August 2015 books

This is the latest post in a series I started in late 2019, anticipating the twentieth anniversary of my bookblogging which will fall in 2023. Every six-ish days, I’ve been revisiting a month from my recent past, noting work and family developments as well as the books I read in that month. I’ve found it a pleasantly cathartic process, especially in recent circumstances. If you want to look back at previous entries, they are all tagged under bookblog nostalgia.

Apart from a quick work trip to London – where Brian Aldiss signed his The Twinkling of an Eye for me – we spent most of the month in Northern Ireland. On the way, we looked in on the replica of the great clock of Richard of Wallingford in St Alban’s.

Little U was not completely convinced by the seaside.

The Hugo Award results came through, and No Award won in five categories, equal to the total number of times it had previously won in the history of the awards. The Puppies were defeated, but had inflicted damage,

I read 31 books that month, some of them mercifully short.

Non-fiction: 8 (YTD 35)
1606: William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear, by James Shapiro
Building Confidence in Peace, by Erol Kaymak, Alexandros Lordos and Nathalie Tocci
Resolving the Cyprus Conflict: Negotiating History, by Michális Stavrou Michael
A Visitor’s Companion to Tudor England, by Suzannah Lipscomb
Selected Essays, by Virginia Woolf
Space Helmet for a Cow, by Paul Kirkley
The Story of Kullervo, by J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Verlyn Flieger
Letters to Tiptree, eds Alissa Krasnostein and Alexandra Pierce

1606 Building Confidence in Peace Resolving the Cyprus Conflict Visitors Guide to Tudor England Selected Essays Space Helmet for a Cow Letters to Tiptree

Fiction (non-sf): 6 (YTD 28)
Divorcing Jack, by Colin Bateman
The Lowland, by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Tragedy of the Goats, by Francis Hamit
History, by Elsa Morante
The Land of Green Plums, by Herta Müller
The Twenty-Two Letters, by Clive King

Divorcing Jack The Lowland The Tragedy of the Goats History The Land of Green Plums Twenty-Two Letters

SF (non-Who): 12 (YTD 89)
Lord Valentine’s Castle, by Robert Silverberg
Buffy: The Lost Slayer: Prophecies, by Christopher Golden
Buffy: The Lost Slayer: Dark Times, by Christopher Golden
Buffy: The Lost Slayer: King of the Dead, by Christopher Golden
Buffy: The Lost Slayer: Original Sins, by Christopher Golden
Transition, by Iain Banks
Naamah’s Kiss, by Jacqueline Carey
Penric’s Demon, by Lois McMaster Bujold
Elric of Melniboné and Other Stories, by Michael Moorcock
11/22/63, by Stephen King
The Shepherd’s Crown, by Terry Pratchett
And Another Thing…, by Eoin Colfer (did not finish, totally failed to grab me and I gave up at page 70)

Lord Valentines Castle Prophecies Dark Times King of the Dead Original Sins Transition Naamahs Kiss Penrics Demon Elric 11/22/1963 And Another Thing

Doctor Who, etc: 4 (YTD 32)
Mission: Impractical, by David A. McIntee
The Tomorrow Windows, by Jonathan Morris
Mean Streets, by Terrance Dicks
Erimem: The Last Pharaoh, by Iain McLaughlin and Claire Bartlett

Mission Impractical Tomorrow Windows Mean Streets Erimem: The Last Pharaoh

Comics : 1 (YTD 12)
An Age of License: A Travelogue, by Lucy Knisley

An Age of License

~9,500 pages (YTD 53,200)
12/31 by women (YTD 60/196) – Tocci, Lipscom, Woolf, Flieger, Krasnostein/Pierce, Lahiri, Morante, Müller, Carey, Bujold, Bartlett, Knisley
1/31 by PoC (YTD 12/196) – Lahiri

Several very good reads this month: The Lowland, by Jhumpa Lahiri, which you can get here; History, by Elsa Morante, which you can get here; Selected Essays, by Virginia Woolf, which you can get here; and Letters to Tiptree, eds. Alisa Krasnostein and Alexandra Pierce, which you can get here.

However you can avoid the official Hitch-hiker’s Guide sequel, And Another Thing…, by Eoin Colfer in good conscience. If you want to get it anyway, it is here.