Wrap-Up 9.20

September was a doozy. I’ve been harping on about my reading and reviewing slump long enough (and it seems mostly gone now so this will be the end of it), but concentrating was a struggle for me through most of September even when I was enjoying what I was picking up. I also got very busy with work this month, which will continue for a few more weeks before I’m able to fully catch up here. But all is well, and I’m already looking forward to the time when I’ll be back in full swing. My reading is steadily improving! But I do like to have a little record on my blog for each month, so here’s a (belated) look at my September in books, even though it’s a bit sad.

Mid-month, I set this TBR in the hopes of boosting myself out of the slump:

I started two of these books and finished none before the end of the month; I might have done better if I hadn’t started with the long nonfiction (The Only Plane in the Sky), but the date was right for it and it’s been an incredible read so far. The YA selections were supposed to be nice quick reads to ease me back in and also help me get my Spotlight post for September (focusing on YA lit) up in time, which unfortunately didn’t happen either. That will still be coming, and I have finished one of the YA titles (The Poet X) already in October. I am also planning to start this month or next focusing more earnestly on reading through all of the 5-book TBR titles I haven’t completed yet from previous months, so I do still expect to get around to reading and reviewing the rest of these books in the near future.

It was a slow and awkward month, but I did manage to finish a few things, thanks mostly to buddy reads and library due date deadlines keeping me motivated. Here’s what I did complete:

1. Gutshot by Amelia Gray – 3 stars. This is a short collection of flash fiction stories that I read and discussed with Melanie (be sure to check out her review here!). These are excellent off-the-wall stories for those who love following a tale down whatever bizarre path it takes, otherworldly elements and all; I wished for more thematic resonance but did otherwise have a fun time reading these.
2. Death, Desire, and Other Destinations by Tara Isabelle Zambrano – 4 stars. Another short set of flash fiction stories with an even shorter average page count (most of Zambrano’s pieces are 2-4 pages in length); these worked slightly better for me overall because I found more meaning and emotion under the surface of the stories and appreciated the lgbtq+ characters. This one’s a brand new September release.
3. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart – 4 stars. I had already started this Booker Prize longlist title when the time for the shortlist announcement rolled around last month; seeing it make the cut helped keep me going through this 400+ page sobfest of alcoholism in spite of my slump. I found it surprisingly immersive and compelling for how slow-paced and tragic it is.
4. Sisters by Daisy Johnson – 5 stars. After loving Johnson’s Booker-nominated Everything Under a couple of years back I couldn’t miss this evocative sibling horror story. This might ordinarily have been a 4-star read, but it was perfect slump fare and checked a few boxes I just really love in reading. I have a penchant for literary thriller-type books a la My Sister, the Serial Killer; they’re just such a fun ride. So, maybe don’t look at my 5-star and expect an all-time favorite, but this is a perfect quick fall read and if toxic loyalty in sisterhood sounds at all appealing I recommend picking it up! Review coming soon(ish).

Yep, that’s my entire list. And I read an eARC of Death, Desire and Other Destinations and returned the two library books before I took the picture, so my stack is even more sparse visually. I threw The Only Plane in the Sky in there (backwards since I didn’t finish it) as an honorable mention, because I did read a good chunk of it before the end of the month (as you can maybe see by the tabs marking my progress).

This is my smallest monthly wrap-up in years, but I’m not upset about it. Four books isn’t bad- no amount of reading is bad. It’s important to take breaks. I always feel supportive of other bloggers or bookish social media accounts who admit to an off month or need some time away, so holding myself to an impossible standard of always increasing just doesn’t make sense. Take a breath when you need to. I will do the same.

…

Some stats:

Average rating – 4.0

Best of month – Sisters

Owned books read for the first time – 1 out of 4. I wasn’t sure whether to count the eARC; I actually don’t think I’ve read anything in that format since I started noting this statistic. But I suppose by ‘owned books’ I mean ‘purchased books.’

Year total – 73 books read. After months of hanging 2-3 books ahead of schedule in my Goodreads goal of 100 books for 2020, I finally fell behind. At the end of September I was one book behind schedule. I’m not really worried about it, tbh. I’m confident my reading will keep improving and at some point I’ll catch up. It’s not really about the numbers anyway, so if I end up missing this goal it wouldn’t be a crushing disappointment.

Non-review posts this month included:

• Some thoughts on the Booker Prize shortlist, or primarily just an update on my 2020 Booker reading plans, since I fell behind on the longlist. As long as we’re on the subject, I want to mention for anyone who hasn’t seen yet that the Booker winner announcement has been pushed back to November 19 this year. I’ll continue reading and reviewing as I’m able; I have 2 pending shortlist reviews that’ll probably be my next posts (or nearly so), and I’m planning to read probably 3 additional titles from the longlist before wrapping up for the 2020 prize season.

…

Not a great month, but I made it through. And, interestingly, even though I’ve barely been reading and have hardly been posting or keeping up with my blog at all, September was an all-time record month for my blog stats; just a casual reminder that focusing on the numbers will only drive you mad. Hitting all-time highs when I’ve been so frustratingly absent seems completely backwards, but the likes and comments and follows really do keep me going some days when the going is tough, so here’s a huge thank you to everyone who’s taken the time to stop by and check out my reading life. You’re appreciated!

I hope your fall reading is off to a good start. Let me know in the comments something great you’ve read recently- seriously, I can’t keep up with blog hopping right now so I have no idea what you’ve all been reading and I want to know!

