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August Summary and Plans for September

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

A Cupboard Full of Coats

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 Twin – Gerbrand Bakker 

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 

Titus Alone – Mervyn Peake 

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:

Caribou Island by David Vann

Everything You Know by Zoe Heller

How to Forget by Marcus Brill

Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry

The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark

Gillespie and I by Jane Harris

The Fat Years by Chan Koonchung

Hen’s Teeth by Manda Scott

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.

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! 😀

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!

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 😉

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!

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).

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