What I Read in September 2023

September was a pretty good month of reading for me. The back-to-school feeling spurred me to finish work and cosy up with a book, but so did a spontaneous holiday and a few luxurious solo dates. As such, I completed my Goodreads Reading Challenge of reading 52 books whilst on holiday in Croatia! In fact, this month I managed to read 12 books.

And, the books themselves have all been solid reads. From Kindle deals to NetGalley ARCs, rereads of beloved favourites to fascinating nature non-fiction, it was a really diverse month of reading. I’m happy to report, too, that my TBR jar has really done wonders and I’m wasting no time in selecting my next read, rather than feeling paralysed by decision fatigue.

Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura

Rating: ★★★.5/5

This translated Japanese fiction is an inventive depiction of Japan’s adolescent mental health and loneliness epidemic. According to a UNICEF report, Japanese children are ranked second-to-last in an international survey that assessed children’s mental health across 38 developed and emerging countries.

Set in Tokyo, seven teenagers wake up to find the mirrors in their bedrooms are gleaming. They are each pulled from lonely lives into a castle, a castle that hides a wish-granting key, along with clues with which to find it. Soon, the seven teens share stories and secrets, slotting together jigsaw puzzle pieces to each other’s lives. Each suffers from a different problem: rejection, neglect, abuse.

This novel has an odd pace. It is gorgeously syrup-slow, only truly picking up at the 60% mark or so. Some readers will likely find this tricky. But, it’s worthwhile. This is a lovely mysterious read with playful elements and a witty magical realism about it. And, of course, it’s backed by a message of the importance of community, connection, kindness and reaching out. I also wish the author had described the castle itself in greater detail, so it could become a character in and of itself, Piranesi-style.

When the Lights Go Out by Carys Bray

Thank you to Random House UK and NetGalley for my advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Rating: ★★★/5

Eco-fiction is a new-to-me genre and one that I have found works with varying degrees of success.

There’s no denying that climate change and emergencies are already here: wildfires, flooding, typhoons and unprecedented weather mood swings are a regular occurrence. When the Lights Go Out tells the story of Chris and Emma, a married couple living on the site of an ancient waterbank. It simultaneously deals with the ecosystem of a marriage and of their immediate surroundings, a deeply human look at relationships in the face of disaster on many levels. Chris is preparing for climate disaster; Emma is optimistic and ready to rally. This novel looks at how necessary and fragile both can be.

I really enjoyed the way the book talks about climate change: we must face the issues head on, but not lose our heads in the process. Uncomfortably, we see Chris descend down a rabbit hole in the face of the climate emergencies and the impact that that has on the couple’s marriage and relationship. I found the middle section of the book to read quite disjointedly and it lacked focus, although that did add, I suppose, to the general atmosphere of chaos. What I did enjoy was the humanity of the story and how it talks about something we’re all facing. The setting of the book was perfect for this and, while a bit on the nose, this is an accessible eco-fiction read.

AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan

Rating: ★★★★/5

I came across this tome while on a ‘wildcard library peruse’, and instantly scooped it up. This is a collection of 10 stories, rooted around the common theme of AI. Admittedly, I don’t know enough about AI and yet I am already fearful of it, hence my desire to pick this up and expand my knowledge. It’s written by two Google alumni, one of whom is a novelist, with a balance between fiction and non-fiction: this anthology openly explores what life with AI may be like in 2041, using scientific fact and an open mind to tell short stories.

This concept comes together with varying degrees of success, in my eye. Having read a lot more speculative fiction in recent months, the storytelling aspect of AI 2041 fell short. From deepfake imagery to big data, VR to autonomous vehicles, there are short stories to cover every part of the AI spectrum, followed by an analysis of the AI elements. Often, it reads a little clumsily but the non-fiction elements bumped it back up as it is clearly factual, well-researched and incredibly relevant to life in the digital age. A truly fascinating read.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for my advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Rating: ★★★/5

When I came across The Kamogawa Food Detectives on NetGalley and saw that it was described as a foodie version of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, I knew I wanted to read it immediately. Need I mention again how much I am loving translated Japanese fiction?

