All About Books discussion

Tell us about the books you are planning to read in September!

One Day a Year 1960-2000 - A Readalong.
The Song at the Scaffold

These two are certain....

I have the following books checked out from the library:

The Hotel Majestic, French mystery
My Lord John, historical fiction
After Long Silence, fantasy

and for GoodReads group reads & readalongs:
The Ringed Castle, AAB readalong
A Room of One's Own, AAB Group Nonfiction read
The Silkworm (if my library hold comes in!), English Mysteries BoTM

Nana by Émile Zola (readalong)
One Day a Year 1960-2000 by Christa Wolf (readalong)
Kruso by Lutz Seiler
The Antigone Poems by Marie Slaight
and I'll most like start my Pascal portion of my philosophy project by reading Pensées

I've just started The Goldfinch for the AAB fiction group read. Have also borrowed The Five People you meet in Heaven from a friend so will read that. I'm also reading Tizzie for another group's monthly read.

I have some books I'm reading throughout the month in honor of Banned Books Week (Sept 21-27) :)

Animal Farm - which is actually going to be a readalong here on AAB :)
Franny and Zooey - I don't think F&Z specifically was banned, but JD Salinger is one of literature's "Most Challenged Authors"
The Well of Loneliness - banned in 1928 for its portrayal of a lesbian relationship
What My Mother Doesn't Know - young adult poetry that's been frequently challenged for age-inappropriateness

I'm also going to be reading the funny memoir Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir for a book club. (Not related to Banned Books Week though.)

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris
The Red and the Black by Stendhal

I plan on reading The Goldfinch and The Warden (both reads for this group).

I'm going to be in Morocco so I will find a couple of books set there to read whilst I'm away

I'm going to start Ulysses and am really looking forward to it. The group is fantastic and we haven't even started yet. :D
I will continue & finish Forever, Cutting for Stone and Floods, Famines, And Emperors: El Nino And The Fate Of Civilizations

Finishing: All Creatures Great and Small, All the Light We Cannot See, The Man from Beijing, The Cuckoo's Calling, House of Mercy, and The Phantom Tollbooth

Looking forward to Just Jane, Anomaly, One Hundred Names, Shoofly Pie, Lord of the Flies, Thr3e, Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption, A Quest For More: Living For Something Bigger than You, and The Crossing Places

Considering:
The Goldfinch and The Golem and the Jinni

I'll be reading Girls In Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood, The Girl with All the Gifts, Dear Life: Stories and maybe one more I get to decide later. Here's to a great autumn reading season!

These are definite:
Down and Out in Paris and London
Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia
(and then if I want more of the same Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia)
The Selfish Gene
Zorba the Greek
Pale Fire...I just have to try it
Hunger

Maybe:
The Goldfinch
The House at Sugar Beach
I Hate to Leave This Beautiful Place
All Will Be Well: A Memoir
Main Street

starting tomorrow!
The Old Curiosity Shop (for my personal Dickens challenge)

definitely also trying:
The Sound of Things Falling (the penultimate book for my "Around the World" challenge)

possibly:
The Warden (readalong)
The Goldfinch (group fiction read)

an Art book from my groaning bookshelves and...

a SURPRISE! from my kindle (as I can never remember what on earth's on there...)

I am starting The Finisher tomorrow, I want to read Books 4 & 5 of the 80AD series to finish the series up, and then go from there.

Enjoy the Old Curiosity Shop, Jean. I liked that one

Im just reading her and him a two book set

Thanks Heather :) I'm trying not to commit to too much. I'll enjoy my reading better then.

Plans:


The Bone Clocks
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie: Midwestern Writers on Food
Animal Farm
Crime and Punishment
The Hundred-Year House
The Golem and the Jinni

I didn't got to finish off my reads for this month!

Oh, I see so many good books being mentioned! We have a lovely month aheead of us.

I liked Franny and Zooey tons

and An Officer and a Spy too.

Crime and Punishment is utterly fantastic. A real winner.

The Phantom Tollbooth was one of my faves, but years ago. Does it need a reread?

But I lots of trouble with All the Light We Cannot See, but lots of other people think it is good. For me the stone wrecked it......

Jean wrote: "starting tomorrow!
The Old Curiosity Shop (for my personal Dickens challenge)..."

Ooh, I forgot to include this in my list -- I will start in a week or so.

Great Leslie! And it makes a nice balance for your list too :)

I intend to finish Gillespie and I, finding it 'unputerdownable' after starting it for the readathon this weekend. Then I'll move on to Understanding the Weather; a teach yourself book on a subject of which I am fond but largely ignorant. Then Simon Winder's Danubia and Nada by Carmen Laforet.

Ahhh The Phantom Tollbooth is wonderful! Chrissie, I would recommend a re-read, definitely, especially if you were young when you last read it. Re-reading it as an adult opened up even more things for me to appreciate about it. It's a delight.

Shannon Noel wrote: "Ahhh The Phantom Tollbooth is wonderful! Chrissie, I would recommend a re-read, definitely, especially if you were young when you last read it. Re-reading it as an adult opened up even more things ..."

I absolutely love that book! And I second the idea of rereading it as an adult :)

Alice wrote: "The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris
The Red and the Black by Stendhal"

I should add Animal Farm as a group readalong :)

Shanon and leslie, yup, I guess I should.

