Do the A-Z author challenge

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
My boyfriend recommended this to me and to be honest I was a little loath to try it as it’s a “classic” and I tend to be a lot more fond of contemporary books. It was great though! I really enjoyed it – it was very hard to put down.

He had several S books for me but no Ts in his house for some reason. It’ll have to wait til I get home. But it’s my birthday soon so I should be getting a U and maybe a W, X (I have a V planned already).

The Tales of Beedle the Bard – J.K. Rowling
Not a bad book.

I had an S lined up but it took me so long to read R that I can’t remember what it was. I might even have already read it by now! I’ll have a root around for another one. It’s a fairly easy letter, after all.

This has ground to a halt over the summer. I think the problem is that I decided on an R book and then lost it. I’m sure I’ve read (at least) another R book in the meantime but I wasn’t thinking of it.

I ordered In Our Strange Gardens by Michel Quint from Amazon a few weeks ago. It was dispatched by a seller in the USA so it’s only just got here but I’m looking forward to reading it.

Just finished Second Glance – Jodi Picolt.
It wasn’t bad. It didn’t make me cry like some of her other books have, which is good as I wasn’t really in the mood for it. A captivating story nonetheless.

Has anyone got any good recommendations for Q? I’ve nearly finished P and I’m going to be stuck for a while it looks like as there were no good Qs in Oxfam or in Waterstones when I went yesterday.

I finished Nineteen eighty-four, George Orwell. Forget that stuff I said about it being a slow read. It was fantastic! Superbly written! I often find that older books are a bit slow going for me compared to contemporary authors but this was so readable. The ending was great. I wish he’d written more stuff; perhaps I’ll go and read Animal Farm properly this time.

which is my O (George Orwell, of course) – but I think it might be a slow read.

Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
I was okay with reading the bits about the prison and the torture but the marital rape parts left me feeling sick and shaky.

It is a good book though and very educational. I recommend it.

I found Out of Breath by Julie Myerson when I was wandering through Waterstones and I found it extremely difficult to put down! (My boyfriend had to drag me out of the shop.) So I sent my mum a text asking if she could get it out of the library for me for next time I’m at their place, and she went one better and ordered a second-hand copy from Amazon.

Anyway, I was back there at the weekend and I’ve finished it already. It’s a great book. I liked the little neat twist at the end, so that you weren’t 100% sure what had really happened, but I won’t spoil it for you.

I also found one of my Christmas books when I went back home at the weekend and it was an N, so I’ll read that in the Easter holidays. (I would have brought it back up with me but I was trying to save weight on the train.)