Books of the Month
Books Reviewed in November
You Deserve Nothing – Alexander Maksik 
My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece – Annabel Pitcher (Audio Book)
22 Britannia Road – Amanda Hodgkinson 
Seven Houses in France – Bernardo Atxaga 
The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born – Ayi Armah 
The Piano Teacher – Elfriede Jelinek DNF
The Tin Drum – Günter Grass DNF
Plans for December
In the next month I plan to read all the books that keep cropping up on the “Best of 2011” lists.
I have the following books ready to read in the final few weeks of 2011:
Before I Go to Sleep by SJ Watson
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy
The Hand of Fatima by Ildefonso Falcones
The End of Everything by Megan Abbott
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Have I missed any other gems from 2011?
I also plan to spend a lot of time with my family, so blog posting may be sporadic over the festive period.
18 replies on “November Summary and Plans for December”
State of Wonder is among my favorite novels of the year, and I’m curious to hear what you think of it, especially the science portions. The End of Everything was also excellent. I hope to get to Before I Go to Sleep too. I’m hoping to get to many of the novels I haven’t had a chance to read yet this year that are cropping up on Best of lists too. Happy reading!
nomadreader ,I’m about a thrid of the way thorugh State of Wonder and I have to admit that the beginning was very slow and I thought about abandoning it. Things are beginning to pick up now so hopefully I’ll enjoy it by the time I reach the end. I’ve got my fingers crossed for the other books too. I hope you enjoy your end of year reading. 🙂
Not a bad month, November. And from the looks of it, December is going to be really good. I very much enjoyed State of Wonder and Before I Go To Sleep.
Suspect X and Van Booy are also books I want to read, so I’ll be looking forward to your reviews of those. Please do finish them! 🙂
Judith, I’ll do my best to finish them. Hopefully they’ll be so good that won’t be a problem. 🙂
I’m listening to Before I Go To Sleep right now (disc 6 out of 10). I’m compelled by it, but my subconscious mind keeps trying to poke holes in the premise. Our book club is reading it for January. (BTW I am so glad you enjoyed The Human Bobby. Gabe Rotter is SUCH the cool guy.)
Sandy, Sorry to hear the premise is full of holes. Perhaps it is an audio book issue? Hopefully it will work better for me – or that the ending makes up for any problems.
I really enjoyed State of Wonder and am feeling slightly grumpy about Before I Go To Sleep as the friend I was staying with in England had promised to lend me her copy. I arrived full of anticipation to find she’d lent it to someone else.
Victoria, Sorry to hear you didn’t manage to get your hands on Before I Go to Sleep. Perhaps Santa will be kind to you?
Like, like the December list Jackie. You open the world of good books to me.
Leela, That is good to hear. Thank you!
You had a fantastic November (so many 4.5 stars as well). Ambitious plans for December as well. Hope you like State of Wonder as much as I did.
Diane, Yes. I’ve read a lot of enjoyable books recently. Let’s hope that all continues.
my december plans to catch up on backlog of reviews and maybe a couple of chuncksters to round out the year ,all the best stu
Stu, I plan to round the year off with a few chunksters too – enjoy!
Wow, you’ve read a lot for November! I really enjoyed Before I Go To Sleep, which I read last summer, so that will be fun to talk about when you finish it. Also, I have The Devotion of Suspect X to read, too. I’m not sure I’ll get to it in December, but I definitely want to read it.
Bellezza, I’m looking forward to seeing why people love Suspect X so much. The Japanese are very good at doing thrillers so I have high hopes. Let’s hope we enjoy it.
Hope you get through your list (it’s always stressful to be rushed in December!). Luckily, now all the G-Lit stuff is done and dusted, I’m a little less scheduled 🙂 No Murakami on your list?
Tony, I plan to read the Murakami at some point, but I like lots of other people to read it first – that way I can ask when I get confused about something!
I have a lot more German literature on my wishlist now, but think I’ll leave it to one side for a month or two. I’m enjoying having a little less scheduled too. 🙂