The colder weather of the last month encouraged me to spend more time inside, curled up with a book, and so I read more than twice as much as I did in September. Overall they were a fairly mixed bag, but the majority were entertaining enough to satisfy me. I’m currently enjoying half term with my boys and so don’t have time to write reviews, but I’ll let you know about all the books I’ve read once the schools have gone back.

Book of the Month

Books Reviewed in October:

In Defence of Dogs by John Bradshaw 

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng 

So Big by Edna Ferber 

Arcadia by Lauren Groff 

The Creator by Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir 

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

Swimming Home by Deborah Levy 

The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman 

The Portrait by Iain Pears 

Plans for November

I plan to take part in German literature month organised by Lizzy and Caroline. I’ve already read The Cow by Beat Sterni and am making good progress with The Swarm by Frank Schätzing. I may try to squeeze in another German book before the end of the month too.

I also hope to read most of these:

The First Century After Beatrice by Amin Maalouf

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

The Testimony by James Smythe

The Human Part by Kari Hotakainen

Jerusalem by GM Tavares

The Cook by Wayne Macauley

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

I hope you have a wonderful November!

The last two months have been very busy for me so I’ve read about half as much as I normally would. I’m not worried about this as I had a fantastic summer with my family and there have been lots of great reads in there, but now the weather has made a turn for the worse I’m making up for my poor summer and have read 4 books in the last week. I’ll tell you all about them soon!

Books of the Month

Books Reviewed in August/September

Native Son by Richard Wright 

Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt 

The Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks 

The Lighthouse by Alison Moore 

Thinking in Numbers by Daniel Tammet 

Restoration by Rose Tremain 

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien 

The War of the Wives by Tamar Cohen 

The Plague by Albert Camus 

The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya 

Communion Town by Sam Thompson 

Plans for October

I hope to finish sampling the Booker shortlist and write a post summarising my thoughts before the winner is announced on the 15th October.

I also hope to read most of these books:

Merivel by Rose Tremain

So Big by Edna Ferber

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

Jamilia by Chingiz Aitmatov

Arcadia by Lauren Groff

Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World by Haruki Murakami

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Have you read any of these?

I hope that you have a wonderful October!

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!