…

The Literary Elephant

TBR 9.20

Fortuitously, talking about my slump in my August wrap-up seems to have helped a bit in motivating me to pull out of it. Thank you all for the lovely and helpful comments on that post- engaging here again is already bringing some of the excitement back to reading and blogging for me. So here’s a slow start back into my list of pending posts, with my September TBR; up next, I think I’ll dabble in some blog hopping! I might even go crazy and read something this evening! 🙂

But before I get there, here’s a look at what I’m hoping will help with my awkward slump situation:

1. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. I might as well say right off that my Spotlight post for September will feature YA books (a category, rather than a genre). YA books are typically faster reads for me, so I think leaning into some Spotlight post prep will be doubly beneficial- quick reads are great for slumps. Even better, this one’s told in verse and has a low words per page ratio, which should really help someone (me) who’s struggling to turn pages. This will be my first Acevedo book, and all I know going in is that it follows a teenage slam poet.
2. Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake. Another YA, this one is on my 20 in ’20 list and is also an LGBTQ+ story (I was sad not to find time to read it in June, but September’s a good a time as any!). It follows a set of twins, one of whom is accused of raping the other’s friend. I believe it’s a story of identity and self-discovery, of family and morality.
3. Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour. Another YA, another LGBTQ+ story. This one was gifted to me earlier this year by a friend who loved it, and I often agree with her bookish opinions so I have high hopes for this sapphic romace.
4. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. The other YA title from my 20 in ’20 list. I have reservations about starting another fantasy series before I get around to finishing others I’ve already started (why is The Empire of Gold still so expensive???), and especially when I only have one of the books on hand. But high fantasy is also good for slumps and I’m mood reading these days so it’s good to have something less contemporary on the list. I think this is a romance-based fantasy, in a Roman-inspired world.
5. The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff. For a change of pace, here’s an adult nonfiction about a fairly recent piece of history. I was lucky enough to visit the One World Trade Center and the 9/11 memorial and memorial museum in New York earlier this year before the lockdowns, so this feels like the right time to get to this book.

And that’s my list. This seems like a good plan, theoretically, but I’ll be honest and say I have no idea whether this is what my wrap-up at the end of the month will look like. I also have a few Booker Prize nominees checked out from the library that I’m *trying* to carry on with, but at this point I think I just need to go where my mood takes me if I want to be able to finish anything. I should have plenty of reading time this month, though I may have less time for blogging toward the end of September. We shall see. In any case, I am still hoping to finish ALL of the books I’ve assigned myself in these monthly 5-book TBRs before the end of the year, so it’s likely you’ll be seeing reviews for these titles from me at some point even if I don’t manage them all this month. Rest assured, adult lit readers, I won’t post entirely YA content this month even if my reading skews that way. I’ve got a few adult reviews to catch up on as well, and more Booker content on the way.

…

As has become tradition, I’ll include here the new September releases that are on my radar as well. I may or may not get to any of these within the month, but I will be looking out for posts and reviews because I’m excited about these!

• Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi. Contemporary fiction following a Ghanian family in Alabama. Our narrator is a scientist looking to rationalize the suffering she sees around herself. Out Sep 1st
• Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi. YA contemporary fiction told in verse, in which a teenage artist is wrongly incarcerated for a crime in his neighborhood. Out Sep 1st
• One By One by Ruth Ware. Adult thriller set at a snowed-in ski resort. Eight coworkers on a retreat gone wrong find themselves fighting for survival… from the elements, and perhaps from each other. Out Sep 8th
• Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land by Toni Jensen. Adult nonfiction/memoir about one woman’s experience as an indigenous American, told through essays on her encounters with gun violence. Out Sep 8th.

It’s a shorter list this month, but hopefully that’ll make it feel more manageable. I already have a copy of Transcendent Kingdom thanks to Book of the Month; I’m very excited for this one after loving Gyasi’s Homegoing a few years ago (and the first BOTM copy I’ve ever seen with a special effect in the cover design- gold foil! I hope this is the start of a trend!)

Have you read any of these books, or recognize them from your own lists? Let me know in the comments!

The Literary Elephant

Wrap-Up 9.19

September was sort of a rough month for me. I had more 2-star reads (the lowest I rate, so far) than 5-stars, and just didn’t read as much as I’d hoped, all around. I am also very upset that the weather went straight from balmy to unreasonably cold (though to be fair anything under 60 degrees feels unreasonable to me). Fall is not my happy time. But I have a very exciting October TBR planned, so I’m looking to make the most of it!

Here’s the pre-spooky mix I read in September:

