Greetings angels! 

While summer flew past us in a blink and we are now deep in the trenches of ex-Hurricane Nigel and Storm Agnes, lets reminisce on what I read while I lay on a beach/drank wine in the sun this summer.

Young Mungo - Douglas Stuart

TW: rape, sexual assault, violence, sectarianism, homophobia

I absolutely loved Douglas Stuart's first book - Shuggie Bain - review here if you haven't seen me rave about it, so I was very excited when a) I saw he wrote another book and b) was told that if you loved A Little Life (sob) then you will love this, so I grabbed it immediately, and it did not disappoint.

The story follows Mungo and James, growing up in a poor housing estate in Glasgow - one of them is Protestant and one Catholic, which at the time means they should be sworn enemies, but they become best friends. As their friendship turns to something more, they dream of running away and finding somewhere they can be together, away from Mungo's brother Hamish and his gang of brutes and his mother, who abandons them at the sniff of a new man. 

His mother sends him on a fishing trip with two men from her AA group in an attempt to get Mungo to become a "man," which turns out to be even worse and more traumatising than he ever imagined it would be. Desperate to push through and find his way back to James, Mungo summons every last piece of strength and courage he has.

This book is heartbreaking and beautiful in equal measures. A must read.

The Rachel Incident - Caroline O'Donoghue

TW: miscarriage, abortion

This book reminded me a lot of Normal People by Sally Rooney, so if you liked that, you will probably enjoy this.

Set in Cork, Ireland, this is a story about friends, lovers, and Ireland in chaos, as two young friends try to wade through. Rachel and James meet when they end up working in the same bookstore and they instantly hit it off, ending up deciding to live together as roommates, beginning a friendship that will change their lives forever. 

Together, they run riot, living their best lives in Cork city in the midst of a looming financial crash in the country. When Rachel falls for her married professor, James initially helps her devise a plan to win his affection, but both James and the professor have other desires. 

An easy read, nothing spectacular but Normal People-esque if that's your bag.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin

TW: suicide, depression/anxiety, gun violence, abortion

I cannot express how much I loved this book, I'm so glad it lived up to the hype! 

This is a gorgeous story of love in friendship.

The story follows Sam and Sadie, two best friends who come together after many years apart as creative partners in video game design (stay with me, I didn't think the video game thing would keep me hooked either). Sam and Sadie met by chance as kids when Sam was sick in hospital (leaving him sporadically disabled as an adult) and so was Sadie's sister. 

Before even graduating college, they have created a blockbuster video game and overnight are catapulted into the world of success and wealth, but these things can't protect them from the repercussions of fame, tragedy or their hearts. 

The book spans 30 years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Venice Beach, California and everywhere in between, highlighting the human need to connect, for friendship, to love and be loved. I absolutely adored this book, everyone should read (even if the sound of the video game bit puts you off!)

The Idiot - Elif Batuman

This was an odd one, I expected to love it but I wasn't a huge fan, or even worse, I was just a bit indifferent.

The story is set in 1995, so it does feel a bit nostalgic, which I liked. Selin, who is Turkish, arrives to Harvard for her freshman year. As she signs up for language classes, befriends her classmate Svetlana, and begins an email exchange with Ivan (an older mathematics student from Hungary) that I found quite hard to decipher and kind of annoying to read. 

The story follows Selin as she spends the summer in the Hungarian countryside teaching English, spending two weeks in Paris with Svetlana and meeting Ivan at various points along the way while trying to figure out how he feels/doesn't feel - this whole section I found super dragged out and long-winded for no real reason. 

Overall didn't love, a very long book that could have been written in a more succint way, without lots of unneeded details. Would love to know what you thought if you've read it! 

Et voila! Those were my second half of summer reads. Let me know what you've been reading recently, either comment here or send me a DM on Insta or TT, I'm always so interested to see what other people are loving/reading. My TBR pile is forever growing.

Thank you for reading as always,

S ✗