I have had a good reading month, completing about fifteen books. Unfortunately I haven’t had much time for review writing and so am a bit behind. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up over the next few weeks, but the good news is that I’ve read a few real gems.

Book of the Month

Books Reviewed in September

Absent – Betool Khedairi

The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern

Hen’s Teeth – Manda Scott

The Last Hundred Days – Patrick McGuinness

Half Blood Blues – Esi Edugyan

Caribou Island – David Vann

Titus Awakes – Maeve Gilmore and Mervyn Peake

What else have I been doing?

My eldest son returned to school at the beginning of the month so I spent most of September entertaining my youngest son. I discovered that looking after one child is far harder than two and so I’ve been volunteering to look after other children, just so they entertain each other. We had a lot of fun swimming, walking in the woods and sampling all the local playgrounds, but then last week he went to school for the first time.

So far he has just been doing half days, but he is loving it. On Monday he goes full-time, so I’m looking forward to getting a lot of extra free-time.

I was also lucky enough to be invited to attend Vintage Books’ 21st Birthday Party in central London. It was a lovely evening and I saw lots of famous authors (who I was too scared to talk too!). I did get to meet a few of the publishers and I had a very nice chat with Kim from Reading Matters.