1. A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor. 4 stars. This was the last of the Faber Stories (that have been published so far) that I’ve been trying to get my hands on for ages- fortunately I found a friend to lend me a copy! Even more happily, it turned out to be one of my favorites from the entire set! It’s about a small-minded family who encounter some trouble on their vacation travels. If you follow the link to my review, you can also check out my complete ranking of the first 20 Faber Stories.
2. The Wall by John Lanchester. 2 stars. The Booker Prize longlist introduced me to this title, which in the end did not impress me as much in execution as its synopsis suggested it might. Though it’s a competent story with a lot of political parallels, it just doesn’t push boundaries in a satisfactory way and left me very underwhelmed.
3. The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware. 4 stars. Though Ware’s mystery style is becoming a bit predictable for me, I still enjoyed this story and, as always, loved the atmosphere Ware creates. There’s a bit of tragic ambiguity toward the end that really made up for the slow pace at the beginning. On the whole, I was entertained, and didn’t find any major issues to dampen the fun.
4. The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel by Margaret Atwood, art and adaptation by Renee Nault. 4 stars. I wasn’t planning to reread The Handmaid’s Tale before The Testaments, so finding this one available at my library last minute was a nice stroke of luck. I adored every single thing about this book except for the last three pages, which take a final turn the novel doesn’t, in preparation for the sequel.
5. Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created FRANKENSTEIN by Lita Judge. 5 stars. Reading Frankissstein last month reignited my love for Shelley’s classic, and this genre-defying graphic work was a perfect follow-up. I was worried at first that the writing was aimed at younger readers (YA doesn’t always work for me these days), but the style and themes seemed to reflect Mary’s age and maturity throughout the book, which I appreciated more as the story progressed. All in all, beautiful, brilliant, and so very sad.
6. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. 2 stars. This isn’t an offensive book, and many fans of The Handmaid’s Tale are going to love it, but very little about this book fit what I would have wanted from a sequel. It checked another title off the Booker Prize list for me, but otherwise I didn’t find this particularly rewarding.
7. Ask Me About My Uterus by Abby Norman. 4 stars. I expected this nonfiction title to be a bit more informational about endometriosis and how it’s treated medically, but instead it’s very much a memoir of one woman’s experience, endometriosis and otherwise. Though it wasn’t quite what I expected, I’m so glad I kept reading anyway because this is a perspective I think everyone should hear from- especially anyone with a uterus and/or involved in a medical profession.
8. The Outsider by Stephen King. 3 stars. I read this with a buddy through all of September, which is always a fun experience! There were some delightfully creepy moments in this book (I read a lot of King but his horror doesn’t always scare me, so I enjoy when it does), but the latter half wasn’t as strong as the beginning. It was still a great book to be reading while planning my spooky TBR though. I’ll have more detailed thoughts coming up in a full review soon!

(Quite a few of my September reads were library books, which I returned before taking the picture.)

Overall, this is a somewhat disappointing list. I really liked the graphic novels and the short story, but they were such quick reads that as I look back at the month it doesn’t look like I spent much quality time with books in September. Even though I did? Oddly, the Booker Prize nominees I read this month were the least fulfilling of the set. I just don’t know what happened here. It didn’t feel like a bad month, but it certainly could’ve gone better.

Some stats:

Average rating – 3.5

Best of month – Mary’s Monster

Worst of month – The Testaments. Again, it’s not necessarily a bad book; if you’re interested, you should look up more info because it might be a better fit for you. It was just not what I wanted this book to be at all.

Books hauled – 14, which includes 6 I’ve already read and 8 still to read. (You can check out the full list in my October TBR post, or take a quick glance here) –>

Owned book read for the first time – 3. Not as many as I hauled, so my own-unread TBR took a hit again. No surprise, really, at this point.

September TBR tally – 0/3, but I was so close to finishing 1 of these books from my August haul/Sept. TBR. I started Pierce Brown’s Dark Age this month, the biggest title from the stack, and managed 640/750 pages. This is the book facing backwards in my wrap-up stack; I’m a little farther now than where the tabs stopped when I took the picture yesterday morning. I’m starting my October reading regardless, but I’m hoping to finish Dark Age in the next day or two as well. In case you missed it, the full August haul stack: –>

Year total – 95. This was not as productive a reading month as I had hoped, but I’m still pretty confident that I’ll hit my Goodreads goal of 100 books next month!

Posts recap – I don’t usually round up my non-review posts in my monthly wrap-ups, but I did a few interesting tags this month that I’d love to see more bloggers trying out, so I’ll link them here in case you missed them and/or are looking for a fun post idea:

The Liebster Award

Choose the Year Book Tag

The Translated Literature Tag

And to get in the right mood for better (spookier) books ahead in October, let me know in the comments a book you’re most excited about picking up this month! I’m really looking forward to Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle!

 

The Literary Elephant

TBR 9.19

Another month, another book list! This one’s going to be a bit of a mess I’m afraid, so enter at your own risk.

My TBR goal for 2019 was to read all of the new books I’ve acquired by the end of the following month. This hasn’t really been working out for me, but I’m continuing to track the info. So I’ll show you what new books came to my shelves in August in the first half of this post (the books that my TBR goal says I *should* be reading in September), and then I’ll give a more general overview of my plans for the month.

New books I haven’t read yet:

1. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. I really want to read this adult fantasy trilogy now that it’s complete (sometimes I prefer to wait until the end so I can read the books back to back), but I have two other series to catch up in before starting something new so I likely won’t be reading this in September. I only bought it this past month because I came across a good-condition hardcover for under $5 and can’t resist a book sale.
2. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh. I’ve been looking at this one longingly for months and I finally had a coupon and went for it. But I think I want to read Moshfegh’s Homesick for Another World first (which I already own) because I expect to enjoy this one more and I’m a save-the-best-for-last kind of person. So I probably won’t read this in September either.
3. Dark Age by Pierce Brown. This is the fifth installment in the Red Rising trilogy, which I have been enjoying since the beginning (though it’s been long enough since I read the first book that I’m increasingly curious to reread and see if I still feel the same). This is one of the series I would want to catch up in before starting something new, so I am planning to get to this one very soon.

