I’m very pleased with the state of my TBR at the moment – yes, there’s a Pile and some Loose Matter, but that’s not major and there were two Piles last time. As I reported in my round up of my 20 Books of Summer project (here), as well as completing my 20 Books of Summer reading with days to spare, I achieved my aim of getting a load of books acquired in 2018 off the shelf and read. Let’s not mention how many books I’ve acquired in lockdown – they might just fill the whole back shelf! In total I read 13 books in August (or finished, as one of them I’d been reading in sections since May) and nine of those were from the physical TBR.
Currently reading
I’m currently reading “Horse Crazy” by Sarah Maslin Nir, which the publisher kindly made available to me on NetGalley. It combines a social history of horse-lovers in the US with a memoir of the author’s own obsession with horses. Each chapter is named after a horse she’s loved so I hope it’s not too heart-rending!
I’m also going to be continuing with my reading of Angela Thirkell’s wartime novels, which she wrote and published as the war was going on – so there’s an immediacy there which will be fascinating. I want to have them all read by the end of the year, or earlier if I can, now that I finally have them all! I’ve already discovered the resolution to the cliffhanger from “Cheerfulness Breaks In” in “Northbridge Rectory” (review to come) – phew!
Coming up next …
I need to be reading Kevin Maxwell’s “Forced Out” soon, not least because my friend Gill has loaned it to me and needs to lend it to a police officer next! It’s about the experiences of a Black, gay man who had always wanted to be a police officer but ended up having terrible experiences of homophobia and racism. And my re-read of Paul Magrs’ “Exchange” will be my Magrsathon book for this month (did you read my interview with him yesterday?).
On top of “Horse Crazy,” I want to pick up some other NetGalley reads. I will then make a start on the beginning of the TBR and I’ll be starting “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge, which is the new book my best friend and I will be reading together over the next few weeks (watch out tomorrow for a review of the one we read in May-August).
Then, further in the future, apart from continuing with my reading of Angela Thirkell’s wartime novels, this is the start of my TBR – the oldest books on it. Not hugely diverse, I have to say, apart from “A Brown Man in Russia” and “The Good Immigrant” but that aspect should be covered in my NetGalley reading. I was quite clearly in a nature phase during this part of 2019!
Book confession!
I was delighted to receive a copy of Elizabeth von Armin’s “Father” in the post from the lovely folk at the British Library Women Writers publishers. It’s out on September 03 and I won’t have it read and reviewed by then but I will get to it asap! What a pretty copy, too!
Sep 01, 2020 @ 09:53:17
Well done on 13 books and tackling the tbr. I know Gill thought highly of Forced Out she told me about it too. Currently reading that lovely von Arnim, Father which I am really enjoying.
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Sep 02, 2020 @ 07:54:02
I’ve started Father too and highly enjoying it. Not as many books as I’d hoped but did finish two huge non-fiction books read for Shiny.
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Sep 01, 2020 @ 11:06:14
That copy of Father is gorgeous! Thanks for taking part in 20 Books of Summer and congrats on all your reading!
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Sep 02, 2020 @ 07:54:36
Thank you for running it, I do enjoy doing it every year! And yes, the BL Women Writers books as a whole are SO pretty.
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Sep 01, 2020 @ 11:52:24
Impressive reading here! Good luck with the Thirkell – one day I will get round to doing a complete chronological read…
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Sep 02, 2020 @ 07:55:14
Thank you – with the re-reading I’m slotting in I am managing to read them all in order, but I think I will probably stop at Peace Breaks Out.
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Sep 01, 2020 @ 15:44:44
Horse Crazy might be a good follow-up for me to Wild Horses of the Summer Sun about Americans going to Iceland to ride Icelandic horses. My brother is an American horse owner–nothing fancy, so Horse Crazy–yeah, thanks!
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Sep 02, 2020 @ 07:56:08
It’s good so far! I have Wild Horses of the Summer Sun much later in the TBR, bought with my book tokens at some point in lockdown – it will be interesting to compare them. This talks about smuggling horse DNA out of a country which I think will be Iceland …
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Sep 02, 2020 @ 16:09:48
It was probably your blog that introduced me to Wild Horses of the Summer Sun.
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Sep 01, 2020 @ 17:27:37
The Reni Eddo-Lodge is brilliant and powerful. I hope you and your best friend get a lot from it. A great choice for a buddy read because there’s so much to discuss.
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Sep 02, 2020 @ 07:57:25
I thought that, yes. I was aiming to read a sort of arc of more direct experiences of people of colours’ lives (carrying on from my usual reading about a lot of different people’s lives) and then moving to that and White Fragility, ending up with Me and White Supremacy, but then we both had this one so it seemed a good idea to do it. Plus it will take us ages so I can read other things in the meantime.
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Sep 01, 2020 @ 17:48:48
Wow you did great in August!!!
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Sep 02, 2020 @ 07:57:48
Thank you! It’s good to see the books moving along, anyway!
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Sep 02, 2020 @ 14:21:26
Yes! I love it when I finish a book and pass it along
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Sep 01, 2020 @ 18:54:14
Well done! And doesn’t the von Arnim sound fun? š
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Sep 02, 2020 @ 07:58:07
I’m thoroughly enjoying it so far!
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Sep 02, 2020 @ 03:08:18
I have Thirkell’s August Folly in my Viragos, which I may get to one day. And also Trooper to the Southern Cross (which I’m pretty sure one of our bookish friends sent to me recently, but which shelf is it on? – my whole study is one enormous TBR)
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Sep 02, 2020 @ 07:59:04
I can just see the cover of Trooper in my mind’s eye, though I’ve never read it. It is good having the TBR all in one place though I have to ferret around if what I’m after is on the back shelf! Aim 1 – no Pile. Aim 2 – just one shelf by the end of the year. Right.
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Sep 02, 2020 @ 17:46:01
I love the look (and sound) of the British Library series, can’t wait to get started on them!
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Sep 02, 2020 @ 17:48:35
They are so pretty, with great extra matter and really good texts – can’t go wrong!
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Sep 04, 2020 @ 03:17:20
I’m glad you’re taking time to celebrate making progress on your tbr shelf, yay! So glad you and your best friend are reading Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, it’s one of my favs and I’m looking forward to reading your thoughts. Also not sure if the forced WordPress new editor thing has kicked in for you but the way you integrate pictures into this post is A+!
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Sep 04, 2020 @ 05:58:59
It’s nice to have progress on the shelf! Now need to read all the front row so I allow myself to do re-reading next year … And yes, I wasn’t planning to read it until I’d read more of the books I have on direct experiences of people other than me’s lives (that’s a clumsy way to put it, but you know what I mean) but it turned out Em had a copy her child had loaned her so we went for it. Did the Preface last night and enjoyed it, we can see the position we’re reading it from, and we had a long discussion so all good! And no, I am on the old, old editor, so I must have just got it right. I have changed my font and made it larger, maybe that’s helped!
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