Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
August Reading Wrap-Up is here! All the King’s Men, Nadine Gordimer, Mario Vargas Llosa, a book haul, Women’s Month reading, BookTube discussion and September reading plans!
I'm Mike - this is Riff Raff's Reading Renaissance. Welcome!
My big read this month was Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men, a great American political novel. I talk about Trollope’s The Warden, discovering Mario Vargas Llosa, & collecting single-author short story collections.
For Women’s Month I found some seminal feminist books and did my duty for Garb August!
I discuss BookTube's changing monetization requirements and concerns about algorithms driving content creators.
September brings Framed in September, Shake-tember, Shorty September & To Sea in September — art, short reads, Shakespeare Shindig & more. There’s an update on my attempt to reorganize my library! Much fun!
Timestamps / Chapters:
00:00 Remembering Dolly Parton & Tim Curry
01:19 A Package from New York
02:46 My First Book Review
04:53 YouTube changes the Rules
06:14 All the King's Men–a Political Novel for Today
07:24 Discovering Mario Vargas Llosa
08:42 Reading Trollope for first time
09:47 Short Story Summer (Nadine Gordimer)
14:25 Reorganizing My Library
17:14 Women’s Month Reading
23:34 Garb-August
25:37 New Books & Street Lit
27:17 Conspiracy Theory on Amazon in South Africa
31:29 Ursula K Le Guin (but I’m not a SF fan!)
33:05 America – Nation Divided? 2 important books
36:13 New Classics, Biographies, Books at War
40:55 Dickens & The Artist formerly known as Prince
42:03 Month Ahead – Co-hosting Framed in September
42:35 Shake-tember and a Shakespeare Shindig!
45:38 To Sea in September - new Booktube event
46:11 Final Thoughts
RELATED LINKS to videos/events mentioned:
My BOOK REVIEW
"Days Of Miracle & Wonder by Ashley Kahn
openlettersreview.com/posts/days-of-miracle-and-wondery-by-ashely-kahn?rq=mike%20Raftery
FRAMED IN SEPTEMBER:
Heather @heathergregg9975
youtube.com/watch?v=MIAVQnux7Ic&t=5s
Hannah @HannahsBooks
youtube.com/watch?v=57pXObRCjBw
Greg @anotherbibliophilereads
youtube.com/watch?v=cBcqdjQmjmg
Joshua @joshuacreboreads
youtube.com/watch?v=y3q3iwwoQHk
& Me @RiffRaffReads
youtube.com/watch?v=30SRkQ-b5zQ&t=376s
SHAKE-TEMBER:
Kelly @booksimnotreading
youtube.com/watch?v=I5gU6aRa7AA&t=143s
Jason @OldBluesChapterandVerse
youtube.com/watch?v=nMKUbHsoFQA&t=5s
Nicole @adayofsmallthings
youtube.com/watch?v=5EcARrhs8wM
Ally @genteelblackhole
youtube.com/watch?v=W6xiOp9RYAg&t=272s
SHORTY SEPTEMBER
Heather @TooManyHeathers
youtube.com/watch?v=HqOGhKYWy88
LIVE DISCUSSION Ursula K Le Guin's The Dispossessed
Gareth @bookssongsandothermagic -
youtube.com/live/GPQWvx1F4Ak?is=MMFfws46-LfcnUyt
TO SEA IN SEPTEMBER Announcement
Mark @BookTimewithElvis
youtube.com/watch?v=IDI2ao1NTyo
Mark's video on books not yet read
youtube.com/watch?v=-rFWWErcwIc
BOOKS MENTIONED:
* Ashley Kahn Books:
Days of Miracles and Wonder (Paul Simon's Graceland)
Kind of Blue (Miles Davis)
A Love Supreme (John Coltrane)
* All the King’s Men - Robert Penn Warren
* Mario Vargas Llosa books:
The Neighborhood -
Aunt Julia & the Scriptwriter
Captain Pantoja & the Special Service
In Praise of the Stepmother
* The Warden - Anthony Trollope
* Jump & Other Stories - Nadine Gordimer
* New Daughters of Africa - Edited by Margaret Busby
* A Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Mary Wollstonecraft
* The 2nd Sex - Simone de Beauvoir
* A Life of One’s Own - Joanna Biggs
* Artificial Women - Julie Wosk
* The Saline Solution - Marco Vassi
* Imperium - Ryszard Kapuściński
* Latitude - Nicholas Crane
* Longitude - Dava Sobel
* The Souls of Black Folk - W. E. B. Du Bois
* A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
* The Unreal & The Real Vol 1 & 2 - Ursula K. Le Guin
* The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin
* The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
* American Nations - Colin Woodard
* Regime Change - Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan
* The Guns of August - Barbara W. Tuchman
* The Essential Hemingway - Ernest Hemingway
* The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey
* We Did Okay, Kid - Anthony Hopkins
* Ian Fleming - Nicholas Shakespeare
* Lawrence of Arabia - Ranulph Fiennes
* A Man Called Intrepid - William Stevenson
* Spy Mistress - William Stevenson
* When Books Went to War - Molly Guptill Manning
* The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
* Dickens & Prince - Nick Hornby
* Nothing Like the Sun - Anthony Burgess
* Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard
* Shakespeare - Anthony Burgess
* Shakespeare - Anthony Holden
* Shakespeare & Film: A Norton Guide
Other BOOKTUBERS mentioned:
Steve @saintdonoghue
Shelly @Shellyish
For the almighty algorithm
#booktube #AugustWrapUp #readingwrapup #bookhaul #bookrecommendations #literature #classicbooks #readingwrapup
August Reading Wrap-Up is here! All the King’s Men, Nadine Gordimer, Mario Vargas Llosa, a book haul, Women’s Month reading, BookTube discussion and September reading plans!
