August 2026 Reading
I finished five books in August. Something must have happened and the "Oh no! Summer is almost over and I go back to school soon!" part of my brain kicked into overdrive. Buckle up.
The Forbidden Garden: The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and Their Impossible Choice - Simon Parkin
A deep history of the siege of Leningrad and the botanists who stuck to principles in the face of starvation to preserve a vast collection of seeds which could prevent another famine after the war. The book was bleak and highlighted the horrible decisions each person in the narrative had to make just to survive.
Sea of Tranquility - Emily St John Mandel
I flew through this book. Four stories of people who have a strange experience linking them together. Each character has their own interpretation based on other current events leaving you wondering how they link up. As the book progresses, each story is woven with the others leading up to a satisfying conclusion.
Relegated: One American's Pints-and-Pies Journey from the Top to the Bottom of English Football - Todd Smith
I'm a sucker for travel memoirs and this one did not disappoint. Each chapter features a city and a club ranging from the top of the English Premiere League to the bottom of the non-league teams in tiny towns across the country. It stands out that American sports allow teams to "be bad indefinitely" because there are no consequences for being bad.
The book is full of moments that made me laugh and Todd Smith does a great job of sharing the people and stories of each stop on his trip to life.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
I'd never read the actual book, but this was a fun one to read out loud to my kids. Wonka is wild and the kids are even more obnoxious in the book, making sure that everyone understands how to behave when you're invited to a magical factory.
It's definitely filled with some dark moments because it's unclear if the kids will be okay, and at the end, they're left with some lasting marks of their choices.
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
This book...what do I even say about this book? I think I was missing a huge chunk of Soviet backstory to really understand it while I was reading it. After I finished, I did a ton of reading about Bulgakov and Soviet-era repression of art and literature. Having that background made many of the scenes make more sense.
The devil and his entourage come to Moscow and start causing havoc in the literary community after the editor of a literary journal argues that Jesus - and by extension, the devil - don't exist. Taking offense, they begin to draw out the hipocrisy and dark behaviors of the literary elite, making them repent of their choices.
The book is dark. There is humor, despair, horror, and surprisingly, some redemption in the end. I'm not sure I enjoyed the book, but I'm glad I read it.
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