Read:
What Strange Paradise – Omar El Akkad (Penguin Random House Canada, 2021)
Interior Chinatown – Charles Yu (Pantheon Books, 2020)
A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens (Bantam Book, 1989)
The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller (Ecco, 2012)
Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun – Paul Seesequasis (Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2019)
Front Desk – Kelly Yang (Scholastic Inc. 2018)
Currently Reading:
In Fine Form – edited by Kate Braid and Sandy Shreve
The Manningtree Witches – A.K. Blakemore
Fight Night – Miriam Toews
Jesus and John Wayne – Kristin Kobes du Mez
2021 Goals:
Books Read: 46/100
Books Reviewed: 37/46
Asian Canadian Literature Challenge: 3
A Virtuous Reading Challenge: 3/12
Current TBR: 224 (previously 217)
Other Reading:
We finished reading Anne of Green Gables with the girls at bedtime and have moved on to Anne of Avonlea. I’m not sure yet how far we’ll go in the series at this point. I love the whole series but I have an inkling that Pearl and Rose will lose interest the older Anne gets.
In my Bible reading for August I finished Hosea, Micah, and Matthew.
Thoughts:
I inadvertently took a break from the blog for a bit, as we were away for the first week of August and then I simply found myself enjoying the time off. So I allowed myself that time and am now working on catching up on reviews, as well as reading other blogs. My review of What Strange Paradise will be up on Thursday.
I think I did pretty well for reading though in August, particularly since (as I’ve said before) the summer is not always prime reading time for me. It also worked out that everything I read in August was truly excellent. They were six very different books but each was well-written and absorbing. Would that every month could be this good!
What’s Next:
The Manningtree Witches and Fight Night are both ARCs of books that came out in August. I have a whole stack of ARCs for books with release dates in September and October so I am going to be working hard on those in the coming month. I am hoping to soon read Obasan, which will get me (slightly) back on track for my Asian-Canadian Literature Challenge. As for my Virtuous Reading Challenge, the next book on the list is Huckleberry Finn but I think I will wait until later in the fall to begin that one. I’ve never read it before so I’m not sure if it will be a quick read or not.
Also in August, I bought a decent pile of books at bookstores in Vancouver Island so I will need to start making a dent on those. I’d like to start Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch after I finish The Manningtree Witches so that I can compare the two. Looking at lists of books that are coming out this autumn has drastically added to my TBR!
What are you looking forward to reading next? Was August a good reading month? Any highlights?
Karissa Reads Books 
ooo super interested to hear what you think of The Manningtree Witches! im not typically into novels about that time but this one has gotten a lot of positive reviews 👀
Huck Finn is definitely a speedy read, if only because it’s a children’s book.
The girls might lose interest in the Anne books because Montgomery went back and added some in to make money, and it shows. I still maintain that all the even-number books, with the exception of #8, are weak compared to the odd-number books, which were the originals.
I’m interested in this Jesus and John Wayne book. Sounds like it could be funny!
I wonder if my kids might like to read Huck Finn with me. I know there would be some parts I’d have to skip over but do you think it would be appropriate over all?
Having read all of Montgomery’s work, she definitely wasn’t above re-using ideas and settings! My gut is that as Anne gets older, Pearl and Rose will be less interested in what she’s doing (writing letters to Gilbert, teaching school) and there’s no harm in waiting a few more years. I think Rilla of Ingleside is very good but they’re probably a little young for that one.
Ehhhh….there’s a whole lot of Huck riding on the river with N-word Jim, and their relationship is clearly that of a white boy and a formerly enslaved black man. If it were me, I would hold off on reading it to the kids. Have you read The Great Gilly Hopkins or The Trumpet of the Swan to the girls?
Ok, thanks for the heads up. I’ll read it on my own first. We read Trumpet of the Swan together. I don’t think I’ve ever read Gilly Hopkins.
Katherine Paterson is a destroyer of children, BUT she’s so good. She also wrote Bridge to Terabithia.
Yes! I’ve read a couple by her (including Terabithia) but somehow never picked that up. “Destroyer of children” is a good description!