August booklist
This, friends, is what happens when there are suddenly a whole lot of new things taking up your time and attention. I was already behind on my reading goal, and now I'm a lot more behind - and it's okay. Life is full of seasons, after all.
So here's a short booklist:
1. The Job, Steve Osborne
Some of these chapters started as spoken stories on The Moth, and while the technical aspects of the writing could stand some polishing and refining, Steve is a storyteller, and it shows. Full disclosure: this book made it onto my "books that made me cry" list. (I dare you to have any connection to NYC and 9/11 and read Big Day without at getting misty eyes.)
2. Uprooted, Naomi Novic
The writing is sparkling, luminous, and yet completely grounded. It's the sort of writing I'd read for the sheer pleasure of it, even if the plot had holes the size of Australia or the characters were lackluster.
But it doesn't, and they aren't.
It's funny, it's sweet, it's dark, it's insightful. I'd place this right up there with Jo Walton as far as fantasy goes.
3. Sarum, Edward Rutherfurd (audiobook)
40+ hours of audio, and it felt like it. Not as cohesive as some of this other epic narratives, and that's saying something. If you must read a Rutherfurd, go read New York instead.