The August ’17 Overview
As you might have noticed I fell off the proverbial blogging wagon midway through August. However, I am once again back and hopefully a little more consistent this time. After my Instagram post last Saturday, here are the books I’ve read in August. As always they have been given a rating X out of 5 and a short review.
August
‘Dood van een thrillerschrijfster’ by Pauline Slot ***
Generally, it was a nice book, but I was really confused by the ending. The main attraction of this book for me was the ‘writing retreat’ element. I really enjoyed reading thoughts and lessons from the main character, a teacher, because I could remember some of them from my own writing course.
‘Eligible’ by Curtis Sittenfeld *****
Part of ‘The Austen Project’ which is about modern retellings of Austen books. This one is the retelling of ‘Pride and Prejudice’. I loved the retelling, the characters felt familiar but modern and the plot was kept exceptionally close to the original.
‘All the Bright Places’ by Jennifer Niven *****
So sad, but beautifully written book about a bipolar boy and a girl grieving her sister. One of the better YA books I have read.
‘In a Dark, Dark Wood’ by Ruth Ware ****
A thriller with touches of ‘Gone Girl’. Nicely written, it scared me so much I had to skip forward just a little bit to calm myself (good sign). It also had some nice ‘meta’ writing, with a nod to the shotgun on the wall in the first act.
Review August
Last month I reviewed the books I planned to read, so I thought I would revisit the list again this month as well and create a separate portion for this. Maybe it will push me to actually read what I plan to read.
Plan:
- ‘Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind’ by Yuval Noah Harari
- ‘Eligible’ by Curtis Sittenfeld
- ‘Vanishing Girls’ by Lauren Oliver
- ‘Dood van een thrillerschrijfster’ by Pauline Slot
- ‘Go Set a Watchman’ by Harper Lee
- ‘All the Bright Places’ by Jennifer Niven
Overall, I did pretty well. I am still powering through ‘Sapiens’, I think it is extremely fascinating, but it is not a page turner. So I think I will be reading it until the end of the year. I have also finished ‘Vanishing Girls’ in September, so that went well.
September
I have actually already finished a few books in the first week of September, but for those, you will have to check back in October! I am also taking ‘Sapiens’ of the list since I will continue reading it but will probably finish at the end of the year.
- ‘Go Set a Watchman’ by Harper Lee
- ‘1984’ by George Orwell
- ‘The Magicians’ by Lev Grossman
- ‘Het Smelt’ by Lize Spit
- ‘The Underground Railroad’ by Colson Whitehead
What are you planning to read this month? Let me know in the comments below, I would love to know!