This book is set at the Kamogawa Diner, a curious and unassuming, difficult-to-find restaurant in Kyoto, run by a detective restauranteur and his daughter. The diner treats its customers to extravagant, unforgettable meals but, also, the duo advertise their services as ‘food detectives’, teaming up to track down dishes as requested by diners. This concept sung to me as I’m the daughter of immigrant restauranteurs, and my whole life arguably revolves around food!

Through a fortnight of investigations, the father-daughter duo can recreate a dish from their customers’ pasts. This book takes us through four stories and dishes. I’m not sure if I was simply expecting more from this novel, but it didn’t completely hit the spot for me. While the concept is utterly magical, the execution felt a little shy and awkward. There’s an obvious feeling of nostalgia and emotion, but it doesn’t fully connect (for me). What I did love was, of course, the concept, but also the beautiful descriptions of Kyoto and of the food. Perhaps what this one needs is a little more time in each character’s story. I just love the sentimental elements.

And, for those of you willing to compare it to Before the Coffee Gets Cold, rest assured that this one is less repetitive in its openings!

The Kamogawa Food Detectives publishes on 5 October 2023.

The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole

Rating: ★★★★★/5

Nobody judge me for how long it took me to finally complete this book. It just felt more like a late summer/autumn read to me, which meant it sat on my bedside table all summer until the mood felt right. But! Once I finally picked up The Lost Rainforests of Britain, I loved it as much as I expected to, if not more.

Temperate rainforest covered up to a fifth of Britain, once upon a time, and was host to myriad dazzling lifeforms. Although only a fragment of that now remains (search it up, if you dare), they are still a monumentally important habitat, carbon sink and magic to observe. Guy Shrubsole writes all about the importance of our temperate rainforests, why environmentalists are unaware of their existence and all about the gorgeous myths, folklore and fictional stories that these spaces have inspired.

The Lost Rainforests of Britain is a stunning ode to trees, forests and nature, and a crucial reminder that without support, we risk losing them forever. One for nature lovers, that’s for sure.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan (reread)

Rating: ★★★★★/5

It was the month of Mid-Autumn Festival, a holiday celebrated widely across East and South East Asia including by my own family, so I knew I wanted to get in a reread of Daughter of the Moon Goddess, one of my favourite reads of 2022. This is a book and story that got even better during a reread – I’d give it an extra star if I could!

The Boy You Always Wanted by Michelle Quach

Rating: ★★★★/5

After reading read Liz’s review of The Boy You Always Wanted, I practically ran to add it to my digital TBR list. A YA book about the Chinese-Vietnamese diaspora? Sign. Me. Up. aI’m really glad that I rushed to pick a copy of this up and to read it, because I absolutely loved it.

Both part of the Chinese-Vietnamese community, Francine and Ollie have been friends (well, family friends) since childhood but they’ve predictably drifted now they’re in high school. Of course, it being a YA, Francine even once had a crush on Ollie. Having recently discovered her a gùng – grandfather – has cancer and, in her lifelong quest to be the perfect, filial daughter and granddaughter, Francine hatches up The Plan, to fulfil one of a gùng’s wishes – to have a male heir. She asks Ollie to join in on The Plan, that is, offering him up as an honorary male heir. Thus begins a story, though predictable, of enemies to friends to lovers, with filial piety, friendships, family secrets and culture interwoven.

This novel is so ridiculously sweet, heartwarming, nostalgic and real. I penned a full review just here.

Enchantment: Reawakening Wonder in an Exhausted Age by Katherine May

Rating: ★★★/5

Pitched as a ‘balm for our times’, I’d seen Enchantment spring up in a number of bookshop displays and on friends’ Goodreads trackers. After years of pandemic living and feeling increasingly overwhelmed and isolated, Katherine May seeks a new way to live, reawakening wonder and looking for a different path.

