
Books completed this month:
How to Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz
What Is Visible by Kimberly Elkins
Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox (audio, abridged)
I Can't Complain: (All Too) Personal Essays by Elinor Lipman
Siegfried's Murder by Anonymous, A.T. Hatto (Translator)
The Natural History of a Yard by Leonard Dubkin
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary by David Sedaris
Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks (audio)
Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, a Virginia Town, a Civil Rights Battle by Kristen Green
Three Story House by Courtney Miller Santo
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Pobby and Dingan by Ben Rice
The Bees by Laline Paull
On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss
Books I am currently reading/listening to:
I finished my latest book last night so I am technically between books.
I had a depressing realization. According to Goodreads, I only have 9 books left this year. Yes, sure, I can go over my 100 book goal, but if I do read just 9, 6 of those that will be for my last Reading Challenge, 2 for book clubs, and that leaves 1 book that I'll get to pick on my own this year. And I did kind of promise a publisher a review (I really try not to do that) so that means I will not be able to choose any more books this year. They are all preselected. For two months, I don't get to pick my own books. I am pretty bummed by this. Boy, I hope these 9 books are pretty good. (One of the categories for the challenge is a book I started but never finished. I am seriously considering tackling And Ladies of the Club by Helen Hooven Santmyer again. I left off on page 408 in April 2014. It is 1433 pages. If I do manage this, it will mean that even reading 9 more books this year will be a stretch.)
What I acquired this month:
Once again, I acquired way more books than I normally do. This is partly just the nature of fall with lots of book events. I should get back to normal (or better yet, acquiring zero books!) next month. Meanwhile, here's what happened in October:
I went to the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville. While there, I stopped into Bookman/Bookwoman, a used bookstore, and I bought two books:
Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall
A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins (for my bookclub)
And I went to the amazing Parnassus Books and I tried to only buy two books, but the person I was meeting ran late, so I ended up buying four:
The Work: My Search for a Life That Matters by Wes Moore
The Tilted World: A Novel by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly (wow is the paperback cover different from the hardcover!)
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott
At Southern Festival itself, I bought two more books from the Parnassus booth:
The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks
The Wonder Garden by Lauren Acampora
And at the Coffee With Authors event, hosted by the Women's National Book Association-Nashville, in celebration of National Reading Group Month, I got a gift bag with these three books:
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
Find a Way by Diana Nyad
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
When I got home, the Charlotte chapter of the WNBA was hosting their NRGM event, Bibliofeast. At that event we had 8 authors who circulated around to all the tables while we enjoyed a lovely Italian meal at Maggiano's. Each table ended up with 5 of the authors. These are the books I came home with, plus the picture shows a few that my husband bought:
Fresh Water from Old Wells by Cindy Henry McMahon
Off the Books: On Literature and Culture by J Peder Zane
Gossip of the Starlings by Nina de Gramont
The Lower Quarter: A Novel by Elise Blackwell
The Last September by Nina de Gramont
Mister Owita's Guide to Gardening: How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and an Open Heart by Carol Wall (Ms. Wall died earlier this year so her husband is touring in her honor)
1 comment:
I read And Ladies Of The Club many years ago and have been thinking of re-reading it next year. It's long, I know, but I'm wondering how I'd like it now. I read it back in the days of the 'long, long, long' books - family sagas and such. At that time, I read Barbara Taylor Bradford and James Michener and Susan Howatch and James Clavell. Lots of mega-chunksters. We'll see if I actually tackle AWOTC again. Good luck to you if you do!
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