This month saw the arrival of The Little Guy to our family. In addition to The Little Guy I did a crazy work week that left me rather exhausted in the evenings and had a cold which took a few days out of me too; so I’m rather surprised at the amount of reading I managed to do, I reckon my reading speed is increasing.

All books are works of fiction.

The Books

Catherine Ryan Hyde: Second Hand Heart – A girl has a heart transplant and falls in love at first sight with the husband of her donor. This husband knew it was probably a bad idea to meet the recipient but felt the need to regardless. The ways in which both must learn to live are different yet strangely strung together. A fantastic story told in great bite-sized chapters.

Gayle Forman: If I Stay – An accident leaves every family member but Mia dead; Mia herself finds herself in hospital, but where her body is lying on the bed her spirit drifts. She must decide whether she lives and stays with her boyfriend or dies and joins her parents. Could’ve done with being longer but is good overall.

Jane Austen: Sanditon And Other Stories – A compilation of unfinished stories, childhood novels, and bits and pieces of work. Most of the work is too juvenile and therefore both adult and teenage work bundled together becomes a drag. Sanditon is good however, as is The Watsons and the history of England.

Katherine Webb: The Legacy – Erica and Beth move into their family’s manor house upon the death of their grandmother. Beth is haunted by the disappearance and possible death of their cousin, but it seems Henry isn’t the only one to disappear from Storton Manor. An average book but works well for all seasons.

Sasha Blake: The Wish – Money can’t buy happiness and this a family finds when they are torn apart by a dreadful secret which surrounds and event created by the need for more riches. A good moral but a little predictable.

My favourite this month was Second Hand Heart. At first I wasn’t sure how much I’d enjoy it, I thought it would be hospital-based like If I Stay, but the themes and lessons woven into it were quite something. While my cold wasn’t too bad I read If I Stay and I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I’m wondering if this was in part due to my being ill. Certainly the reviews I wrote then (of The Wish and If I Stay) I am not proud of. Sanditon was ok, though I preferred The Watsons, but there were just too many stories in this book. Generally many stories wouldn’t be a problem but where Austen wrote about the same basic subjects they all started to merge into one another. I cannot believe Austen was a Yorkist! But I laughed when it finally hit me that “Anna Bullen” was her spelling of “Anne Boleyn” and respect her greatly for saying that Anne Boleyn wasn’t so guilty as charged.

Quotation Report

A young Jane Austen, on writing Memoirs Of Mr Clifford, believed that a man wanting a big meal to be shared with his servants would be satisfied with an egg. And Austen’s character in the short story Love And Freindship believed that because a girl was plain and called Bridget there was nothing worth talking to her for. While Vida of Second Hand Heart makes the poignant point that love isn’t like Valentines, it’s often ugly like a real heart.

Next month I’m going to be reading in a different manner. For the last two months I’ve been almost completely reading recommendations, which while fine means that I’m not choosing books that appeal to me in the way that I used to, before blogging. So although I’ve a few books here that are fairly new releases and everywhere in the shops I’m going to go back a few years and read books I’ve chosen at random when browsing.

September is going to be busy, I’ll probably be starting a degree so will be preparing for that, and I’ve some work experience I want to apply for, but I’m looking forward to it and hoping the differences will bring me more inspiration.