Books read in September

September felt like a disjointed month readingwise. I think it felt busier than it actually was but there were in fact distractions and things to do and I read just five books.


45. Jacob's Room is Full of Books - Susan Hill. A reread inspired by Nan at Letters From a Hill Farm who's reading the book month by month through the year. I, with zero patience, read it as a bedtime read and devoured it in a week. Loved it all over again, books about books are always sheer joy.

46. La Petite Josette en Provence - Ashley Davidson-Fisher and Martinique Louise Fisher.

47. Serpents in Eden - Edited by Martin Edwards

48. Absent in the Spring - Mary Westmacott

49. The Broken Road - Patrick Leigh Fermor.

The final leg of the author's walk across Europe from The Netherlands to Constantinople. In this instalment Leigh Fermor is in Romania and then walks the coast of the Black Sea to Greece. Hugely enjoyable, I'm quite smitten with The Balkans after reading The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova, set in Bulgaria. I must admit I always thought The Balkans referred to the strip of land that used to be Yugoslavia and is now Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia etc. I didn't realise it also includes Bulgaria, part of Romania and Greece. It's massive! Anyway my favourite parts of his journey were The Black Sea coast and some time he spent on the peninsula of Mount Athos, in Greece, visiting all the monastries. Fascinating. I've now bought, Roumeli, the author's book about his travels in Northern Greece.

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Of the five books I don't really have a favourite, such a mixed bunch are they that it's hard to compare them to each other. Suffice it to say, they were all good.


And here's what I've been doing apart from reading five books:

A 3,000 piece jigsaw entitled, The Tribuna of the Uffizi and is by artist, Johann Zoffany. I gather The Queen owns the painting itself.

And I'm currently reading this:

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. It's nearly 600 pages and I'm in no hurry so am reading it in a slow, relaxed fashion. It's set in autumn and suits the season and my slowing-down mood very nicely indeed.

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