August Reads

Time for the August round up! Shockingly low numbers here. I have actually read a third, but it is a manuscript under consideration so I can't tell you anything about it. If it ever gets published I'll review it though.

I do hope that I can bring my average up next month. I'd like to keep the average around 3/4. It is really tough to balance around work.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Karen Joy Fowler
Profile 19/06/14 Paperback
8/10
Off The Shelf

Waacbo, as it is affectionately called in the office, was long listed for the Man Booker Prize. Shortlist to be announced (9th Sept). I'm fairly certain it will be shortlisted, and might even win! It is outselling all the other long list books put together.

I was nothing to do with this book, it was all sorted before my time, but I was very glad to have read it. It has a very interesting look at a topic I knew nothing about. The characters are curious, and intriguing. They are not necessarily people I would want to know... But they make for fantastic reading. READ it. BUY it.

I found the book so interesting, (I can't give away the twist!) and it is written so well. A brilliant insight into humanity, how and why we do things and why it is important. Not to mention the bizarre nature of childhood memories.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Katherine Boo
Portobello Books 7/06/14 Kindle
8/10
Kindle

I hadn't realised that this was non-fiction until I read the acknowledgements at the end of the book. I discovered that Katherine Boo is a journalist (I didn't know she had won the Pulitzer, or that would have been a giveaway...) who threw herself into the slums of Mumbai and became so much part of the furniture that she could recount the incredible stories and events in this marvelous book.

What I loved about this book was not just the stories of poverty, but that within poverty there are different levels of ambition, pride and ability. That a garbage sorter's lively hood might not be as meager as others might think, despite the taboo of the job. An incredible and inspirational story.

See my review of what I thought of reading on a kindle here.

I may have only read two books this month, and one that I can't tell you about, but they were all 8/10. The highest mark I've given so far. I think 10s pretty much belong to old favourites like Diana Gabledon's Outlander series. By the way, is anyone else watching the Starz series of Outlander?