August Reading Wrap Up

August became the Pride Month of my summer. There was my local Pride event mid month, and I also went to see Pride: The Musical at the National Theatre on a delightful date night with my girlfriend soon after.

I felt honoured to be asked to run the Storytime at my local Pride! I knew I was their second choice – I’d originally been asked to facilitate the Storytime of an external organisation – but the Pride coordinators later expressed how thrilled they were with my efforts. I’d put so much work into making the event welcoming and fun for all. I’d reserved so many wonderful books to be read on the day, using that research to also create resources for library users wanting to find children’s books with LGBTQIA+ representation, and I hosted an Activity Station with worksheets and colouring-in for kids and families which was away from the buzz of other Pride events. It was wonderful and so rewarding to be part of this community effort and be able to proudly read stories celebrating love and being yourself to local families. I had some great interactions with some of the children and their adults, too. I hope to be asked back again next year when my knowledge of children’s literature (and how to put on great events) has grown even more!

I also got to celebrate some queer history this month when I went to the National Theatre with my girlfriend to see Pride: The Musical. I love the 2014 film, and the musical was very much the film but on stage. There were all the favourite scenes and iconic lines, with a few added extras as well. The character of Jonathan was performed even more flamboyantly than the original and made it a real party!

Reading-wise, I got through a lot of books this month! Many of which nicely linked to the celebration of queerness, friendship, and community that August had become for me. This included some children’s books from the library to help expand my literary knowledge, as well as some fab books that were either lent or gifted to me by friends.

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This Feast of a Life by Cynthia So (reread)
I was inspired to reread this book after reading Chinese and Any Other Asian, which, among other things, explores connecting to heritage through food. This Feast of a Life also does this, but via fiction.
Auden and Valerie are both teenagers in ESEA families living in Oxford and finding ways to connect with family members through food. Auden is coming into their non-binary identity, starting a food blog to test out their new name online and document some family recipes and the stories behind them. Valerie has recently lost her mother who was also the cook in the household. After coming across a restaurant run by another family of Hong Kong heritage, and then Auden's blog, she decides her and her dad should learn to cook and love food again together. Auden and Valerie become friends and navigate the crushes they each have on the other while collaborating on restaurant reviews for the blog.
These queer characters sensitively push each other to "want better from the world." There's also a non-linear exploration of grief with Valerie:
"But she feels so close to it now. Womanhood. The notion of growing into someone like her mum blossoms at the back of her throat. She could hold her mother in the shape of herself for the rest of her life."
The MCs from So's previous book make an appearance. Elsie and Joan are still a couple, now in second year at university, and Elsie is using they/them pronouns. It's lovely to see these characters become inspirations for others.
I am a fan of So for their lyrical writing, although there's not as much of it here as in If You Still Recognise Me. But it does make an appearance:
"It tastes like comfort, that feeling you get when you're in someone's arms and you just know you belong."
The author's voice also shines through in Auden's writing:
"That's what I love about her. She's a mountain, she's a lake, she's wildflowers and overgrown fields. There's no straight road forward with her. Sometimes you have to dive. Sometimes you have to climb. Sometimes you go in circles. And sometimes you sit back and admire the view, and realise there's no need to get anywhere in particular just yet."

Proud of Me by Sarah Hagger-Holt ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
In the lead-up to my local town Pride and the Storytime I've been asked to put on at the event, I've come to the realisation that I really haven't read that many LGBTQIA+ children's books. I therefore want to make it my mission to read a bunch of these we have at the library and expand my knowledge, starting with Proud of Me by Sarah Hagger-Holt.
The protagonists of this book are in year 8 and have very year 8 problems - making friends, being embarrassed by their parents, navigating their growing independence - but, despite being way past this age, I really got into it; one train journey flew by as I became lost in the story.
We follow Becky and Josh who are 'almost twins'. They have two mums and the same donor dad (who's not in the picture). The book flicks between each of their POVs. Josh wants to find out more about his dad and potential half-siblings. And Becky is realising she has a crush on Carli, the new girl at school. As the blurb reads: "Becky and Josh both want their parents to be proud of them - but right now, they're struggling to even accept themselves."
I found this book to tackle big themes in wonderful, age-appropriate ways. I even found myself learning a thing or two!
The story explores the complex emotions of being in a queer family and why the MCs generally try to hide that fact at school. The author also brings in homophobic views in the form of Carli's parents, with the narration beautifully explaining to the reader why their actions are not kind (there's some brilliant myth-busting) and we see the teacher calmly deal with the issue.
There is a heart-warming scene near the end when the Pride group gather to demonstrate the allyship they know there to be at their school. So many of the students get involved and are happy to be photographed with queer-affirming messages to be displayed in the corridors. It was a lovely reminder that bigots are only a loud minority.
If I needed any more proof that children's literature is for adults too, this is it! I will be recommending Proud of Me to the kids at the library and reading more Sarah Hagger-Holt books myself in the future.

