All About Books discussion

What are your reading plans for October?

Bingo Challenge Books - 1/3
Paper Towns - John Green
The Witch Hunter - Virginia Boecker
After You - Jojo Moyes

Halloween Challenge - 0/1
Misery - Stephen King

Since October and Halloween, I have a whole month planned for scary books. So far I've got:
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Misery by Stephen King
Duma Key by Stephen King
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

Charbel wrote: "Since October and Halloween, I have a whole month planned for scary books. So far I've got:
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury..."

Oh, that reminds me that we will be having a spooky book challenge for October. I am off to set that up right now!

I just RSVP'd! I love the month of October for themed reads - Stephen King, et al. You've got a great list so far Charbel!

Too early! I have to think about it... next week!!!

Leslie wrote: "Charbel wrote: "Since October and Halloween, I have a whole month planned for scary books. So far I've got:
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury..."

Oh, that..."

That's great Leslie!

In October I would like to read
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne for the Group Read
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
L'Agnese va a morire by Renata Viganò
The rest of the books I will decide as I go.

Group Reads:
Around the World in Eighty Days
Mary Poppins

New Releases:
The Aeronaut's Windlass
Undead and Unforgiven

For Fun:
Dragonheart
Dragongirl
In Death 11
In Death 12

Maybe:
In Death 13-15

It's awful, there are no scary stories in the rotation! All the group reads with scary stories I've already read. But I told myself I'm going to catch up on the Undead series this year and finish Pern. Cutting it close on those 2. I still haven't touched 5 series I wanted to try/make progress on this year.

Myst, I see you are reading the Pern books by Todd McCaffrey -- how do you think they compare with the ones by Anne McCaffrey? I own the first 12-15 books books in the series (all by her) but haven't tried his yet.

My list for October is still in the process of being compiled but here is what I have so far:

finish Never Let Me Go if necessary (I think it will be) ✖
I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories by AAB Fall Author, William Gay

Spooky Books:
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
A Darker Shade of Magic (audiobook)
Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad (audiobook)
and maybe 20th Century Ghosts ✖

Mysteries: (one or more of these)
One Fearful Yellow Eye
The Gray and Guilty Sea: An Oregon Coast Mystery
Rounding the Mark

and I would love to find time to read one of the Sabatini novels sitting on my shelf!

I'll be reading:
The Tommyknockers
American Psycho
The Time Machine
The Exorcist
And Then There Were None
Absolute All-Star Superman
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1

I think I'm back on track after spending a couple months reading random stuff.

Will be finishing up The Land of Dreams and on to the sequels Only the Dead and The Ravens.

Also finishing The Plover and then on to The Hummingbird.

In the car (audiobook) I'm finishing up I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban for my face-to-face book club and then on to The Historian for an online discussion.

Who knows if I'll get through more than that...

Laurel, I have been enjoying seeing all your bird titles for a while now! You have been doing a good job finding those :)

I am hoping to get through my bingo challenge. Just need to organise what sections I still have to read and update my first post.

I have so many on my list that I should not get anymore books from the library in October. Yeah…I will see how that goes, lol.


I have a buddy read:
Finished…...The Picture of Dorian Gray

My PIFM book is:
Cicada Spring: A Novel

Books I have won:
Green on Blue
Deadly Messengers
Finished…...In a Dark, Dark Wood


And now for my list:
Finished…...Our Souls at Night
Finished…...A Land More Kind Than Home
Finished…...Eeny Meeny
Finished…...Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League
Fourth of July Creek
Finished…...This is Where I Leave You
Finished…...Did You Ever Have a Family
Signal
Fair and Tender Ladies
Finished…...Trust No One
Finished…...Rubbernecker



Hopefully I make a good dent in this list:)

Lisa, I have only read The Picture of Dorian Grey but it is really enjoyable. Hope you enjoy it.

Lisa, Kent Haruf's is good. He is always good.

I have a big list of plans for October, we'll see how I get on...

