August Roundup

My apologies for my absence for a few weeks, I have been on holiday in Sweden and spent some of my time trekking these handsome beasts (picture from Spot Sweden). I stayed in a wonderful place called Kolarbyn, where you stay in small huts in the woods, and the moose safari was organised through Wild Sweden. Highly recommended as an unusual and very beautiful place to stay. I also visited a friend who lives there, had a few nights in a log cabin on a lake, and got quite a bit of reading done too.

Read - one and a quarter books

Completed - One Day by David Nichols

Currently Reading -

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour by Kate Fox
The English Novel in History 1895 - 1920 by David Trotter

TBR Pile - currently at 110 (Gulp!) according to GoodReads, with 8 books added this month...

Thanks for the Memories by Cecilia Ahern

Night Road by Kristin Hannah

Trespass by Rose Tremain

The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes

The Hireling by L P Hartley

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seirstadt

The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas

The Last Elf by Silvana de Mari

Challenges - with my 2 holidays and therefore being away for most of August I haven't managed much on the challenge front, including my Literary Theory book I have been making notes on. Hopefully I will be back up to speed with this in September. I have started The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, #2 of my own challenges.

Wishlist Additions -

The Fish Can Sing by Halldor Laxness

Discoveries - Another good book blog I have discovered is Ready When You Are CB. Take a look at the link.

Events - The big event in August was this years Novel Holiday, Thomas Hardy and lovely Dorset for a week.

Not strictly a literary event, but the holiday in Sweden included a stay in woodland that was straight out of every fairy story that I read when I was a child. The kind of woodland thick with trees, moss covering the floor, quiet, mysterious, and full of mushrooms.

The year is turning, September is on its way...

August Roundup

This is a picture that I took while on holiday in Hampshire at the beginning of the month, in beautiful Mottisfont Abbey gardens, owned by the National Trust.

Read - 3 and a quarter books, not a bad month at all.

Completed -

A Month in the Country by J L Carr

The Vagrants by Yiyun Li

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Currently Reading - An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge

TBR Pile - currently at 83 books (according to GoodReads) with 5 added...

The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Ines of my Soul by Isabelle Allende

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

The Mystery of Grace by Charles de Lint

Challenges - read and finished To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee as my 'read another American classic'. Also bought another Charles de Lint (see above) to read another of his, as set by me at the beginning of the year for directional reading challenges.

Wishlist Additions -

Wildwood by Robert Deakin

The Ninth Life of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

Canning for a New Generation by Liana Krissoff

Juliet by Anne Fortier

Discoveries - A lovely website called Forgotten Bookmarks written by someone who works in a secondhand bookshop and records everthing that they find in the books, from photos, lists, letters, tickets and lots of unusual things. I spent ages on it and some of the finds are really moving.

Events - Of course the rest of my Jane Austen holiday at the beginning of the month, and also planning the next one! Lots of ideas and information coming in already, as well as interest from a number of people.

August Roundup

August has been an excellent month for adventures, camping in Devon, working on an Organic farm, and the Green Man Festival in South Wales. However it has been my least productive month for reading so far, but here goes...

Read - 1 and a half books

Completed -

The Vegetable Gardeners Year by Dirty Nails

Currently Reading - Still reading Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

TBR Pile - Currently at 69 (according to Good Reads) with 3 added...

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende

Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson

Challenges - Completed #6 of the 2009 mini challenges, to borrow a library book and blog about it.

Wishlist Additions -

Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas

Organic Crops in Pots by Deborah Schneebeli-Morrell

Discoveries - That the Open University has a new MA in English course.

Events - Beautiful Devon and working on the farm. Not a book event but just as inspiring.

The winds have come and autumn is on its way. You can tell by the change of light. I love this time of year.