September 2014, In My Stacks

Have you got it marked in your calendar? Diversiverse runs September 14 to September 27, 2014. The sign-up post is here. It’s not too late!

Looking for some ideas?

I’ve enjoyed these recently: Tamai Kobayashi’s Prairie Ostrich (2014) , Shani Mootoo’s Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab (2014), Padma Viswanathan’s The Ever After of Ashwin Rao (2014), Richard Wagamese’s Medicine Walk (2014), Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s This One Summer (2014), jordan abel’s the place of scraps (2014), Alice Walker’s The Cushion in the Road (2014), and Mark Sakamoto’s Forgiveness (2014)

In my stack, I’m aiming to fill some of the final squares in my reading bingo while playing along.

N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Kingdoms would count for the Sequel square. Toni Morrison’s Beloved would fill the Made Into a Movie square. Ann Petry’s The Street is a forgotten classic. Lawrence Hill’s Any Known Blood is a story rooted in history. The others, the Gloria Naylor books and Louise Meriwether’s Daddy Was a Number Runner, have been on my shelves for ages and ages.

And what about the rest of September?

Pictured below: Madeleine L’Engle’s Many Waters, Laird Hunt’s Neverhome, Hannah Pittard’s Reunion, Maureen Corrigan’s So We Read On (which implies The Great Gatsby), Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, Edmund Metatawabin’s Up Ghost River, Nick Cutter’s The Deep, Jeffery Deaver’s The Skin Collector, Kim Thuy’s Man, Liana Finck’s A Bintel Brief, Michael Crummey’s Sweetland, Robert Galbraith’s The Silkworm.

Diversiverse options

Am I really doing any better with my addiction to starting to read series (which then languish untouched or, at least, unfinished)? No. I am starting just as many but, it’s true, that I am more often reading on in short order. (Witness my devotion to the Bern Fortin books.) But I have only read on in three series which I didn’t also begin reading this year: the Time Quintet books and two children’s series (Yotsuba&! and Courtney Crumrin).

Many Waters interests me because it turns the lens to Sandy and Dennys, but I miss Meg and Fortinbras. Maybe I am just meant to reread Wrinkle repeatedly.
Laird Hunt’s novel makes me think of C.S. Richardson’s The Emperor of Paris and David Bergen’s The Age of Hope, books you want to just sink into, read in a single sitting.

Hannah Pittard’s style reminds me of Polly Dugan’s So Much a Part of You and Elise Juska’s The Blessings. Readable and smart.

Did you, like me, manage to avoid reading The Great Gatsby in school? Listening to the WBC podcast on it helped to increase my interest, but what was that whole story about Zelda writing a good bit of his stuff and F.Scott not ‘fessing up? That really put me off. Is that unfair, or untrue? In any case, my Gatsby-less days are numbered.

A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing landed on my stack when it landed on the Orange Prize list. (Yes, yes: the Bailey’s Prize.) It impressed me, but I put it aside after Part One; I just wasn’t in the right mood. I’m ready now. Has that happened to you lately?

Edmund Metatawabin’s Up Ghost River is going to be one of those reads which should be parsed out. I’m reading a chapter a day every couple of days.

It might take me most of September to work up the nerve for Nick Cutter’s The Deep. Thinking about The Troop still makes me squirm. That’s a good thing. Really.

Jeffery Deaver’s The Skin Collector took me back to the first in the Lincoln Rhyme series, The Bone Collector. It was a rough read but I grew attached to the character and am curious to see where the eleventh book finds him. (Do you read series out of order? I rarely do. This feels very adventurous.)

Rest of September

Everyone seemed to love Ru more than I did, but I am really looking forward to her follow-up novel in translation by Sheila Fischman. Perhaps, as with Neverhome, it will be a single-sitting read. Any guesses as to whether this will appear on the season’s upcoming prizelists?

Liana Finck’s A Bintel Brief was recommended by Maureen Corrigan in the NPR podcast, with Max Brooks’ and Canaan White’s The Harlem Hellfighters (which was utterly fantastic and should be on school curricula for mature students everywhere). How often does a book reviewed on radio catch your attention?

Sweetland. This is going to be one of those gushing posts. I just love this book. I never want it to end. And, yet, I know he is going to end it brilliantly, so I want to see that happen too. Have you read Michael Crummey before?

Plunging into Robert Galbraith’s The Silkworm on the heels of The Cuckoo’s Calling might not have been the smartest plan. (But witness my start-and-finish-series oath. See, I’m not failing all over the place. Only in isolated areas.) I liked the first book, but I’ve heard this one is even better. What do you think?

What does your stack look like these days?

Are you expecting to read a lot this month, or will it be a challenge to squeeze in the books?

s there something in particular you are enjoying right now or anticipating?