September Update

Book Post

Another good and productive month, my reading plan is a minimum of six books a month and again I’ve achieved that though I stalled a bit at the end of the month and just couldn’t get into anything for over a week, so rather than beating myself up about this I just did other blogging tasks.

I’ve started adding my gaming and photography content to www.bigbeardedbookseller.com, and I’ve continued to develop the indie bookshop lists and map on www.indiebookshops.com.

This does mean that I’ve closed down a couple of blogs and am consolidating their content onto the other blogs as I’m unsure of what’s going to happen in the future job wise.

It’s been a really good month for book post as well, two I’ve already read and reviewed, and another three or four to read and review before their release date.

Famished by Anna Vaught

A wonderful repast of short stories all around the themes of food/feasting/eating – some shared horrors of food and how memories can shape thought and behaviour – well crafted morsels of horror and thrills. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Hungry by Grace Dent

Laughter, tears, food, class – it had it all. I’ve always loved Grace’s way of writing about food and this humour is throughout Hungry even at the saddest of times. Roaring with laughter one moment then in tears the next. Buy this when it comes out, it was so good I finished it in a day. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The President’s Room by Ricardo Romero

translated by Charlotte Coombe.

A dazzling little book of understatement and metaphor, almost poetic in form, there was a simmering darkness throughout which slowly built in tension to the brooding conclusion. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Mudlarking by Lara Maikem

I’ve always been fascinated by foraging, fossicking, and finding things on sea shores, mudlarking has always been a draw. Lara writes an entertaining and illustrative story of her adventures on the banks of the Thames. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Dead Girls by Selva Almada

Translated by Annie McDermott.

A horrifying subject, a gripping narrative. I’m not sure how any words are going to do this book justice. Haunting, harrowing, emotionally draining but so, so well written. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Glimpses of the Unknown edited by Mike Ashley

A collection of never before reprinted stories of the supernatural from the start of the 20th century, a strong collection from a shared moment in time culturally, especially in my favourite The House of the Black Evil, the time of spiritualism supported by luminaries such as Arthur Conan Doyle

Well worth a dip into. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

A modern classic I’ve been meaning to read for a very long time now, and another one I’m wishing I read earlier. I enjoyed the rawness, the solitude, the triumph, and the grief – all with a sublime rawness of salt in a wound. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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