October has been a busy month for me. The building work is almost complete so I’ve been gathering boxes from storage and unpacking them. It is a slow process, but almost over now. I’m continuing to read at a slower pace, but I’m enjoying it and have no plans to increase my reading volume in the near future.
Books of the Month:
Two very different books, but both give a fantastic insight into the human pysche.
Alive isn’t for the squeamish, but it shows the strength of the human spirit and the importance of keeping hope alive.
The Moth is a wonderful collection of stories that show people at important junctions in their lives – it’s inspirational!
Books Reviewed in October:
The Moth: 50 Extraordinary True Stories 
The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster 
The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion 
Plans for November
I’m planning to participate in German literature month. I’m going to start with Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
I also plan to try some of the following:
The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide
Someone Else’s Skin by Sarah Hilary
The Circus in Winter by Cathy Day
The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Sciascia
The Lake District Murder by John Bude
Pandora In The Congo by Albert Sánchez Piñol
I’m Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti
The Blood Of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
The rest of the month will be reserved for random choices. I hope you have a wonderful November!
12 replies on “October Summary and Plans for November”
Im Not Scared has been on my wish list for years. Maybe you’ll convince me to finally read it. Good luck with the unpacking!
JoAnn, I’ve owned a copy for years too. Let’s hope it is worth the wait!
fantastic 5-star pick you’ve made for #germanlitmonth, Jackie. And the Ammaniti is up there with it too.
Lizzy, I started it last night and am very impressed. It reads like a classic 🙂 I look forward to seeing what everyone else reads for #germanlitmonth
I quite liked I’m Not Scared. The movie version was good, too. Now should I go back and read your review of The Bookof Illusions even though you only gave it four stars and I loved, loved, loved it?
Yes, I should.
James, It’s good to hear you enjoyed ‘I’m Not Scared’ – I haven’t heard a bad word about that book yet. Fingers crossed I like it as much as everyone else seems to.
Four stars is still a good mark – it means I enjoyed it a lot 🙂 *heads off to read your comment over there*
I picked up a copy of ‘The Guest Cat’ last week – nice and short so I’ll probably try and fit it in this month too. A friend gave me a copy of ‘I’m Not Scared’ a few years ago and I still haven’t got around to it!
October for me:
Hilary Mantel’s new story collection had a couple of stand-outs but nowhere near in the same league as her recent novels; everyone seems to be in awe of Anthony Doerr’s ‘All the Light We Cannot See’ but I found it all a bit contrived with very clichéd characters; Jane Smiley’s ‘Some Luck’ was a lovely engrossing read but obviously the start of a trilogy – I just hope I can remember the characters and their stories until the next volume; David Guterson’s ‘Probelms with People’ was an okay collection but nothing special; having loved Samantha Harvey’s ‘All is Song’ I was a bit underwhelmed by ‘Dear Thief’ – undeniably beautiful writing but I didn’t really see the point of it; Michael Pitre’s ‘Fives and Twenty-Fives’ is another fantastic novel about Iraq by a former US Marine and though I had some issues with it I’d highly recommend it; David Nicholls’s ‘Us’ was a really pleasant surprise – I’ll admit to being a bit sneery and dismissive of it when it turned up on the Booker longlist, but while not earth-shattering it is really well written, perfectly structured and very funny; John Dufresne, who I raved about last month, is fast becoming a favourite – his debut story collection ‘The Way that Water Enters Stone’ was equally fantastic and I can’t wait to try some of his novels; and finally my book of the month was Laurie Colwin’s 1981 story collection ‘The Lone Pilgrim’ – delicious Austen-esque love stories set in New York in the 70s that are each perfectly crafted gems.
Hope you have a great (and building work-free) November 🙂
David, Sorry to hear you were underwhelmed by ‘Dear Thief’. I’m looking forward to trying that soon. I wasn’t a big fan of ‘All is Song’ but I loved ‘The Wilderness’.
It is good to hear that ‘Us’ was good. I enjoyed ‘Starter for 10’ but wasn’t a fan of ‘One Day’. I plan to try ‘Us’ at some point and hope I enjoy it.
Glad to see you’ve read so many wonderful short story collections. Hopefully I’ll fall in love with them one day soon. Have a wonderful November!
I’m also planning to participate in German Lit Month, with quite a long list of books (I hope I’m not overextending myself). Fallada is excellent, although it’s been far too long since I last read him.
Marina, I look forward to seeing what you read. I hope you enjoy them all!
I catch The Moth Radio Hour on public radio every now and then, and the stories that are read aloud are always very intriguing!
Laurie, Moth Radio Hour sounds great! I wonder if I can get it here? *heads off to look*