August wrap-up

August has come to an end, and in principal, end of summer in Sweden. We have been heading south for about two weeks, travelling with our camper van through Denmark, Germany to the Netherlands. Our son graduated from his second Masters in Delft, which must be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We enjoyed his company for some days, and had the opportunity to be part of the graduation party. Now in Innsbruck we are staying a few days, and will then continue south to Greece for September-October. I give you a couple of photos from Delft.

Due to travelling, I had to abandon part of my challenges. Instead I grabbed quite a few books from my TBR shelves to take with me. Some of them will come with me home, but most of them I will give away along the road. 

I read 12 books in August and five of them were excellent reads.

Lunde, Maja - Przewalski's Horse

Ivesköld, Monica - Redigera framgångsRIKT

Auster, Paul - The Brooklyn Follies

Hawkins, Paula - Into the Water

Preston, John - A Very English Scandal

Runeberg, Johan Ludvig - Fänrik Ståhls sägner (The Tales of Ensign Ståhl)

Harrison, Dick - Mordet på Gustav III

Coetzee, J.M. - The Childhood of Jesus

Håkansson, Håkan (Ed.) - Tycho Brahe och hans tid

Lagercrantz, Olof - Dikten om livet på den andra sidan, En bok om Emanuel Swedenborg

Erskine, Barbara - Kingdom of Shadows

Walpole, Horace - The Castle of Otranto

My own challenge

a nonfiction from my TBR shelves - Tycho Brahe och hans tid by Håkan Håkansson (ed).  A biography of one of the greatest scientist Tycho Brahe and the time he lived in. Very interesting man indeed, although he was so full of himself, he did not really need to hear it from others. 

a fiction from my TBR - The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee. A somewhat complex book, beautifully written, about an older man and his protégé, a young boy. They come as immigrants to a Spanish speaking country and we follow them when they try to integrate into the new country. A mysterious story with a lot of strange turns. 

a translated novel outside of the English- and Swedish speaking countries -  Przewalski's Horse by Maja Lunde. The third book in her climate series. Wonderful story about how to save horses, and other animals, in a disastrous world. As good as the two first. 

a classic tale - The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. Happy it was a short book. Much in line with gothic tales, and reminding me of Ann Radcliff's The Mysteries of Udolpho.

a book from my Wish list - non this month

My theme of the month

August - Beach reading (crime and feel good) - Into the Water by Paula Hawkins. Excellent book. 

The Unread Shelf - Monthly Reading Challenge

August - A book chosen by your friends or family - The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee. Present from a friend. 

Five very good books this month

It is seldom that I encounter so many very good books in one month, as I did this month. Five books were excellent, and hard to put down.  You know what it is like when you put down a very good book. It will be difficult to find any other that will match it. Well, this month it happened five times. Here they are, highly recommended. Reviews will follow.

Przewalski's Horse by Maja Lunde

The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

A Very English Scandal by John Preston

Kingdom of Shadows by Barbara Erskine

What pleases me the most is that they are all very different. 

• Przewalski's Horse a dystopian future after a climate disaster. Maja Lunde writes so well and gives us characters with which we can identify. That makes it even more scary I would say. 
• The Brooklyn Follies, a typical Paul Auster story where nothing much happens, although it does. Wonderful characters in this story. 
• Into the Water I liked more than Girl on the Train. It had a psychological depth and many characters of which you were uncertain of them all. It is a murder mystery, although it does not seem so.
• A Very English Scandal about the scandal that hit Britain in the 70s about the actions of liberal party leader Jeremy Thorpe. It has been made into an excellent TV-series with Hugh Grant. What would we all do without the English scandals?
• Kingdom of Shadows is another typical Erskine novel. Two story lines, and the present protagonist goes back in time to find out what happened. I think this must be one of her best. Totally absorbed from about page 150 until the very end on page 771. Almost impossible to put down. As usual she is well research in the historical parts. 

That is a summary of what I have been up to in the world of books in August. New challenges awaiting for September.