August Summary
My August reading has been dominated by the Booker long list. I only have two more left to try and am looking forward to finishing them and writing a brief summary for you. The Booker reading has reduced my overall reading enjoyment for the month, but I’m still pleased I made the effort to try them all – I wouldn’t have discovered the wonderful, A Cupboard Full of Coats, without it.
Book of the Month
Books Reviewed in August
A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvvette Edwards
The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah
The Housekeeper and The Professor – Yoko Ogawa
The Sisters Brothers – Patrick deWitt
The Proof of Love – Catherine Hall
The Testament of Jessie Lamb – Jane Rogers
The Sense of an Ending – Julian Barnes
Two Abandoned Bookers: Derby Day by DJ Taylor and Far to Go by Alison Pick
What else have I been doing?
August has been a very busy month for me. My boys have been off school and so I’ve been entertaining them locally and on a camping trip in Yorkshire.
I have also been celebrating my 10th wedding anniversary. My husband and I enjoyed a luxurious few days without the children in Whatley Manor, including the best meal we’ve ever eaten. An expensive treat!
Ayla continues to grow. She now weighs 20kg and is starting to loose her puppy fluff. She can now look handsome as well as cute!
Plans for September
I will be continuing my Gormenghast read-along with the fourth book in the series, Titus Awakes.
I will be trying The Stranger’s Child and The Last Hundred Days, the last two books of the Booker long list and will let you know my thoughts on the rest.
I also hope to finally have the time to finish the wonderful Shantaram. I am loving every word, but it is a long, heavy book and I’ve struggled to find enough time to read it comfortably (ie. not travelling, in the bath etc!)
I also hope to read the following books:
Everything You Know by Zoe Heller
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark
Gillespie and I by Jane Harris
The Fat Years by Chan Koonchung
My youngest son starts school at the end of September (time flies!) so I’ll have much more free time then. Hopefully this will mean I’ll be able to research a few more interesting topics for you – let me know if there is anything in particular that you’d like me to investigate.
I hope you all have a wonderful September!
28 replies on “August Summary and Plans for September”
Wow – you’ve got lots planned for September. I wish I could read as quickly as that – I seem to only manage a book a week these days.
Your list for September looks fab – I’ve gone straight away to Amazon and ordered the Zoe Heller book. Perhaps we can race to get the review up? (Joke – my TBR pile is way too big at the moment)
Louise, I only really managed a book a week in August (if you look closely at the titles you’ll spot that most of the books are very short so it would take two or three to make a real book!) Hopefully I’ll have a lot more free time in September and as I don’t work it isn’t too difficult to read two or three books a week.
Normally I’d bet you’d beat me to get the Zoe Heller review up, but I’m doing a guest post about her in a few weeks time so it is a priority. I’ve heard it isn’t that good so don’t raise your hopes up. Fingers crossed I’ll enjoy it anyway.
You had a great August – love the photos! I just added Caribou Island to my wish list this week and have had Family Matters on my shelf for years… don’t know what’s taking me so long to read it. Happy September, Jackie.
JoAnn, I have had Family Matters on my shelf for years. Part of me is scared it wont live up to A Fine Balance and part of me has been savng it so I always have a Mistry book available to read. I hope it lives up to my expectations.
seems like a good month Jackie ,my september plans entail reading a number of novellas earlu in month then starting Parallel stories a epic book ,all the best stu
Stu, I love combining epics with novellas! Enjoy 🙂
Sounds like you had a wonderful August. Those camping pictures remind me that I haven’t taken the time to camp once this summer! I’m so far behind with my blog reading but look forward to your review of The Last Brother. I’ve had it on my shelves for several months and still haven’t gotten around to reading it.
Kathleen, I’ve managed to camp a few times this year, but am not sure I’ll be able to squeeze in any more camping trips in 2011. I hope you manage to get away – camping is great fun!
What a fun month you’ve been having! And you’ve still managed to read so much… you definitely put me to shame! 😉
Congrats on the 10 year wedding anniversary! I’m glad to hear that you and the husband celebrated in style! 😀
Steph, I haven’t read that much this month – they’ve all been quite short books. Hopefully I’ll read a lot more next month. 🙂
Congrats on your reading and your 10th anniversary! Your boys sure are cute – and that inflated slide looks like a lot of fun. 🙂
Alyce, That inflatable slide looked quite scary. My husband had a go and said he was a bit nervous at the top – I didn’t even attempt to go up. The kids are much braver than me!
August was a good month for you, both book-wise and family-wise. What a lovely outing to the Manor (beautiful!).
I’m so happy to see two favorite books on your list: Caribou Island and The Sandalwood Tree. Looking forward to your reviews!
Judith, You were the peson who persuaded me to put Sandalwood Tree to the top of my list. I’m really looking forward to it now.
Ayla is gorgeous! She is definitely a beauty (but still cute in my eyes).
We also celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in August, Jackie, and we spent the week in Cornwall & Devon (I’m from Yorkshire so how funny that you were there for yours).
I notice you abandoned Far To Go. I am too upset to even carry on speaking to you right now. What with this, Wolf Totem and Corrag……..tsk! You can go off a person you know, Jackie! 😉
The Book whisperer, My husband is from Yorkshire and my sister lives there so we go there quite a lot.
“I am too upset to even carry on speaking to you right now. ”
Sorry! I think we’ll just have to accept that we have a different taste in books. I will continue to enjoy the friendly banter as we disagree about the merits of them 😉
Ooh, where in Yorkshire?
Yes, friendly banter is good. It’s funny how we totally agree on some books and totally disagree on others – it makes life a little more interesting doesn’t it?
My husband was born in Harrogate and my sister lives near Selby. Where are you?
Loved the photos and seeing what you’ve been up to this month. Your holidays sound like loads of fun and your dog is adorable. Can’t wait to hear what you think of your two remaining Booker nominees!
Laura, I’ll try to get my thoughts on the Bookers up soon. Let’s just say they are a bit mixed 🙂
You had a terrific reading month Jackie. Your 10th Anniv. getaway sounded awesome. Are your boys twins? They look alike to me, but one might be bigger? Cute.
Diane, No – my boys aren’t twins. There is actually two years between them, but they do look very similar – especially when sat down (so you can’t see the height difference).
Happy anniversary! You’ve had a great reading month and there are some good titles on your list for September.
Thanks Beth 🙂
All good stuff and beautiful pictures Jackie. Glad you had a wonderful summer!
Jo, I hope you did too 🙂
Love the family (and doggy) photos. Looks like a fun summer. And congrats on 10 years!! You deserve a special meal for that!
Jenners, Hopefully it won’t be too long before I have another special meal and I hope you get to enjoy one too. 🙂