TSS: August 2012 Reading Wrap-Up

It has started feeling decidedly like autumn in the UK already, which has depressed me to a ridiculous degree; I truly feel as though we haven’t had summer this year. The temperature has stayed very low and the rain we’ve had (the most since 1912) has certainly made it gloomy. I seem to require a higher temperature to be comfortably warm than most Brits, probably because my American skin is used to hot summer weather, so even when my husband and friends noted that it was a bit warmer, I just never really got there. Summers aren’t always like this here, fortunately, so I’m already hoping for next year.

The colder weather does seem to have inspired me to read more books, though. I’m still reading at a slower pace than I have in the past, but I was delighted to finish 12 books this month (although I am including a novella in that figure). Of the ones that I intend to review, I’ve actually done a fair job, too, with 3 more reviews coming next week. I’m attributing the reviews to last week’s bank holiday, but clearly a single three-day weekend gives me enough time to get back into the swing of reviewing. Yay!

Here’s what I read:

• The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin
• The Secret Life of Bletchley Park, Sinclair McKay
• The Midwife of Venice, Roberta Rich
• The Last Caesar, Henry Venmore-Roland
• White Night, Jim Butcher
• Secret Desires of a Gentleman, Laura Lee Guhrke
• Tides of War, Stella Tillyard
• Gunmetal Magic, Ilona Andrews
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce
• Map of a Nation, Rachel Hewitt
• Winter’s Passage, Julie Kagawa
• The Dirty Streets of Heaven, Tad Williams

 Favourite of the Month

Totally different books, both awesome in their own completely different ways. I already reviewed Harold Fry. Gunmetal Magic is going to be reviewed this week. Nothing like a new Ilona Andrews book to make my reading world brighter.

What’s coming in September

This should give you a good idea of what I’ll be reading this September:

This is my immediate TBR pile, which alternates between review books (that’s a review book up top) and my own books that I’d like to read next. Blackout is definitely getting read this month; I’ll probably start this week, in fact. I’m also planning to read 1356 by Bernard Cornwell, and will be featuring an excerpt from the book ahead of its pub date in the UK this month. I’m excited; I really enjoy all of Cornwell’s books, and I don’t think this is going to be an exception.

Finally, I’m also participating in Aarti’s A More Diverse Universe blog tour, which involves lots of bloggers reading speculative fiction books by authors of color. This is a fantastic project; I was so dismayed to discover that there are so few speculative fiction books actually written by authors of color in comparison to how many there are and that I’ve personally read. I need to make more of an effort.

As for what else I have planned this month – I’ve just ordered some books to start refreshing my Russian. Working amongst so many people who speak multiple languages has made me both jealous and irritated that I never kept up the one language I did study intensively (for six and a half years). I do also hope to go to Russia in the next couple of years, so it’s a good time to start trying to refresh my memory and get back into it.

What does September have in store for you?