Books read: 5
This month I read fewer books than usual, but those that I did read were longer and quite intense (4 3 2 1 was just under 900 pages while The Ministry of Utmost Happiness tackled some really complex social and political issues and was definitely not a quick book to read). I really enjoyed The Word is Murder – which was a really unique take on the classic detective novel.

• The Good Daughter, Karin Slaughter
• The Word is Murder, Anthony Horowitz
• The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati Roy
• The Readymade Thief, Augustus Rose
• 4 3 2 1, Paul Auster

Books acquired: 7
I was much more reserved this month than I was last month – acquiring just 7 books compared to last month’s 24. I’m really looking forward to reading City of Circles and American War, both of which have been on my wishlist for a while.

• A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles
• This Savage Song, V. E. Schwab
• Nevernight, Jay Kristoff
• City of Circles, Jess Richards
• American War, Omar El Akkad
• The Golden House, Salman Rushdie
• The Last Tudor, Philippa Gregory

Blog posts published: 7
By far my most popular post this month was one about writing book reviews and how to get started, given that so many of us find reviewing to be one of the most challenging things about book blogging. I’m going to try and do more of these in the future as it seems they’re helpful to you, so please shout if there’s anything you’d like me to focus on!

• July wrap up
• My recommendations: If you liked… (part 2)
• Discussion posts: Books I’ll probably never read
• The White Road, Sarah Lotz
• Writing book reviews: How to get started
• The Word is Murder, Anthony Horowitz
• Top 5: Books about books

TBR for September:
I’ve been terrible at sticking to TBR lists lately. This month I want to get to some of the Netgalley ARCs that I haven’t been able to get to yet. However, I got married yesterday (this post is scheduled in advance!) and am off on honeymoon today, so I may not be able to fit much reading in amongst sightseeing on the Amalfi Coast! I also might be less responsive than usual, so please bear with me!

• The Last Tudor, Philippa Gregory
• Behold the Dreamers, Imbolob Mbue
• Three Days and a Life, Pierre Lemaitre
• Red Sister, Mark Lawrence
• City of Circles, Jess Richards

Challenge progress:

Goodreads Challenge: My Goodreads reading goal is to read 50 books this year, which I’ve now surpassed.  This was a conservative goal which I was always confident I’d achieve, but this challenge was mainly about tracking how many books I’m reading, as I’ve never kept count before. Everything from here on out is a bonus. (54/50)

Beat the Backlist Challenge: The Beat the Backlist challenge is all about knocking off titles that have been on your TBR for a while. Books need to have been published prior to 2017, and I’m only including books that I actually bought before 2017 and that have been sitting around waiting for me to read them – so no new purchases or library reads. This month, none of my reads qualified, so my total is still five books towards a goal of twelve. (5/12)

How was your August? What was your favourite read? What do you have planned for September?