August

1. Neversink by Barry Wolverton
• For a book about auks & owls, this took such a serious turn so quick! I actually really enjoyed it, especially once the action started building. Wolverton drops foreshadowing around like nobody's business, so it's never quite unpredictable, but a good read nonetheless.
2. The Dating Project (2018)
• I was unaware millennials are supposedly largely clueless about dating. I mean, most of my friends are pretty high functioning adults in terms of dating, I'd say. Whether they're actually dating at all or not, I think - or I'd like to believe? - there's an understanding of that script for forming relationships securely in place in our social script banks. This film makes it seem as though hookup culture has completely eclipsed the dating of yesteryear, but in truth, I don't think it quite has. Or at the very least, from my vantage point, I see people who use hookups as a stepping stone to find someone to date.
• Overall: disappointed in the film.
3. Rome: A History in Seven Sackings by Matthew Kneale
• Whoa. There's an extensive Sources & Bibliography at the back. And I don't mean just a list of everything, but Kneale takes care to actually do an annotated selection of the bibliography, as an "if you're interested in reading more about this particular part of whatever, see here". This in addition to the works cited, of course.
• I actually really enjoyed reading this! I probably won't be able to list the seven sackings in a week (can I even do it now?), but that last paragraph or two in the seventh chapter (Nazis) actually really got me - I could feel myself about to tear up. And this little bit in the afterword about whether Fascist monuments should be left as they are or not:
• "As well as impracticable, it would be wrong for Fascist Rome to be erased, as it should be present in Rome's historical layers, but there is a case for some of the more ostentatious monuments to be pulled down a peg or two. Perhaps they could be surrounded by another, even newer layer of Rome, in the form of a little disrespectful street art" (Kneale, p.356). A really nice way to say, GRAFFITI OVER IT.
• There is one bit I found rather irritating though: Kneale's constant reminder in chapter 5: Spanish & Lutheran, that Pope Alexander VI was formerly Rodrigo Borgia (why yes! of infamous Borgia fame. We know; you've told us. Scandalous.) But apart from that, an engaging history of Rome framed around seven of its sackings. And Kneale does acknowledge from the start that this is of necessity an incomplete history, in the sense that a complete history of Rome will take volumes upon volumes and be nigh impossible to read through. So for what it sets forth to accomplish, I think he did a fairly good job.
4. Pages for You and Pages for Her by Sylvia Brownrigg
• Pages for You read as a sad, but incredibly beautiful telling of the relationship between young undergraduate Flannery and the older Anne, in an unconventional romance that persisted beyond the pages. The love between Flannery and Anne was palpable, and their inevitable parting, though sad, hinted throughout, did not present itself necessarily as an end so much as a continuation in a different capacity: so this chapter of their lives may have ended, but that does not mean Anne and Flannery are cut off from one another, as their relationship with one another informs them for the rest of their lives (or so you feel by the end). They learn much about each other and about themselves through their relationship and come out of it changed. In a way, it rewrites the script that relationships have to follow: there's a flexibility in it that isn't present in much of popular heterosexual romance fiction that presents itself as more reflective of the different ways in which love can be experienced and lived.
• I'm not sure that Pages for Her is quite necessary as a sequel, but I did enjoy the way Brownrigg expressed the capacity of both Flannery as well as Anne to love each other, continue to love each other throughout those twenty years of distance between them, and have that love not imply anything false about the love they share with their respective partners and others in their lives.
5. The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain
• A really cute short meet-cute romance! It's kind of like an appetizer, but it was just right for what I was looking for (summer makes me want to read sappy romances).
6. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
• You know, I like del Toro's movies, but at the same time I'm never completely wowed by them. I love the lush scenery and the visuals, but it's always the plot that leaves me wanting a bit - though in this case, I'm probably missing quite a bit of historical context in terms of what is happening when this takes place, and how the escape to another kingdom ruled in a different way might relate to the political events taking place at the time.
7. A Separation by Katie Kitamura
• The use of run on sentences contributed to the feeling that you were reading a stream of consciousness, but it was neither here nor there in that respect: you knew what you were reading must be trying to mimic the flow of thoughts, and yet it was also at once too structured, and you're left reading something between thought and conscious narration.
• Overall, I enjoyed the mood and the mugginess of the entire novel, where she's neither here nor there entirely and can't seem to make up her mind (and when she has made it up, the choice is taken from her), but I wouldn't recommend it.
8. Happy Down Below: Everything You Wanted to Know About the Penis and Other Bits by Dr. Oliver Gralla
• This was such a let down! Gralla tried to strike an amusing tone, to the detriment of the amount of information covered as well as to the clarity of some parts, and the whole book in general was poorly organized. The tone switches from overly academic where it talks about neurotransmitters and what drugs do what, though it doesn't go in-depth enough for you to get a really good grasp of these parts, to conversational and trying-too-hard humour. If you want to learn about "the penis and other bits", I'd advise you go looking elsewhere.
9. Victoria & Abdul (2017)
• I'm very interested to know which parts are fiction and which were real.
10. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
• I kind of prefer the illustrated volume I read earlier this year (Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland), but that's mostly because of the illustrations, I think. As for this volume, I found that the voice changed a few times between some of the tales, and that threw me off a little bit. Overall, I enjoyed it, since I like the Norse myths to begin with, but I feel like a more comprehensive volume would have sated my curiosity a bit more.
11. The Awkward Guide to Getting Lucky by Summer Heacock
• Funny at parts, but the main character is pretty annoying for exactly the reasons listed in the speech that Butter gives towards the end to her. It was alright - a mindless read that fulfills what I look for in my summer novels.

Reading/Listening to:

1. Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold by Stephen Fry
• So I was unaware of who Stephen Fry is (and remain somewhat so), and picked this up solely on the basis that it was a retelling of the Greek myths, because some retellings are amazing (see Lore Olympus, for example! In love with those illustrations, the use of colour, the style, and the pacing! Basically everything about it), and this did not disappoint.
2. Marriage, a History: From obedience to intimacy, or how love conquered marriage by Stephanie Coontz
• I borrowed this way back when I was reading a lot about infidelity and dating customs, a number of months back.
3. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
• So far pretty interesting. I'm reading the ebook, so the formatting seems a bit off. I'm interested to see how it's organized on paper.
4. The Secret Life of Canada podcast
• I love this. So. Much.
• So... we own Bear by Maryan Engle. So obviously I've put it on hold. I'm pretty sure the cover is the more demure Group of Seven-esque painting in a box, but I'm holding out some hope it's the original.