This book is divided into different properties of the natural world: stone, earth, fire, air, water, and beyond. It’s written in a lyrical way that marries memoir with essay, all laced with wonder and nature. Oddly though, it didn’t quite work for me. I think my problem was that it leaned a little too heavily into memoir when I didn’t already have a grasp of who the author was. Does that make sense? The layout of the book felt disjointed as well, almost as though the essays were all separate to one another as opposed to seamlessly weaving together to form a book. Further to this, some of them felt incredibly lacklustre, as though May had a word count to meet but not enough solid thought to flesh out the chapter. Perhaps self-help as a category simply isn’t for me!

The Marriage Act by John Marrs

Rating: ★★★/5

I added this to my list after a girls’ bookshop wander a few weeks back, when my friend Charlotte mentioned she’d started reading it recently. The Marriage Act is a sci-fi thriller, where marriage is the law. Well, not exactly, but close to it. In this future Earth, specifically in the UK, those in married couples receive special benefits under the controversial Sanctity of Marriage Act. Those who remain single are ‘punished’.

In The Marriage Act, Marrs explores societal ideals, the advent of AI, connection, love and hierarchy through four couples, whose narratives unveil the darkest corners of the Act. We discover the impact of having our lives monitored, of AI tools being used to solve human problems, of government control.

At its root and core, this book is heavily political. There’s obligatory mentions of the NHS and post-NHS, post-Brexit. I think the concept of this book is far greater than the execution, which felt loose and messy in the final third. There are some great twists in this thriller but, with some tightening up they’d have more impact.

CW: suicide, sexual assault, assault.

Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov

Rating: ★★★★/5

Continuing on with more mildly dystopian sci-fi, I also read Time Shelter, which won the International Man Booker Prize for Fiction this year (2023). Translated from its original Bulgarian, this was an elegant and thoughtful literary work. Time Shelter follows an enigmatic flâneur, Gaustine, who opens up a ‘clinic for the past’ to treat Alzheimer’s sufferers. Each floor at the clinic reproduces a decade from the past in minute detail, in order to transport patients back in time through furniture, music, scents and even light.

We follow the story from an unnamed narrator’s perspective, which lends a weirdly god-like tone to the book. The narrator is tasked with collecting objects from the past to make the rooms more and more convincing. But, at the same time, as the clinic becomes more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people visit too, in the hopes of escaping the horrors of our present.

There’s quite a fair bit of politics at play here: overt socialist and communist explorations, as well as a more nuanced dive into how utopias can quickly go awry. For me, the opening and final third of the book were far stronger 

Nature Tales for Winter Nights by Nancy Campbell

Thank you to Elliot & Thompson and NetGalley for my advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Rating: ★★★.5/5

As somebody that loves embracing the seasons and that has a somewhat new love for nature writing, this title sung to me on NetGalley. It’s a compilation of works by various authors, all centred around late autumn and winter moments, and I really loved dipping into it on cosy late summer evenings in anticipation of cooler nights.

However, it wasn’t quite what I’d expected: the works are often short stories or, more often, excerpts from fiction with a nature theme. As such, it read a little disjointedly at times and, like I often say, I just don’t think I’m hugely a short stories reader. I prefer sinking into longer, slightly meandering and fully formed stories. That being said, this is a very evocative read and absolutely reveals even the smallest of wonders about the season. I also deeply appreciated the variety of narratives: there’s tales from ancient Rome and ancient Japan, glorious British fables and Innuit folklore, and it feels very transportive when you manage to get deep into a story.

Nature Tales for Winter Nights is expected to publish on 12 October 2023.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Rating: ★★★★/5

At long last, I got my hands on a copy of Yellowface at my local library! And I was really excited to get stuck into it.

I shared a full review of it on Monday but, spoiler, I loved it!

October Hopefuls

I’ll be continuing to dip into my TBR jar, reading from my already-owned physical copies!

What was your favourite read from September? And, how are your 2023 reading goals going?