All About Books discussion

It will be October in a few days. What do you think that you will read this month? Maybe a scary book or two to get in the Halloween mood?

I will be continuing with George Seferis Collected Poems and probably The Guermantes Way as well.

I plan to read the following:
The Dry for our Group Fiction Read
They Do It With Mirrors (reread via audiobook)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( reread via audiobook) for our Group Classic Read
Dracula (reread via audiobook)
The Rainbow
Venus in Furs -- changed my mind about reading this
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike for our Group Play

and these mysteries:
The Lonely Silver Rain
The Instant Enemy
An Awkward Lie
Angelica's Smile

Leslie, I look forward to your thoughts on The Guermantes Way.

I plan to read:
Wool Omnibus (since I just started it last night, I'll count it as an October book. The first 4 chapters really drew me in)
Saints for All Occasions
Reykjavík Nights: Murder in Reykjavík

I also plan to finish The Fugitive.

Leslie, I am going to reread Huckleberry Finn too. Twain is quite a writer.

I will try and put together my list of books for October later today.

These the first books I've in mind:

Jane Harper Chi è senza peccato
Marcel Proust La fuggitiva
Mary Elisabeth Braddon John Marchmont's Legacy
Annika Thor A Faraway Island
Bernhard Schilnk A voce alta
Hellen Simonson L'estate prima della guerra
Javier Marías  Domani nella battaglia pensa a me
Kert Haruf Plainsong and Eventide

Haruf is so good, Laura!

Chrissie wrote: "Haruf is so good, Laura!"

By him I've read only Our Souls at Night and liked it much; it moved me deeply. I've got great expectations on the trilogy

I will be finishing

A Tale of Two Cities (yup, I'm still going with this one!)
The Gene: An Intimate History

I will hopefully also get to
Maya's Notebook (audiobook)
Autumn

I will be reading these.

Non-fiction:
1.South Toward Home: Travels in Southern Literature by Margaret Eby 2 stars
2.I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong 3 stars read
3.Einstein's Greatest Mistake: A Biography by David Bodanis 4 stars read
4.How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain by Gregory Berns 5 stars read
5.The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir 4 stars read
6.Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine, 1921-1933 by Anne Applebaum (finished in November)
7.American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee 3 stars read

Fiction:
1.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 3 stars read
2.Small Island by Andrea Levy 1 star read
3.The Nix by Nathan Hill 3 star read
4.If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor 3 stars read
5,Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes 5 stars read
6. Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh 3 stars read
7.Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig 3 stars read)
8.The Picture Book by Jo Baker 4 stars read

LauraT wrote: "These the first books I've in mind:

JKert Haruf Plainsong and Eventide ..."

Laura, I love Kent Haruf's books! I hope you enjoy these two. They are terrific.

I'll be finishing David Bodanis's Passionate Minds.

Then I plan to read (plan is subject to whimsical change):-

Return to Dragon Mountain: Memories of a Late Ming Man by historian Jonathan D. Spence.
Bloodline (War of the Roses series) by Conn Iggulden

I chose a couple of reads fit for the season: Something Wicked This Way Comes and I Am Legend are on my stack for October.
My other planned reads are: Sense and Sensibility, Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior, and The Forever War.

October should provide plenty of cozy reading time, and also there's the 24 hour readathon coming up. Still, I don't want to squeeze too many books in and instead leave some room for spontaneous picks.

I intend to read:
Kindred
Call Me by Your Name
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
The Double

Finish up on:
One Hundred Years of Solitude
And At Swim, Two Boys

And hopefully catch up on the Proust reading and read
The Guermantes Way

Alice wrote: "I'll be finishing David Bodanis's Passionate Minds.

Then I plan to read (plan is subject to whimsical change):-

Return to Dragon Mountain: Memories of a Late Ming Man by..."

Are you enjoying Passionate Minds? I will be reading a different book by this author in October.

Sam wrote: "I chose a couple of reads fit for the season: Something Wicked This Way Comes and I Am Legend are on my stack for October.
My other planned reads are: ..."

Oh, you have listed several books on my TBR! I look forward to hearing how you liked them...

I should finish Slowness by Milan Kundera in a day or two, which means October should be devoted to the following:

The Elephant Tree by R.D. Ronald
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Most likely, I will also start on What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami before the month is out as well.

To continue-
A Model Childhood
The Swimming-Pool Library

Library books-
Shirley
Seize the Day
Coming Up for Air
Maurice
The Decameron currently reading

Shakespeare-
Julius Caesar
Much Ado About Nothing

Chrissie wrote: "Alice wrote: "I'll be finishing David Bodanis's Passionate Minds.

Then I plan to read (plan is subject to whimsical change):-

[book:Return to Dragon Mountain: Memories of a Late Ming ..."

Yes, Chrissie, very much. A lot of French history details in the background.

Not because it's Halloween, but because I can get a lot of points for it in a reading challenge and it's been on my tbr for years, but Frankenstein is one of my October books.

Others that I can think of so far:

Fraud
Cymbeline
Utopia (yes, lots of one word older titles for said challenge)
The Rose Rent
A Closed and Common Orbit

and possibly more, depending on how much reading I do.

