September To Be Read Pile

It's the last week of August already? Honestly, after my summer of crazy I thought August was going to crawl along. Nope, there's only a few days left. Clearly, I have an awful sense of time. However, that means new book goals for September!

I didn't do too badly in August.

Books I planned to read and actually finished:

• Struck by Lightning by Chris Colfer- although I ended up reading it the last couple days of July!
• Love Does by Bob Goff

Books I read that weren't on my list:

• Blameless by Gail Carriger
• The Girl with the Iron Touch by Kady Cross
• The Dark Discovery of Jack Dandy by Kady Cross (novella)
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone by JK Rowling (audio book)

Books that I planned on reading but didn't get to:

• Persuasion by Jane Austen (for The Favorite Book Project)

Books that I'm wrapping up this week/next week:

• Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier
• The Time Traveler's Wife by Audry Niffengger (audio book and part of my Favorite Books Project)

Wow... especially when you add the two audio books that's not bad at all. Maybe I got too down on myself for not getting to Persuasion. Ah well, that one will be added to my September book pile!

And let me tell you - I think this month will be a challenge.

A few months ago, one of my favorite YouTubers, Katie, started a To-Be-Read Jar. She had so many books on her shelves that she hadn't read yet, and it was hard to pick when to read them. So she put the book titles in a jar and she would draw them out to pick. I'm starting to have the same problem, and thought I would try her idea.

Last night I sat down and pulled my jar out. I've been averaging about 4 -5 actual books (not audio books or novellas) lately. Since I'm already adding Persuasion by Jane Austen to my September list, I decided to pick out only three books from the jar.

Of course, the first book I picked out was this one:

World Without End by Ken Follett.

I'm really excited to read this one. I loved Pillars of the Earth and I've been avoiding watching the mini-series of this book until I've read it. However... it's just so long. (Well over 1,000 pages!) Long books don't scare me, I read Game of Thrones for crying out loud, but I know this is going to take a big chunk of my month to get through. We'll see how I do.

The next book I picked out was this:

Life after Life by Kate Atkinson.

This book was featured at Barnes and Noble when it first came out, and I kept hearing about it. So I downloaded it onto my iPad. It's about a girl named Ursula who is continually dying and living again. Kinda like a cat with nine lives... only she has an infinite amount of lives. It should be interesting.

For my final book, I'll admit, I kinda cheated. I decided to keep pulling book titles out of the jar until I found one that I was REALLY REALLY excited about. I'm glad to read these other two books, but I wanted something that got me almost jumping out of my seat.

Luckily, one of the first I drew, was this:

Grave Mercy by Robin LaVevers

I downloaded this book on  my iPad AND bought a hardcover copy for my shelf. (Don't worry... both were on sale on Amazon and I got both for under $10. I'm not that crazy...) It just seems so fascinating and I've heard great reviews, and the second book is already out. I mean... she's a girl who has escaped an awful arranged marriage then is trained to be an assassin by the god of Death.

I'm also listening to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling (fun to listen to and I can get work done without having to focus much.) and I picked up Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashers as an audio book from the library to listen to in the car when I'm done with The Time Travelers Wife.

So... we'll see if I actually get through all of these!