Read:
The Hand that First Held Mine – Maggie O’Farrell (Headline, 2010)
The Golden Age – Kenneth Grahame (Dover Publications, 2005)
The Accidental Favourite – Fran Littlewood (MacMillan Audio, 2025) (narrated by Fiona Button)
Divisadero – Michael Ondaatje (McClelland & Stewart, 2007)
Heart the Lover – Lily King (Harper Collins Publishers, 2025) (narrated by Rebecca Lowman)
All the Lights – Clemens Meyer (And Other Stories, 2025) (translated by Katy Derbyshire)
Exposure – Helen Dunmore (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2016)
Emiko – Chieri Uegaki (Tundra, 2025)
Perfection – Vincenzo Latronico (New York Review Book, 2025) (translated by Sophie Hughes)
Glorious Exploits – Ferdia Lennon (Books on Tape, 2024) (narrated by Ferdia Lennon)
Other Worlds – Andre Alexis (McClelland & Stewart, 2025)
Did Not Finish:
Visions from San Francisco Bay – Czeslaw Milosz
I liked a poetry anthology edited by Milosz but found this essay collection…boring. It was more American focused than I expected and, honestly, I can’t remember much now about the essays I did read.
The Vaster Wilds – Lauren Groff
I read but did not enjoy Fates & Furies and so wasn’t going to seek out anything more by Groff but a review convinced me to give this a shot. At least now I know that her writing isn’t for me. What cemented it here was particularly that I was listening to this on audio and there was too much body focus. I can kind of handle that in print where I can skip forward through gross parts but in audio it was really too much.
Currently Reading:
The Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R. Tolkien
The Palace Walk – Naguib Mahfouz
Pick a Colour – Souvankham Thammavongsa
2025 Reading Goals
Pages Read: 22, 255 (2, 136 in September)
Hours Listened: 278 hours, 24 minutes (24 hours, 55 minutes in September)
Goliaths Conquered: 6 (none in September)
Translated Works: 12 (All the Lights translated from German and Perfection translated from Italian, in September)
Pre-2024 TBR: 20 (The Hand that First Held Mine (2023) in September)
Current TBR: 136 (previously 141)
Thoughts:
In September, I passed my goal of reading 100 books! I read 11 books last month and it’s been nice to get back into a routine around my reading time.
Aside from hitting goals, it was a month for good books. I ticked off a couple more from my 20 books of summer list (Maggie O’Farrell and Kenneth Grahame). I re-read one of my favourite authors (Michael Ondaatje) and picked up a couple of translated works from a library display shelf. It was a great month for audiobooks too. More reviews to come!
What’s Next:
I haven’t checked much off my 10 books of Autumn so I probably should focus on that a bit more in October. I also haven’t read any non-fiction recently so I will likely start there.
My Autumn List:
- The Postcard – Anne Berest (translation)
- Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander – Thomas Merton (non-fiction
Visions From San Francisco Bay – Cseslaw Milosz (translation, non-fiction)- A Theatre for Dreamers – Polly Samson
- The Paper Wife – Linda Spalding
Divisadero – Michael Ondaatje (re-read)- A Horse at Night – Amina Cain (non-fiction
- The Bewitching – Silvia Moreno-Garcia (ARC)
- The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins
- The Boy From the Sea – Garrett Carr
Karissa Reads Books 
I do hope you enjoy The Moonstone. It is one of my Nick’s favorite books. When he was in college in a broadcasting major, he was actually the director for an audio play version. Tell me, as somebody who works and is married and has two children, how do you finish 11 books in one month? That’s not a rhetorical question; I genuinely want to know about how long each day you’re reading, and when during the day.
I love The Moonstone! I bet it was great material for an audio play as well – all those different narrations nested within one another, and so many dramatic scenes.
It would be a great audio play! I’m excited to be reading it because almost everyone I’ve talked to about it seems to love it.
To be clear, I haven’t read it yet. Only Nick has. Maybe I’ll read it out loud to him for our next book.
I just started in on it this weekend and I think I’m going to like it!
I get asked this question sometimes and I’m never quite sure how to answer it because I just…read a lot. I’m not much of a TV or movie person so I don’t spend very much time watching. My evening time is reading time. I can usually get 30 minutes to an hour in the morning before the day gets going. Then in the evening I’ll read for one to two hours after they go to bed. But I always have a book on me so if I’m waiting at an appointment, at the girls’ piano lessons, in a long line-up, I’m reading. Audiobooks have helped a lot too. When I’m home alone I’m usually listening to an audio book while I do chores. I always have multiple books on the go at once so if I’m struggling with one I can easily switch to another.
You’re reading Lord of the Rings! That is probably my very favourite book – I hope you enjoy it as much as I always do. Is it a reread or a first time read for you?
It’s a reread! I don’t know how many times I’ve read and reread it, I love it! This is actually our current family read aloud, which is kind of a parenting dream come true for me. We’ve read The Hobbit with them and Pearl recently read it on her own and then the kids started asking when we could read The Lord of the Rings. So we agreed Fall/Winter was the perfect time.
Do you love Lord Of The Rings specifically, or the whole trilogy?
Lord of the Rings is one book in three volumes: Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and Return of the King. I love all of it! It’s not truly a trilogy because TTT in particular doesn’t really work as a novel on its own.
How in the world did I not realize that is the title of the omnibus.
I love the whole trilogy. I really think of them as a whole because, as Lou says, they’re not intended to be read individually. I do remember getting bogged down in The Two Towers the first time I read the books, around age 12. If I had to pick one favourite, it would probably be The Return of the King, because I love a happy ending!
I remember trying to read the first book when I was in college and being unable to get through the first chapter. What the heck is wrong with me that you were reading it at 12??
Lord of the Rings was basically required reading in my household! The Hobbit was my favourite book when I was a kid and then my dad put a decent amount of pressure on me to read the Lord of the Rings. I probably would have given up on it during my first read except that I knew it would have been hugely disappointing to him!