I'm Mike - this is Riff Raff's Reading Renaissance. Welcome!
My big read this month was Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men, a great American political novel. I talk about Trollope’s The Warden, discovering Mario Vargas Llosa, & collecting single-author short story collections.
For Women’s Month I found some seminal feminist books and did my duty for Garb August!
I discuss BookTube's changing monetization requirements and concerns about algorithms driving content creators.
September brings Framed in September, Shake-tember, Shorty September & To Sea in September — art, short reads, Shakespeare Shindig & more. There’s an update on my attempt to reorganize my library! Much fun!
Timestamps / Chapters:
00:00 Remembering Dolly Parton & Tim Curry
01:19 A Package from New York
02:46 My First Book Review
04:53 YouTube changes the Rules
06:14 All the King's Men–a Political Novel for Today
07:24 Discovering Mario Vargas Llosa
08:42 Reading Trollope for first time
09:47 Short Story Summer (Nadine Gordimer)
14:25 Reorganizing My Library
17:14 Women’s Month Reading
23:34 Garb-August
25:37 New Books & Street Lit
27:17 Conspiracy Theory on Amazon in South Africa
31:29 Ursula K Le Guin (but I’m not a SF fan!)
33:05 America – Nation Divided? 2 important books
36:13 New Classics, Biographies, Books at War
40:55 Dickens & The Artist formerly known as Prince
42:03 Month Ahead – Co-hosting Framed in September
42:35 Shake-tember and a Shakespeare Shindig!
45:38 To Sea in September - new Booktube event
46:11 Final Thoughts
RELATED LINKS to videos/events mentioned:
My BOOK REVIEW
"Days Of Miracle & Wonder by Ashley Kahn
openlettersreview.com/posts/days-of-miracle-and-wondery-by-ashely-kahn?rq=mike%20Raftery
FRAMED IN SEPTEMBER:
Heather @heathergregg9975
youtube.com/watch?v=MIAVQnux7Ic&t=5s
Hannah @HannahsBooks
youtube.com/watch?v=57pXObRCjBw
Greg @anotherbibliophilereads
youtube.com/watch?v=cBcqdjQmjmg
Joshua @joshuacreboreads
youtube.com/watch?v=y3q3iwwoQHk
& Me @RiffRaffReads
youtube.com/watch?v=30SRkQ-b5zQ&t=376s
SHAKE-TEMBER:
Kelly @booksimnotreading
youtube.com/watch?v=I5gU6aRa7AA&t=143s
Jason @OldBluesChapterandVerse
youtube.com/watch?v=nMKUbHsoFQA&t=5s
Nicole @adayofsmallthings
youtube.com/watch?v=5EcARrhs8wM
Ally @genteelblackhole
youtube.com/watch?v=W6xiOp9RYAg&t=272s
SHORTY SEPTEMBER
Heather @TooManyHeathers
youtube.com/watch?v=HqOGhKYWy88
LIVE DISCUSSION Ursula K Le Guin's The Dispossessed
Gareth @bookssongsandothermagic -
youtube.com/live/GPQWvx1F4Ak?is=MMFfws46-LfcnUyt
TO SEA IN SEPTEMBER Announcement
Mark @BookTimewithElvis
youtube.com/watch?v=IDI2ao1NTyo
Mark's video on books not yet read
youtube.com/watch?v=-rFWWErcwIc
BOOKS MENTIONED:
* Ashley Kahn Books:
Days of Miracles and Wonder (Paul Simon's Graceland)
Kind of Blue (Miles Davis)
A Love Supreme (John Coltrane)
* All the King’s Men - Robert Penn Warren
* Mario Vargas Llosa books:
The Neighborhood -
Aunt Julia & the Scriptwriter
Captain Pantoja & the Special Service
In Praise of the Stepmother
* The Warden - Anthony Trollope
* Jump & Other Stories - Nadine Gordimer
* New Daughters of Africa - Edited by Margaret Busby
* A Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Mary Wollstonecraft
* The 2nd Sex - Simone de Beauvoir
* A Life of One’s Own - Joanna Biggs
* Artificial Women - Julie Wosk
* The Saline Solution - Marco Vassi
* Imperium - Ryszard Kapuściński
* Latitude - Nicholas Crane
* Longitude - Dava Sobel
* The Souls of Black Folk - W. E. B. Du Bois
* A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
* The Unreal & The Real Vol 1 & 2 - Ursula K. Le Guin
* The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin
* The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
* American Nations - Colin Woodard
* Regime Change - Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan
* The Guns of August - Barbara W. Tuchman
* The Essential Hemingway - Ernest Hemingway
* The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey
* We Did Okay, Kid - Anthony Hopkins
* Ian Fleming - Nicholas Shakespeare
* Lawrence of Arabia - Ranulph Fiennes
* A Man Called Intrepid - William Stevenson
* Spy Mistress - William Stevenson
* When Books Went to War - Molly Guptill Manning
* The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
* Dickens & Prince - Nick Hornby
* Nothing Like the Sun - Anthony Burgess
* Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard
* Shakespeare - Anthony Burgess
* Shakespeare - Anthony Holden
* Shakespeare & Film: A Norton Guide
Other BOOKTUBERS mentioned:
Steve @saintdonoghue
Shelly @Shellyish
For the almighty algorithm
#booktube #AugustWrapUp #readingwrapup #bookhaul #bookrecommendations #literature #classicbooks #readingwrapup
