Can you believe it’s October already? Madness!
September was back to more of a regular reading month for me after the dizzy heights of reading 20 books in August. I can’t see that I’ll be reading that many again in the near future!
I’m actually in a reading slump at the moment. I must have started 6 books or more in the last week and none of them are keeping my interest, which I’m sure is down to me, not the books.
Here’s the books I read in September (2019):
- The Stoic Writer by Jon Cronshaw – Jon is an author friend of mine and I was delighted to read an advance copy of this for him. I first discovered that I was quite the stoic when my husband began to learn about Stoicism and ‘diagnosed’ me 🙂 I haven’t seen anything else like this, offering the Stoic beliefs in bite-size learnings that are hugely applicable to, and helpful for, writers. The book isn’t out yet, but I highly recommend you get a copy when it’s released.
- More Than Enough by Miranda Anderson – yes, I read a book with this title last month too! This book details one family’s journey of going a whole year without buying non-essential stuff. I’ve been attracted to this idea of consuming less, spending less, buying less for some time and this was a really enjoyable read. I particularly liked their way of dealing with situations where new things did come into the house – presents bought by family, for example. They decided to create a ‘one in, one out’ rule – so a new toy would mean an old toy should be given away. I’ve decided to adopt that as a rule for myself.
- Expectation by Anna Hope – a big, chunky novel about a group of female friends who grow up and wonder what became of the women they were supposed to become? A really good read.
- Wake by Anna Hope – Expectation was so good that I immediately looked at Hope’s other titles. I usually have a reading rule: if the blurb includes a date, I don’t read it. I’ve just never really gelled with historical books. But I decided to give this one a try. It’s a novel set over a few days in 1920 as the world recovers from the First World War and London prepares itself for the arrival of The Unknown Warrior. It is a breathtaking read. I can’t recommend it highly enough!
- The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo – another big read. It felt as though I’d been reading this one for four days on my Kindle and only reached 20%. But I’m not complaining. This novel is a family saga spanning 50 years, and it is just enchanting. I couldn’t put it down. I feel like these characters are my family now. And, incredibly, the book is a debut. Lombardo is definitely one to watch, and this book is one to buy.
I read some other books as research for my new fiction genre, bringing September’s total up to nine books read.
It will be interesting to see where October takes me in terms of the reading funk I’m in right now. I seem to have no patience at all for non-fiction at the moment, and the novel I’m trying to read is The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Tartt’s book is of course a film now, and I expect I’ll be seeing that at the cinema soon, which might tempt me to leave the novel for another time and try something else.
That’s all for now!
