Skip to main content

Bibliofile - September



After having read 9 books in August I slipped somewhat to 7 in September taking me to a total of 85 books I've read this year.

I started the month completing Margaret Atwood's so-called dystopian trilogy that began with Oryx and Crake and ended with MaddAddam. I must say I enjoyed these books and was pleasantly surprised by this futuristic tale from Atwood, not having read her before.

I then read Nina Simone's autobiography. I have several of her CDs and a concert I watched on TV moved me to go searching for more about her. She was truly an amazing woman. Not just in the sense of a great musician and singer but also as an active participant in the human rights movement in the States. This was a short but interesting read.

Apart from the short story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - yes, on which the movie with Brad Pitt was based - I fell into a Kurt Wallander jag. Wallander is the protagonist of the police detective novels by Swedish writer Henning Mankell and I got through his first four "Wallander" books. His books are a tad on the long side and a bit drawn out but a good read nonetheless. Those that are familiar with my reading habits know how much I love detective series or novels of the hard-boiled genre. Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald, Robert Crais, R.J. Ellory, Lee Child and Ken Bruen are among my favourites.

So here's what I read in September, in the order in which they were read.


MaddAddam - Margaret Atwood
I Put a Spell On You - The Autobiography of Nina Simone - Nina Simone
The White Lioness - Henning Mankell
The Dogs of Riga - Henning Mankell
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Man Who Smiled - Henning Mankell
Sidetracked - Henning Mankell

I've just started the latest Stephen King novel Doctor Sleep which, interestingly enough, is a sequel to his 1977 bestseller The Shining. More on that next month.

I'm always on the lookout for something new to read. Let me know if you have any recommendations for me.

Comments

Bryan G. said…
I've been reading the Wallander series too, but I think I'm a bit behind you. I don't know if I love the books, but it's a good series and worth continuing...so far. I might get back to it this month, but it will be there waiting for me, if not. It's not like they go away. :)
nonamedufus said…
It took me the first book or two to get into this series. Maybe it has something to do with the translation from Swedish, I don't know, but I found in some instances they plodded along. Overall, though, a good read once you get familiar with the main character.
LOBO said…
The planet is now infested with 85 books? Who the **** keeps writing those damn things!?!
-I am clearly not burning them quickly enough.
nonamedufus said…
Many of these are e-books, LOBO. You can't get near them with your matches - thank goodness. Luddite.
milecar said…
This is very nice article for best cleaning carpet which I was looking from long time. When cleaning carpet in Ocala, Lady Lake, or The Villages, Florida we strictly follow the IICRC's guidelines. The IICRC is the internationally recognized authority on carpet cleaning. Using a non IICRC certified firm may void your carpet warranty.
P.J. said…
I am seriously impressed. 85 books this year? I can't imagine doing that. My problem is I get reading blogs and writing them and then my book time goes away. Then when I settle down to read, I fall asleep. Go figure.
nonamedufus said…
What makes this really impressive is it includes nodding off time.

Popular posts from this blog

My Back Pages - November

I read five books last month bringing my year to date total to 61, well past the 50 I estimated at the beginning of the year. And I've yet to get through December.

The month started out with The Nix, the debut novel by Nathan Hill which has been receiving a lot off positive reviews. In it Hill flips back and fourth from the 1968 Chicago protests and 2011 in a desperate search for the truth behind why his mother abandoned him at an early age. In between Hill takes on politics, the media and addiction as well as other aspects of society. It's a well-spun tale and I quite enjoyed reading it.

Next up was the auto-biographical I Am Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame. This was somewhat of a scattered affair but an interesting read nonetheless. Wilson - or his ghostwriter - however is no Hemingway.

Then it was on to one of my favourite authors, Ian Rankin and his latest tale of now retired Inspector John Rebus, Rather Be The Devil. I never tire of these stories and this is the 21st in …

My Back Pages - 2016

Here, as promised is a month-by-month breakdown of the 67 books I delved into this year. I got off to a strong start and then my intake dwindled for a couple of months until picking back up in April. I'll let you in on my favourites at the end of this list.

January

Here, There and Everywhere:
My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles - Geoff Emerick - ****
H is for Hawk - Helen Macdonald - ***
Close To The Edge - The Story of Yes - Chris Welch - ***
Sweet Caress - William Boyd - ****


February

Purity by Jonathan Franzen 
Still Alice by Lisa Genova.


March

Natchez Burning - Greg Iles
The Promise (Elvis Cole #20) - Robert Crais

April

The Snowman (Harry Hole)- Joe Nesbo ****
Phantom (Harry Hole) - Joe Nesbo ****
The Leopard (Harry Hole) - Jo Nesbo ****


May

George Harrison Reconsidered ***
The Heart Goes Last - Margaret Atwood ****
Dropping The Needle - The Vinyl Dialogues Volume II ***
The Electric Mist with the Confederate Dead, (Dave Robicheaux #6) - James Lee Burke****


June/.July

 Lust and Wonder - Aug…

Traveling Along Singing A Song

Pete and Paulie were strolling along one day. The sun was bright, the air was cool, the birds chirped crazily in the trees and the squirrels  munched merrily on their nuts. Well not their nuts exactly. Nuts they found on the ground and in the gardens in the park.

Paulie felt so good he began to whistle. It wasn't any tune in particular, just one of those annoyingly tuneless whistles that wandered all over the place. Pete looked at Paulie and he squiggled up his nose and he said "What the hell is that?" Paulie replied "Oh nothing in particular. I'm just happy." "But you're not even whistling a tune" said Pete. Paulie replied "If you're so wise I'd like to see you do better, Pete."

Pete went silent for a moment and seemed to mumble to himself for a moment or two. Then he cleared his throat with a little cough, he opened his mouth and he began to sing.


"There once was a king very wise
Who spoke to his enemies in disguise
T…
http://nonamedufus.blogspot.com/2013/10/bibliofile-september.html
nonamedufus.blogspot.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2017-22
221921
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:RI6JJE7IHAPAKJRCFEK24WCVFJAF3VAY
<urn:uuid:3327ea25-bca6-4237-8893-6e57d283cf49>
2017-05-30T09:08:17Z
172.217.7.161
text/html
sha1:IAA7OWJI7CJMV4JATM6A6MEJBIRQT4NL
<urn:uuid:fd8a59f5-1295-4d66-8e3f-bcec46020216>
http://nonamedufus.blogspot.com/2013/10/bibliofile-september.html
response
<urn:uuid:6b12024b-aa04-4e07-8865-55423a93a4ec>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-185-224-210.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-22
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for May 2017
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf