September recap

It’s so strange September is already at an end. I’m not ready for Autumn yet, luckily we still had some sunny days in Belgium. But I also had a though time at the office being buried beneath my to-do list :D. Everyday’s hustle has made me read less than I wanted to.

This is my first monthly recap! The plan is to look back at every month in more or less the same format. So let me know what you think.

Read(ing)

At the beginning of the month I showed you my library haul and I managed to read all three of them. I struggled a bit with ‘the last hours’ as it wasn’t quite what I expected. I also read one Netgalley book ‘the testimony of Alys Twist‘ that was set in Tudor England.

Number of pages read: 1.746
Number of books read: 4
Favorite read: The passion of Artemisia
Centuries visited: 14th century, 16th century and 17th century (twice)
Countries visited: England and Italy
Currently reading: Valhalla about queen Mary Of Teck

Reviewed

I reviewed four books of which ‘The poison bed’ is definitely my favorite story.

• The silken rose by Carol McGrath
• How to stop time by Matt Haig
• The poison bed by E.C. Fremantle
• The passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland

Added to my TBR

Here I will add a list of books that made it to my TBR this month. I’m quite picky on which books make it to my list. And I also have a personal rule that I never may have more books on my TBR than books I’ve read in total. So this are the books that convinced me they are worth reading.

• Flowers of darkness by Tatiana De Rosnay. As she’s one of my favorite authors and I just read everything she publishes. This one seems different from her previous work.
• Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. I waited a long time to add this one, as a lot of reviewers indicated that it’s not really about Shakespeare and more about the loss of a child. But now it has won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and I read a few more positive reviews I must read it some day.
• The girl in Hyacinth blue by Susan Vreeland. I liked her book of Artemisia and this is Vreeland’s even more famous book about Johannes Vermeer.
• The fire court by Andrew Taylor. I was a bit disappointed by ‘the ashes of London’ but a lot of reviewers indicate that the second book will be better. So I will give this series another chance.

Watched

• Disneyplus has finally arrived in Belgium and the boyfriend and I immediately took a subscription for a year (he’s a Star Wars fan). It will be great to (re)watch my favorite Disney classics during Winter and discover some new favorites.
• We have started watching season 1 of Knightfall on Netflix. It’s about templars looking for the Holy Grail in 14th century Paris. Right up my alley :). It’s entertaining so far.

Some of my favorite links

• I have become Inge’s BFF on her blog The Belgian reviewer. You will get a look into my life and library so you must check it out. Inge is such a nice person.
• I discovered the term ‘vintage fiction’ in Davida’s discussion’s post about defining historical fiction. Interesting!
• And this is a Dutch only link but it’s about how young people read less these days not because they don’t want to read, but because they read the wrong books. The article states that non-fiction books full of productivity hacks are topping the bestseller lists but that they don’t have the power to sweep you away as only fiction books can. ‘It doesn’t matter what you read, as long as you read’ is the final conclusion of this article. I couldn’t agree more.

How was your reading month?

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