Group reads -
Around the World in Eighty Days (AAB)
The Sisters Brothers (The Book Vipers) 4 stars
The Return of the Native (Catching up on Classics) 3 stars
maybe At the Mountains of Madness (Catching up on classics)

AAB Seasonal reads -
The Long Home 3 stars
Selected Poems Of W B Yeats 1 star
The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? 2 stars

Readalongs -
The Patchwork Girl of Oz (Tom) 2 stars
Tik-Tok of Oz 2 stars
maybe The Sound and the Fury (Nobel Prize reads)

To continue -
George Orwell: A Life in Letters currently reading
Holy Bible: King James Version (Deuteronomy)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (X Author) 5 stars

Personal challenges -
Mansfield Park (Austen)
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock (Q Author) 3 stars

October Spooky book challenge -
Interview with the Vampire
The Telltale Heart 4 stars

Booker Shortlist -
Satin Island DNF 1 star
The Year of the Runaways (postponed, due back at library)
The Fishermen currently reading

The Reivers: A Reminiscence by William Faulkner (read 1 star)
I may add more by Faulkner.
Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson(4 stars read)
The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks (3 stars read)
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (read 5 stars)
Moon Palace by Paul Auster (read 1 star)
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (read 1 star)
The Adventures of Henry Thoreau: A Young Man's Unlikely Path to Walden Pond by Michael Sims (read 4 stars)
Sweetland by Michael Crummey(read 2 stars)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller(read 1 star)
The Heavens are Empty: Discovering the Lost Town of Trochenbrod by Avrom Bendavid-Val(4 stars read)
(This is the real city in the fictional book Everything Is Illuminated.)
Provinces of Night by William Gay(3 stars read)
The House on Coliseum Street by Shirley Ann Grau (read 4 stars)

Adding on this short one:
A Pea Coat Goes Home (read 3 stars)

See message 67 for other books read this month.

Chrissie, I'll look out for your thoughts on A little life, everyone seems to love it, but I'm worried that there's now too much expectation on it. Anyway I'm on the library waiting list for it now. Also interested to know your thoughts on Catch 22, it took me a while to get into but I ended up loving it.

I am planning to finish:
Auto-da-Fé by Elias Canetti
Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf
Study for Necessity by Joellen Kwiatek

and start:
The Literary Conference by César Aira for my Man Booker International Challenge
Ethics by Baruch Spinoza for my Philosophy Project
Twilight by William Gay (seasonal author)
The Painted Bird by by Jerzy Kosiński
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

Pink, I read your review of Catch 22 and am a little petrified. I mean, I already KNOW the point of "catch 22", if you are sane you will run from the war, so what will I get? Also you said you found the beginning to be dragging. I am doing this b/c you said it was worth it and b/c then I can form my own opinion. It is kind of a classic that should be read.

I know exactly what you mean about A Little Life! How can everyone agree?

I really liked Catch 22 by the end and I will happily read it again, but it did take some effort of reading and time for everything to slot into place. I like war books, so that probably helps too, but I especially liked the dark humour in it too.

I really liked Catch 22, but the sequel, Closing Time, was awful. One of those sequels that's so awful it ruins the first book. I wish I hadn't read it.

It is fun that so many are reading Gay!

Jenny, The Painted Bird is one that I have been wondering about, and Jacob's Room is another I almost picked up.

I have The Painted Bird sitting on my shelf waiting to read too. I'm working my way around to it!

Bella wrote: "I really liked Catch 22, but the sequel, Closing Time, was awful. One of those sequels that's so awful it ruins the first book. I wish I hadn't read it."

Bella, that sounds promising.

Chrissie wrote: "It is fun that so many are reading Gay!

Jenny, The Painted Bird is one that I have been wondering about, and Jacob's Room is another I almost picked up."

Chrissie, I will let you know how it goes! Yes, really nice that quite a few people will apparently join in on this seasonal author.

Jenny wrote: "Chrissie, I will let you know how it goes! "

thanks.

These at the moment:

1 Susan Vreeland Una ragazza da Tiffany ****
2 J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Reading now
3 Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang Reading now
4 M. C. Beaton,  Death of a Perfect Wife Reading now

I plan to finish The Sisters Weiss and then have to read The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics for my in-person book club.
Also on my list for this month:
We Are Water
The Visitors
Hush Little Baby
Lost Lake

(if I can read that many books - we'll see)

Beth - I read TBITB for my in-person book club meeting this month and we all loved it. Didn't feel like a nonfiction read at all.

I just finished All the Light We Cannot See. 10/2/15

Yay! Glad I can get a hot book read while it's still hot, lol. I'll also be reading Kitchens of the Great Midwest 10/9/15
and In a Dark, Dark Wood as a lucky winner in book giveaways.