New books I’ve read already:

1. Three Types of Solitude by Brian Aldiss. This is another short story from the Faber Stories collection, which I am now only one volume away from completing! I’ll review this one in my final round of mini-reviews when I get ahold of that last volume, but I’ll mention that I found this one really weird and fun, though I didn’t take much away from the read other than some quick entertainment.
2. A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride. I read this one in July (from the library) and found it so powerful and unique that I needed my own copy. Just… all the stars.
3. Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry. This was one of the Booker Prize longlist titles I was most excited about, so I purchased a UK copy in order to read it before the shortlist announcement, which comes a couple of weeks before this book’s US release date. Sadly the story didn’t quite live up to my high hopes, but the writing is gorgeous, at least.
4. Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson. This is actually my current read, but I have only about 60 pages left and I am loving it so much that I’ll certainly finish before the end of the month. I want to review this one before the shortlist announcement, so it’ll be coming up ASAP and will be gushy. You’ve been warned.

I’m pretty happy with this haul. I’ve read a good portion of it, I’m confident that I’ll be reaching for Dark Age probably within the next week, and I’m 100% okay with letting the last two books wait a little longer. I am planning to concentrate more in these last few months of 2019 on books I’ve bought this year and haven’t read yet, so there’s a good chance I’ll get to the Arden and Moshfegh before the end of the year as well.

And on that note… a little more on my plans for September.

First, the Booker Prize shortlist will be announced on the 3rd, and that might slightly alter my reading plans going forward. Right now I’m planning to read both The Testaments and Ducks, Newburyport in September, but I’ll post more concrete info about the shortlist and my Booker progress and reading plans after the 3rd.

Second, my buddy read for Stephen King’s The Outsider got pushed back from August to September, so barring further complications I’ll be starting this one in the coming weeks. I’m also anticipating a buddy read of Helen Dunmore’s A Spell of Winter, which I’ve got from the library and will probably start in mid-September.

Third, I have a very seasonal job right now, and fall is the busiest season. This is going to affect my ability to use the library, pick anything new up from bookstores, and stay as active as I have been on my blog. I will probably still have about the same amount of reading time, it will just be divided into littler pieces throughout the day rather than in one solid chunk at night, as has become my habit. For these reasons, coupled with the fact that my TBR system for this year has made it painfully obvious to me that I’m buying more books than I’m able to keep up with, I am planning to focus my next few TBRs on some of the unread titles I’ve bought earlier this year. I was particularly excited about my July haul / August TBR, which I didn’t end up having time for this month and still want to delve into.

Oh, and I’ve also got Ruth Ware’s The Turn of the Key checked out from the library!

All in all, I’ve got a weird mix of plans and anything could happen. I’m sorry I’ve been posting such unstructured TBRs the last few months, but I’ve discovered that if I plan my reading schedule down to the letter I feel too boxed in and also get really frustrated when reality turns out different and I have to readjust. So this is a general overview more than a strict list. Fortunately, I’ve still got a couple of weeks before my job gets real busy, so I’m going to cram in as much reading and blogging as I can in the meantime!

Happy September reading all around. 🙂

 

The Literary Elephant

Wrap-up 9.18

What a fantastic month! I read so many things, including some especially good things. I wanted to start diving into a bunch of the new titles I was excited about from my last three giant book hauls (yes, every one of those links goes to a different giant book haul I’ve posted in the past couple of months), but I ended up using September as more of a catch-up month. I think that was a good choice.

Trends:

• I’ve gotten back into the habit of checking how long a book is, deciding when I want to finish it, and assigning myself a number of pages to read per day to fit that goal. This method doesn’t always work for me, but I’ve gotten through a lot of books this month by setting a specific page goal every day.

Book-to-Film Adaptations:

• This month I read The Iliad and The Silence of the Girls (more on both below), and watched the film Troy. There are pros and cons to each adaptation of the story, and it’s hard to say which of the three I prefer most. I liked Patroclus best in The Silence of the Girls, Achilles best in The Iliad, and Briseis best in Troy. Hector is a solid favorite throughout. Troy is the farthest from the main plot, but the easiest to engage in emotionally. Also Troy is the only version that includes the Trojan Horse, which I enjoy.

Finished Books (with titles linked to full reviews):

