September and October 2017 Wrap-Up

I have so many books to review and so many posts to write, but I just haven't had the time. It's hard to say why, really. Although it's taking me longer to get too and from work now, I'm not really working any longer than I was previously. Obviously there is the new household resident who is taking up a lot of my time, but I can't really begrudge her that. I think I just need to find the balance between spending time with my family whilst ensuring I also get Hanna Time in which to read.

I didn't get round to doing a September Wrap-Up, but considering how little I read, I didn't feel too bad about it. That was Moving Month, so I feel like it can be excused. I've read a bit more this month, thankfully.

I feel really lucky in that I've had such a good run of books over the past few months. I've started thinking about my Best of 2017 list already and, for the first time ever, I think I'll be leaving books out instead of scrabbling for additions so I can reach the total.

Fiction

September:

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan 

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

October:

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

How To Stop Time by Matt Haig

The Red Knight by Miles Cameron

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

The Tropic of Serpents (Natural History of Dragons #2) by Marie Brennan

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Non-Fiction

September:

Teach Yourself: Art History by Grant Pooke

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore 

October:

Past Mortems: Life and Death Behind Mortuary Doors by Carla Valentine 

Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach

There are so many of these books that I'm dying to review and talk about - I have pages and pages of notes for My Friend Dahmer, the graphic novel by one of Jeffrey Dahmer's classmates, and I have Things To Say about How To Stop Time as well.

I'm definitely not going to do a book haul this month because my trips to the library have become ridiculous. I don't feel too bad about it because I haven't yet had to return a book unread, which means that at least I'm not unnecessarily hogging books that other people could be reading. Of course, it does mean that I haven't really been reading my own books a whole lot, but that's not the end of the world.

Huddersfield Library really is brilliant though - they get so many new releases in and they seem pretty good at purchasing the latest trending books as well. Hence my groaning library card.

Between that and a book buying trip with Charlotte, I have more unread books than every before. It's hard to complain though, when so many of them have been brilliant and I haven't actually paid for the majority of them.

Best Book of September 2017:

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

Best Book of October 2017:
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson