September in Books
I don't think I've ever read so many 5-star books in one month before. I read 10 books in September, 6 of which I gave 5 stars to! I got my hands on the latest J.D. Robb, finally read this year's Women's Prize for Fiction winner, continued to work my way through the Booker longlist, and decided to try an author I felt a little intimidated by.
The first book I read in September was The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, appropriately my seventh read from the Booker longlist.
The Seven Moons of Maali Almedia does an impressive job of rendering comprehensible the fantastic world it creates, and the history of Sri Lanka's civil war that it describes. Amidst all the chaos of the afterlife, where Maali Almeida finds himself, is a wonderfully simple conceit: once you die, you have seven days to enter The Light, or you’re stuck in the In Between forever. The world Karunatilaka has created is mind-blowing, and I thoroughly enjoyed this story - past mystery, part history, part myth. I really loved this one.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Up next was another one that has made the Booker shortlist: Treacle Walker by Alan Garner.
Treacle Walker is my first book by Alan Garner, but from what I've read about him, people familiar with his work won't be surprised that this novella reads like a fairytale. When a convalescent boy encounters an enigmatic traveller, the way he sees and experiences the world begins to change. I really enjoyed this one, but I found it to be one of those books where you're not exactly sure what is going on.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
My next pick was After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz, about which I'd heard great things.
After Sappho is a speculative, lyrical novel, which follows a network of women across the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries as they fight for the right to live and love as they please. I loved the writing style, and the way this novel pushed and pulled between an idealised past and a future to hope for. I found the fragmentary structure and sheer number of characters meant this book didn't always hold my interest as I would have liked, but I can see why it would be a five-star read for others.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
After this came Trust by Hernan Diaz, another one I'd seen only positive reviews for.
I prefer to start books knowing little about them, and that worked really well for this book. Trust started out as an interesting and engaging read, but soon became something much cleverer. I loved seeing the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. I also loved the writing style, and the way it changed to suit each narrator. Hernan Diaz does a fantastic job of evoking the people, places, and times he writes about. I didn’t want to put this one down.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
While I was waiting for my library reservations to come in, I read Heaven by Mieko Kawakami (translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd), which was shortlisted for this year's International Booker Prize.
I found Heaven highly readable; a slim book, written in simple prose, and strangely compelling despite the uncomfortable subject matter. But I can’t really say that I enjoyed it. Heaven focuses on two victims of school bullying, and explores some interesting ideas about why this is happening to them. I didn't personally find all of the arguments very convincing, however, and the characters' philosophical musings on the subject made it even harder for me to connect to them.
⭐⭐⭐
I continued to work my way through my to-read pile, with this year's winner for the Women's Prize for Fiction: The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki.
Mostly narrated by the book itself, The Book of Form and Emptiness tells the story of Benny and Annabelle Oh, in the aftermath of the death of Benny’s father. This is an ambitious and quite lengthy book, which is interested in a lot of different ideas. While I always wanted to keep reading, it wasn't a book I couldn't put down. I loved the writing style though, and I appreciated that the focus on Benny's perspective meant things never got too complicated.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wanting a slightly easier read, I picked up Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce next.
Blood Orange is a page-turning read, which follows the life and work of a criminal barrister who is leading her first murder case. This book deals with so many different topics, without making the plot overly complicated. I loved that we get to see all the different types of cases Alison handles. I loved the sense of menace which slowly builds through the book. And I loved the way Harriet Tyce writes about important and topical issues, always adding to, and never detracting from, the plot. I can’t believe this is a debut novel.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Some of my library reservations finally arrived, so I was able to get my hands on the newly-published Desperation in Death by J.D. Robb.
Desperation in Death follows the usual formula of J.D. Robb’s series, starting with a murder and then showing us Eve (and her team) solve it, with snippets from the villains/victims woven through, and a climax that’s followed by a brief wrapping up. I can’t resist these books, which offer the comfort of the familiar alongside the suspense of the unknown. I read Desperation in Death in one evening, and I’m sure it won’t disappoint fans of this series.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I returned to the Booker shortlist next, with Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo.
Glory is the story of tyranny and revolution in a fictional land, which belongs to a recognisably real world. I liked the way Bulawayo strikes a balance between the real and the fictional, the specific and the general. I also liked the way she is able to write about horrors without overwhelming the reader. However, I found parts of Glory a bit of a drag, and I don't really see what the characters being animals adds to the story. This is an interesting book, which feels incredibly relevant right now, but I struggled with parts of it.
⭐⭐⭐
The last book I read in September was Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family by Thomas Mann, an author I had been wanting to try for a while.
Buddenbrooks is an epic family saga, chronicling the decline of a nineteenth-century German merchant family over the course of four generations. This is an intimidatingly long book, but I was hooked from the first page. Mann does such an impressive job of bringing to life not just all of the different characters, but the whole time and place. I loved the attention to detail, the way Mann identifies each character so that you never lose track of who’s who, and how realistic the characters, and their lives, felt.
What did you read in September?
The first book I read in September was The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, appropriately my seventh read from the Booker longlist.
The Seven Moons of Maali Almedia does an impressive job of rendering comprehensible the fantastic world it creates, and the history of Sri Lanka's civil war that it describes. Amidst all the chaos of the afterlife, where Maali Almeida finds himself, is a wonderfully simple conceit: once you die, you have seven days to enter The Light, or you’re stuck in the In Between forever. The world Karunatilaka has created is mind-blowing, and I thoroughly enjoyed this story - past mystery, part history, part myth. I really loved this one.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Up next was another one that has made the Booker shortlist: Treacle Walker by Alan Garner.
Treacle Walker is my first book by Alan Garner, but from what I've read about him, people familiar with his work won't be surprised that this novella reads like a fairytale. When a convalescent boy encounters an enigmatic traveller, the way he sees and experiences the world begins to change. I really enjoyed this one, but I found it to be one of those books where you're not exactly sure what is going on.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
My next pick was After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz, about which I'd heard great things.
After Sappho is a speculative, lyrical novel, which follows a network of women across the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries as they fight for the right to live and love as they please. I loved the writing style, and the way this novel pushed and pulled between an idealised past and a future to hope for. I found the fragmentary structure and sheer number of characters meant this book didn't always hold my interest as I would have liked, but I can see why it would be a five-star read for others.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
After this came Trust by Hernan Diaz, another one I'd seen only positive reviews for.
I prefer to start books knowing little about them, and that worked really well for this book. Trust started out as an interesting and engaging read, but soon became something much cleverer. I loved seeing the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. I also loved the writing style, and the way it changed to suit each narrator. Hernan Diaz does a fantastic job of evoking the people, places, and times he writes about. I didn’t want to put this one down.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
While I was waiting for my library reservations to come in, I read Heaven by Mieko Kawakami (translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd), which was shortlisted for this year's International Booker Prize.
I found Heaven highly readable; a slim book, written in simple prose, and strangely compelling despite the uncomfortable subject matter. But I can’t really say that I enjoyed it. Heaven focuses on two victims of school bullying, and explores some interesting ideas about why this is happening to them. I didn't personally find all of the arguments very convincing, however, and the characters' philosophical musings on the subject made it even harder for me to connect to them.
⭐⭐⭐
I continued to work my way through my to-read pile, with this year's winner for the Women's Prize for Fiction: The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki.
Mostly narrated by the book itself, The Book of Form and Emptiness tells the story of Benny and Annabelle Oh, in the aftermath of the death of Benny’s father. This is an ambitious and quite lengthy book, which is interested in a lot of different ideas. While I always wanted to keep reading, it wasn't a book I couldn't put down. I loved the writing style though, and I appreciated that the focus on Benny's perspective meant things never got too complicated.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wanting a slightly easier read, I picked up Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce next.
Blood Orange is a page-turning read, which follows the life and work of a criminal barrister who is leading her first murder case. This book deals with so many different topics, without making the plot overly complicated. I loved that we get to see all the different types of cases Alison handles. I loved the sense of menace which slowly builds through the book. And I loved the way Harriet Tyce writes about important and topical issues, always adding to, and never detracting from, the plot. I can’t believe this is a debut novel.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Some of my library reservations finally arrived, so I was able to get my hands on the newly-published Desperation in Death by J.D. Robb.
Desperation in Death follows the usual formula of J.D. Robb’s series, starting with a murder and then showing us Eve (and her team) solve it, with snippets from the villains/victims woven through, and a climax that’s followed by a brief wrapping up. I can’t resist these books, which offer the comfort of the familiar alongside the suspense of the unknown. I read Desperation in Death in one evening, and I’m sure it won’t disappoint fans of this series.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I returned to the Booker shortlist next, with Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo.
Glory is the story of tyranny and revolution in a fictional land, which belongs to a recognisably real world. I liked the way Bulawayo strikes a balance between the real and the fictional, the specific and the general. I also liked the way she is able to write about horrors without overwhelming the reader. However, I found parts of Glory a bit of a drag, and I don't really see what the characters being animals adds to the story. This is an interesting book, which feels incredibly relevant right now, but I struggled with parts of it.
⭐⭐⭐
The last book I read in September was Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family by Thomas Mann, an author I had been wanting to try for a while.
Buddenbrooks is an epic family saga, chronicling the decline of a nineteenth-century German merchant family over the course of four generations. This is an intimidatingly long book, but I was hooked from the first page. Mann does such an impressive job of bringing to life not just all of the different characters, but the whole time and place. I loved the attention to detail, the way Mann identifies each character so that you never lose track of who’s who, and how realistic the characters, and their lives, felt.
What did you read in September?
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