Wrap Up: September 2018 or that was a three star kind of month

I had a surprisingly good reading month, numbers-wise – normally September is not that brilliant for me, but this time around I actually read ten books. Most of them were middle of the road though.

Books read in September:

1. The Fire This Time ed. by Jesmyn Ward: 3 out of 5 stars
2. The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwon: 3 out of 5 stars
3. Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski: 3 out of 5 stars
4. Red Sister by Mark Lawrence: 4 out of 5 stars
5. Rosewater by Tade Thompson: 4 out of 5 stars
6. Magic Binds (Kate Daniels #9) by Ilona Andrews: 4 out of 5 stars
7. The Corset by Laura Purcell: 3 out of 5 stars
8. River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey: 2 out of 5 stars
9. Vanishing Twins: A Marriage by Leah Dieterich: 4,5 out of 5 stars
10. March: Book 1 by John Lewis, Andrew Yadin & Nate Powell: 4 out of 5 stars

I also DNFed The Sisters of the Winter Wood because I could not get on board with the prose, the poems, or the structure of the story. The thought of having to pick that up and reading another 400 pages made me very unhappy; so I put it down.

Favourite of the month:

I really loved Vanishing Twins – I need to read more memoirs again because they tend to work really well for me this year. This stunningly written memoir chronicles a marriage, in short, fragmented essays that connect to a brilliant whole.

Stats(ish):

I read ten book with a total of 2829 pages. Four of those books were written by men, four by women, one by a couple and one was an essay anthology. Four books were SFF, one historical novel, one crime novel, one memoir, one biographical graphic novel and one essay anthology.

Currently reading:

Books I should get to next:

I have zero ARCs to read in October and only one for November. So I think I will just see where my mood takes me. I have a list of books I am considering buying myself when hell weeks are over, amongst them a number of short story collections because I only have a few left on my shelves I haven’t read and most of them are super grim and I want something positive (she says while adding feminist non-fiction to her cart).

(Some of the) blog posts I loved:

Emily reviewed on of my favourite books of the year, Melissa Broder’s The Pisces.

Ren reviewed Shrill, a memoir that I also really enjoyed.

Ayunda talks about three recent reads in one of my favourite genre’s: memoirs.

Callum writes about what makes a book a five star read for him which is always interesting because as objective as a rating system seems to be, it really cannot be anything but subjective (which I love, if that isn’t clear by my blog).

Rachel is working her way through the Man Booker longlist – all her reviews for that are very worthwhile, but I am linking to her shortlist reaction because that one gives a good starting point.

Jolien wrote a really thorough review of a book that sounds just awful: Easy Prey.