1. From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan. 4 stars. This was my third Man Booker 2018 longlist title. I loved this book, though I didn’t entirely love its formatting, which was a bit on the short story collection side. I read it in one day, between 2 sittings, which is something I haven’t done much of lately and it felt pretty good. Ryan’s prose is absolutely beautiful, and I loved the way these characters’ stories fit together in the end.
2. Everything Under by Daisy Johnson. 5 stars. My fourth Man Booker longlist title. This is one of very few magical realism stories I’ve really loved. It’s a great retelling of some familiar classic stories, wonderfully dark and yet almost whimsical. I loved the focus on words, the complex relationships, the magical twist, and everything about it, really. I’m so glad to see this one on the shortlist!
3. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. 4 stars. There was a lot I loved about this book, and it might have been a 5-star read if I had read a physical copy in a timely manner rather than periodically picking up the ebook. Very little of this surprised me, though I was very emotionally engaged all the way through. I don’t always click with stream-of-consciousness writing, but these characters hooked me.
4. You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld. 2 stars. I’m trying to pick up more short story collections throughout the last few months of this year, so I thought I’d start with this new collection by an author I’ve enjoyed before (albeit in a novel); it started out promising, but I ended up so disappointed that basically every story was the same with different surface details. The underlying message is solid, but I felt like I was being hit over the head with it by the end.
5. The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner. 4 stars. My 5th Man Booker longlist read. I was wary going into this one because I had seen reviews stating that some of the perspective sections seemed pretty unnecessary to the overall story, and unnecessary info usually bores/frustrates me in a novel. I did find the unnecessary info suggestion to be true, but enjoyed the rest of the story far more than I expected to. So it balanced out.
6. The Pisces by Melissa Broder. 5 stars. I wasn’t sure about this one at first, but it really won me over by the end. Despite the plot being pretty weird and the main character somewhat unlikable, I loved the narrative voice and its subtext, as well as the Greek parallels. It was definitely an interesting and surprising read that I’ll be thinking about for quite a while. I’m so glad I picked this one out of the influx of mermaid books that were published this year.
7. Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough. 2 stars. I suppose I should have foreseen my frustration with this one, after so many thriller disappointments lately and knowing going in that this new Pinborough novel lacked the genre-bending twist that I loved in her last thriller. Maybe I’ve read too many thrillers. Maybe my bar is too high. All I know is that this one disappointed me on every level, even though there was nothing seriously wrong with it. It just fell flat.
8. The Iliad by Homer. 4 stars. I’ve not been keeping up with my classics goal for this year, and I’m not sure why. They’re so rewarding to read. This one took me quite a while because I didn’t love the translation I have, and also because I already knew the story so there weren’t surprises in the plot. But it’s still beautiful and I’m glad I’ve finally read it in its entirety. I’ll stick with this volume long enough to finish The Odyssey as well.
9. The Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg. 4 stars. I’m probably not going be able to generate much interest in this series, but it taught me how important it is for narratives from all countries and cultures to be written down– because it’s the first time I’ve read something that feels like a part of my heritage. Though I didn’t love the writing style, it was fascinating to read about emigrants from Sweden (fiction based on real diary entries) as some of my own ancestors were. The first book was an incredible reading experience and I’m looking forward to continuing.
10. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker. 4 stars. This is a great modernization of The Iliad, but the plot follows Homer’s original so closely that I was left a little bored since I knew most of what would happen after recently finishing the classic. Briseis didn’t stand out as much as I expected her to for being given her own perspective chapters, but I did think characterization was the strength of this novel.  But it’s possible that my expectations were too high going in.
11. The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh. 5 stars. This was my 6th read from the Man Booker longlist and another highlight of the list for me (so far). Despite a few flaws, I was completely sucked in by the atmosphere and read the entire book in two sittings. I thought the character dynamics were incredible and the ambiguity kept me thinking about this story long after I finished reading– I loved the way it ended.
12. Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid. 3 stars. I’m not doing a full review of this one because it was only a single short story. I didn’t spend much time with it and it didn’t make much of an impression on me either way. It’s an epistolary story, which is a format I sometimes enjoy. As often happens, some of the content feels forced into a mode that doesn’t entirely fit all of the plot developments, but it’s a nice break from more traditional writing styles. The plot’s a bit fluffy and predictable, though it didn’t end exactly as I expected so I wasn’t totally bored. I wasn’t even planning to read this, I just came across it one evening, started reading, finished within an hour, and was ready to move on with my life. I’m looking forward to Reid’s 2019 publication, but this one affirmed that I don’t really want to go back and read the novels she’s previously published because I don’t think I’m going to find another Seven Husbands among them.
13. November Road by Lou Berney. 3 stars. This was a BOTM selection that I didn’t choose in my box, but I did enter (and win!) a giveaway for it on Goodreads. It’s the first ARC I’ve ever received (I’m not big on ARCs). This one was a page-turner, but I didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it either, but I think there’s probably a better audience for it among the male population. I’ll have a full review up soon.

Some Stats:

• Average Rating – 3.8
• Best of the Month – Everything Under
• Worst of the Month – You Think It, I’ll Say It
• Books Hauled – 17 (link in intro)
• Owned Books Read for the First Time – 7. My physical TBR grew by 10 books this month.
• Total Read in 2018 – 90. My Goodreads goal for the year was 90 books, so I’ve just completed that challenge!

Usually my reading months have ups and downs, binges and slumps. I had a wide variety of ratings this month, but for the first time in a while it just felt like an all-around good reading month. I was disappointed by a few titles, but I didn’t actively hate anything, and I found several books I really loved. And I mentioned that I used September as a catch-up month: I managed to finish 3  books that have been on my currently reading list for way too long (and made good progress on a 4th), I got all of my library books returned on time, I made a dent in the Man Booker longlist, I kept up with my BOTM selections, and I read a book that I borrowed months ago. I feel like I’m getting into a good position to be wrapping up more things that I want to finish reading before the end of the year– from my reading challenge (update post coming tomorrow), from the Man Booker longlist, from my BOTM backlog, and from my still-too-long list of books I’m currently reading. But my October TBR is out of control, so we’ll see what happens!

How was your reading month? Any stand-outs? Have you read any of the books from my list?

