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July Bookshelf: What I Read in July (and what I’d say you can skip)

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré was my favourite read of the…

July 31, 2020

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"𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏: 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒉 𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒆𝒙𝒚 𝒌𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏"... So Miranda Hobbes from Sex and the City famously said about Halloween costumes.
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Well, this year and on a particularly dark day in American politics, I'm feeling pretty happy about owning witchiness, especially in the way its portrayed in The Once and Future Witches! 🧙‍♀️🦇🌙
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Set in New Salem in 1893, The Once and Future Witches follows the lives of the three Eastwood sisters, who are determined to fight for their rights (and the rights of other women) by discovering and re-igniting the lost art of witchcraft.
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This is a really satisfyingly long, spooky read, interspersed with dark little fairy tales. I loved the Eastwood sisters as characters, with each sister falling into one of the female archetypes of Maiden, Mother and Crone.
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If you're looking for another world to get totally lost in right now, which still gives you hope for the future of this one (that would be all of us - right?), this would be a good pick. 4/5
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#theonceandfuturewitches #alixeharrow #magicalrealism #witches #spookyreads #octoberreads #booknerdigans #witchreads #fantasybook #hocuspocus #witchybook #witchyvibes #halloweenreads #fallreads #currentlyreading

I'm nearly a week late 🍁but my September readin

I'm nearly a week late 🍁but my September reading recap is finally up on hester.co. This month (well last month but let's not split hairs) I LOVED The Undocumented Americans and think it should be required reading leading up to the election, as well as Transcendent Kingdom, Zadie Smith's essay collection Intimations, and lest you think this is ALL VERY SERIOUS, you should definitely pick up super-scary thriller The Chestnut Man and give your brain a fun break with American Royals which asks "what would happen if George Washington had become America's first king, instead of the first president and had really hot descendants?" 🧐🤨🤔Here's the roundup of the loves, likes and meh's...
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Loved 💕
The Undocumented Americans
Intimations
Transcendent Kingdom
The Chestnut Man
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Liked 👍🏼
Little Secrets
The Year of the Witching
Don't Look for Me
American Royals
Majesty
Grownups
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Meh's 😐
Practical Magic
One by One
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@hester #septemberreading #septemberbookshelfs #septemberbookpicks #booksofinstagram #septemberreads #majesty #americanroyals #theundocumentedamericans #littlesecrets #transcendentkingdom #thechestnutman #intimations #don'tlookforme #badbitchbookclub #literaryleague #bookstagram #bookstagrammer

Driving me batty since 2010🦇. Now that it’s o

Driving me batty since 2010🦇. Now that it’s officially fall I’m going to be doing ALL of Pinterest, in my usual half-arsed way. Bets on how long the bats will stay up before the rain starts knocking them off?

We're all Anxious People right now, so this book f

We're all Anxious People right now, so this book felt like a very on-the-nose read for September. The author, Backman, found fame for A Man Named Ove, and Anxious People has a similar vibe - quirky characters ✔️ charming coincidences ✔️ everyday small town Swedish setting ✔️ etc.
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Swipe for the full prognosis. Unpopular opinion because I know so many Bookstagrammers who have LOVED Anxious People, but for me while there were some beautifully poignant moments and some really clever "oooh" moments (especially around a play on Stockholm/Stockholm Syndrome) it came down just on the wrong side of saccharine for me. I think in these current dark-feeling times, I need either unbridled escapism or grim realism, but a sweet "all people are really wonderful underneath" sentiment feels hollow to me. And this affected my enjoyment of the book and whether I found it believable and meaningful. 3/5
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I'm curious, are you also struggling to separate reality from your reading (or other aspects of your life) at the moment? If so, what's working for you to prevent you from total life disenchantment?
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Trigger warning: Suicide
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#notjustaprettybook #morebookslessalgorithm #readinglife #booktography #morebookslessstress #booksbooksbooks #miamihome #dogsandbooks #dogsbooksandcoffee #miniaturedachshundsofinstagram

This week my kids went back to school every day an

This week my kids went back to school every day and it was glorious. There was time for catching up on work, making a dentist appointment, and reading, with five full glorious child-free hours each day alone and unencumbered (@nickysayers I’m not sure I’ll ever say that again without thinking of your essay!).
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I wasted huge swathes of time too. I pottered, I listened to podcasts, I watched RHONY, I moved things around from one room to another then back again and bought pumpkin spice cookies at Trader Joe’s. Life still definitely isn’t normal, but I’m appreciating the little steps, even knowing it’s likely we’ll be stepping backwards again before this all ends.
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Now I just need my husband to go back to work so I don’t have to listen to him on conference calls every hour of the day. 💀
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Currently Reading: Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi. It’s not the book I thought it was going to be, so I’ve been adjusting my expectations and taking my time with it. The perfect book for this week really!
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I’m also obviously still drinking ice coffee here in South Florida - when in the year do you switch to drinking hot coffee? ☕️
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#miamihome #miamibookstagram #notjustaprettybook #diversespines #ownvoices #bookenthusiast #readinglife #booktography #morebookslessstress #morebookslessalgorithm #booksbooksbooks #bookstagrammer

“You won’t find gold panning in fuckboy creek”.
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When No One Is Watching is one of Fall’s most hyped book releases, described as a cross between Get Out and Rear Window, and written by a Black female author (thrillers are a VERY white category!). The story of a historically Black Brooklyn neighbourhood undergoing rapid gentrification, the main character Sydney starts to suspect something more sinister is going on, as one by one her neighbours go missing.
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When No One is Watching is told in alternating chapters between Sydney’s point of view and Theo’s, her white neighbour and love interest. Sydney is an amazing character - nuanced, funny and relatable. I loved the descriptions of her feelings and struggle with mental health, while the white characters in the novel remained much less dimensional (I assume deliberately). The book acts as social commentary, with any parts that would normally seem ludicrous in the context of a novel, a powerful reminder that these events have all happened at one time or place or another.
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It’s not really a thriller in the traditional sense, and the social justice messages aren’t subtle, but I’d definitely recommend giving it a read. 3.75/5
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#whennooneiswatching #septemberreads #readdiversebooks #diversespines #septemberbooks #morebookslessalgorithm #bookstagrammer #alyssacole #thriller #septemberthriller

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