It’s Spooky Season. It is. I don’t care what the calendar says, it’s September and it’s Fall and it’s Spooky Season. I am adamant about this, because I made it through the swampy weather that made up August, and now I am ready for Fall.

August happened, and was full of my not wanting to do anything outside because it was so hot and humid. Another mask mandate came into effect around here (which felt fantastic when the heat index hit 108°F again), because the pandemic really isn’t over yet and cases were rising again (they have since leveled off a bit, but officials are still worried. So masks it is. I’m not complaining about the masks. I’m complaining about the heat). But otherwise . . August was a month and it’s over.

On to September!

What I Read in August:

I finished fifteen books in August, which is more than I thought I’d have finished by the mid-point of the month. Huzzah.

• Velvet was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, ARC provided by NetGalley
• The Elder Edda: A Book of Viking Lore by Anonymous, translated from the Icelandic by Andy Orchard
• Wolf Hall (The Thomas Cromwell trilogy #1) by Hilary Mantel, audiobook narrated by Simon Slater
• Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré, audiobook narrated by the author
• The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women by Nancy Marie Brown, ARC provided by NetGalley
• Beowulf: A New Translation by Anonymous, translated from the Anglo-Saxon by Maria Dahvana Headly, audiobook narrated by J.D. Jackson
• The Pilgrim of Hate (The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #10) by Ellis Peters, audiobook narrated by Patrick Tull
• The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase by Mark Forsyth, audiobook narrated by Don Hagen
• History of Britons (Historia Brittonum) by Nennius, translated from the Latin by John Allen Giles
• Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge, translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang
• Sorcerer to the Crown (Sorcerer Royal #1) by Zen Cho, audiobook narrated by Jenny Sterlin
• The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings #1) by J.R.R. Tolkien, audiobook narrated by Rob Inglis
• The Heron’s Cry (Two Rivers #2) by Ann Cleeves, ARC provided by NetGalley
• The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) by Ann Cleeves
• An Excellent Mystery (The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #11) by Ellis Peters, audiobook narrated by Patrick Tull

Statistically speaking:

• 66.7% of what I read was written by women, 26.7% was written by men, and 6.7% was by unknown authors
• 60% of the what I read was by English authors, 13.3% was by American authors, and 6.7% each were by Mexican-Canadian, Icelandic, Chinese, or Malaysian authors
• 20% of what I read were translated works. The original languages were Chinese, Latin, Old English, and Icelandic
• 53.3% of the books I read were audiobooks, 33.3% were ebooks, and 13.3% were physical books
• 26.7% of what I read were mysteries, 20% each were fantasy or nonfiction, 13.3% were sagas, and 6.7% each were noir, historical fiction, or thrillers
• 53.3% of what I read came from the library, 20% each were from my own shelves or from NetGalley, and 6.7% was from Project Gutenberg.
• The years of publication ranged from 829 to 2021

My favorite new-to-me reads were The Heron’s Cry, Sorcerer to the Crown, and Beowulf: A New Translation. The rest of the books were fine, but didn’t blow me out of the water (except the rereads of favorites like The Fellowship of the Ring or Wolf Hall, but they don’t count in this). There weren’t any books I finished that I outright hated, so that’s good.

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What’s On Tap for September:

I’ve decided that I’m going to make a concerted effort to get through some of the books on my physical TBR. There are so many books that I own that I’m really curious about, and it’s time that I got to them. I have two ARCs due to be reviewed in September (though it has more than 500 pages), so it shouldn’t be a problem to get through at least most of the books I’ve set aside for this month.

• The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodksy
• The King of Infinite Space by Lyndsay Faye
• A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1) by Arkady Martine
• A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan #2) by Arkady Martine
• The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
• The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
• The Forgotten Kingdom (The Lost Queen #2) by Signe Pike

My September ARCs are:

• Traitors of the Black Crown (Black Crown #1) by Cate Pearce
• My Letters To Conceição by Jorge Molina del Callejo

I’m carrying over one book from August for my History of Middle-earth Project:

• The War of the Ring (The History of Middle-earth #8) by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien

I will most likely be rereading The Fellowship of the Ring after September 16, just because the new audiobook narrated by Andy Serkis comes out on that day, and I plan to get it right away and start listening. Will I listen to the entire trilogy again in September? It’s entirely possible.