To continue:
The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh
His Last Bow & The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
The Great Silence
Holy Bible: King James Version (Exodus)

AAB books to start:
The Goldfinch
Ulysses

Other library books not yet started:
Jerusalem: The Biography
The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

I won't read all the books above, but hope to start most of them and finish the library ones in Septmeber, plus I'll read whatever else takes my fancy from my bookshelf.

Let me know when you start The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë Pink. In fact could you perhaps post it on the "Continuing Daphne du Maurier readalongs" thread, please, as I've been meaning to read that one for a couple of months. Not sure if I'll actually start this month though ;)

I listened to two audiobooks today that was pretty good the velveteen rabbit and the day the crayons quit and will be starting the finisher tonight.

I will be finishing London, starting Ulysses as a read along, and I have 2 Jean Plaidy books that I want to get to, Victoria Victorious: The Story of Queen Victoria and Queen of This Realm: The Story of Elizabeth I:. All quite lengthy books so I am not going to plan any more for the month,

I plan to finish:
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
and Black House

I also have Ulysses and Animal Farm for readalongs.

How are you enjoying 'Stiff', Charbel? I thought it was brilliant

I'm loving it! It just keeps getting better and better!

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Animal Farm by George Orwell (readalong)
The Warden by Anthony Trollope (readalong)
One Day a Year 19602000 by Christa Wolf (readalong)
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (group fiction read)
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton (audiobook for when I go walking, so not rushing on this one)
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

Great list, Alannah. I keep seeing The Miniaturist advertised on the tube so I'll be interesting to hear what you think

Heather wrote: "Great list, Alannah. I keep seeing The Miniaturist advertised on the tube so I'll be interesting to hear what you think"

Same here, I follow the author's agent on twitter and she keeps retweeting people's positive reviews of the book, as soon as I saw it on sale I just had to buy it. I've only listened to a chapter but it's great so far.

I'm going to finish:
One hundred years of solitude

and

Love in the time of cholera

I did love in Time of Cholera

Alannah wrote: "Heather wrote: "Great list, Alannah. I keep seeing The Miniaturist advertised on the tube so I'll be interesting to hear what you think"

Same here, I follow the author's agent on twitter and she k..."

I just did the same on audible although I haven't got much time for audiobooks at the moment!

I'm going to finished;
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
then read the sequel;
Bring Up the Bodies
then read some Welsh history;
Here be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman.

At some stage, I'll drag myself from pre 17th century Britain and finish:
The Good Life by Jay McInerney

Pink wrote: "To continue:
The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh
His Last Bow & The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes..."

You are getting close to the end of Sherlock Holmes Pink! Good going :)

Kalena wrote: "Finishing: All Creatures Great and Small..."

Such a good book & a wonderful TV series on PBS/BBC back in the 1970s. Herriot has such a great way of showing the humor as well as the animal part.

Will finish Plain Truth for a book club.
Inferno for a Buddy Read
Need to finish A Room of One's Own for a Group Read
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry for a Group Read
Burial Rites because I have been dying to read it.

If I have time: The Sandcastle Girls because it has been on my TBR for far too long.

@Alannah- hope you enjoy And The Mountains Echoed. There seems to be a bit of a controversy on whether it's Housseini's best or worse book.

@Bette- How are you finding Wolf Hall?

@Beth- I thought Inferno was good. Enjoy!

Leslie wrote: "Kalena wrote: "Finishing: All Creatures Great and Small..."

Such a good book & a wonderful TV series on PBS/BBC back in the 1970s. Herriot has such a great way of showing the humo..."

My daughter wants to be a vet, so we are reading it together. I have never seen the TV series, but you are the second to recommend it to us... We should check it out. Thanks!

How can one plan their readings? I mean books other than the ones you read for your respective book clubs. I always go with the flow cause sometimes I think I will read this one after i finish my current read but I always end up reading some other book cause I was in mood for it.

I'm really fascinated and actually admire you all for planning your readings and actually going along with those books!

Rahat wrote: "How can one plan their readings? I mean books other than the ones you read for your respective book clubs. I always go with the flow cause sometimes I think I will read this one after i finish my c..."

Most of the time I usually fail because I keep buying more and more books.

Rahat wrote: "How can one plan their readings? I mean books other than the ones you read for your respective book clubs. I always go with the flow cause sometimes I think I will read this one after i finish my c..."

It's not easy because of the amount of books that I want to read, but in a way it also makes things easier for me. I mean this year, thanks to my challenge and to planning things ahead of time, I broke a personal record. Before that I would spend a lot of time figuring out what to read next.

I buy lots of books at a time and then bring them home and stack them on my bookshelf. When I read them, I just pick the next one in the row. My thinking is that if I was interested in it enough to buy it, then I will be interested enough to enjoy reading it. No time spent planning or deciding. I must admit that my friends think my method is very strange, but it works for me.

I never used to plan what I would read next until I joined GR and some in-person book clubs. Now I am somewhat forced (if you will) to schedule what I read in order to meet the obligations of a buddy read or a book club meeting.

As a result, I have read books that I never would have read otherwise and finished books that I didn't like - which in a way is a good thing, I think.

I also read a lot more because I feel pressured to meet obligations - which is also good and bad.