If I ever catch up with everything I intend to do, it's pretty much going to be a sign that the end of days (at least for me personally) is nigh. I think I need to just embrace being one or two steps behind where I want to be at any given moment and just go with it.
In that spirit, when I realized it was like Oct 15 and I hadn't listed my September books yet, I simply decided to make end of October a double post. Now that's what I call problem-solving! Anyhow, here we go!
September reads:
Fall of Giants - Ken Follett. First of a trilogy that begins before the First World War and carries up to the Obama era, I believe. I'm thoroughly hooked. Had to force myself not to dive immediately into Book 2 after this one. I'm going to savour the series.
Dying in the Wool - Frances Brody. A rather enjoyable mystery.
A Spy Among Friends - Ben Macintyre. Spies! Double crosses! And it's about real people and events. Pretty fascinating stuff.
The Hangman - Louise Penny. A highly snackable novella.
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk - Kathleen Rooney. I highly recommend this lovely, entertaining novel about a fictionalized Macy's copywriter of the 30s and 40s who glories in words and wordcraft.
Twelfth Night - William Shakespeare. Still funny.
Sign of the Cross - Anne Emery. Enjoyed both this book and the next.
The Obit - Anne Emery. Now I'll have to take a bit of a pause so I don't over read this author and start getting irritated by stylistic habits. (Hey, it happened to me with Atwood, No one is immune.)
October reads:
The Grownup - Gillian Flynn. Nicely twisted.
Blind Sight - Carol O'Connell. Kind of a lame and forgettable title but it's a good read for planes.
The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett - Chelsea Sedoti. Interesting book from a teenager's perspective. It's a YA novel and definitely has some of the expected qualities that genre would lead you to expect - angst, (sorta) forbidden love, being misunderstood, heartbreak... - but it's definitely not conventional, and I quite enjoyed it.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon - Kelly Barnhill. Oh wow. You really should read this one for sure. A "young reader" novel in the very best tradition of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe or Harry Potter. Yes, big praise, and worthy of it.
The Children of Men - P.D. James. A dystopian novel set in the near future, it's the British stiff-upper-lip/keep-calm-and-carry-on-to-the-nth-degree parallel to the American-right-wing-Christian-misogynistic-fundie-extremist response to infertility found in Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbary. This beautifully written book was ultimately frustrating to me. Read it and tell me what you think.
I think that's the round up! In theory, I'm going to keep track as I go in November so posting will be easy. But of course, "The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley"... so we'll see.
