July/August Wrap Up

 Welcome back, dear readers

I have two months of Wrap-ups to catch up on, it seems. Dear me. I do apologize for the delay. Procrastination gets the best of all of us. As do busy schedules.

Let's not delay, reader. Here are the books I read in July. August was a bit of a reading dry spell. They happen, reader. Sometimes you just can't bring yourself to pick up a book and that's alright.

July Reads from left to right: Gothic Charm School by Jillian Venters, Goth by Paul Hodkinson, Disability Visibility ed by Alice Wong, Gender Euphoria ed by Laura Kate Dale, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey, The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare

First on our list is Gothic Charm School by Jillian Venters. I stumbled upon this book while doing research into the 80s goth scene. More accurately, I stumbled upon the blog Gothic Charm School and was quite taken with the contents. The blog is run by Jillian Venters, alias The Lady of Manners. The Lady is an Elder Goth who started the blog back in 1998 to give etiquette advice to those of us in the goth scene.

Much of the advice in the book is taken from the blog, with some changes here and there. The book serves as a concise and easily indexed version of the blog. I adore both of them. The Lady of Manners' tone is precisely the kind of self-indulgent, theatrical prose I aspire to. Most of the book is geared towards fledgling goths with advice on how to interact with other people. As a terminally awkward creature, I always enjoy someone with more insight telling me how to avoid embarrassing myself in public. 

All in all, I enjoyed this book. I may not be going out to goth clubs anytime soon, pandemics being what they are, but when I do I shall rest assured knowing The Lady of Manners will be there for me, advising me through whatever social gaffs I might make.

4/5 pumpkins.

Our next book is Goth: Identity, Style, and Subculture by Paul Hodkinson and you might be sensing a theme, reader. Sometimes a subculture just speaks to you, and then you spend a solid month trying to find books about said subculture. This was one of them, and it's a good one at that. Goth is a sociological study on the British goth scene in the 90s. It can be a little academic and dense at times, but it's was also an absolutely fascinating read. Hodkinson himself is goth so it's not an outsider looking in sort of book. It's very much by goths about goths. Possibly for goths as well if you don't mind picking through sociological terms.

It's one of those books that I recommend, provided you're looking for information about the British 90s goth scene, reader.

4/5 pumpkin.

Next up was the essay collection Disability Visibility ed by Alice Wong. I picked this up on a whim, reader, and what a good whim that turned out to be. This was the only five-star read of the month. I never knew I liked essay collections so much, reader. 

These are, naturally, essays written by disabled writers of all stripes. As such, some of the essays touched me more than others. This is the nature of essay collections. All of them were excellent and I can't recommend this book enough. I think my favorite was Falling/Burning by Hannah Gadsby, which is about being a bipolar creator. The whole collection is worth the read, dear reader. Even if you, yourself are not disabled. Especially if you are not yourself disabled. 

5/5 Pumpkins

The next book is another essay collection, one I received as part of a kickstarter project, Gender Euphoria ed by Laura Kate Dale. My copy is also signed, which I'm delighted by. The essays within this collection are all celebrations of being trans, non-binary, and intersex. Not all of the essays connected with me, though the ones that did were phenomenal. I suggest checking it out, reader. If you are trans it's wonderful to read about the joyous experiences of others, even if they aren't personally relatable. It's lovely to see people writing happy stories about being trans, you don't see that a lot.

4/5 pumpkins

Our next book is a memoir called The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey, about her recovering from the aftermath of an illness. Bailey contracted a fever while traveling in Europe, leading to a chronic weakness that left her confined to bed for a year. She had to move out of her farm-house and into a small apartment where someone could care for her long-term. One of her friends brought her a potted violet with a little land snail on it and thus begins our story. Bailey observes the snail while she recovers, weaving her research on snails throughout her description of the little creature's habits. It's such a fascinating experience, this quiet focus on a snail.

I shan't tell you how the story ends. I think you should find out for yourself, reader, should you be interested.

4/5 pumpkins

The last book I read this month(s) was The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare. The university I leave near put on Errors for their Shakespeare in the park summer play and I like to know the story before I watch. I enjoy puzzling through Shakespeare, reader, and a puzzle it indeed is. The shift in meaning alone is enough to cause misunderstandings, not to mention the importance of the play's historical context. Errors is actually an excellent example of this importance since it follows a popular mode of writing at the time: remaking a classic Greek or Roman play but More Complicated. This play is a remake of Pautus' Manaechmi and Amphitruo, a story of twins separated from birth who meet and cause much confusion. Something like the Parent Trap.

Errors is about two sets of twins, both separated by a sinking ship while infants, meeting on Syracuse and causing much confusion until it is at last revealed that there are two of them. They both have the same name for reasons. Either the father lost one son and just named the one he had left after the other or (and I favor this theory) he thought he had one twin when in reality he had the other. Either way there is much comedic slapping, some poorly aged jokes, and a lot of miscommunication. 

I wouldn't call this one a favorite, reader. It is alright and there are some interesting story beats to talk about. Mostly I find the idea of someone taking an established classic story and making it more complicated very amusing.  

3/5 pumpkins

And thus ends this wrap-up. It is very late, reader, but my schedule has been truly unfortunate and this blog fell a little by the wayside. I am, hopefully, back on track. My next post will be November's Tbr list. For now, I shall bid you a delightful October's end and Happy Halloween.

Until next time, dear reader 🎃