Books of the Month

Books Reviewed in November

You Deserve Nothing – Alexander Maksik

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece – Annabel Pitcher (Audio Book)

The Sinner – Petra Hammesfahr

Half Brother – Kenneth Oppel 

Moby Dick – Herman Melville

The Human Bobby – Gabe Rotter 

22 Britannia Road – Amanda Hodgkinson 

House Rules – Jodi Picoult

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.

Have a wonderful December!

October was a good reading month for me. I finished 14 books and most of them were of a high standard.

Books of the Month

Books Reviewed in October

Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe

The Fat Years – Chan Koonchung

Family Matters – Rohinton Mistry

The Poison Tree – Erin Kelly 

Gillespie and I – Jane Harris 

The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller 

How to Forget – Marius Brill

The Marriage Plot – Jeffrey Eugenides

Breathing Underwater – Marie Darrieussecq

The Sound of Gravity – Joe Simpson

Everything You Know – Zoe Heller

What Else Did I Do?

The beginning of the month was hectic as it was my eldest son’s 6th birthday. For some mad reason we invited his entire class and as such ended up with a room full of 29 children. We hired a magician to entertain them for most of the party, but that still left us supervising them over food and for the last few minutes. I’m sure they all had a good time, but next year I’m having a maximum of eight!

A few days later my youngest son somehow managed to trip over and land on his head –  it is amazing how much blood can be produced from one little (but deep) cut. He was glued back together quite quickly, but I hope I don’t have to repeat that experience too many times. Here he is at his school harvest festival, showing off his injury.

.

It has been half term this week, so I’ve spent the time entertaining my boys. We’ve been into London, done a Halloween treasure hunt, carved pumpkins, been to a fireworks dispay and spent a lot of time in the woods walking Ayla and collecting sweet chestnuts. Here are a few photos to show what we’ve been up to:

 

Ayla

Ayla is now 6 months old and weighs 27kg. I think she has all her adult teeth now and she has stopped chewing everything in sight. Last week we finally trusted her to sleep outside her crate and in the morning everything was exactly as we left it, so fingers crossed that chewy puppy stage is over.

.

.

.

 

 ..

.

.

Plans for November

I’m planning to join the German Literature Month organised by Lizzy from Lizzy’s Literary Life and Caroline from Beauty is A Sleeping Cat.

I’ve already finished:

• The Death of the Adversary by Hans Keilson
• The Sinner by Petra Hammesfahr
• The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek

and I got so excited by German literature that I started The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass – a book that has intimidated me for far too long. It is much easier to read than I expected and I hope to finish it before the end of the month.

I also plan to read the following books:

Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue

The Lady’s Slipper by Deborah Swift

I’m also going to do a bit of random reading – picking a few books that have been on my shelf for far too long.

Have a wonderful November!

I have had a good reading month, completing about fifteen books. Unfortunately I haven’t had much time for review writing and so am a bit behind. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up over the next few weeks, but the good news is that I’ve read a few real gems.

Book of the Month

Books Reviewed in September

The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

Absent – Betool Khedairi

The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern

Hen’s Teeth – Manda Scott

The Last Hundred Days  – Patrick McGuinness

Half Blood Blues – Esi Edugyan

Caribou Island – David Vann

Titus Awakes – Maeve Gilmore and Mervyn Peake

 

What else have I been doing?

My eldest son returned to school at the beginning of the month so I spent most of September entertaining my youngest son. I discovered that looking after one child is far harder than two and so I’ve been volunteering to look after other children, just so they entertain each other. We had a lot of fun swimming, walking in the woods and sampling all the local playgrounds, but then last week he went to school for the first time.

So far he has just been doing half days, but he is loving it. On Monday he goes full-time, so I’m looking forward to getting a lot of extra free-time.

 

I was also lucky enough to be invited to attend Vintage Books’ 21st Birthday Party in central London. It was a lovely evening and I saw lots of famous authors (who I was too scared to talk too!). I did get to meet a few of the publishers and I had a very nice chat with Kim from Reading Matters.

Plans for October

I’ll be joining in Amy’s Nigerian Independence Day Reading Project by posting a review of Things Fall Apart.

I’m gathering together as many German books as I can for Lizzy and Caroline’s German Literature Month.

I also plan to read a few of the following books:

The Fat Years by Chan Koonchung

Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

The Sound of Gravity by Joe Simpson

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott

Villain by Shuichi Yoshida

The Human Bobby by Gabe Rotter

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

Galore by Michael Crummey

I hope you have a wonderful October!

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 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!

 

July has been a slow reading month for me. There were a couple of weeks when I struggled to read anything and I only made my way through Gormenghast because I was hosting the read-along and didn’t want to get behind.

On a positive note, I enjoyed everything I read and am happy to recommend all of these books.

Book of the Month

.

.

.

Books Reviewed in July

Gormenghast – Mervyn Peake 

The Afterparty – Leo Benedictus 

The Radleys – Matt Haig 

Speed of Dark – Elizabeth Moon 

The Forgotten Waltz – Anne Enright 
 

What else have I been doing?

I didn’t have much time for reading as looking after my new puppy has been exhausting. Things are improving as she gets older, but I’m looking forward to the day when she sleeps all the way through the night. She is now 12 weeks old and has tripled in weight since we got her a month ago. As you can see she is now so big I can barely pick her up.

The school holidays have started and so I am now spending each day entertaining my two boys. We’ve had a lot of fun so far. The highlight being my youngest son’s 4th birthday. We took him to the new Peppa Pig Land at Paulton Park. Here he is enjoying George’s dinosaur ride.

Yesterday I organised a pirate birthday party for him. I think you can tell from their expressions that they enjoyed themselves!

Plans for August

I should have a little bit more time for reading in August, but I don’t expect to get through that many books. I’m planning to try all of the books on the Booker long list, but haven’t had much luck with them so far (I’ve given up on another two in the last few days). I’ve now moved onto The Sisters Brothers and am enjoying it so far. Hopefully I’ve just saved all the best ones until last.

I’m also going to finish the last in the Gormenghast trilogy, Titus Alone. I’ve read about 100 pages so far and am enjoying it, but it isn’t in the same league as the previous books.

I’m sure that will be enough to keep me busy, but I’ll try to throw in the odd non-Booker book to keep a bit of variety.

I hope you have a wonderful Summer!

My June reading has been dominated by Titus Groan, the first book in The Gormenghast Trilogy. It has become one of my all-time favourite books and so I am looking forward to seeing what happens in the rest of the series.

I have also been reading Shantaram and can see that becoming a favourite too. Working through these chunksters means that I don’t have that much time for other books, but I’m not going to apologise – I love it and recommend that you try reading them too!

Book of the Month

 

 .

 .

 .

Books Reviewed in June

Titus Groan – Mervyn Peake 

Night Waking – Sarah Moss 

Pure – Andrew Miller 

Rendezvous – Esther Verhoef 

A Visit from the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan 

Visitation – Jenny Erpenbeck 

The Possessed – Elif Batuman 

Plans for July

I am looking forward to the Booker long list announcement on 26th July. I’m currently trying to decide which books I think will be selected and I’ll reveal my prediction in a couple of weeks’ time.

Shantaram and the Gormenghast Read-along will continue to dominate my reading this month. The length of these books means that I am being drawn towards shorter, lighter books in the rest of my reading time. I’m going to be very busy looking after my new puppy and my two boys over the Summer holidays and so I’m not going to even think about what other books I might squeeze in this month – I’m just going to see what catches my eye!

Have a wonderful July!