February Book Update

I liked the way I kept track of my book reading last year, so I'm going to do something similar this year - just monitor books in and out, without any pressure to declutter or read things in order, etc. I'm once again setting a goal to read 100 book in the year - I read 102 in 2018. Otherwise, my only goal is to keep reading and keep enjoying books!

In January: books read: 9; books out: 2; books in: 5; books on windowsill: 59
In February: books read: 10; books out: 0; books in: 0; books on windowsill: 54

And here's the breakdown for this month:

• I read the first book in a series by a SF/Fantasy author I've enjoyed before (The Killing Moon by N K Jemisin)
• I read four other books from my list (I am the Messenger, Marcus Zusak; The Last Letter from your Lover, Jo Jo Moyes; The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K LeGuin; The Bone Dragon, Alexia Casale)
• I had a bit of a re-read fest over the half-term holiday - I was busy and tired and just wanted something comforting and easy, so I re-read my favourite YA fantasy novels (Dragonsong & Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey and The Blue Sword & The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley)
• And I read one book in a crime series I'm re-reading (and sometimes reading, depending) - this one I'd read before, though not in many years. (Uniform Justice by Donna Leon)

Here's the updated list of Books to Read in 2019. These are the books hanging out on my windowsill upstairs, waiting to be read. Or discarded. But hopefully, read. I started the year with 60 books on this list - you can see how long the books have been knocking around by the dates in brackets.

1. Ford Maddox Ford, Parade's End (Nov 2012 - birthday present - bought after the BBC adaptation - but I knew I wouldn't read it straight away as I wanted to let time pass from the adaptation.  Enough time has probably passed now...)
2. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (2014)
3. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (would be a re-read, bought shortly after his death - spring 2014 - as I was reminded how much I enjoyed it and I didn't seem to own a copy - think my old one fell apart, probably...) 
4. Daphne du Maurier, Frenchman's Creek (Waterstones Piccadilly - 2016? bought in principle for the girls, but thought I might read it again as it's been ages)
5. Daphne du Maurier, Jamaica Inn (Waterstones Piccadilly - 2016? bought in principle for the girls, but thought I might read it again as it's been ages)
6. Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram (Abe Books, July 2016)
7. Susan Barker, The Incarnations (charity shop, July 2016)
8. Neil MacGregor, Germany: Memories of  a Nation (birthday present, Nov 2016) (This book isn't technically on my windowsill, it's downstairs because I keep thinking I might have a go at reading it, but haven't really got around to it yet...)
9. Orhan Pamuk. A Strangeness in Mind (Christmas present 2016)
10. Andrew Taylor, The Ashes of London (passed to me by Geoff after he read it, April 2017)
11. Mark Haddon (Introduction), States of Mind: Experiences at the Edge of Consciousness (Waterstones Piccadilly, April 2017)
12. John Irving, Avenue of Mysteries  (Waterstones Piccadilly, April 2017)
13. Mikhail Bulgokov, The Master and Margarita (charity shop, April 2017)
14. Jane Smiley, Early Warning (Abe Books, May 2017, after finishing the first in the series)
15. Siri Hustvedt, A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women (Waterstones Wimbledon, July 2017)
16. Ernest van der Kwast, The Ice Cream Makers (Amsterdam, August 2017)
17. Lucy Worsley, A Very British Murder (Waterstones Oxford, August 2017)
18. Lucy Ribchester, The Hourglass Factory (charity shop, Farnham, September 2017)
19. Sebastian Barry, Days without End (Abe Books, January 2018)
20. Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (passed to me by Geoff, Feb 2018)
21. Bella Pollen, Hunting Unicorns (Kingston Hospital Charity Bookshelf, March 2018)
22. Jojo Moyes, Sheltering Rain (Charity Shops, March 2018)
23. Sebastian Faulkes, A Week in December (Charity Shops, March 2018)
24. Jose Saramago, Blindness (Lisbon, April 2018)
25. Margaret Atwodd, Oryx and Crake (passed on by Geoff, April 2018)
26. If we were Villains, M L Rio (Waterstones Wimbledon, April 2018)
27. Spark, Alice Broadway (Waterstones Wimbledon, April 2018)
28. The Mime Order, Samantha Shannon (Abe Books, May 2018)
29. March, Geraldine Brooks (Abe Books, June 2018)
30. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins (charity shop, June 2018)
31. Anything is Possible, Elizabeth Strout (Waterstones Wimbledon, July 2018)
32. The Disappearances, Emily Bain Murphy (Waterstones Picadilly, July 2018)
33. Salt to the Sea, Ruta Sepetys  (Waterstones Picadilly, July 2018)
34. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (charity shop, July 2018)
35. The Murderer's Ape, Jakob Wegelius (Waterstones Wimbledon, August 2018)
36. The Terracotta Dog, Andrea Camelleri (passed to me by Geoff, Sept 2018)
37. The Snack Thief, Andrea Camelleri (passed to me by Geoff, Sept 2018)
38. Even the Dogs, Jon McGregor (Abebooks, Sept 2018)
39. Islands in the Stream, Ernest Hemingway (Abebooks, Sept 2018)
40. Scythe, Neil Schusterman (Waterstones Piccadilly, Sept 2018)
41. Alice, Christina Henry (Waterstone Piccadilly, Sept 2018)
42. Throne of Glass, Sarah J Maas (Waterstones Wimbledon, October 2018)
43. Winter, Ali Smith (Waterstones Wimbledon, October 2018)
44. The Mistletoe Bride, Kate Mosse (charity shop, November 2018)
45. Milkman, Anna Burns (Waterstones online, December 2018)
46. Hillbilly Elegy, J D Vance (Waterstones Piccadilly, December 2018)
47. The Dry, Jane Harper (Christmas present, 2018)
48. Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi (Christmas present, 2018)
49. History of Wolves, Emily Fridlund  (Christmas present, 2018)
50. Theft, Peter Carey (charity shop, January 2019)
51. The Crossing, Cormac McCarthy (charity shop, January 2019)
52. The Music Shop, Rachel Joyce (Waterstones Wimbledon, January 2019)
53. Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman (Waterstones Wimbledon, January 2019)
54. Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng (Waterstones Wimbledon, January 2019)