September was a busy month, both for reading and reviewing, but the highlight was probably the multilingual nature of my books. While I'm always up for a bit of translated fiction, this month some of the translating was going on in my head - and I even managed to finish a book in Spanish, not one of my better languages :)But, as ever, the cold, hard figures...
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Total Books Read: 12
Year-to-Date: 94
New: 12
Rereads: 0
From the Shelves: 2
Review Copies: 8
From the Shelves: 2
Review Copies: 8
From the Library: 1
On the Kindle: 3 (2 review copies)
Novels: 7
Novellas: 1
Novels: 7
Novellas: 1
Short Stories: 2
Plays: 1
Poetry: 1
Plays: 1
Poetry: 1
Non-English Language: 11 (2 Spanish, 2 Italian, 2 French, Dutch, Japanese, Latvian, Norwegian, German)
In Original Language: 4 (2 German, French, Spanish)
Aussie Author Challenge: 0 (3/3)
Japanese Literature Challenge 7: 1 (9/1)
Japanese Literature Challenge 7: 1 (9/1)
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Books reviewed in September were:
1) From the Fatherland, with Love by Ryu MurakamiBooks reviewed in September were:
2) Days in the History of Silence by Merethe Lindstrøm
3) Multiples by Adam Thirlwell (ed.)
4) Ghosts by César Aira
5) Under this Terrible Sun by Carlos Busqued
6) Open City by Teju Cole
7) The Sorrow of Angels by Jón Kalman Stefánsson
8) The Nihon-ryōiki by Kyōkai
9) The Foxes Come at Night by Cees Nooteboom
10) High Tide by Inga Ābele
11) Shades of the Other Shore by Jeffrey Greene
12) Ballade Nocturne by Gao Xingjian
Tony's Turkey for September is:
Carlos Busqued's Under this Terrible Sun
In fairness, this is here mainly because it just wasn't my kind of book (and I probably would have picked something else up to try if I'd read the review describing it as 'stoner noir' earlier). Nevertheless, I'm compelled to be honest, so Busqued's book ends up on the turkey shelf...
Tony's Recommendation for September is:
Jón Kalman Stefánsson's The Sorrow of Angels
Easily the pick of the bunch for this month, a book that I'm hoping will do well in next year's IFFP. Other highlights include Nooteboom's short-story collection, Aira's slight, but memorable, tale and Teju Cole's ode to New York. However, there was only ever going to be one winner here :)
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German Literature Month has just been announced for November, so there'll be a lot of German-language reading going on around these parts in October. Don't worry though - I've got a good few other reviews all lined up, ready to go :)