Alice wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Alice wrote: "I'll be finishing David Bodanis's Passionate Minds.

Then I plan to read (plan is subject to whimsical change):-

[book:Return to Dragon Mountain: Memorie..."

Good to know.

Karin wrote: "Not because it's Halloween, but because I can get a lot of points for it in a reading challenge and it's been on my tbr for years, but Frankenstein is one of my October books.

Others ..."

Have fun with Ellis Peters' book. I have not read that one. I assume it too is good.

Pink, I really should read another by Bellow. For me The Adventures of Augie March was just OK, but I do think I should try more.Do you have a favorite? I was considering Herzog but the one you have chosen looks good too.

Raul wrote: "I intend to read:
Kindred
Call Me by Your Name
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
The Double

Finish up on:
[book:One Hundred Years of Solitud..."

Several good ones Raul!

I liked The Double, Raul. Dostoyevsky puts you there in the man's head. D is is so talented in his ability to do this.

Chrissie wrote: "I liked The Double, Raul. Dostoyevsky puts you there in the man's head. D is is so talented in his ability to do this."

This is one I still have to read by Dostoyevsky.

This month I surely will continue reading the Complete Tales by Hans Christian Andersen. I really want to finish this book by the end of the year (it has nearly 1000 pages and I'm only at 70%).

Then I want to go one with my challenge to finish books I already own so I will surely ready The Swiss Family Robinson. But this challenge is getting more and more tough because only the most difficult or boring books are left.

I also hope to read one of two recent aquisitions: or Bilal: viaggiare, lavorare, morire da clandestini (no English edition) or Skylark Farm.

Chrissie, this is my first book by Bellow. I chose between this one and Herzog. I'll let you know what I think.

Pink wrote: "To continue-
A Model Childhood
The Swimming-Pool Library"

Good luck with A Model Childhood. I finished it a few days ago and struggled a lot with the writing style. Are you enjoying it?

dely wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "I liked The Double, Raul. Dostoyevsky puts you there in the man's head. D is is so talented in his ability to do this."

This is one I still have to read by Dostoyevsky.

This mont..."

dely, a Dostoyevsky you have not read?! That is unusual.

I also remember how it was when I decided to read every book I had purchased before I bought any new ones. I did not make myself read books given to me as presents though. At the end it is totally horrible and you wonder why you had purchased some of the books! Yeah, I remember that stage where you are now. That stage taught me how important it is to read a book VERY soon after purchasing it and NOT to buy excessively. Good luck in your endeavor.

Pink wrote: "Chrissie, this is my first book by Bellow. I chose between this one and Herzog. I'll let you know what I think."

Thank you.

Chrissie wrote: "At the end it is totally horrible and you wonder why you had purchased some of the books!"

Exactly. There are now a couple in which I'm not anymore interested, there is a gift I'm sure I won't like, and then there are a few that I downloaded because they are free classics, and there are also a few impulsive purchases because I found them for a very low price at the secondhand shop.
Never again! As soon as I finish all those books (and I'm sure I will drop a few of them) I will only buy books that I will read immediately.

dely wrote: "I will only buy books that I will read immediately. "

We both have come to exactly the same conclusion. It is lovely when you buy a book and then read it immediately b/c you are dying to read it.

dely, A model childhood is very slow going, I hardly ever want to pick it up, but I do like what she has to say.

September was a terrible month for me reading wise.
Between pulling long hours at work to cover for colleagues on vacation and preparing for the New Year holiday at home I didn't manage to finish a single book :0(

In October I will continue reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children in Hebrew because the despite the fact that the language issue is making it an extremely slow read I am enjoying it.
On the other hand The Sport of Kings may well be a DNF. Unpleasant characters and an uninteresting writing style is just dragging me down.
I have also started Dracula for a book club.

Esther wrote: "September was a terrible month for me reading wise.
Between pulling long hours at work to cover for colleagues on vacation and preparing for the New Year holday at home I didn't manage to finish a..."

Some months are like that Esther - hope things calm down for you, and that you have a great New Year!!

Chrissie wrote: "I liked The Double, Raul. Dostoyevsky puts you there in the man's head. D is is so talented in his ability to do this."

I'm starting The Double tonight so it's great to hear you liked it. And i completely agree, Dostoyevsky has such an incredible way of placing us in the characters' mind so much so that we feel and see about everything they do.

Raul. have a good read, and I hope you enjoy it. It is not my favorite by the author but I did like it.

Greg wrote: "Some months are like that Esther - hope things calm down for you, and that you have a great New Year!! .."

Thanks Greg! We have more holiday coming up but it should be less hectic and I hope to get some reading time.

Reading list for October:

Finish Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse and Beggars in Spain.

Then on to a seasonal read The Haunting of Hill House. Also on the list is:
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
Last Bus to Wisdom
The Language of Flowers
Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist

My October TBR List:

What Language is (John McWhorter)
Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami)
Night (Elie Wiesel)
The Killer Angels (Michael Shaara)
The History of Love (Nicole Krauss)
The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafón)
The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)

Hopefully, I'll get to all of them, but my TBR list always ends up getting longer!