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Well, I’ve been a reading machine this month despite being too quiet on the blog front.  I’ve been traveling quite a bit lately, so the blog has taken a back seat. I guess you could call it series month as well.  I finished the Twilight series and read 4 books in the ‘Chief Inspector Gamache’ series and read 2 books in the ‘Sookie Stackhouse’ series — all for the R.I.P. IV Challenge.  I got a bit further in the Canadian Challenge III as well by reading 5 Canadian books.

My favorites of the Twilight series were the two middle books.  I felt that the first book was not written as well because it was Meyer’s first book, and I definitely had mixed feelings about the last book.  I enjoyed and raced through the first half or so of it, but the second half was a little sketchy for me.

My favorite ‘Gamache’ so far is A Rule Against Murder, and my least favorite is The Cruelest Month.  Some of the dialogue in the latter just irritated me, but the different setting of the former was a nice change (even though I like Three Pines).

My favorite books of the month by far were The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and A Thousand Splendid Suns.  The latter is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time — truly outstanding and much better than The Kite Runner.

I spent a little time analyzing the first three quarters of the year in regards to my reading and came up with the following:

• Q1:  27 books, 5503 pp.
• Q2: 29 books, 6981 pp.
• Q3:  34 books, 11560 pp.
• total: 90 books, 24049 pp. for an average of 267 per book.

The first thing I noticed was that I read twice as many pages in Q3 than in Q1.  Wow.  Only a 7 book difference but quite a difference in terms of pages.  I have a feeling my second half of the year will be way stronger than the first half.  Now if only I could get to the reviews!

September (14 books, 5605 pp)

1. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (1962, 304 pp)
2. Brooklyn by Colm Toibin (2009, 262 pp)
3. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (2009, 466 pp)
4. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (2001, 292 pp)
5. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (2006, 608 pp)
6. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (2007, 629 pp)
7. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (2008, 754 pp)
8. Still Life by Louise Penny (2005, 312 pp)
9. A Fatal Grace (aka Dead Cold) by Louise Penny (2007, 314 pp)
10. The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny (2008, 311 pp)
11. A Rule Against Murder (aka The Murder Stone) by Louise Penny (2009, 322 pp)
12. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (2009, 373 pp)
13. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (2007, 367 pp)
14. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris (2002, 291 pp)

I’ve been doing a lot of work at my house in Kentucky since early July, and I originally thought I wouldn’t get much reading done.  However, eight of the books below (all but #1 and #6-8) were audios that I listened to while painting my house inside and out. So, all in all, a very productive month both bookwise and work-wise.

I read/listened to some fantastic books this month.  Five were 4.5 star books!  Surprisingly, some of my least favorites were the two Pulitzer winners.  I am woefully behind on reviews, due mostly to lack of internet access and time.  I also like to get quotes from the books, which is hard to do with audios.  I’ll have to go to the library or bookstore to search for some.  At least I’m knocking out some books. It was a really fun month for audios in particular.

July (12 books, 3464 pp.)

1. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff  (2004, 194 pp.)
2. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (2009, 336 pp.)
3. The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty (1969, 180 pp.)
4. A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor (1986, 224 pp.)
5. Intuition by Allegra Goodman (2006, 352 pp.)
6. A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen (2000, 50 pp.)
7. Property by Valerie Martin (2002, 192 pp.)
8. Unless  by Carol Shields (2002, 224 pp.)
9. The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro (2006, 368 pp.)
10. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (2009, 464 pp.)
11. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (1998, 576 pp.)
12. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (2003, 304 pp.)