My plans for the rest of the month’s reading, in pictures.
A handful of October releases (not counting the ones I’ve reviewed in advance for Shelf Awareness et al., one for a blog tour, or what I’ll be reading for November deadlines).
I turn 40 on the 14th, so have made a halfhearted attempt to gather my last four unread from The Novel Cure’s books to read in your thirties before that milestone passes. Whether I’ll actually read them, I’m less sure about. I’ve owned this copy of The Jungle for decades; I’ve not enjoyed Trollope since my student days. Time runs short, anyway, but I’ll see how I get on with the Sinclair at least, and perhaps skim the Trollope to get a sense of why Berthoud and Elderkin chose it for that list.
[The others are London Fields by Martin Amis, which is on loan just as I need it, and The Best of It All by Rona Jaffe, which I borrowed once and didn’t get far in; now it appears to have been withdrawn from the system. (My DNF review from 2018: “I read the first chapter and had a weird reverse case of déjà vu: this is awfully similar to Mad Men, Suzanne Rindell’s Three-Martini Lunch, and A.J. Pearce’s Dear Mrs Bird, though of course they would have been based on Jaffe’s novel rather than the other way round. Caroline Bender, fresh out of a broken engagement, arrives for her first day as a typist at a New York City publishing house and has to adjust to the catty office politics. I think I’ll truly enjoy this, but I need to find another time when I can give it my full attention. It’s nearly 450 pages of small print, so I need a chunk of time when I can really sink into it, like a flight or a long train ride.)]
Also in conjunction with that big birthday, I’ve collected some notable 1983 releases, including 5 out of the 10 most popular on Goodreads’ list. (The Ephron and Hill would be rereads for me.) I’ll work on them in these last few months of the year.
A lesser-known Margaret Drabble novel for our women’s classics book club subgroup; Pale Fire for 1962 Club; two potential books for AusReading Month.
Some spooky or death-themed R.I.P. options (I know the challenge technically starts in September, but I only ever think to read such books as Halloween approaches).
I’ll be spending my birthday weekend in Hay-on-Wye, one of my special places. Here’s my Wales-themed and/or Hay-related pile. I’ll take all of these and probably many of the above as well; I like to have lots to choose from!
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
Hurrah! Look forward to your thoughts on Pale Fire!!
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I’ve only flipped through the pages thus far, and already I’m confused!
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Busy as ever! In case I forget on the day, Happy Significant Birthday. You young thing, you …
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Thank you!
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It’s amazing to me how many books you get through! Enjoy your milestone birthday 😉
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Thanks! I doubt I’ll get through half of these, but I’ll consider the 1983 challenge, at least, to continue through the end of the year.
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I’ve still failed to read any Ward but I have The Last House in Needless Street on my Kindle.
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Annabel and Elle both spoke highly of it, and my husband read it in about 24 hours on his phone, so I’m confident it will be gripping!
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Yeah, Elle has told me I MUST try Ward – I tried to start that one once already and didn’t immediately click with it, but am going to give it another go!
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Hi Rebecca
I don’t like John Upton “The Jungle”. I think Bert Brecht did much better about the same topic in “Saint Joan of the Stockyards” (written around 1930). And I don’t like Anthony Trollope either. Most of the Victorian authors are boring to read nowadays; they haven’t aged well.
Klausbernd 🙂
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I loved the Victorians when I was a teenager and in my early twenties (I got my MA in Victorian Literature from the University of Leeds in 2006), but I do struggle to read them nowadays.
I’ll have to see how I get on with the Sinclair.
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Happy (early) Birthday! I’m glad you get to spend it in one of your favorite places and with all the books you like.
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Thank you!
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I had to go and look for my favourite 1983 reads, of course – and came up with Nicola Beauman’s A Very Great Profession, Rosemary Sutcliff’s Blue Remembered Hills, and the Ephron you already have ready to go. (Unsurprising, for me, that two of these are very much about previous decades!)
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Those are unfamiliar names for me. The Goodreads list is very populist, as you might expect, and has a surprising number of fantasy novels in the top 20 or so.
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I am sure you are forever 21…
Great reading themes this month. Love Pratchett, and Sarn helen and the Long field are well worth reading
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Chris has read all of Pratchett several times. This will be only my third of his books.
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I have only read them once so far. I do love them though
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Happy-coming-up-soon-big-birthday! And have a wonderful visit to Hay-on-Wye, someplace I’d love to visit someday.
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Thanks! It’ll be our seventh trip, I think.
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Happy birthday and the perfect place to spend it (we went to Hay for Heaven-ali’s 40th!). And great choices for the month.
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It should be a lovely relaxing weekend. Now to hope for good weather.
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What a perfect plan for a birthday, I hope it’s everything you’re imagining it will be! I love the idea of reading from your birthyear as an ongoing project. I’ve just requested Sinclair’s The Jungle (which I was shocked is in the system here, they’re scant on classics because they tend to keep them as epubs). Ohhh, don’t you feel badly that the Jaffe is no longer there? I feel ridiculously guilty when a book on my “saved” list goes out of the system…thinking, foolishly, that if only I’d borrowed it and renewed it sooner, the weeding process might’ve been delayed a tad longer. Hee hee (Yes I’m rolling my eyes at my imagined self-importance in the matter of that book’s continued shelflife.) I liked High Spirits quite a bit, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I’d read it after my major Davies phase (it suffered from my wanting it to be more like this trilogies and of course it’s not intended to be that at all). And I can’t recall if you’ve read others by Bryan Washington? That’s one I’ve recently reviewed for Chicago and I found it difficult to review because some of the things that I loved best were things I didn’t want to spoil so I’m looking forward to your thoughts.
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I’m nervous for Carol Shields’s Collected Stories volume on that account; maybe I should borrow it now and just keep renewing it until I need it?
I found that copy of High Spirits in a National Trust manor house gift shop — a lot of them have secondhand book areas, e.g. in the old stables. I thought it would make a nice change from his doorstoppers, and it’s neat that the ghost stories came about as dramatic readings he gave at department Christmas parties.
Yes, I’ve read both of Washington’s previous books and loved them. I’m only on p. 24 here and he’s already made me cry.
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Visiting Hay on Wye for my birthday would be a dream come true! I hope I will manage someday, though it may have to be at another time of year. Hope the weather cooperates.
That’s a fun selection of 1983 books; some from my birth year include I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Left Hand of Darkness, and The French Lieutenant’s Woman …
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That’s a good vintage! The last 1983 book I tried, Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin, was a flop.
I’ve been to Hay at most times of year. I can particularly recommend April-May or September-October.
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The Jungle! One of my favorite books of all time and one of the few books I’ve read more than two times.
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Wow, that seems like a niche one. Did you first read it in school?
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Happy birthday and hope you have a very good time on your trip. Looks like you’ve got some nice options for October reading. I feel like I should read Heartburn – and it’s short!
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Thanks! Have you not read it before?? Definitely read it — it’s short and cutting and so funny.
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I haven’t! It seems like something I would have read, though!
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