Sincerely,

The Literary Elephant

Book Haul 9.18

The point of my 3-books-per-month-or-less goal was not to acquire exactly 36 books throughout the year, it was to avoid free-for-all book hauls like I’ve had the last three times I’ve hauled. Even the times I’ve “failed” and ended up with 4 books rather than 3 were at least structured buying months. Apparently I’ve lost sight of my goal now entirely because my book buying is getting out of hand again, and as much as I love having plenty of great choices on my shelves, all the unread books are beyond overwhelming. I don’t know why I do this to myself. I’m going to try extra hard to resist in October. And in the meantime, here are my new books for September, because apparently I just can’t stop:

1. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker was my Book of the Month choice for September. This one was already on my TBR so I was excited to find it among the selections this month and immediately added it to my box. It’s a retelling of Homer’s The Iliad, with a focus on Briseis’s perspective. I’ve already read this book, thank goodness– I’m really trying to get my BOTM books under control this year and reading them within the month they arrive really helps.
2. Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough. This book was also one of the BOTM selections for September, and after loving Pinborough’s last release, Behind Her Eyes, I was excited to give this one a chance so I added it extra to my box. I’ve already finished reading this book as well, though I was disappointed to discover that it was just a run-of-the-mill thriller full of characters I didn’t care for.
3. Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. Barnes and Noble had a big sale this month. There were two titles I wanted from the list, and the other one I had just ordered from Book Depository so I just picked this one up for $6 and called it good. I’ve noticed recently that I have developed a bad habit of buying YA fantasy novels that I think I want to read and then I don’t read them, so I’m considering doing a try-a-chapter thing to encourage myself to break the trend.
4. Human Acts by Han Kang. I read Kang’s The Vegetarian earlier this year and loved it, and have been itching to read another of her novels lately. I’ll probably also buy a copy of The Vegetarian at some point, and if I like this one as much as the first I’ll definitely be picking up more of Kang’s work. This one’s a historical fiction novel about an uprising in South Korea.
5. The Tommyknockers by Stephen King. My buddy read friend and I are going a little Stephen King crazy this year. We’ve read It and Sleeping Beauties already this year, are currently reading Mr. Mercedes, and we’re planning to read The Tommyknockers together at the end of the year; we agreed on this particular edition so that we’d have the same page numbers. This one’s an alien sci-fi story.
6. Gerald’s Game by Stephen King is another title I picked up in the same edition as The Tommyknockers. I found these on Book Outlet, where everything is so cheap that might as well keep piling things into your cart until you hit the free shipping amount. This one’s about a woman who agrees to be handcuffed to the bed and is then stuck there when her husband suddenly dies. I think this one’s pretty psychological so I’ve already been intrigued enough to read the first chapter and it seems weird but promising.
7. The Regulators by Stephen King. Another of the same editions. I want to eventually read all of Stephen King’s books, so I don’t mind slowly building my collection. And some of the covers of his older books are just gross, in my opinion, so I decided to pick up the ones I liked while they were available. (Although if the Hodder editions would ever re-release, that would be the dream.) I don’t know much about this one, but I think it’s got a Western vibe?
8. Insomnia by Stephen King. This one was a disappointment. I ordered this title in the same edition as the other three, but received the wrong edition when my order arrived. I’ve never had this problem with Book Outlet before, so that was a bummer. I’m going to hold on to this copy for now, but I might try again later to get the edition I wanted because I know someone who would take this one off my hands if I ended up with two. This one’s about a man who sleeps increasingly less, and in his night walks discovers some bad/creepy things going on in his town.
9. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. After choosing the Stephen King books I wanted, I had a little room left in my cart before I got to free shipping (this is my problem with Book Outlet: I go in for one thing I want, and end up buying seven things to avoid paying shipping) so I was just looking for anything that caught my eye at this point. I’ve read excerpts and short works of Wilde’s in the past for school, but I want to read a full novel. I believe this one’s about a man with a sort of secret double life.
10. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. I’ve been meaning to read this past Pulitzer Prize winner for years and just not gotten around to it. How could I pass it up for $3? All I remember from when I added this to my Goodreads TBR is that it’s a book about identity.
11. Speak: The Graphic Novel by Laurie Halse Anderson and Emily Carroll. I read Speak as a kid and was shocked and impressed with it at the time. I was thinking about rereading it around the same time this graphic novel was released, and decided I wanted to go that route. But it was always too expensive, and my library never got a copy. So when I saw it on Book Outlet for less than half price, I grabbed it.
12. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver. I picked this up for a couple of dollars, on a whim. I’ve read a couple of Carver’s stories and enjoyed them, and I’ve been wanting to get back into short stories lately.
13. The Water Cure by Sophia Mackintosh. I’m basically in love with the Man Booker longlist this year and I’m treating myself to my own copies of about half the list. I don’t expect this is something that’ll happen regularly, so  I’m just kind of going with it, especially since so few of the titles were available through my library due to late US publication dates. I read this one obsessively as soon as it arrived– it’s a sort of dystopia about 3 daughters who’ve grown up on an island, taught to fear the outside world and men especially.
14. There There by Tommy Orange. I’ve had my eye on this one since before it came out, and I’ve heard nothing but raving reviews since it did. (This is the other title I wanted from the Barnes and Noble sale but had just ordered elsewhere.) Also it’s a nominee now for the National Book Award and I’m just really looking forward to reading it and loving it. All I know is that it’s a book about urban Native American identity.
15. November Road by Lou Berney. This is the second book I’ve ever won through Goodreads giveaways, and the first ARC I’ve ever received. (I’m actually not big on ARCs, I prefer finished copies.) I’ve just finished reading this historical thriller set around the time of JFK’s assassination; I enjoyed it but didn’t love it, and will have a review up for it before its release date and more info in my wrap-up on Monday as well.
16. Asking For It by Louise O’Neill. Becoming a Barnes and Noble member was the best and worst decision of my bookish life. I cannot resist the sales/discounts. Anyway, I read and loved this YA contemporary fiction story earlier this year and am starting to pick up copies of favorite 2018 reads that I don’t own yet. This one’s about a girl who is raped and publicly shamed, as much by the justice system and her community as by the perpetrators. It’s a hard read, but so important.
17. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green. I pre-ordered this one a while back when it was 40% off and then basically forgot about it. My John Green love has mostly faded in the last few years (I still haven’t read Turtles All the Way Down) but I’m curious to see what I’ll think about Hank’s writing. Also, this is the latest Barnes and Noble Book Club selection, so that added to my curiosity.

