Month in review: August, 2017

Month in reviewSo it’s here – September – the time of year in my neck of the woods where the weather turns (or not, the last couple of years we’ve had indian summers), the nights draw in, and the sweaters come out of hiding.  I quite like it to be honest.  It makes the world a little snugglier (if that’s a word) and I’m sure I get more reading done as I’m not taking time off to enjoy the sun (well, when there is sun!).

Saying that, I didn’t do too bad in August with some great reads.  In fact, there wasn’t one duff book amongst them.  Here’s what I read, and how I felt about it…

loved-it

The Thirst by Jo Nesbo, the 11th in the Harry Hole series and a return to form for one of my favourite authors and favourite characters.  Here Harry is tracking down a serial killer with a difference who likes to drink blood (it’s not as gruesome as it sounds).

99 Red Balloons by Elisabeth Carpenter, where the search is on for a missing child and secrets are revealed.  I love this type of book anyways but this one had a “wow” moment that changed how I was reading it so I went from liking to loving in an instant.

Nothing Stays Buried by P J Tracy, another series that is fast becoming a favourite.  This one is set in Minneapolis.  I love the characters here and the twist of having a group of off the grid IT gurus helping solve cases.  This was probably my book of the month, though it was a close call.

The Binding Song by Elodie Harper, which I thought was a great debut and a perfect spooky story for reading as the nights get darker.  A good one for those looking for Halloween reads with things that go bump in the night.

liked-it-a-lot

The Ballroom by Anna Hope, which is so not my type of book but I read as part of a reading round robin and found I was really glad I did.  Set in 1911 this shines a light on how we used to treat people with mental health problems as well as weaving a beautifully written story of love and hope.

At Wave’s End by Patricia Perry Donovan, another “not my normal type of read” read because I’d loved the authors first book.  This one was just as good, focusing on family, relationships and how sometimes you have to take a chance.

Emma In The Night by Wendy Walker, which took me back to my comfort zone with a psychological thriller with plenty of twists, turns and an unreliable narrator I couldn’t decide if I liked or loathed.  A great book.

All The Little Children by Jo Furniss, a post apocalyptic thriller set in the oh so present, making it nice and scary because you could imagine it happening.  It left me wondering how I would cope.

The Last Days of Summer by Vanessa Ronan, which ended up not being quite the book I expected it to be but that I really enjoyed anyway.  It was sadder and more poignant than I thought it would be and a beautiful read.

I also wrote some non-review posts this month…

Crime series I’ve officially given up on catching up on…

Rarely read genres – suggestions please…

And started a new blog where I hope to share my journey into the brave new world of working for myself and finding that perfect work/life balance (it exists right?) as well as other none book-related posts.  If you want to check it out (there isn’t much there yet), you can find it at Every New Me.

And that’s it for August.  How was your month – what did you read and what did you do – let me know (I’m nosey!).

Emma x

This month, I’m linking with Kathryn at Book Date and Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction with their monthly round-up posts (clicking on the images will take you to the posts to check out what others have been reading).

2017-monthly-wrap-up-round-up400 month-in-review-6

27 comments

  1. You had a great month! All the Little Children grabbed my interest…and I am also curious about The Binding Song.

    Love your logo!

    And…I checked out your new blog, which I subscribed to as well. What a great theme you chose! (LOL. All of my blogs now have this theme. I tend to get stuck with a favorite and use it everywhere!).

    Enjoy your weekend.

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    • It was good – better than I realised.

      Thanks for subscribing – I do like the theme (it seems easy to use) – hope you find interesting things on there once I get ramped up.

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  2. Yes to September finally being the month where the air gets crisper and the sweaters come out of hiding. I love it all! I’m so happy Fall is coming. And “The Binding Song” immediately gave me the creeps! Going to check that out for October for sure. 😀

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  3. Love how you set out all your reads for the month. I think I need to revamp mine! Although I think time could creep up on me and September will close before I do. Off to look at your new blog.

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  4. even though summer is my favorite season I have to acknowledge fall and winter are great too especially for reading and blogging 🙂

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  5. We’ve got barely any books in common in August Emma which is unusual. I’m not sure whether I went off on a tangent… perhaps. I know I’ve read quite a few Australian books lately so that could be part of the reason!

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  6. I have Emma in the Night on my TBR. I think it will make an exciting and scary read for fall. I do enjoy warmer fall days when I can still open the house, but I also love wearing my hoodies and sweaters too. Soon enough around here with cider mills already opened and football in full swing.

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    • It is a good read for darker nights. I am normally a woman who likes the cooler weather but with so little hot weather this year I feel like I’ve missed out!

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