Clearly I am a fan of taking things to the wire.
I finished book 13 from my #summer reading list with five minutes to spare before the end of the deadline. But if September 3 had come and gone and I still had a few pages left to read, I don’t imagine anything disastrous would have befallen me.
I’m pretty chuffed that I managed to read 13 books. . I know plenty of other bloggers reached the heights of 20 but that was never going to happen for me.
If I was being disingenuous I would also count the three books that I started but abandoned half way. But somehow saying that I read 14.5 books doesn’t have much of a ring about it!
My original summer reading list had 15 titles. They were all designed to take me on a virtual summer holiday around the world. The original list and the list of what I actually read are somewhat different however.
Passport Stamps Collected
I never did get to India and my journey to Asia wasn’t very successful but I did still manage to visit Wales (twice) ; Austria; Croatia; Canada; US; Jamaica; Australia, England (three times) and Rwanda.
The books from the list that I finished were :
Wales: Ghostbird by Carol Lovekin
USA: Breakfast at Tiffanys by Truman Capote
Austria: A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler
Croatia: Hotel Tito by Ivana Simić Bodrožić.
Jamaica: The Long Song by Andrea Levy
Canada: The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
Australia: Shell by Kristina Olsson
Journeys Abandoned
I got about half way through these books but it was a struggle. The Midwife was about the weakest.
Finland: The Midwife by Katja Kettu. This was one of those novels that assumes readers are deeply interested in the historical background of the story. While a certain amount of that can be interesting and helpful, with this book it was confusing and dull.
Indonesia: Twilight in Djakarta by Mochtar Lubis. This started well, focusing on a desperately poor man who is eking out a living as a rubbish collector. But then the whole book got bogged down in a discussion about Communist. If I wanted to know that much about Marxist theory I cold just have bought a pool on political ideology.
Malaysia: Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo. This was on the reading list for a MOOC course on historical fiction although I never got around to reading it at the time. It’s based on traditional beliefs about death and the afterlife held by the Chinese population of Malaysia. I enjoyed reading that element but then the book turned into some odd story about a girl who tries to solve a murder in the spirit world. Weird…
Unplanned Detours
South Africa: A Dry White Season by Andre Brink
When I put that summer reading I overlooked four books I had committed to review. This is what took me off course and kept me in the UK for longer than expected.
England: A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier
England : Sanditon by Jane Austen
England: Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
Wales: The Jeweller by Carys Lewis
Rwanda: The Barefoot Woman by Scholastique Mukasonga. This was a replacement for one of the books I abandoned.
New Tickets Needed
These are the books I never got around to reading. All except for the Kate Duigan have been in my ‘owned but unread’ shelves for several years.
India: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
South Africa: A Dry White Season by Andre Brink
New Zealand: Ships by Fiona Duigan
China: Frog Music by Mo Yan
Germany: Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
I might squeeze in one or two before the year is out. Given my lack of success with the two Asian authors on my summer reading list, I might try the Mo Yan. Have any of you read it? Would you recommend this book?