Thursday, June 2, 2011

Monthly Roundup - May 2011

Hard to believe another month has gone and we're almost halfway through the year. When it comes to books and blogging it's proving to be one of mishaps and misadventures and I'm still waiting to end a month on a high note.
The last few days have been incredibly frustrating and my book reviewing time has been spent trying to find a solution to the Blogger problems without much success. Changing my comments to popup solved my inability to comment here but I still can't sign in which means I can't comment elsewhere. I really feel like just walking away and not bothering with anything.
Apologies to It's Monday participants, particularly those who commented here - I managed to comment on a few but not many.

Books Read in May = 12

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez
Open by Andre Agassi (NF)
Those Who Come After by Elisabeth Holdsworth
A Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradley
Myself My Enemy by Jean Plaidy (at Royal Reviews)
The Man From Beijing by Henning Mankell
Plague Child by Peter Ransley
Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Giovanni's Gift by Bradford Morrow
Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex
The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (NF)

Fiction = 10
Non-Fiction = 2

From my Bookshelf = 3
From the Library = 9

DNF - The Ground is Burning by Samuel Black - I ran out of time before I went away and had to return it to the library but the 30 pages I did read I didn't enjoy much so it's doubtful I'll borrow it again. I didn't like the first person present tense and three different narrators , the sometimes very modern speech, and the writing style had too many paragraphs with very short sentences which never appeals to me.

Global Reading
USA (3), UK (3), Afghanistan, Netherlands/Australia, Sweden/China, India, Italy, Canada

New additions to my bookshelf from the secondhand book shop visit....

The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland
The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Glass Palace by Amitrav Ghosh
Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex
Virgin Widow by Anne O'Brien
Passage by Connie Willis
Coming Up in June
Shantaram Readalong hosted by Aths @ Reading on Rainy Day and Helen @ Helen's Book Blog .  This is a book I've had on my 'must read' list for ages so a perfect opportunity to do just that and one I'm really looking forward to.

Apart from that I'm not making any plans . I'm behind with reviews and challenges but refuse to let myself get stressed about it. If they don't get done it doesn't really matter to anyone but myself .



I hope everyone has a wonderful June

4 comments:

  1. Yikes! I have The Ground is Burning - I will be starting it soon, though, fingers crossed that it gets better after those first 30 pages! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hear you on the Blogger issue. It's very frustrating.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm about to pull my hair out with Blogger, too, so I know exactly what you're going through!

    Just enjoy reading, and hopefully this mess will be solved soon....but it doesn't seem like they're going out of their way to keep us informed. :(

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nathalie - I'll look forward to hearing your thoughts.

    Linda/Joanne - it certainly is maddening and I hope it doesn't go on much longer.
    Just enjoy reading is good advice.

    ReplyDelete