I’ve been going through a non fiction phase this month. I’ve loved learning so many new facts and think this shift in my reading focus will continue to some extent for a while.

I’ve read an eclectic mix of books this month and all are worth reading for different reasons. I was disappointed that The Colour of Milk didn’t make the Booker longlist, but I hope it will be rewarded by other book prizes later in the year and encourage you to give it a try soon.

Books of the Month

Books Reviewed in July

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers 

The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon 

Merchants of Culture by John Thompson 

The Hand of Fatima by Ildefonso Falcones 

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo 

The Doctor Will See You Now by Max Pemberton 

Wonder by RJ Palacio 

The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey 

Lacrimosa by Regis Jauffret 

Plans for August

August will mainly be devoted to trying books on The 2012 Booker Prize Longlist. I have a copy of The Teleportation Accident here and so will try that first. Communion Town is in my local library system and winging its way towards me now. I will then work my way through the rest of the list, adding a few random choices from my TBR pile whenever I’m in need of something lighter.

On a personal note, things are very busy for me at the moment. My youngest son was five this week and I’m busy planning his party. We’re also out most days, enjoying the Summer holidays. I have plans to go to the Olympics next week and I’m heading up to the Edinburgh festival later in the month. I’ll try to blog when I can, but I’m afraid it might be intermittent for a few weeks.

I hope you have a wonderful Summer!

Happy reading!

 

May has been a productive reading month for me. It was dominated by the amazing doorstep that is The Street Sweeper, but many of my other reads were also outstanding. I’m making good progress with the 2012 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Shortlist and will continue to read these in June, especially now the regional winners have been announced.

Book of the Month

In any other month of the year The Girl Who Fell From The Sky by Simon Mawer and Heft by Liz Moore would have been top of my list. They will both be favourites of 2012 and so deserve highlighting too:

Books reviewed in May:

The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman 

The Girl Who Fell From The Sky by Simon Mawer 

Heft by Liz Moore 

The Soldier’s Return by Melvyn Bragg 

Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson 

The Master and Margarita: The Graphic Novel 

Still Alice by Lisa Genova 

Pao by Kerry Young 

Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan 

 

Plans for June

I hope to read most of these books:

Merchants of Culture by John B Thompson

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Little Princes by Conor Grennan

Purge by Sofi Oksanen

Half-Sick Of Shadows by David Logan

Dirt by David Vann

The Book of Answers by C.Y. Gopinath

The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya

Flight by Adam Thorpe

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Wonder by RJ Palacio

Have you enjoyed any of the books I’ve planned for June?

 

It is half term here in the UK so I’m going to take a short blogging break to spend some time with my family. I’ll be back to my computer in about a week – hopefully having read some amazing books.

Have a wonderful June!

 

February has been a very enjoyable reading month for me. I’ve kept to my strict abandonment policy and been rewarded with one good book after another.

Book of the Month

 

Books reviewed in February:

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick 

The Death of Grass by John Christopher 

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey 

Do No Harm by Carol Topolski 

Care of Wooden Floors by Will Wiles 

Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson 

A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé 

Purgatory by Tomás Eloy Martínez 

The Twyborn Affair by Patrick White DNF

 

Plans for March

I’m going to finish The Half Brother, an amazing Norwegian book, which has been dominating my February reading time because it contains 750 pages of tiny type. I also hope to read most of these:

A Death in the Family by Karl Ove Knausgaard

The Golden Scales by Parker Bilal

The Great Singapore Penis Panic by Scott Mendelson

The Boy Who Fell To Earth by Kathy Lette

Death in Breslau by Marek Krajewski

The Roundabout Man by Clare Morrall

We the Animals by Justin Torres

I hope that you have a wonderful March!

 

I had a lovely break from blogging over the Christmas/New Year holiday and so am including my December reading in this post. My blogging break means that I read far more books in December than I reviewed. This has enabled me to get a bit ahead of myself and I’m loving the extra buffer this has given me. It means that I’ve been able to read some books that aren’t published for months and indulge in chunksters without impacting the number of posts I can write.

For some reason I lost my harsh abandonment policy at the beginning of December and let several disappointing reads creep into the schedule. I’m having a big crackdown at the moment and I’m pleased to say that my January reading has been outstanding. I read three 4.5 star books and one 5 star one (review for The Death of Grass coming shortly). I just hope I can keep this up!

Books of the Month

 

Books Reviewed in December and January

Astonishing Splashes of Colour by Clare Morrall 

Glasshopper by Isabel Ashdown 

Central Reservation by Will le Flemming 

The Child Who by Simon Lelic 

The Lady’s Slipper by Deborah Swift 

Riding the Black Cockatoo by John Damalis 

Chang & Eng by Darin Strauss 

The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark 

The End of Everything by Megan Abbott 

The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue 

All Is Song by Samantha Harvey DNF

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles DNF

Plans for February

I’m going to continue reading randomly, but these books are calling to me loudly at the moment:

Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

The Swarm by Frank Schatzing

Do No Harm by Carol Topolski

The Twyborn Affair by Patrick White

The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson

Have a wonderful February!