That’s it. Whew. 5 of these 17 are already read, 4 of those within the month of September. Better than none, but still not good for my physical TBR. I’m happy with what I’ve got though, and that’s what counts. Hopefully my October TBR will be a little closer to the 3-book mark, but I know of a few things that I ordered in September that just haven’t arrived yet; even if I don’t buy anything new in all of October I don’t think I’ll be able to meet the 3-book goal. (So sad that that happens before October has even begun, but such is life.) Anyway, I’m looking forward to exploring so many of these new books in the upcoming cold months!

Which titles did you add to your shelves this month? Any from this list that you’ve read and loved?

Sincerely,

The Literary Elephant

Sept. Reading Wrap-up

This felt like a slow month for me. The numbers actually look pretty average, but for some reason I felt like I was crawling through my TBR this month and just didn’t have any posts to upload. I may have been in a small slump. I think October will be very different, because I’ve been looking forward to some of those spooky reads for months, but before I get started with those, here’s a look at how I spent my reading time in September:

1. City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare. 4 out of 5 stars. I started this one at the end of August, but even though I felt like I was making good progress every day, and even though this was one of my favorites in the whole series, it just went on and on forever. It was a great end to the Mortal Instruments though, and it made me more eager to carry on with my Shadowhunter marathon despite its size, so even though it may have been the beginning of my little slump (series ends occasionally do that to me), I’m calling this one a success.
2. Because You Love to Hate Me ed. by Ameriie. 3 out of 5 stars. This collection of short stories is a pretty new release, and I got what I wanted from it, so it’s another success for me. Although I didn’t like all of the stories, this collaboration was a great way to sample some YA authors I haven’t gotten around to reading from yet, and seeing all the different writing styles did help me decide who I did or did not want to read more from. My favorite was the V. E. Schwab story, closely followed by Soman Chainani’s story.
3. The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh. 4 out of 5 stars. I feel a little bad about my Book of the Month subscription because I love it and I’m always so excited about the selections, but I keep falling farther behind with my monthly choices. This one’s from August, which isn’t too far back, although at the time I read it I was receiving three more for September that I knew I wouldn’t have time to read all of within the month. Anyway, this was a highly intriguing read that seemed perfect for end-of-summer reading: a little creepy and weird to start out fall, but still full of summer heat and the plot’s intriguing but not too heavy. I’m surprised I haven’t seen this one around more because I thought it was really unique and well done.
4. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I can’t rate this one, and I dedicated a whole post this month to talking about why that is and more generally, why I reread it in the first place. I’ve been reading this book one chapter per day, only on days when I felt like picking up a chapter, over the course of several months. My opinions of this book, and of what I’m looking for when I read, have changed a lot since my first time through this book, and seeing those changes was probably the primary source of enjoyment for me in picking up this book again this year.
5. The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Maureen Johnson. 3 out of 5 stars. Finishing The Mortal Instruments with City of Heavenly Fire earlier this month put me in a great frame of mind for wanting to continue on my Shadowhunter quest. I was a little wary about this one with the additional authors, but Cassandra Clare’s writing style was still apparent, and truthfully, I think the change in medium and message was another help in refreshing my interest for continuing with the Shadowhunter books. There were  a couple of stories that I really liked, but mostly I was just enjoying the overall sense of Downworld that this book provides, and the glimpses into secondary characters from TMI and TID.
6. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. 5 out of 5 stars. Though I found this the most predictable of the Austen novels I have read thus far, I did not predict becoming so immediately and wholeheartedly engrossed in this story. I was dragging my feet a little about finally starting Pride and Prejudice because I was afraid it would start slowly, like the other Austen novels I’ve read. But the very first conversation in the book amused me, and by the time Mr. Darcy was complaining about the tolerable women at the novel’s first dance, I was entirely hooked. It took me a long time to actually like Mr. Darcy, but from his very first appearance he intrigued me enough that I liked reading about him. He reminded me of Bronte’s Mr. Rochester. I think Persuasion is still my favorite Austen novel so far, mostly because the ending of Pride and Prejudice didn’t particularly surprise or impress me the way that Persuasion did, but P&P is a close second. I absolutely loved Mr. Bennet’s character, which routinely made me chuckle to myself, but Mr. Collins actually made me laugh out loud on two occasions. The whole cast was highly entertaining, and after about the fifth chapter I could not put the book down to sleep at night because I had to know how it would all tie together. For a long time I was skeptical about Mr. Darcy’s love, because it seemed he’d had so little contact with the woman in question that I couldn’t quite believe he was truly in love with her for more than her looks, but by his concluding explanations I was on board. I will definitely be reading more Austen in the future, I have already watched a film adaptation of this one, and immediately after finishing P&P I jumped straight into:
7. Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld. 5 out of 5 stars. This is a modern retelling of Austen’s classic (P&P), and especially with the plot of P&P so fresh in my mind I was curious about how it would all play out in a more familiar setting. I may have loved this one even more than the original, but it’s hard to tell. I definitely think reading P&P right before Eligible heightened my enjoyment of it. P&P is meant to be funny at times, and I was worried that expecting those same funny moments would take some of the humor out of Eligible, but if anything I found it even more amusing when I already knew which characters were going to be ridiculous. I’m really interested in checking out more of the Austen Project series for more retellings, althought I’ve heard Eligible is by far the best of them. (Has anyone read the others? Are they worth reading?)
8. Lies She Told by Cate Holahan. 2 out of 5 stars. Here is my biggest disappointment of the month. Toward the end of the month I was getting excited about spooky reads for October and wanted something suspenseful to satisfy my mood, but that’s not what I got from Lies She Told. I can’t even say that it was a bad book, but I was bored through most of it because I was able to guess all but one detail before it happened. The premise about the narrator’s reality starting to blend with the fictional thriller she’s writing was so exciting, but nothing inside the book impressed me as much as its synopsis. If you’re good at predicting where mysteries are going, maybe skip this one.

