Best new reader’s find in September: Michael Crummey
Best old reader’s find in September: Giles Blunt

Biggest Book – The Corrections
Smallest (and furriest) Book – The School Mouse

New Challenge: joined the RIP V challenge
Old Challenges: read towards six challenges,
including (finally!) an X for the authors’ portion of the A-Z challenge

Most fun in September? The start of my IFOA-ness, which is underway and continuing.

This isn’t so much event-driven as an annual excuse to ramp up the reading and catch up on backlists for writers whose works I’ve been eyeing. (Yes, it’s why I read The Corrections, finally, and rediscovered Giles Blunt and Michael Cunningham, and read the only Joshua Ferris I hadn’t read yet, which shifts him from my MRE list to my HRE list, and how I discovered Aryn Kyle and Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall.)

Most proud of in September?

Actually reading some of my personal must-reads, whether from my MRE author lists (which have taken a back seat to other reading) or my favourite reading lists. Some of these seemed to take forever (like E.M. Forster’s The Longest Journey), stretching over summer weeks as well, which makes me look like I’ve been an exceptionally busy reader this month (which isn’t entirely true).

In other reading project news, my methodical pursuit of the 20Under40 choices of “The New Yorker” continues, with this month’s highlight being Karen Russell’s, “The Dredgeman’s Revelation”. This is securing my intent to incorporate short story reading more naturally into my reading plans.

And I’m thrilled to return to my Saturday Kidlit/YA reads, with the return of this feature also providing one of my favourite reads for this month: Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian (2007), with Art by Ellen Forney.

October’s reads for Saturdays will be spooky/seasonal reads, pulled from Shireen Dodson’s 100 Books for Girls to Grow On (which is a fabulous source, guaranteed to add to your TBR list and your favourites lists if you appreciate kidlit).

Most excited for next month? The Madame Bovary Readalong (although I’ll actually be reading an older translation as it turns out, but reading it for the first time, so I’m still keen, and hope that doesn’t get me kicked out!) and my first Anchee Min and Louise Penny novels (inspired by the authors’ IFOA appearances).

And how about you? Best finds? Proud reading moments? October anticipations?

Alison Pick’s The Sweet Edge (2005)
Andrea Levy’s Every Light in the House Burnin’ (1994)
Arnold Bennet’s Riceyman Steps (1923)
Aryn Kyle’s Boys and Girls Like You and Me (2010)
Daphne DuMaurier’s The Birds and Other Stories (1952) Arrow Books, 1992
Daphne DuMaurier’s The Flight of the Falcon (1965)
Donez Xiques’ Margaret Laurence: The Making of a Writer (2005)
Doug Harris’ You comma Idiot (2010)
E.M. Forster’s The Longest Journey (1907)
Giles Blunt’s Blackfly Season (2005)
Giles Blunt’s By the Time You Read This (2006)
Giles Blunt’s Crime Machine (2010)
Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections (2001)
Joshua Ferris’ Then We Came to the End (2007)
Michael Crummey’s Galore (2009)
Michael Cunningham’s A Home at the End of the World (1990)
Sara Gruen’s Ape House (2010)
Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall’s Ghosted (2010)
Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues (1996)
Susan Telfer’s The House Beneath (2009)

Kidlit:
Diana Wynne Jones’ Charmed Life Chrestomanci Book 1 (1977)
Dick King-Smith’s The School Mouse Illus. Cynthia Fisher (1995)
Margaret Peterson Haddix’s Running out of Time (1995)
Mary E. Lyons’ The Poison Place (1997) Aladdin, 1999
Virginia Hamilton’s The House of Dies Drear Illus. Eros Keith (1968)