May was a slow month reading-wise. This was mainly caused by reading several average books in a row. I didn’t want to inundate you with negative reviews so will spread them out over the coming weeks. The good news is that my run of unenjoyable books seems to have come to an end – first with the wonderful Anatomy of a Disappearance and then with Night Waking (review coming soon). I’ll keep my fingers crossed that my June reading will be more to my liking.
Book of the Month
Books Reviewed in May
Anatomy of a Disappearance – Hisham Matar
The Illumination – Kevin Brockmeier
Empire of the Sun – JG Ballard
Monster Love by Carol Topolski
The Periodic Table – Primo Levi
Pigeon English – Stephen Kelman
The Whisperer – Donato Carrisi
King of the Badgers – Philip Hensher
Plans for June
Gormenghast
My Gormenghast read-along starts at the beginning of June and I’m really looking forward to discussing it all with you. I have to admit that I couldn’t wait and read the first 50 pages over the weekend. The first few pages were hard going, but after about 5 pages I was hooked. The imagery is fantastic and it is quickly becoming one of the most atmospheric books I’ve ever read. It isn’t too late to join in. I’m sure your library has a copy – go and grab it and read along with us!
I’m hoping to get several guest posts from Gormenghast fans who have a deeper insight into the book than me – it should be really interesting.
Shantaram
I don’t do a read-along for months and then suddenly two come along at once! I have been wanting to read Shantaram for ages and so couldn’t resist when I saw Aths from Reading on a Rainy Day and Helen from Helen’s Book Blog were planning to read it.
These two chunksters will occupy the majority of my reading time for the next few months, so I won’t be able to read as many other books as usual. The good news is that I have a backlog of six books that I haven’t reviewed yet so hopefully I’ll be able to continue reviewing books at the same pace as usual.
In between the read-alongs I also hope to read some of these books:
Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
When the Killing’s Done by TC Boyle
The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright