Saturday 4 October 2014

September 2014 Wrap-Up

September was a fairly calm month, with a bit of catching up with review copies and review writing.  Other activities meant that I didn't read that many books last month, but never fear - there are still plenty of reviews on the way :)

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Total Books Read: 9

Year-to-Date: 95

New:9

Rereads: 0

From the Shelves: 1
Review Copies: 8
From the Library: 0
On the Kindle: 2 (2 review copies)

Novels: 5
Novellas: 2
Short Stories: 2 

Non-English Language: 8 (2 Hungarian, 2 Korean, French, Portuguese, Spanish, German)
In Original Language: 1 (German)
Aussie Author Challenge: 0 (1/3)
Japanese Literature Challenge 8: 0 (4/1)

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Books reviewed in September were:
1) Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
2) Boyhood Island by Karl Ove Knausgaard
3) Antón Mallick Wants to Be Happy by Nicolás Casariego
4) The Plains by Gerald Murnane
5) One Spoon on this Earth by Hyun Ki-young
6) A Distant Father by Antonio Skármeta
7) Ich nannte ihn Krawatte (I Called Him Necktie) by Milena Michiko Flašar
8) Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb
9) I Live in Bongcheon-dong by Jo Kyung-ran
10) The Things We Don't Do by Andrés Neuman

Tony's Turkey for September is:
Hyun Ki-young's One Spoon on This Earth

An interesting book marred by an awful translation - another turkey, I'm afraid...

Tony's Recommendation for September is:
Antal Szerb's Journey by Moonlight

Aside from the turkey, there were some wonderful books reviewed this month, and it was hard to overlook a lot of them for the main honour.  Murakami, Knausgaard, Murnane and (especially) Neuman can all feel disappointed, but in the end, I just had to go with Szerb's classic tale of a marriage on the rocks in Italy :)
 
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October will see much of the same, but as the month draws on, I'll be turning my focus to all things Teutonic.  Yes, German Literature Month is not far off, so it's time for me to get cracking ;)