What’s the next best thing to reading? Making lists of books you want to read of course. It doesn’t really matter whether you actually get around to reading them — half the fun for me comes looking along the book shelves and discovering books I’d forgotten about.
The Top Ten Tuesday prompt this week is “10 Books on My Fall 2022 TBR.” Since I live in the UK I’m switching from the American “Fall” to “Autumn” .That’s not the only difference UK/USA difference — we also use different dates to denote this season. Americans associate Labor Day (the first Monday in September,) as the end of summer and the start of “Fall” . But in my part of the world , an in fact, most of the Northern Hemisphere, autumn traditionally starts with the September equinox (21 to 24 September)[ and ends with the winter solstice (21 or 22 December).
Now that we have that cleared up, here are the books I’m thinking of reading between October and December.
Some are left overs from my summer reading project, others are new titles for late 2022. I’ve also added a smattering of books from my classics club project.
Do not be surprised to hear in December that all these good intentions evaporated. I reserve the right to read ten completely different books if the mood takes me.
A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny
Louise Penny’s series featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache shows no sign of coming to an end any time soon. A World Of Curiosities, due to be published in November, will be #18 in the series.
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
A new Kate Atkinson is always a cause for celebration. Her latest novel is a tale of betrayal set in London, a city emerging from the aftermath of the Great War. For more details check out the Goodreads listing here.
Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie
I loved Shamsie’s earlier novel Home Fire so have high hopes for her latest book. Best of Friends is about two girls from Karachi whose friendship is put to the test by one incident in their adolescent years. Three decades later their past resurfaces, threatening the new lives they have made. Details available here at Goodreads.
The Vanishing Sky by Annette Binder
This was on my #20booksofsummer list but I ran out of time to read it then so it’s making an appearance in Autumn instead. The novel imagines the lives of one German family in the final days of the Third Reich. It’s a debut novel based, in part, on the experiences of the author’s family.
The Lifted Veil by George Eliot
This 1847 novella by George Eliot is my Classic Club spin book. Having seen some of the comments from other bloggers I’m not entirely sure it will be to my taste.
Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
Listening to the latest episode of the Backlisted podcast about about Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South, has me hankering to read some more Gaskell. I’ve had a copy of Ruth on my shelves for about eight years so I think it’s time to give it some attention.
No Name by Wilkie Collins
I read this so long ago that I’ve forgotten most of the details now. It’s not as sensationalist as Woman in White — more of a commentary on social prejudice in the Victorian era.
Ray of Darkness by Margiad Evans
This is the only non fiction book on my list. Margiad Evans was born in England but had a life-long affinity to the Welsh borderlands. In 1952 she published this account of her diagnosis of epilepsy and how that affected her writing. The book was re-published by Honno Press in January 2022 along with the second part of her autobiography, A Nightingale Silenced.
The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai
This could be the final book read for my World of Literature project. This debut novel by a Tunisian author is the story of a bee whisperer who wakes one morning to find that something has attacked one of his beehives, brutally killing every inhabitant. It’s an allegory about a country in the aftermath of revolution.
The Promise by Dalmut Galgut
I started reading this just before it was announced as the winner of the 2021 Booker Prize but stalled half way through. Just wasn’t in the mood at the time.