September Book Haul

September is the one time of the year besides Christmas/my birthday that I let myself binge on books guilt free. For the past fee years I’ve dedicated The entire month of October to reading all the horror novels I can get my hands on, so September always sees me stocking up for that.

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

I’m always quite up and down with classic novels, and having never read or watched an adaptation of P&P I always just dismissed it as romantic fluff that I wouldn’t enjoy. But I watched a movie adaptation of Rebecca recently and remembered how I’d once felt the same way about that, too. And after browsing numerous lists of the greatest classics ever I found this one always to be very near to, if not always at the top. I’ve started reading it and already wish I’d got over myself sooner. What a complete bitch-fest it is! Jane Austen’s put-downs and one liners are unrivaled!

The Bloody Chamber by Angela carter

Everybody is always raving about Angela Carter, and although I’m already in possession of one of her short story collections that I am yet to read, the tattoo designed cover for this just forced my hand.

Woman in Black by Susan Hill

For my October Horrorfest. Love the movie, a friend recommended the play so I figured the book was bound to be great.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
This was on the buddy reads goodness group for September and since I’m slowly building my Sj collection anyway I thought this would be a good excuse to buy it in paperback and reread it along with the group.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

I got this a couple of years ago as a freebie through Audible and loved it, though I didn’t finish listening to it and now its gone! It’s probably better to have short stories in print anyway though, so it’s easier to pick up and put down. That’s my excuse anyway.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Jane Eyre’s most fascinating character in my opinion has always been Bertha Mason and I hated to think of her as just some throw-away character there to serve purely as a way to advance the plot. Wide Sargasso Sea is not written by Charlotte Bronte, so this telling of the Mason’s backstory isn’t exactly legit, but the fact that it exists and was penned by a woman of similar ethnicity as Mason herself made me really want to pick it up and see what kind of story she could have had, if she’d ever been given a voice.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman 

Coraline is one of my favourite kids movies, I even Coraline’d my daughter up for Halloween (not that it’s even October yet, but I do get excited). So, I’d seen a few of the illustrations from the book, and it seems a lot more sinister than the film.

Song of Kali by Dan Simmons

I started reading the Terror last year, but found the story painfully slow and gave up. I like Simmons subject choices though and wanted to give him another try.

Beloved by Toni Morrison

I’ve been planning on reading Morrison’s The Bluest Eye for the longest time, but I found this came in the Vintage Classics collection and since I’m trying to only buy books if they’re parts of collections that I already own (I’m failing miserably, I know) I thought this would be a good place to start with her work.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

I’ll never forgive myself for getting this. It’s going to take me the rest of my life to finish the thing. Just look how huge it is!

The Story of Kullervo by J.R.R Tolkien

Total impulse buy. But it is Tolkien, so it’s okay.

Ebooks:

Code name verity by Elizabeth Wein

This is one of those books that’s been on my To-Read list for a long time, and after scouring the library, bookshops, etc with no luck in finding it I just thought perhaps it wasn’t to be. But then I found it in the Kindle sale for 99p and that choir of angels music started playing in my head. Lets hope it’s good!

Library:

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

This is about a writer who finds the journal of a young Japanese girl washed up on the beach and is told in two parts, split between the writer’s narrative and that within the journal. I’m only a few chapters in, but so far it’s really interesting. Though from reviews that I’ve read the book sort of fizzles out by the end.

The Devil’s Footprints by John Burnside

The dumb house was so great I was desperate to read more Burnside books and so was really excited to find this in the library!

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

I was supposed to wait until October to read this, but then I worried that someone else might check it out before I got the chance so I’d just have to get over it and read it early.