Book read in August

August was a mood reading month which ended up with me reading a wide variety of genres. I read five thrillers, four Urban Fantasies, three crime novels, two mainstream novels one Space Opera and a book of Horror short stories.

My most enjoyable read came as a surprise to me. It was a thriller by Daniel Pyne called ‘Water Memory‘ that’s been in my library for almost four years.

It was clever and fast-paced and felt fresh and new. I was so pleased with it that I bought the sequel ‘Vital Lies‘ and I’m hoping to use it as a Halloween Bingo read.

I was fortunate enough to have four four-star reads this month. I followed up an author whose short story I’d read in ‘Apocalyptic‘ and read Nancy Holzner’s ‘Deadtown’, the first book in an Urban Fantasy series that I’ll now be following. I had my second visit with Simone Buchholz’s Hamburg Public Prosecutor Chastity Riley in ‘The Kitchen‘. I was delighted by Roisin Maguire’s debut novel ‘Night Swimmers’ set in a small coastal village in Ireland during lockdown. I had fun with ‘Yule Be Sorry‘, the second book in the ‘cozy mystery (with dragons)’ series that I started last month with ‘Baking Bad‘.

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Books added in August

I’ve decided to stop seeing my bookbuying as a weakness. Yes, it’s probably an addiction but it’s one that doesn’t harm me or anyone else so I’m confessing to NEEDING to buy books. The meme below captures how I felt as I browsed the books on offer in August.

I got excited and ended up adding thirty-two books to my library in August. Yes, I know that’s a little more than one a day but take a look at them. They’re fabulous and I had to make them mine.

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TBR Challenge Check

Here’s my progress against the goals that I set after my half-year review of the challenge.

1. Read at least 70 books (11.7 per month): read 16 books in July and 16 books in August, so I’m about 8 ahead of schedule.
2. Read 25 books (4 per month) from my TBR pile that were added in 2023 or that were part of the 30 books selected from my 2012-2022 TBR shelf: August was a good month for this with 7 books coming from my TBR. That gives me a total of 9 so far which is 1 ahead of schedule. I’ve read two so I’m behind schedule

I’ve deleted the goal about how many books to buy for per month as it’s a goal that has so far had no impact on my behaviour. Instead I’m trying to get to my books while my enthusiasm for them is still strong. That’s the best I can do. I just need to spend sixteen hours a day reading and everything will be fine.