Big Book Summer Wrap-Up & It’s Monday, What Are You Reading 9-18-23

Bookshelf with text across the top reading "Speaking of Books..."

I’ve been reading fewer advance copies for review, but instead I’ve been whipping through books for reading challenges…although still not writing any real reviews or working on any other writing.

Big Book Summer Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

For the Big Book Summer 2023 Challenge, I read seven from my original list of ten, plus two bonus books — all over 400 pages long. Five out of nine I listened to on audio.

From My BBS 2023 Challenge List

BBS 2023 Challenge Bonus Books

Currently Reading

The Past by Tessa Hadley

Harper Collins, 2015

I really like The Past and don’t want to finish it. I’m going to need the author’s new short story collection, I guess!

Recently Read

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Berkeley, 2023

At 400 pages, Happy Place by Emily Henry would have counted towards Big Book Summer, but I didn’t start it until after Labor Day. I didn’t like this as much as the others I’ve read by this author, probably because there was nothing bookish about it. Instead of being writers or book editors, the protagonists were a resident brain surgeon and a furniture maker.

Recently Listened To

Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

Harper Audio, 2023

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American—in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R.F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel.from the Publisher

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, read by Helen Lang, has all the writers, editors, and publishing industry insiders that Happy Place was lacking, but there’s nothing remotely relaxing about this first-person story and its viciously funny takedown of cultural appropriation, token representation, and social media scandal-mongering. Great narration of the audiobook by Helen Lang!

Yellowface made me so tense, I had to take an audio break before launching into R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril) listening for September/October!

This post is also linked up to It’s Monday, What Are You Reading, hosted by The Book Date.