Well, September was a lot more successful than August for reading. I managed to squeeze in five books last month and most were awesome! I’ve also been carving out more time for blogging which has been wonderful. As I mentioned in my previous wrap-up, I do have exciting news to tell you but alas, it will need to wait until at least next month.
I think I’m doing pretty well for my reading goals for the year, too. I’ve been reading a lot of bigger books and I’ve made a cute little chart below so you can see how I’m doing towards each goal. I won’t lie, I mostly did this because it was so much fun to create the graphic.
Then, if we cast an eye into the ARC (advance reader copy) department, you can see that I’ve done a honest to goodness fantastic job of prioritising ARCs. With over 40% of all the books I’ve read this year being ARCs, I’m really happy! This is a significant improvement from last year. Whilst I’ve definitely still got a serious backlog, I don’t feel that it’s become much worse than where it was at, at the beginning of the year.
Empire of Sand
Tasha Suri
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Author: Tasha Suri
Published: November 2018
Publisher: Orbit
Pages: 496 {paperback}
Will I continue the series? YES
This was really fun! Inspired by Mughal India, this was full of a unique type of magic and I really liked it. We have a wonderful (i.e. horrible) villain in this story who is so many kinds of evil. This was also a book I was given at Christmas in 2018 and was a nice tick off the list as this year I’ve been trying to make sure I read all of my Christmas presents before the festive season rolls around again!
Wild
Nathan Besser
Genre: Historical Fiction
Author: Nathan Besser
Published: September 2019
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Pages: 384 {paperback}
What an unexpected delight! I requested a review copy of this from Penguin, who were gracious enough to then send me a copy, and I loved it. I don’t know what it was about this blurb that caught my eye but I just had a hunch I was going to enjoy this. I have both a review up on my blog and over on my YouTube channel if you want to hear more of my thoughts on this!
The Fiery Cross
Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Historical Fiction
Author: Diana Gabaldon
Published: November 2001
Publisher: Dell
Pages: 1,443
Will I continue the series? YES
Wow, this took me about three months all up to actually finish. I’ve been reading these via audiobook and yet again, this delivered. Davina Porter (the narrator) does such a wonderful job. The story was exciting and finished on a real high – I can’t wait (once I’ve worked up the courage) to continue reading the series!
Review to come
Jane Steele
Lyndsay Faye
Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction
Author: Lyndsay Faye
Published: March 2016
Publisher: Headline Review
Pages: 432 {paperback}
I LOVED this. I was expecting it to be good but this just ended up as one of those stories that stuck with me for the next day, the day after, throughout the week – until I had to march back to Goodreads, up my rating and declare it one of my all time favourite books. If you haven’t read this reimagining of Jane Eyre yet, then I strongly recommend that you do.
Some Places More Than Others
Renée Watson
Genre: Middle-Grade
Author: Renée Watson
Published: October 2019
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pages: 224 {paperback}
Another review copy, this time from Bloomsbury. I hadn’t heard of this – this was an unsolicited copy for me – but it was so very short and I thought maybe I could tuck up with it one afternoon and read the whole thing. So I did. And it turned out to be a fantastic read! Would definitely recommend this, especially as an own voices story.
My review
- I did my August book haul
- I reviewed some books:
- I participated in Top Ten Tuesday:
- Books To Buy This Month (September Releases)
Total: 2,979
Progress Towards Goodreads Challenge:
82%, or, 41/50 books
Considering this post is (as usual) incredibly late in going up, to be perfectly honest I can’t quite remember what happened. I do really need to get on top of my wrap-ups but I say that every month and it never happens. Ho-hum.
One thing I did do, is I visited The Pinnacles. This has been in the wings for a very long time and a good friend of mine and myself decided and TODAY WAS THE TODAY. So we did a road trip up to the desert to see the pointy rocks.
I’m sure there are plenty of you out there that are now googling The Pinnacles. Or maybe not, are they famous outside of Australia? As exciting as Wave Rock and Uluru? Possibly not. Perhaps you’ve not heard of Wave Rock either. But if you haven’t heard of Uluru then, honestly, where have you BEEN?
The Pinnacles are a natural formation of rocks in Western Australia (where I live) and they’re tall and pointy and completely odd. And I’m usually useless at touring in my own town so we thought we’d better make an effort to do something different. Anyway! Onto the movies. . .
Movies I watched:
Downton Abbey, 2019: 8/10 stars
I have been anticipating this my whole life, I’m pretty sure. In the lead up to its release, I hardcore binged the final series of Downton which I was still yet to watch and boy-o-boy, it was a big achievement to watch it all. The movie was brilliant and I loved it. Please, let there be another one.
Philadelphia, 1993: 8/10 stars
Well, this was very sad. I’d not actually heard of this film before but it was something my dad was eager on watching so the whole family sat down to see what it was about. For starters, it’s Tom Hanks film (which means it’s amazing regardless) but it was such a poignant story. I loved it.
Kindergarten Cop, 1990: 7/10 stars
This was a film that was on the list I’m slowly making my way through with my housemates. And hot dog, it was super funny. Honestly, I was not sure what I was expecting from this but I wasn’t expecting it to literally be Schwarzenegger playing a cop who had to teach kindergarten children. Brilliant.
Alita: Battle Angel, 2019: 5/10 stars
Looking back, 5 stars seems really generous for this. After so many good movies, I was bound to hit a dud. Whilst the concept of this story was super interesting, the plot just didn’t happen. Nothing is resolved or achieved in this movie: it’s all saved up for the sequel. Which meant this was reasonably lacklustre in the end.
Tick! September done!
What was your favourite book that you read in September?
~~ Kirstie ~~
Upside-Down Books 
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