Another month has steamed by and here in the Northern Hemisphere the nights are closing in, making for some great winter reading opportunities. Every month we hear your book recommendations and votes for our polls, but at the end of each month it’s time to hear from your admin team as we share our reads too!
It’s a chance to find out what your hosts are reading, as we tell you all the books we loved, and didn’t, over the previous month. Our Hit of the Lits poll with your top 40 will be added very soon but for now here are our admin reads from the last month.
Kath
At the end of last month I’d just started Cecilia Ahern’s How to Fall in Love. I finished this quite quickly and it was a light and easy read about a woman obsessed with self help books. It was missing the usual fairytale aspect of Ahern’s work but it was a nice enough book.
I fancied something a bit more substantial next so I started Half of a Yellow Sun, it’s beautifully written but 100 pages in and I’m really finding it hard to pick up, I fear it might go back on the TBR until I’m more in the mood for it. If any of you have read this, I’d love to know what you think, it has rave reviews but it’s just not holding my interest.
In between avoiding Half of a Yellow Sun I have reread The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman, it was my favourite book of last year and at fewer than 200 pages it’s an easy reread, and was just as good the second time around.
Rosie
I was given Roald Dahl’s Short Stories Volume 1: 1944-1953, for my birthday and am currently halfway through. Dahl is just an exquisite writer, this book is full of his inimitable style and plenty of surprising moments. Much like his works for children these often shocking stories leave you with a wry smile or giggle. It’s an extremely satisfying read.
October is full of birthdays for my family so new books are everywhere; I surprised my fiancé with the extremely cheeky and a little disturbing My Dad Wrote A Porno by Jamie Morton et al. It is a hilarious companion to the popular podcast of the same name. I thoroughly recommend both!
Thom
I read Gumption by Nick Offerman. It’s his list of 21 Americans he feels had said gumption and have helped make the country (and world) a better place. I found it very interesting to learn about figures I wasn’t up to speed on like Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Willie Nelson, and Conan O’ Brien; all with Offerman’s relaxed humour.
Shan
I’ve begun Rick Riordan’s new series of Percy Jackson books and the first book Heroes of Olympus is yet another fast flowing and fun YA easy read and even though it’s a hefty tome it felt like a much shorter book. Now I’m reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children; I’m not very far into it but I can see why all of you rave about the trilogy, a beautifully written book and I can’t wait to see how the story unfolds.
So that’s another month for us, and we’ll have your top 40 reads for the month very soon!
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