September Reading

My bookclub is doing The Bookbinder of Jericho. I listened to it, and to be fair it may be the same narrator as Dictionary of Lost Words (which I didn't get into at all) but I was an hour or so in and just thought 'Haven't we already read this book?' It just felt like a do over of the previous book, though of course it's set in a different time. My mum read it for her book and she really enjoyed it, especially as her dad was in WWI so a lot of the stories resonated with what he told her.

I listened to this on BorrowBox.

As an aside, a friend took me to the STC season launch - I thought it was a stupid thing to go to but was being a team player. However, it was really fun and exciting! A few years ago they did a very successful stage adaption of The Dictionary of Lost Words and there was a roaring cheer in the audience when they announced they were doing The Bookbinder of Jericho, so assume it's just me and my criticism is not valid, as I am definitely the odd man out on this book. Sydney people the tickets and dates are here.

This Jerome K. Jerome is a series of essays on life. They are at times hilarious. The one on babies was so funny and insightful - how everyone know the first baby requires so much more attention to look after than the sixth. He touches on love, marriage, work, money and more. At times he had surprisingly feminist views (unless he was being satirical and he thought those opinions ridiculous, but I took them at face value). He seems very modern though quite kooky in his humour. I listened to this on Hoopla.

Three men in a boat reviewed here. Jerome K. Jerome ghost stories here. 

I read this on my phone, borrowed from Hoopla - it's another in the graphic novel series. It's vol 24 but the library only has 3 I can borrow. I enjoyed this one and will try to source more, however, as they take about 45 minutes to read, I'm reluctant to pay the $$ to buy them. I do like that you can get comics online like this, while at times I have to enlarge the pictures to take it all in, which is disruptive a little to the flow, I'm getting a broader range of comics and I always have something to read while waiting, even if I've not carried my book with me (I am a paper reader, not kindle, so there is a downside there). I thought this one was a little better than the first one I read but I did work it out well before the end).

The first in this series I read discussed here.

Back on my Josh Silver crush. He talked about this title at the Writers festival so finally got to it. I think Happy Head is better but I did enjoy this too. A little darker but I felt more menace in Happy Head. So if you haven't read any Josh Silver, start with those. If you have, you won't be disappointed. I listened to it on Audible.

Happy Head discussed here, and Dead Happy discussed here. Josh Silver at the writer's festival.

I don't really know why I thought I wanted to read this. I realised after I started it, I didn't love American Marriage. This is good but I don't love it (nor do I hate it), I'm just sort of rolling through it. It's interesting enough, and there's a few pretty awful segregation stories so far, that we find pretty shocking over here but I guess we ignore our own segregation history as we didn't call it that. Still a bit to go, and it could also be my mood (as I have a lot going on) so I'd go with someone else's review.