Thursday, October 01, 2020

September 2020 Reads

Sept

The Memory Police, Yoko Ogawa-*

The Teagirl of Hummingbird Lane, Lisa See

The Oral History of the Office, Andrew Greene

The Redhead by the Side of the Road, Anne Tyler

Seinfeldia,  Jennifer Armstrong

The Housekeeper and the Professor, Yoko Ogawa

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, Ann Patchett

Meet Me at the Museum, Ann Youngson

This is the longest list of books I have read in a while. No crime books unless you count THE MEMORY POLICE. More than half of these were audiobooks, which I borrowed from the library.  Walking, cooking and cleaning allows me to get through them quickly. A certain kind of book works best on audio for me-one with a very clear plot and not too many characters. If the writing is very descriptive, it's not a good fit for me because I will miss too much. Two of these books, I read while eating--you do that when you are alone. (the office book and the Seinfeld book). I probably wouldn't have finished TEAGIRL but it was for my book group. My favorite was Ann Patchett's essays although I liked most of them quite a bit. 

How was your September reading?

 

11 comments:

Rick Robinson said...

Not many, but I've been slogging on with GRANT and at over 1,100 pages, it's taking a long time. Other than that, short stories, both in a Holmes collection and elsewhere.

Where does Kondo come up with her numbers...30 books is ridiculous.

David Cranmer said...

I read some old standards: MONTE WALSH, THE MAN FROM TWO RIVERS, lots of books of poetry, and one from our friend Scott D. Parker called EMPTY COFFINS.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Is the Grant his memoir or a biography?
I should read more poetry. I used to read quite a bit.

Jerry House said...

Comfort reading only for me: three by Joe R. Lansdale, one by Max Alan Collins, the latest Jesse Stone (this time by Mike Lupica), Four or five The Shadow adventures by "Maxwell Grant", an equal number of Doc Savage adventures, a couple of pulp adventures of The Spider two Roger West mysteries by John Creasy, a fantasy/satire by John Aylesworth, and a gazillion short stories -- science fiction and mystery, mainly from the 50s and 60s. I also read four Rube Goldberg-type stories in a series by "Henry Hugh Simmons" in AMAZING STORIES from 1927-1928. Currently reading Robert Lewis Taylor's ADRIFT IN A BONEYARD (1947).

I take my happiness wherever I can get it.

pattinase (abbott) said...

These Sept. books were all sort of comfort books. Sometimes crime books carry a greater anxiety than mainstream novels.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Actually, it was a much better month for me than other months this year have been. Four books of short stories (Jhumpa Lahiri, 2 Laurie Colwins, Joe Hill), which have been the most "mainstream" of my recent reading, only one non fiction (CITY OF NETS), mysteries by Peter Robinson, William Shaw, Jean-Patrick Manchette (2), Steven F. Havill, Carl Hiaasen, Peter Turnbull, Spencer Kope and Val McDermid.

14 is more than I've read in a month in quite a while.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Wow. Love Colwin. Well, all of them really!

Steve Oerkfitz said...

My reading has been sporadic this month. Some days my vision gets blurry and I can't read. The last few days has been pretty good. This month I have read the new James Lee Burke. Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa. Shadows by Alex North. Half Moon Bay by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman. No Room at the Morgue by Jean Patrick Manchette.The Plague by Albert Camus. A number of short fiction most recently ones by Angela Slatter. Right now I am enjoy Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby. I'm thinking of rereading Neuromancer by William Gibson next depending upon what comes in from the library. Thought about the new Robert Galbraith whose previous novels I have liked but it is over 900 pages. way too long for a crime novel.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Yes, just holding it would be tiring.

Todd Mason said...

How was the See? I've been meaning to read more of hers.

Mari Kondo perhaps takes the limited space of most Japanese habitations into account too much...certainly too much for book people, in the land of cheap forgotten and less forgotten books...

TracyK said...

I had a good reading month. I did a group read for a Gladys Mitchell novel and read it over about three weeks, and wrote up notes for myself as I read. I new experience, I normally prefer to plow through a book. So I did that with other books I read this month. Still not sure which reading style works best or how to have a balance between the two.