Read:
Good Material – Dolly Alderton (Doubleday Canada, 2024)
The Empusium – Olga Tokarczuk (translated from the polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Riverhead Books, 2024)
Intermezzo – Sally Rooney (Alfred A. Knopf, 2024)
The Office of Historical Corrections – Danielle Evans (Penguin Audio, 2020)
The Stolen Bicycle – Wu Ming-Yi (translated from the Mandarin by Darryl Sterk) (Text Publishing, 2017)
Did Not Finish:
Rogues – Patrick Radden Keefe
I thought Say Nothing was brilliant but this book wasn’t cohesive enough for me. It’s more a collection of thinly connected essays than what I expected. I was listening to it on audio and I suspect I might have better luck in a hardcopy so I’m not completely crossing it off my list. DNF at 27%
Counterfeit – Kirstin Chen
Characters felt boring, plot felt obvious. Another audio book failure. DNF at 15%
Currently Reading:
The Leopard – Giuseppe Tomasi
The Gulag Archipelago – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (audio)
2024 Reading Goals
Goliath Challenge: 19,069/30,000 (1,734 in Septemer)
Goliath Books Read: 3 (none in October)
Translated Works: 6/15 (The Empusium and The Stolen Bicycle in October)
Books I Already Own: 10/15 (none in October)
Pre-2023 TBR: 11/25 (The Stolen Bicycle – 2019 – in October
Current TBR: 204 (previously 206)
Thoughts:
A smaller number for the month overall than I had hoped for. I struggled to find the right fit for an audio book and am now listening to The Gulag Archipelago, which is perhaps an ambitious choice but I’m two hours in and it feels like I’m committed.
What’s Next:
For November, I hope to focus on some of the non-fiction titles in my pile. I have a couple of library holds to work through but I plan to not request more while I work through my current TBR. Some of my non-fiction titles include Hags by Victoria Smith, The Book at War, and 1000 Words, a book highly recommended by a writer friend.
Karissa Reads Books 
What did you think to Intermezzo?
I really enjoyed it! I have a full review on the blog:
It’s interesting how differently books work on paper or as audio, and I don’t think it’s always as straightforward as the voice of the narrator. I find I abandon nearly twice as many audiobooks as paper (or Kindle) books, and have largely narrowed my audiobook listening down now to light crime and classics. I often wonder if classic authors wrote knowing their books would be read aloud in a way modern authors probably don’t consider that. Maybe they will again, now that audio has become such a big thing.
Rogues was a great example of that for me. Narrated by the author, which I usually like, with interesting content. And yet, it just didn’t work in that format. Lighter definitely works better for me in audio and last winter I mostly just listened to Agatha Christie novels. I’ve recently discovered my Spotify account gives me access to a lot of audiobooks so that’s opened up a lot of options.
Well, I can see which book is Winnie the Dog approved as a sufficient pillow! ☺️
Yes, so cozy!