And that’s a wrap. Eight books in a month isn’t too bad for me, especially considering a couple of them (ahem, Cassandra Clare) were rather long. There were only 6 books on my TBR for the month, 5 of which I finished (I’m currently reading the sixth, George R. R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords), so I feel really good about my TBR progress for the first time in a while. I felt like I wasn’t reading as much as usual, but fall is a busy time of year and I think I did well with the changes in my schedule. I have no idea what my October wrap-up will look like because I’m planning for the month very differently than I did for September, but here’s to hoping for plenty of great spooky books in the near future.

What did you read in September? Have you read any of the books that I finished this month (and what did you think of them)?

Sincerely,

The Literary Elephant

September TBR

Here’s another try at a reasonable TBR. I tried really hard to add to my list only the absolute minimum books that I feel like I have to read this month for one reason or another, and no more. My plan is to read these books, and then have some freedom to pick up whatever sounds good at the end of the month, without feeling like I’m still racing to get to the end of a too-long list. (I tried the same thing in August and failed by picking my extras too early and giving myself an entire second TBR.)

But here is my modest TBR for September:

1. A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin. I’ve been reading Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series lately (and finally watching the corresponding Game of Thrones episodes), and it’s been going well. I cannot wait to dive into this next (third) mammoth book in this incredible fantasy series, so it’ll probably be one of the first things I reach for this month. It’s long, but it’ll be worth it. And I mean, Winter is coming.
2. Because You Love to Hate Me by Ameriie (and others). I needed a short story collection for my 2017 reading challenge, and even though I’ve got a few that I’m still planning to read before the end of the year, this is the one I want to count for that. It’s a book of stories by popular YA authors about all sorts of villains, and I think it’ll be a great opportunity for me to read a little more from authors I already know I enjoy and also to preview some additional authors that have been on my radar before jumping into their full-length books. A sampling, if you will. I’m imagining reading this one in pieces at a time throughout a couple of weeks rather than all at once, but we’ll see what happens.
3. The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare. Here’s another book of short stories; I hope I don’t get tired of reading those this month before I get through this second set. This one also has a wider list of popular authors, but I’ll give more details in my review because I haven’t looked that closely at it yet and I’m confident you can look them easily up if you’re really curious. All I know is that this is the next stop on my Cassandra Clare marathon quest, and unlike the other short story collection, I’m aiming to read these all at once, like a novel.
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. This is my classic for the month, and after reading Austen’s Perusasion earlier this year I have been long awaiting this part of my 2017 classics schedule. I know nothing about it except the lead male’s name is Mr. Darcy, and I’m eager to learn more. I’ve developed a bad habit of waiting until the end of the month to pick up my designated classic, but I won’t be able to do that in September because this month I’m also going to read:
5. Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld. This is a modern retelling of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and I’ve heard good things about both. I actually won a copy of this one in a Goodreads giveaway (you could have knocked me over with a feather. I never win things left to chance, not even BINGO), and I feel kind of bad that I haven’t reviewed it yet for Goodreads; but I knew I would be reading Pride and Prejudice in September, and I wanted to read these together. Now’s the time.
6. The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh. I picked this book as one of my choices from the August Book of the Month selections, and I found time for my other August book but not this one. I’ve seen it described as a “speculative modern Western,” but also as a thriller, so I’m expecting a suspenseful, genre-bending good time with this one and I’m immensely curious to find out for myself how this one will go. This would’ve been my next choice in August if A Clash of Kings hadn’t taken me so long, so I’m intending to get to it pretty soon.

And that’s my list. I know there will be more BOTM books when the September selections are released, and sometimes that throws off my reading plan if I end up with something new that I want to read right away, but I’m hoping to stick with these 6 first and then see where the end of the month takes my bookish wanderings. As much as I love summer, I’m so ready to see some new fall releases and curl up under a warm blanket with great reads and colorful leaves out my window.

What are you planning to read in September?

Sincerely,

The Literary Elephant