What I Read: August 2024

I fell in love with a modern book about King Arthur.

August for us held the end of VBS, two straight weeks of swim lessons, a camping trip, the kid’s first-ever concert (have we told you about The Okee Dokee Brothers? We love them!), a trip to Illinois to see family, a trip to Illinois to pick up sick kids, and the explosion of the garden just as my enthusiasm for it waned (predictable!). We also did the August “should we send the kids to school or keep them home again” dance, and ultimately decided to continue to educate them at home. Which means that as soon as we decided, I dove straight into prepping for our second year of Ambleside Online, and thinking through a very loosey-goosey 4K curriculum for Tennyson (mostly playing math games and reading good books).

As I type that all out, I wonder how I had a chance to read at all. But I did! And some really good books.

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Here’s What I Read in August:

The Bright Sword {fantasy/historical fiction}

by Lev Grossman

One of my favorite courses for my bachelor’s in English traced the theme of King Arthur in literature from when he first appears around 828 AD until the modern day — and even texts set in the future, like the graphic novel Camelot 3000. Did I subconsciously name my son Arthur because of this class? Possibly. So when I saw that Lev Grossman’s latest was “A Novel of King Arthur” I immediately jumped in the hold line at the library for when it released.

The tale follows a young man named Collum who is on his way to Camelot to become a knight. Collum arrives at the castle only to learn that he is a couple weeks too late: King Arthur has died in battle, along with dozens of the Knights of the Round Table. In fact, only the outcasts are left behind, and they begrudgingly (at first) allow Collum to talk them into a quest to bring Arthur back from the dead.

The book is more than just a recollection of what happened on their quest; it’s about faith and loyalty and love and what it means to be someone leading a people from a past into a present. It’s full of battles and fantastical elements and things you can’t quite believe, but that you want to anyway. And it gives each of the outcast knights their own story, weaving them together into something that is more than its pieces — just like the idea of the Round Table itself.

I loved this book so much that I chose it as my prize book for my summer reading challenge at the library so that I can own my own copy. It’s a whopping 673 pages long (and I would have read more!), so I understand if you are not obsessed with the legend of King Arthur and decide to pass this on by, but if you do read it, tell me what you think!

Content Warning: This book does take place during the Middle Ages, and thus is a bit rough around the edges. Violent death does occur on the page, and there is a scene where a sexual assault is attempted, but blocked. One negative review I’ve seen of the book dismisses it for forcefully touching on all the hot button issues of the day (immigration, transgenderism, LGBTQ+ issues, climate change, etc.), and it does indeed touch on them, but I think that’s what makes a great re-telling: when someone can pull an old tale into the present day and make it feel relevant and prescient.

Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM

The Opt-Out Family: How to Give Your Kids What Technology Can't {nonfiction}

by Erin Loechner

I almost didn’t read this book because I thought it would be more of the same “tech is bad, stay away!” with no discernible alternative, but I’m really glad I did. We’ve chosen to be fairly tech-lite in our house, and it continues to be one of the driving factors in keeping our children home for school. This book really helped me form thoughts around why that decision has felt right (even when there feels like no perfect answer every August!), and also felt like a pep talk to help us keep doing what we’re doing. Loechner has some practical tips for what to do instead of hand our kids a tablet and hope for the best, and it felt like a companion to two of my favorite books, The Tech-Wise Family and The Life We’re Looking For by Andy Crouch.

Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM

Crying in H-Mart {memoir}

by Michelle Zauner

I’m hosting my neighborhood book club in September and picked this as our read. It’s been on my list for a few years, and I think it’ll make a great book to discuss. Zauner is a singer-songwriter for the indie pop band Japanese Breakfast, and she’s a good writer. This is a memoir that mostly focuses on her mother’s cancer diagnosis, treatment, and death from Zauner’s perspective, with flashbacks to childhood and jumps to the present(ish) day. The reason I was interested in reading this was because it focuses on Zauner’s relationship with her mother mostly revolving around food: the Korean food her mother made to care for her only child, and also Zauner’s re-discovery of her mother’s legacy through learning to cook classic Korean dishes after her mother is gone. I love a good food book, and this one scratched that itch. Now I’m just a little intimidated about picking a food from the book to recreate for book club in a few weeks!

Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM

America Must Free Itself from the Tyranny of the Penny {NYT Magazine Article}

by Caity Weaver

I loved this article. It’s delightfully over-written, and details the problem of there being not enough pennies in circulation… but also too many. Do we even need them? Why do we still make them when they represent one cent but cost over three cents to mint? If you’ve been looking for your next long read, this is it.

Gift Link to NYT Magazine Online

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What I’m Reading with the Kids:

We did a small, informal unit on geography this summer, reading a bunch of these Rookie Read About Geography books and looking and talking about a bunch of maps.

We wound up sick this last week of summer, so we went ahead and started school a few days earlier than planned (might as well learn something while we’re stuck at home!), so we started one of our free reads for this year, Brighty of the Grand Canyon, as a read aloud. We all love it so far — we’ve been looking up the animals mentioned in our Grand Canyon Field Guide (we love this series of guides), and using the Natural History Encyclopedia I picked up to help supplement our schooling this year.

Everyone in our house loves a book by Mac Barnett. We’ve checked out Three Billy Goats Gruff and Sam & Dave Dig a Hole recently, and Arthur is both listening to and reading the Mac B. Spy Kid series (they are great early chapter books with drawings on each page). Barnett narrates the audiobooks, and he is just fantastic. Pretty sure he’d be on my “if you could invite 5 people to dinner, who would they be” list.

And this version of Aesop’s Fable, Mouse & Lion, wound up in our library bag. It’s well-done and well-illustrated, and apparently part of a whole series. I plan to check more of them out soon.

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What I’m Reading Next:

I’m in the middle of a middle grade novel by a local author, and am enjoying it. A friend lent me The Well-Educated Mind that I need to at least thumb through and see if I want to read it. I’ve also got How to Read a Poem waiting for me on my nightstand, as well as plenty of reading to do to get ahead of Arthur’s school year.

What are you reading? Hit “reply” and tell me!