My Bookish Month of August 2021

Hi and welcome to another monthly overview!

August was… well, to be honest, not as great as I’d hoped it would be. I’ve been off work since 12 August but I’ve been having trouble switching off ever since. Also, after two months of pretty lousy weather, I’d hoped that August would be a bit better weather-wise, but nope, not really. Although I really shouldn’t moan: the other side of the country had to deal with massive floods this summer. And I have to admit: my garden has enjoyed all the rain and the lack of a heatwave, I’ve never seen it so green and lush. My cherry tomatoes on the other hand… a total disaster.

In terms of books, I had a pretty good month. I finally picked up Gone With the Wind. As a child I was obsessed with that book, I lost count of the number of times I read the Dutch version in my youth and I’ve been meaning to read the original for years now, I’m so happy I finally did, it’s a big-ass book but it’s worth it.

For my Spanish challenge I read Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, which is a pretty big book as well, and IMHO could have been (and should have been) a bit shorter., sometimes it takes that man forever to get to the point 🙄😂 Still, I’m glad to have finally read this King classic.

I read quite a lot of horror last month, but the book that creeped me out most was a non-fiction book about insects and other creepy-crawlies, and I’m not even talking about the close-up spider photos. Man, insect life is brutal!

These were my favourite reads of the month:

In figures August looks like this:

August
Novels: 8856 pages across 24 books, 1 novella and a graphic novel
Audiobooks: 66 hours across 9 audiobooks

And here’s what I did in August, and some of what I’ll be posting in September:

What I read:

Fire With Fire, Destiny Soria
Family, Owen Mullen
Survive the Night, Riley Sager
Camp Death, Jim Ody
Offspring, Jack Ketchum
Slasher Girls & Monster Boys
Ouija, Zoé-Lee O’Farrell
The Soul Breaker, Sebastian Fitzek
The Beauty and the Beast, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve
True Crime Story, Joseph Knox
Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 1
The Forevers, Chris Whitaker
Five Minds, Guy Morpuss
Welcome to Smileyland, Spencer Hamilton
This Perfect Day, Ira Levin
Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Passenger 23, Sebastian Fitzek
Substitute, Susi Holliday
For Your Own Good, Samantha Downing
I’ll Pray When I’m Dying, Stephen J. Golds (review to follow)
Goddess of Filth, V. Castro
Salem’s Lot, Stephen King
We Watch You, N.S. Ford (review to follow)
That Night, Gillian McAllister
Small Favors, Erin A. Craig
Insecten – Het geflipte leven van zespotigen en andere vreemde beesten, Peter Berx & Lieven Scheire

What I listened to:

Blackbirds, Chuck Wendig
Psycho, Robert Bloch
Invasive, Chuck Wendig
Gwendy’s Button Box + “The Music Room”, Stephen King & Richard Chizmar
The Murder of Graham Catton, Katie Lowe
False Witness, Karin Slaughter
4:50 From Paddington, Agatha Christie
Billy Summers, Stephen King
The Cleaner, Paul Cleave

What I read earlier but reviewed in August:

A Narrow Door, Joanne Harris
The Perfect Life, Nuala Ellwood
Velvet Was the Night, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Wicked Little Deeds, Kat Ellis

I also had a look at my bookish challenges and goals for this year and I wrapped up my 20 books of summer challenge.

Let’s have a look at the books that landed on my lap in August:

Two gorgeous FairyLoot hardbacks and two equally gorgeous anticipated reads in paperback:

Three classics, some crime noir, some horror, and a pressie (thanks Eva!)

Three blog tour eARCs, three eARCs, three bargains and two anticipated reads:

I hope you had a good month and that you are safe and well! Thanks for joining me today and happy reading xxx