Saturday, 3 November 2012

October 2012 Wrap-Up

October sees a slight change in my monthly wrap-ups.  Rather than giving a list of all the books read in the month (and thus leaving half the books on the list with no links as the post hasn't been published yet), from this month I'll be listing the books reviewed in the month instead.  The stats though will still refer to my reading patterns - look, it makes sense to me...

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Total Books Read: 14 

Year-to-Date: 101

New: 14

Rereads: 0 

From the Shelves: 4
Review Copies: 3
From the Library: 1
On the Kindle: 6

Novels: 5
Novellas: 5
Short Stories: 1
Plays: 1

Poetry: 2

Non-English Language: 13 (9 German, 2 Icelandic, French, Japanese)
In Original Language: 9 (9 German)

Murakami Challenge: 0 (0/3)
Aussie Author Challenge: 0 (6/12)
Australian Women Writers Challenge: 0 (5/10)
Japanese Literature Challenge 6: 1 (5/1) 

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Books reviewed in October were:
1) The Promise of Iceland by Kári Gíslason
2) The Gate by Natsume Soseki
3) The Creator by Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir
4) À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs by Marcel Proust
5) Where I Left My Soul by Jérôme Ferrari
6) The Greenhouse by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
7) Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope
8) When I Whistle by Shusaku Endo
9) Angst (Fear) by Stefan Zweig
10) Stone Tree by Gyrðir Elíasson

Tony's Turkey for October is: nothing

Once again, nothing that I disliked.  Next year, I'm really going to have to force myself to choose one each month ;)

Tony's Recommendation for October is:

- Gyrðir Elíasson's Stone Tree

Even ignoring the books covered by last month's post, I had some great choices.  Zweig's novella was excellent, and I was very happy with Endo's novel.  Orley Farm is one of Trollope's better efforts while Ferrari's story is a good bet for an IFFP longlisting next year.  However, I was really taken with the brief stories in Elíasson's collection, so it's an Icelandic book which takes the honours again :)

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Now that my month is organised by reviews, not books read, November means just one thing - German Literature Month.  Get ready for a (magic) mountain of G-Lit reviews over the next few weeks...