Public Library and Other Stories by Ali Smith ⭐️⭐️⭐️
My mum passed this book onto me after doing a clear out of her shelves. It's obvious why the title made her think of me. After a skim through, though, I'd already got everything I would get from this book so, I too, will be passing it along.
This is a short story collection that is interspersed by various people's thoughts and anecdotes about public libraries.
I found the first couple of stories unexpectedly depressing - and even disturbing - so I skipped through most of the others. I also never quite got the connection the author was presumably trying to make between the short stories and comments on libraries.
I did enjoy the story The Art of Elsewhere - about travelling to be a different person or escaping the judgement/questions you get by being somewhere you're known. That story even made me giggle a bit.
But the part that interested me about the book was the library anecdotes. These are some quotes I made note of...
"There was a scheme where you got points for taking out books and when you reached a certain number of points, the prize was that you got to help out the librarian tidy up the shelves. We all wanted to do that. [...] The librarian was canny."
"It was an independence thing for sure [...] We'd throw our bikes down outside its doors - I remember that like it was part of it, and that we didn't have any money, but we didn't need money: here transaction was a whole other thing."
"Libraries have always been a part of any civilisation, they are not negotiable. They are part of our inheritance."
"A library card in your hand is your democracy"
"Libraries represent a serendipity of learning. It's as if some internal compass draws you to areas which you never imagined visiting. At eighteen I started a degree in chemistry but didn't feel entirely at home in the subject and found myself repeatedly gravitating towards the small philosophy section in the library. Before the first year was out I'd left to study philosophy instead [...] libraries can lead you astray in the best possible way."

I Want to be a Wall (Book 2) by Honami Shirono and translated by Emma Schumacker ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
These are the next chapters of Yuriko's - an asexual woman's - and Gakurouta's - a closeted gay man's - life in a marriage of convenience.
The opening scenes are about how the two of them met. They were originally set up by concerned family members via a match making session, of which no marriage conspired, but conversation flowed easily. Jumping forward again to six months into their marriage, we see them now settled into home life together.
I love how much they both care about each other and they want to make their marriage work. In this book, Gakurouta encourages Yuriko to take a trip to see an exhibition she clearly wants to go to and he plans the whole trip and goes with her, which was very sweet. And in return, Yuriko is so happy when Gakurouta gets to know one of her friends who becomes a person he can talk to - about being gay and other things. There's also a bit about how they've chosen to keep up their dinners together and take turns cooking - an arrangement which has led them to learn more about each other and stay connected.
The whole I Want to be a Wall series explores the (non-existent) boundaries or friendship. In this book, Yuriko has a guy friend she hangs out with often. From the outside, it looks to others (including Gakurouta) like romance, but Yuriko explains that they're close because of shared queer experiences and she's comfortable being physically affectionate with this friend because she knows that those actions won't be read in the wrong way.
Another part I enjoyed was when Yuriko's obsession with BL is looked at more closely and asexuality is compared to sweetness: that even people who don't experience sweetness can enjoy desserts for all its other components - flavours, aesthetics, the enjoyment of others.
"I think she doesn't want romance or sexual contact for herself, but in others, it's a brilliant sight in her eyes. It's like she sees all those bonds throughout the world as beautiful, precious things."
This continues to be a delightful story with wonderful (aro)ace rep. I look forward to finishing the series with book 3.

I Want to be a Wall (Book 3) by Honami Shirono and translated by Emma Schumacker ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I think my favourite book in this series is book 2. It took me a minute to engage in book 3; I didn't think this story would have anything left to say going into the third and final volume. But then it ended up surprising me as it explores the later steps on the 'relationship escalator,' those after marriage.
Yuriko and Gakurouta entered a marriage of convenience/platonic marriage to please family, but now they are married, they're being pushed to have kids. Book 3 demonstrates the never-ending pressure to conform and how Yuriko and Gakurouta support each other in the life they each want and are building together.
"Please stop asking me to live anyone else's life but my own."
"There's no such thing as an ordinary happiness. Falling in love, getting married, becoming husband and wife, having children, spending the rest of your lives together. I think we might have been enchanted by the form of happiness that most people have, but aren't we plenty happy ourselves? Is getting married and having kids the key to instant happiness? Life isn't as simple as that."
"Those of us, on the other hand, who find living there [the relationship escalator] a burdening, suffocating experience, should not force themselves to stay there. They should embark to new places in the world."
The epilogue even mentions how "lately even people in their late twenties and thirties are starting to choose group living situations. I think that's nice."
I love the I Want to be a Wall series for how poetic it is - the words, but also the timing and framing of the illustrations. And it has a wonderful ending. I think it's great (aro)ace representation and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to see themselves or better understand an aroace person in their life.

