1.  The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington

A surreal apocalyptic fairytale for adults about old ladies in a retirement home. I didn’t like it that much but it had its good moments.

2.  Force of Nature by Jane Harper

A good thriller about women on a hike in Australian wilderness. I loved the writing and the descriptions of nature. Most of all I liked the fact that it was a high quality thriller with an unpredictable ending. Full review here.

3. A River of Stars by Vanessa Hua

Meh. That’s all I can say about the book, briefly speaking. A disappointing read that promised some adventures of pregnant women on a run in a foreign country but turned out to be a collection of unrelated reminiscences and memories.

4. The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker

I loved this novel. It uses elements of science fiction to make you think about the way people’s minds work and grow. The book will be published in January 2019.

5. The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell

Oh the almighty Universe how do I EVER explain what this book is like?! I can only say that it’s something huge, uneven, unpredictable and definitely not simple. I liked some moments and hated others. The Old Drift will be published on 21st March 2019. You can now read my full review of the book. 

6. Virgil Wander by Leif Enger

If I had to name the best book I read in September, Virgil Wander would get the prize. I liked it the most. Everything is perfect about it: the writing, the story, the characters. I still miss this book and I plan to read it again some time soon just to feel its beauty.

7. April Fool’s Day by Josip Novakovich

A scary, hard, funny and unusual book about a man from ex-Yugoslavia. He lives through the regime and the wars. It’s definitely not a light reading but it’s worthwhile. 

8. Checking Out by Nick Spalding

Light, silly, funny at places. If you are looking for something superficial but well written you might like this book. The full review is here.

9. Day of the Accident by Nuala Ellwood

A very well written thriller about a woman after a coma. The twists are not too guessable but the characters behave strangely sometimes. It’s one of very few recent thrillers that I actually liked. The book will be published on 21st February 2019. My full review will also be posted later.

10. The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

To me this thriller was not what it promised to be. In my opinion it’s not really a gothic thriller. It’s still quite gripping and fast-paced. It’s about lives of teachers and students of a collage where bad things start happening. The book will be published on 1st November. 

That was my September list. Have you read any of those? Which one would you like to read? It would be nice to hear from you. Meanwhile I’m off for my October reading. So excited, so many Universes ahead!

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I found this book on my quest for more books by male authors. I’ve noticed that female authors prevailed in my recent reading list and I wanted to balance this out. Checking Out also promised to be lighthearted and fun while at the same time focusing on a deeper theme of a terminally ill person who’s readjusting his perspective due to the diagnosis.

In reality it was the silliest book I could possibly stand. Slightly sillier than that and I wouldn’t have been able to read it at all. In fact, had this book happened at a different time I would have deleted it straight away. This time though it functioned as a sitcom some people watch when they want to de-stress and distract themselves.

The book is a very quick read. It took me just several hours to finish it. My eyes easily hopped along the lines, unhindered. The writing is all right.

The characters are comfortably predictable silly dummies. They behave as if they had been given a storyline to follow but weren’t shown how to, so they improvise the best they can but fail. Everything about them feels overplayed and artificial.

There’s lots of humor in this book, but it is all quite shallow, the cake-in-clowns-face type of humor. Also, I had a feeling the jokes would be better in a movie but didn’t work as a text. The same way Charlie Chaplin wouldn’t work as a text.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnlyIIMrZuk&w=560&h=315]

The plot is absolutely transparent, although the protagonist is in denial about it, which becomes obvious when he starts talking to the reader:

“Surprised?”, he says

Nope.

“I bet you were expecting a different ending to this story, weren’t you?”

I wasn’t.

“My life […] is not predictable”

Yes, it is.

“Not in the slightest.”

It is! Sorry mate but you are a character in a very predictable book, so you are predictable like an alphabet. But hey, the world needs that sort of characters too. Everybody needs to unwind sometimes and that’s when you come along.

I can’t give more than two stars to Checking Out even though it served its purpose. If you are looking for a super light reading this might be the book for you.