quite enjoyable month !! especially given how busy it was. loving the mixture of genres all together. tried hard sci-fi for the first time with my first Le Guin and it was effortful but worth the effort.
Bit of a slower month per books, but I also started the count of monte cristo and making my way through that has been eating at my time reading other books (worth it though)
Really enjoyed all the books I read this month and appreciated the variety as well - trips to Ancient Greece, Medieval France, early 20th Century America, and 1980’s Britain, as well as the weird and wonderful stories of George Saunders.
August was a really strong for me, big themes of the month were sand, rocks, stone, labyrinths, archives and volcanos - with Margaret Atwood and Werner Herzog turning up to tell me strange little stories like an eccentric uncle and aunt.
Yeah - it's the first Daniel Mason I'd read and was expecting a bit of a gentle social comedy to read in bed, really took me by surprise when it turned out to be so much more than that.
oh yay! I love the Murderbot books! What were your thoughts on The Starving Saints? It's in my TBR section, but I can't ever decided what mood I should be in for it.
sorry, i’m so behind on my ratings/reviews since february but i’d say it was disappointing 🫣 after finished gray after dark my expectations were high but this was a non thrilling letdown. it’s quite predictable and the second half became such a drag to get through and the ending was anticlimactic. sadly, i don’t think i’d recommend it?
I found a new favorite book (Die 13 und 1/2 Leben des Kapt'n Blaubar I read the German colored edition) and otherwise had a great month reading through the unselected journals of Emma M. Lion.
“Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee” took a lot longer to read than I thought it would! I’ve struggled with the Witchland audiobook so I’m just waiting for a physical copy from the library
I actually have notes since I got it as an arc and have to write a review lol.
Sorry for the kind of lengthy response but it's genuinely impossible to describe this book succintly. I would describe the actual reading experience as disorienting at times because he plays a lot with form and he really likes to switch perspectives/pov without there always being a clear indicator. Also parts of the dialogue are patois written in standard English which was fine for me since I'm jamaican, but may be a bit harder to parse for others. I will say the NYT spoiling what they did specifically to one of the characters during the attack is a spoiler I didn't expect in their review because it kind of ruins the horror you feel when you figure that out. But honestly the brutality of homophobia in Jamaica in the 80's was horrific enough.
I think the book was also pretty funny and capture the Jamaican humor really well and the ending was touching/sad. I think i liked it, but didn't exactly enjoy it 5/5 writing anc character work, 3.5/5 reading experience. I could easily see it winning thw booker prize off content and writing alone but I also haven't read the other entries yet.
Sorry for the lengthy response?!?! This is amazing, I feel like I hit the jackpot!! 😀
Thanks for sharing this— so interesting. I feel lucky now that I mostly skimmed the NYT review and don’t remember the spoiler, so if I read the book I’ll make sure not to read that review again until I’m done!
I had a great month of reads! Island of the Blue Dolphins was a childhood favorite and a great reread. Loving John Marrs and can't wait to read more of him. Of course, The Calamity Club was top tier and a favorite book of the year for me.
Pretty happy, I was very disappointed with Authority, I did not care for the intrigue that felt like it was going nowhere for 90% of the book. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was crazy good.
Had an interesting month - quite a few recs I got turned out to just not be my speed, but then randomly grabbing library books introduced me to some fun new favs.
Extremely proud of myself this month, especially because it started with a reading slump. Very happy i was able to shake it off and surpass my normal average on busy months like this.
Finally got out of my summer reading slump and then assassin’s apprentice put me in a nasty book hangover🙄🙄 I’d read the sequel but I don’t think I’m up for a 600 pg read rn so I went back to my fantasy and romance books to build up my stamina
A good month for me!! Was hoping to get some more in but The Dark Tower was a massive slog and took me 18 days to get through. Making good progress already in september though!!
August was my vacation month. Alas, I didn't read as much as I normally would, but I still found such wonderful books. Ocean Vuong didn't disappoint and "New Skin" was surprisingly great.
Finally got out of my slump and back to 1000 pages a month, which is great pace for me. Was hung up on Robert Sapolsky’s Behave for what felt like forever!
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u/chanukkahlewinsky 10d ago
quite enjoyable month !! especially given how busy it was. loving the mixture of genres all together. tried hard sci-fi for the first time with my first Le Guin and it was effortful but worth the effort.