Books Read in August

It's only September 22 - woohoo! I'm catching up! Seriously, this is better than the past two months.

August was a good reading month for me, with a focus on Big Books for my Summer Challenge and review books for Shelf Awareness. Here's what I finished in August:

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (UK), classic novel
• The Hearts of Men by Nickolas Butler (WI), adult novel on audio
• The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott (NY), adult novel reviewed for Shelf Awareness

• Dust by Hugh Howey (GA), adult novel & #3 in a series
• Machine Learning by Hugh Howey, short stories, reviewed for Shelf Awareness
• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, nonfiction

• The Hunting Accident by David L. Carlson & Landis Blair (IL), graphic novel, reviewed for Shelf Awareness

So, I read seven books total in August, including four Big Books over 400 pages. Six books were fiction, and one nonfiction, and all were adult books, with no middle-grade or YA, which is unusual for me. It's also unusual for me to read more than one book for Shelf Awareness per month, but that's just the way it worked out in August. The graphic novel was a late addition, but well worth the extra time - it was riveting. None of those three reviews have yet been published on Shelf Awareness, but I will link to each of them when they are - all three were excellent. It's hard to choose a favorite out of this venerable line-up because I enjoyed all of them, but I think it would be my re-read of Jane Eyre.

Progress on 2017 Reading Challenges:
This is my favorite part of my monthly summary - updating my Reading Challenges! Three of my 7 books were from my own shelves for my Read Your Own Damn Books Challenge, which is better than in past months! For the Monthly Motif Reading Challenge, August was Seasons, Elements & Weather, so Dust by Hugh Howey fits, with its post-apocalyptic ruined world outside the silo. I finally read another classic for the 2017 Back to the Classics Challenge - I listed Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë under the Romance Classic category. I slotted two of my books into categories for my Well-Rounded Challenge, but the categories are almost filled up now - Jane Eyre fit into "published before 1950" and Dust fit into "finish a series" (I don't often read series). No new countries for my Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge. For my 2017 Literary Escapes Challenge, I added just one more state, Wisconsin. And I read 4 books over 400 pages for my own Big Book Summer Challenge (I only just realized that The Hearts of Men counted, too, since I listened to it on audio!).

Finally, Bookish Bingo hosted by Chapter Break - not really a challenge per se, but a fun game that I play each month! I filled in 17 squares on my Bingo card last month:

Spaces filled in:

Jane Eyre - Loyal, empowered female, packing/moving, road trip/travel 
The Hearts of Men - Audio book, swimming, summer fling
The Ninth Hour - Free book, historical
Dust - Siblings/kids, in a series
Machine Learning - Science fiction/fantasy, stars on the cover
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Meh
The Hunting Accident - Set in a city, loner

Free Space

What was your favorite book read in August?