July was a mixed month for reading - the end of our holiday and the post holiday slump hit hard, not helped by the heat and a selection of books for a project that I really struggled with.
Highlights were definitely the days I could get out and about with the camera, especially the day my nephew (Kentishbookboy for long term readers) and I had in London. He is about to start photography A level and had a summer project to work on, so we spent the morning in various buildings and locations around the city looking and light, shape, and form before heading to the beautifully airconditioned National Theatre to see War Horse. When the show was last on stage KBB was too young to see it so I was really pleased to see it back on in London, and on the stage it was initially written for. We were both blown away by it and hopefully this won't be the last day we have in London before he is too grown up to want a day out with his aunt...
Bookwise I got through a fair number of books and visited Greece, Japan, Finland, France (twice), Italy, Saudi Arabia, and Slovakia - the ones that were new to me being Slovakia and Saudi Arabia, I also got to tick off Idaho and Quebec as new States/Provinces.
Our Reading Around the World group met on Bastille Day to (appropriately) look at books in/from France. The choices and discussion was great, not least because several of us picked books by the same author - although all different titles - so we could look at how the writing styles change, common themes, and suggestions of other titles to try if the initial one didn't hit the mark!
I'll be missing the next session and my friend/sometime book group attendee is leading it - they'll be looking at Scottish books and the joke is that A chose this because she doesn't have a passport!
My top reads of the month were Victoria Hislop's The Wine-Dark Sea (not out until Sept so review/thoughts then), Louise Penny's Miss Wolcott's Ghost, and Annie Ernaux's A Man's Place. No real stinkers (that I can talk about) but a very average selection on the whole.
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| My Read the World Map as of end of July - it doesn't look hugely different as many of the books have been from smaller countries! |
