Books Read in September 2023!

Posted On September 28, 2023

Hi Readers! Didn’t we arrive at the end of September in the blink of an eye? It seems so unreal how quickly this month has passed me by. Here I was celebrating my 9^th blogoversary on 2^nd September, and now we are close to 2^nd October. Nevertheless, it was an exciting month! I read THREE BOOKS across 1200 PAGES in September. A lot less than I want to, but I did like the books that I read. Check them out below and also find out why the month was exciting for me!

~~AFTER THE QUAKE by HARUKI MURAKAMI~~

I have come to absolutely love Murakami’s short stories. I don’t always remember the stories, but I always remember how they make me feel. In After the Quake, we have a collection of 6 short stories, with a little touch of relevance towards the earthquake in Kobe in 1955. But, in another way, it also reflects upon the quakes in relationships. Almost all the stories involve divorce or separation, which is a form of quake in itself. This duality of the breaks is explored in different ways in all the stories. I have rated After the Quake by Haruki Murakami translated by Jay Rubin at 3.5/5 stars!

You can read the full review here!

~~THE COVENANT OF WATER by ABRAHAM VERGHESE~~

I love reading big books, and this one was on my TBR was on the shortest time because I just couldn’t wait to pick it up and be immersed in the 700+ pages of fiction. For the most part, I loved the book. It’s a unique story with memorable and flawed characters with good redeeming qualities. I finished reading this a while ago and still have not been able to write a review. I really do want to write one because I have a lot of thoughts to share. This will be out for you soon, I promise! I have rated The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese at 4.5/5 stars.

~~BEFORE WE SAY GOODBYE by TOSHIKAZU KAWAGUCHI, TRANSLATED by GEOFFREY TROUSSELOT(BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD #4)~~

Before the Coffee Gets Cold is one of those series that will always have a special place in my heart. The nature of storytelling by exploring the toughest and saddest human emotions with a touch of time travel is simply impeccable. Each of the books have moved me to tears until the fourth book. I started reading this book when I was in a reading slump. Luckily the book won over the slump, but I don’t think it won over me. I kept reading it with ease like I always used to, but somewhere along the lines, I never found the usual charm that surrounds these books. The themes of death, grief, regrets and second chances are prevalent, but somehow the feelings never reached me. Maybe I will reread this once again when I am in the right frame of mind, because it truly saddens me to rate a book in this series at lower than 4.5 stars. I have rated Before We Say Goodbye by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Translated By Geoffrey Trousselot at 3.5/5 stars. Review to follow soon.

~~SEPTEMBER READING STATS~~

One amazing thing from reading this month is that I read all physical books that I own. There are still over 100 books in my bookshelf to be read, but I am still glad of this infinitesimal progress.

~~LIFE LATELY~~

Slide 1: September was exciting! I celebrated Mindscape in Words’ NINTH BLOGOVERSARY! I obviously shared the achievement here and on socials. I also celebrated with Sushi and Cheesecake.

Slide 2, 3, 4: I met two of my darling friends, Mrinalini and Poonam after over nine months! I wore a banger outfit and took over 500 photos the entire day! We went to Neeta Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre for two events. One of them was the Infinity Mirrored Room, which was stunning. Totally Instagrammable. Second was an art exhibition called ‘Run as Slow as You Can’ by Toilet Paper. I loved this one because it was completely bizarre, loud, colourful and at the peak of weirdness.

Slide 5: We celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi, so I visited my friend Suruchi’s home and my relatives.

Slide 6: I cooked twice on the weekends. One time I made bread pizza which was yum. And, second time, I made Veg Ramen, which took four hours and eventually did not turn out as delicious as I was expecting. I also visited Bangalore on a solo trip towards the end of the month, but I will probably cover that for next month’s wrapup.

Slide 7: I found this app called Remini that generates AI images based on the photos you share. I had way too much fun with it.

Us Swifties also got served with Taylor being herself at the VMA awards. And then The Eras Tour is coming to theatres worldwide, including India!! What a time to be alive! I watched a lot of great web series, of which my favorites were The Lincoln Lawyer and Guns and Gulaabs. It completely bummed me out ow disappointing Sex Education Season 4 was. All the movies that I watched were boring, except Love at First Sight, which was the kind of romcom you just watch with a stupid smile on your face the entire time. So, that’s all!

I am currently reading The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman, which is the fourth book in The Thursday Murder Club series. I will post those two reviews soon!

Until next time,