrated 22 years together. Which is a lot of years. More than half my life. Go us.

Books read

Unladylike Lessons in Love by Amita Murray
I forget who recommended this book (probably on Instagram) but I’m very grateful as it’s a lot of fun. Inspired by Georgette Heyer and what the TV series of Bridgerton did to diversify a largely straight white genre, this is the first in a Regency romance series. Lila is the daughter of an English earl and his Indian mistress. She has never been truly accepted by London society but found her niche as hostess of an exclusive gambling club. When attractive eligible Ivor accuses her of being his father’s mistress, she is too angry to deny it. But then they are repeatedly thrown together by the crime of the season.

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo
Translated from Korean by Jamie Chang
This is a funny sad novel about one woman very close to my age and her un-extraordinary life. Through this everywoman Cho reveals the ever-present inequality, misogyny and harassment that women in South Korea continue to have to deal with.

Un Amor by Sara Mesa
Translated from Spanish by Katie Whittemore
This is an evocative, claustrophobic novel that starts strong and then gets a little odd. Nat moves from the city to a small village after losing her job. She rents a dilapidated house from a dodgy landlord, adopts a dog that’s too traumatised to provide the comfort she had hoped for, and attempts to reset her life. But in this place everyone knows everyone’s business and Nat trusts no-one but can’t help creating relationships – possibly not the most healthy ones.

Hotel Florida: Truth, Love and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill
This is a month-by-month account of the Spanish Civil War, told through the lens of three couples. There’s the American writers Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway. The Paris-based photographers Gerda Taro and Robert Capa. And then the press office chiefs Arturo Barea and Ilsa Kulcsar. This is a pretty dense read, packed with detail about the war, so I had to take it slowly, but I did really get a lot out of it.

Mrs Hemingway by Naomi Wood
I needed a fiction break from Hotel Florida and this seemed perfect. It’s a novel about the four women who married Ernest Hemingway, in each case concentrating on the end of their relationship with Hemingway. So we begin with Hadley Richardson, holidaying in South France with Ernest, their son Bumby and her husband’s mistress Pauline Pfeiffer (Fife). It’s sad and funny and really gets into Hadley’s perspective while holding Fife at a distance. Then 80 pages later we’re in Fife’s head, and it’s her turn to see her marriage falling apart. I really enjoyed this and I appreciate that it doesn’t excuse Hemingway his repeated bad behaviour.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey
This is such a simple idea for a novel and it is done perfectly. In each 24-hour period the astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station experience 16 sunrises and sunsets as they orbit the Earth. In 16 chapters we follow six occupants of the ISS – from America, Russia, Italy, Britain and Japan – as they go about their daily tasks. It’s profound, philosophical, educational and beautiful.

Divorce by Kim Soon
Translated from Korean by Emily Yae Won
This is a short story in which a woman sits waiting in a municipal building to sign the paperwork to finalize her divorce. While she waits she reflects on her marriage and those of her parents and a close friend from work. This isn’t cheerful but it’s very well written.

The List by Yomi Adegoke
Ola and Michael are getting married in one month. They’re Insta famous, #CoupleGoals. Then they wake up to a barrage of messages about #TheList. Someone anonymous has posted a list of abusive men in journalism and Michael is on it. Ola is a journalist for a feminist site. It’s not only her instinct to believe women, it’s what she has built her career on. But this is Michael. Dare she even ask him? Adegoke follows both Ola and Michael as their lives fall apart. This is a novel about uncertainty and grey areas, packed with nuance and question marks. It’s also a lot of fun.