What a month. Our Denmark holiday dominated August, in a good way. You know how often within a week or two of coming home from holiday, that holiday feels like a distant dream? I’m glad to say I haven’t yet reached that stage.

The other big moment this August was our anniversary. Tim and I have been together 24 years now. Hard to believe, though I will admit that it feels like a very long time since I was 21.

I read some great books last month. My favourite was probably Waist Deep by Linea Maja Ernst. I was also impressed with Vida by Marge Piercy, though it took some time to get into. It’s very tense – not recommended on a stressful day.

On holiday we went to the cinema to watch Eleanor the Great, Scarlett Johansson’s first feature-length film as a director. It stars 96-year-old June Squib as a woman who moves back to Brooklyn after decades in Florida. In an attempt to make friends, she tells a lie that spirals into massive consequences. It’s funny and sad and sweet, and June Squib remains remarkable.

Books read

I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
A YA novella to start the month. When Ben comes out as non-binary they are thrown out by their parents. They move in with their estranged older sister, start at a new school and begin to make new friends. But they’re still only out to their family and the pain of being misgendered makes school and friendships difficult. This is a really well told story with a sweet romance and even sweeter sibling relationship.

Freezing Point by Anders Bodelsen
Translated from Danish by Joan Tate
This 1969 sci-fi novel begins in 1973. In this near future, a young man is offered a radical new solution to an inoperable tumour. He can choose to be cryogenically frozen until medical science is capable of curing him. When he is woken, the world is radically changed. This is a fascinating view on the future, somehow both idealistic and dystopian. Apparently, Bodelsen mostly wrote crime fiction, but I can only find one more of his books translated into English. Which is a shame as I enjoyed this.

The Faces by Tove Ditlevsen
Translated from Danish by Tiina Nunnally
Another Danish modern classic, this semi-autobiographical novel follows a writer, Lise. Paranoia and voices in her head lead to her being institutionalized, a terrifying world where it’s unclear what is real. The writing is brilliant, I felt I was truly sharing Lise’s experience. But that is not a pleasant experience. I was reading this on holiday and a Danish woman spotted it and told me it’s her favourite book. Which is cool, but I just can’t enjoy such a stressful read.

Waist Deep by Linea Maja Ernst
Translated from Danish by Sherilynn Nicolette Hellberg
Five friends from university spend seven summer days in a lakeside cabin. It should be an idyllic, relaxing time with their favourite people. But desires, anxieties and the realities of adult life are putting everyone under pressure. No-one is saying what they really think or feel. This is exactly the kind of novel about middle-class arty people in their 20s that can be deeply annoying. But Ernst managed to make me care about these people. There’s a lot of discussion of gender identity, with real nuance.

Vida by Marge Piercy
At the start of this novel, Vida is a left-wing activist who has been on the run from the law for a decade. She is always on the move, changing her appearance and name, constantly weighing up the risks she is taking to be fed and sheltered. Through flashbacks, Piercy fills in the background of Vida’s activism, and when she crossed the line from marches and pamphlets to break-ins and bombs. This is a fascinating book about complex characters fighting with everything they have for what they consider to be the right thing, and what happens when people draw different lines in the sand. It’s also extremely tense.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
In 1991 ten-year-old Marie and her mother take in a young woman fleeing the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests. Ai-ming brings stories of her family under Chairman Mao. Through these two families we view decades of China’s history. There are themes of music, friendship and betrayal. This is a complex narrative, with a lot of characters and a proto-novel within the novel. I honestly found it a bit confusing to follow at first. I was about halfway through before I properly got into it – and then I was absorbed.

Friends and Lovers by Nolwenn Le Blevennec
Translated from French by Madeleine Rogers
Three women who have been friends for years go on two life-changing holidays together. A couple of years later, they’re no longer friends. Our narrator Armelle ruminates on these friendships, what held them together and what broke. It’s a treatise on womanhood, motherhood, choosing what kind of person you are. The three all write for the same arts magazine, and have some painfully pretentious conversations. It’s partly an act, they’re all pretty self-aware. This is very well written and sometimes funny, but these are irritating people.

Ice Cream for a Broken Tooth by Robin Ince
Thank goodness for Robin Ince, giving me a guaranteed positive end to the month. This is badged as “poems about life, death, and the odd bits in between”. It’s Ince’s first poetry collection, snapshots of his thoughts and feelings. Sometimes funny, sometimes angry, mostly thoughtful and kind – just like Ince.