The Other A in LGBTQIA+: An Introduction to the Aromantic Community, in Our Own Words by AUREA ⭐️⭐️⭐️
It is nice to see more aro-focused books emerging in the world. The only other non-fiction book specifically about aromantism I've previously read is Hopeless Aromantic. The more books there are about aro experiences, the less each one will carry the burden of representation.
I thought this book was okay, but I didn't ever really vibe with it, and everyone at book club also agreed. It felt like each section would apply to different readers and therefore not all of it is relevant and engaging to any one person who picks this book up. The lack of commas and editing in places bugged me too.
But The Other A does do something different to Hopeless Aromantic as it doesn't just give readers information, but asks you questions, encourages you to go out and find other resources, and has reflection prompts at the end of each section.
I don't think I'd recommend this book as a whole, but I might lend my copy to people with a section or two marked. Because it does have good content, specifically lists, including how to call out microaggressions and things for medical professionals to be aware of.
This book also sparked two interesting conversations at book club:
For some of us at book club, this book was the first time we came across the term 'aplatonic'. Reading about this identity caused resistance for me because so much of ace and aro culture is about having strong friendships and community, but being aplatonic goes against that. I asked at book club: “maybe it's not possible to accommodate everyone in all queer or even aro-specific spaces. Do you think that's true?” And we all saw that we'd drawn a line on what is a 'normal' experience just like allo people do when they exclude aromantism, and that actually we can only draw that line for ourselves.
We also talked about how the book felt like it was created by those more online. It was suggested that maybe it should have been a website instead, but others pushed back on that saying that a book will last longer than a webpage, preserving aro history, and books tend to be seen with more authority than anything online.

The Secret Sunshine Project by Benjamin Dean ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is a wonderful children's book! Given the story has child protagonists, a classic villain, and the book contains short chapters and some illustrations, at the library I'd recommend this to 7-12 year-olds, but as an adult, I also really enjoyed it too.
The Secret Sunshine Project follows 12 year-old Bea and her family. It's about the meaning of Pride as well as working through grief.
Bea's older sister, Riley, is a lesbian and they have family friends who are a gay couple. As a family they went to London Pride last year, but lost their dad shortly after. Bea and her sister see Pride as the last day they were all happy. When they all have to move into their Gran's house for the summer as they can't afford to stay in their family home, the plan to return to London Pride gets crushed. No one is happy because Gran lives in a tiny village and Bea and Riley think it will be miserable. But then Bea makes new friends and together (with the help of a drag queen) they work to put on a Pride in the village, while battling the evil woman who's trying to stop them along the way.
I love the representation of pride as a celebration and a demonstration for rights. Another stand-out thing for me was how this family use colours to express emotions when it might otherwise be hard for children of that age (or anyone) to put feelings into words.
Quotes I love:
"It's not fair. Some people just expect you to stay in this little box, and the moment you step out of it, the moment they figure out something about you is different, they want to squash it. I just don't understand why some people can't let everybody else live the life they want to."
"Pride has always been about acceptance, love, family and friendship [...] but we mustn't forget the core values of Pride itself - to fight for the equal rights of those who aren't afforded the humanity they deserve. We all deserve. We should be able to love whoever we love without fear, and nobody should ever have to feel like they are not worthy or valid. Because we are all important. Each and every one of us."

The Arsenal Stadium Mystery by Leonard Gribble⭐️⭐️⭐️
One time when we I was out with a friend, they spotted this book in a charity shop and, knowing I'm an Arsenal fan, pointed it out to me. I don't usually read murder mysteries, but this one was calling to me, after having sat on my shelf for a few years.
It's about an amateur football team, the Trojans, as they face professional side, Arsenal, and the events that follow. One of the Trojan players drops to the ground mid-game at Highbury and then dies shortly after. The circumstances seem suspicious, and a murder investigation is opened.
It was a fun read! It felt a bit like a Death in Paradise episode (a show I love) and includes classic mystery tropes like the inspector making the big, dramatic reveal of who the killer is in front of everybody at the end. Originally this was a serialised, so it contains short chapters that kept me consistently intrigued. I liked the characters of Inspector Slade and Sergeant Clinton, too, who bounce off each other well.
I did feel a little strange after finishing, mostly because I didn't like the twist that came after the arrest at the very end. But it was a satisfying conclusion that a reader could have worked out along the way (I didn't, but it felt like someone could).
There's an introduction to this classic at the front of my copy. From it I leant the story features the real 1939 Arsenal squad, and the publication of the book (after the serialised version) was a collaboration of sorts with the club, with copies have the players signatures at the front. And I just thought that was cool. I'll be keeping my copy displayed on my shelf for a while longer.