Books Read in August 2021!

Posted On August 30, 2021

Hi Readers! Another month up & gone! I READ SEVEN BOOKS THIS MONTH & even more exciting is that I loved 5 out of those 7 books of those 7 books which rarely happens to me.

~~THE ONES I LOVED~~

~~BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD & BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD: TALES FROM THE CAFE by TOSHIKAZU KAWAGUCHI~~

I have always had a soft corner for Japanese authors. I don’t want to be obtuse here, but I feel that no one writes Magical Realism better than Japanese authors. After Haruki Murakami, this author is the only other Japanese author I have read & I completely enjoyed reading both these books.

The premise is so intriguing where you can travel in time when you are in the Funiculi Funicula Café. But there are many rules to it which almost make you not want to do it. Nevertheless, we see a lot of characters who travel to the past & also a few who travel to the future. It’s a fun & enjoyable reading experience which becomes sentimental & humorous & endearing at times. I have rated Before the Coffee Gets Cold at 4.5/5 stars & Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café at 5/5 stars!

Check out the full review here!

~~CITY OF GIRLS by ELIZABETH GILBERT~~

I LOVED City of Girls. I like big books & I cannot lie. I truly enjoyed reading this long novel. I loved how much the characters came out alive on the page & in my head. The writing was so impeccable that I felt I was a part of the group at the Lily Playhouse. It had a mixture of vibes from Sex and the City, How I met Your Mother & Novels written by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

Given all its faults and missed connections, I treasure this book and this story. City of Girls in three words is Bold, Fun & full of Drama, which makes it a fascinating unputdownable book to read. No matter your preferences, I think you should read City of Girls. At its best it gives you an illusion of a fun & perfect youth, and at its worst it’s still two parts of a not so connected entertaining story. I have rated this novel at 4/5 stars!

Check out the full review here!

~~CONCRETE ROSE by ANGIE THOMAS~~

Angie Thomas’ ‘The Hate U Give‘ is one of my favourite books! I did not enjoy her second novel ‘On the Come Up’ quite as much. But, she struck a gold one again with ‘Concrete Rose’. I think I was a bit biased because this was the prequel to The Hate U Give. While I loved that book, I did read it about 3 years ago, and so naturally I had forgotten all about it. This worked out well, because that way, the entire story of Concrete Rose was a surprise with no spoilers. After I completed reading Concrete Rose, I went back to read my review of The Hate U Give & everything connected. It was a fun reading experience! I have rated this novel at 4/5 stars!

~~MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER by OYINKAN BRAITHWRAITE~~

I wanted to nip in one more book for August, so I picked ‘My Sister, the Serial Killer’ & I was not disappointed. The story is right there in the title of the book, but it goes so much deeper than that. Set up in Lagos, Nigeria we see the relationship of 2 sisters, Korede & Ayoola. We understand the way in which women are repressed & their goal in life is to marry well & settle down in life. It also showed how biases can run deep in different ways in different communities.

I also enjoyed the serial killer part of it, which was just so casually written that its subtlety made it more effective. I have rated this novel at 4/5 stars!

~~THE ONES I HATED~~

~~UGLY LOVE by COLLEEN HOOVER~~

I am not sure where I stand with Colleen Hoover. This is the third book I have read of hers. I did not enjoy reading ‘Verity’, and then I loved reading ‘It Ends With Us’, and now again I couldn’t even finish ‘Ugly Love’. I just didn’t find the writing interesting or gripping. The characters had potential, but they never seemed real enough to me. I dropped it halfway because I just couldn’t torture myself by continuing to read it just for the sake of it. I did read its ending online, and I am glad I left it halfway. I have rated this novel at 1/5 stars!

~~MALIBU RISING by TAYLOR JENKINS REID~~

This one was a big disappointment over which I am very sad. I have loved the last two books of Taylor Jenkins Reid; ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ & ‘Daisy Jones & The Six’. But, in Malibu Rising, I just didn’t feel any depth with any of the characters, nor did I enjoy the story. Even though there were moments where I felt a lot of misery & hope for some of them, but my feeling overall was that I just didn’t care about any of them. I have rated it at 2/5 stars!

Check out the full review here!

Currently I am reading ‘Shivaji, the Great Maratha’ by Ranjit Desai, and also ‘The Switch’ by Beth O’Leary. After reading these two books, I will complete the biography & romance genres from my 2021 Reading Challenge!

Until next time,