However, it is screwing up my planned spooky seasonal reads comprised of Doctor Sleep 10/16/15,
Hollow City, & maybe The Haunting of Hill House. The Dovekeepers is on the short list too, but how fast can I read??

I plan on finishing the below in October:

The Death Sculptor by Chris Carter
In the Woods by Tana French

I am loving the Chris Carter books very much but if I am honest I am struggling with the Tana French book. Will continue with it and see if it gets better.

Might look read a Mark Billingham book shortly though.

Luke wrote: "I plan on finishing the below in October:

The Death Sculptor by Chris Carter
In the Woods by Tana French
..."

People keep recommending that Tana French mystery to me but something about the description just doesn't appeal. I guess I will read it someday.

My October reads will be My Name Is Memory, The Affair, and The Power of Why: Simple Questions That Lead to Success for my individual challenge. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains for my in person book club. 84, Charing Cross Road and Circling the Sun for book of the month reads. Unusual for me,three non-fiction reads planned this month.

Leslie wrote: "Luke wrote: "I plan on finishing the below in October:

The Death Sculptor by Chris Carter
In the Woods by Tana French
..."

People ke..."

Leslie if I am honest I am not enjoying 'In the woods'. It is very slow to get in to and I find each chapter over descriptive so it doesn't feel to me like it flows well. Going to continue to plug away at it though.

Too bad, Luke. Maybe it will pick up towards the end!

Leslie wrote: "Too bad, Luke. Maybe it will pick up towards the end!"

I hope it picks up way before the end. But if not at least I read it and know I don't like it.

Already read the Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury and Black Rose by Nora Roberts so am now reading The Keeper by David Baldacci and other reads.

Amber wrote: "Already read the Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury and Black Rose by Nora Roberts so am now reading The Keeper by David Baldacci and other reads."

How would you rate The keeper so far?

Luke wrote: "Amber wrote: "Already read the Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury and Black Rose by Nora Roberts so am now reading The Keeper by David Baldacci and other reads."

How would you rate The keeper so far?"

It's pretty good so far. It takes place after the Finisher left off so its a 5 star book to me so far and a great YA fantasy series by David Baldacci.

Amber wrote: "Luke wrote: "Amber wrote: "Already read the Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury and Black Rose by Nora Roberts so am now reading The Keeper by David Baldacci and other reads."

How would you rate The ke..."

Thank you Amber. Interested in looking at his books.

Luke wrote: "Thank you Amber. Interested in looking at his books."


No problem Luke. I hope you enjoy them if you decide to check them out.

Amber wrote: "Luke wrote: "Thank you Amber. Interested in looking at his books."


No problem Luke. I hope you enjoy them if you decide to check them out."

Thank you :)

On my third book which is going to be Doctor Sleep and I am starting tonight. So excited to get into the season! Boo!

I'd like to finish up a bunch of partially read books before the year ends. So, I'm back to reading Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw; Shaw was the commander of the first all-Black Civil War Regiment. (If you're old enough, you may remember the movie Glory.) I'm also hoping to get through Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth-Century to Modern Times by Lucy Lethbridge, which I started in March, and NOS4A2. (Started that one in February.) Just noticed that the ebook of NOS4A2 is on sale for $1.99. Maybe that would help me read it- I hate reading long books in print. Makes my hands and wrists hurt.

Hah Bella, I didn't know excessive reading could cause carpal tunnel syndrome. I better watch out. :)

Pink wrote: "Chrissie, I'll look out for your thoughts on A little life, everyone seems to love it, but I'm worried that there's now too much expectation on it. Anyway I'm on the library waiting list for it no..."

Pink, I don't know if I am going to appreciate the humor of Catch-22. It feels so dated, the particular humor I mean. I am not enthused at the beginning. Maybe b/c I already know what Heller wants to say, and I don't disagree, but what will it give me? I will not give up. You pointed that out in your review, to stick with it.

I found the humour a dark, wry commentary on war, which I liked. It is satirical and absurdist, but I don't think of it predominantly as a funny book. It's a clever, thoughtful look at war, with chapters that made me think, cry, laugh and overall by the end I was thoroughly impressed. I was confused for about the first quarter as to how exactly everything fitted together, because events aren't written in time order. So some things only add up later on. It's hard to say whether it will pick up for you, but personally even without the humour, I think it works on several levels. However, I know a LOT of people really didn't enjoy this book as much as I did.