A selection of quotes and pictures to represent August’s reading:
commonplace book
noun
a book into which notable extracts from other works are copied for personal use.
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‘But we are not allowed to get evidence,’ Temeraire said. ‘And also I am not allowed to kill him, and we are supposed to be polite to him, and all of it for the sake of the Government. I am very tired of this Government, which I have never seen, and which is always insisting that I must do disagreeable things, and does no good to anybody.’
Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik (2006)
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Juliet smiled. ‘None of us can really choose our fate. We only pretend we can. You are wiser than most, Rosaline, for men or women who think they can control Fortune as if she’s a housewife are the fools. She’ll spin and spin whatever we do.’
Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons (2023)
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View of the Dalt Vila of Eivissa (Ibiza)
‘Your flight back to New York will be arranged and paid for by me tomorrow, and the rest of your belongings sent after. As you would say perhaps, Coco,’ she ended with eloquence, ‘poetry is life, but life is not all poetry.’
Ibiza Surprise by Dorothy Dunnett (1970)
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“Well, people are like that too. They create a false door – to deceive. If they are conscious of weakness, of inefficiency, they make an imposing door of self-assertion, of bluster, of overwhelming authority – and, after a time, they get to believe in it themselves. They think, and everybody thinks, that they are like that. But behind that door, Renisenb, is bare rock…And so when reality comes and touches them with the feather of truth – their true self reasserts itself.”
Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie (1944)
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“Once we accept this life is all we have, we can make better use of it.”
The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper (2022)
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But love and hate, he thought now, good and evil, lived side by side in the human heart, and not merely in differing proportions in one man and the next, but all good and all evil. One had merely to look for a little of either to find it all, one had merely to scratch the surface. All things had opposites close by, every decision a reason against it, every animal an animal that destroys it, the male the female, the positive the negative.
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith (1950)
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Rainbow plaque outside Holy Trinity Church, York, dedicated to Anne Lister and Ann Walker
Time and thinking tame the strongest grief, I was taught, but many a proverb’s promise proves false. I’ve found that thinking only wears away at grief, grinds it deeper, and time only preserves it, encases it in glass for the ages.
Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue (2023)
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The revelation came slowly and yet instantaneously. As when one searches for a word that stands out of reach of the mind for days – but then, when hearing it, one knows immediately that it is the correct one.
A Lady’s Guide to Scandal by Sophie Irwin (2023)
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‘Not being able to see, I think,’ she said.
‘Being blind, you mean?’
‘No, not that. That would be terribly hard but Homer managed it and our blind piano tuner is one of the serenest people I know. I mean…not seeing because you’re obsessed by something that blots out the world. Some sort of mania or belief. Or passion. That awful kind of love that makes leaves and birds and cherry blossom invisible because it’s not the face of some man.’
A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson (1997)
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Favourite books read in August:
A Lady’s Guide to Scandal and The House with the Golden Door
Authors read for the first time in August:
Patricia Highsmith
Places visited in my August reading:
Egypt, Italy, England, US, China, Spain (Ibiza), Austria
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Reading notes: After several slow months of reading, this was a much better month for me and I made a lot of progress with my 20 Books of Summer, but sadly not enough to complete the list! I’m still happy with my result this year – I have read seventeen books, reviewed fifteen of them and am in the middle of reading another two, so I wasn’t too far away from finishing the list. I’ll try again in 2024!
Looking ahead to September, I would normally be putting together a pile of potential reads for the RIP challenge, which I’ve taken part in every year since 2010. However, this challenge now seems to take place almost exclusively on Instagram, which I don’t really use, so I won’t be officially joining in this year. I still have plenty of atmospheric, autumnal books on the TBR, though, and I’m sure I’ll be reading some of them over the next few months!
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How was your August? Do you have any plans for your September reading?
She Reads Novels 
I’m glad you had a good month and the main thing is always enjoying what you read. I had a wonderful August, and am feeling optimistic going into September, although my reading options are reasonably loose!
I think keeping your reading options open is always a good idea! Have a great September!
Very interesting! In August, I have read for the first time an author my mother enjoyed a lot, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. The first in the Ashmore Castle series and really enjoyed it. Looking forward to working my way through the Morland Dynasty, for which she is better known.
She’s an author I’ve never read, so I’m pleased to hear you’ve enjoyed the Ashmore Castle book. I’ve often thought about reading the Morland Dynasty but have been put off by the length of the series!
Great quotes, I like the Donoghue one and the Ibbitson one. I had a better than usual 20 Books run too, only 8 but that’s a lot for me!
8 books is still a great result, particularly if you enjoyed them!
I must try the Ibbotson – or indeed any Ibbotson – soon! My summer reading was variable, a bit like yours: I went for the easy option of 10 Books of Summer and although in the end I read 16 titles only six of those were on my list, and I still have some chunksters to finish or reread – Middlemarch, Gormenghast, The Glass Bead Game – and Machiavelli’s classic.
Though I am on Instagram (and now its sister app Threads too) I tend to only post photos of places and things rather than as an alternative book blog; still I shall be doing Readers Imbibing Peril mainly to get through some more of the crime fiction, mysteries, Gothick tales and ghost stories I seem to still be accumulating.
I never manage to read all 20 of the books on my list, so I think it would probably be more sensible of me to choose the 10 or 15 book option next year! I hope you enjoy your September reading. I’m sure I’ll still be reading plenty of R.I.P. appropriate books even if I don’t officially take part!
August was a bumper month for me, and I didn’t finish the summer challenge either!
A lot does happen on Twitter and instagram old fashioned blogs like ours seem to be taking a back seat. Even most of the craft stuff I look at is now instagram or YouTube. I think this is why I have been struggling to engage with reviewing for a while. I don’t know how all these people do it and hold down a full time job!
I’ve never managed to finish the 20 Books of Summer challenge! I think I need to be less ambitious and set a lower target next year. And yes, everything seems to be aimed at Instagram or other social media sites now. I’m not going anywhere at the moment, but it’s sad to see actual book blogs becoming less popular.
Hmm, I’m finding it hard to pick a winner this month – I think I’ll go with Patricia Highsmith, though it’s a kind of bleak view of life! It’s sad that RIP has moved away from the blogosphere – I fear book blogging is a dying trend!
I think there’s still a place for traditional book blogs like ours, at least at the moment, but it is sad to see other bloggers and events we used to follow moving away to Instagram and other platforms.