Finally July…Fall is only 3 months away and I survived yet another horrid Indian Summer. Actually, there are 3 more months to go, but these are technically the Monsoon months, where it rains and floods and while it is quite pleasant when it rains, immediately after that the humidity soars and the baking heat now with high humidity, makes life, well miserable to say the very least!! But like my oft repeated motto, as long as there are books, life will always look up!
Whats in my July book bag then? A very eclectic collection! I am slowly and by slowly, I mean barely crawling through Thucydides’s History of the Peloponnesian War as part of the The Well Educated Mind Reading Challenge – Reading The Histories! And I cannot say, like Herodotus’s The Histories, I am enjoying it! In addition there is OMG-I-CANNOT-BELIEVE-HOW-PONDEROUS-IT-IS reading of The City of God by Saint Augustine, again part of the same project. History, the subject I love has never seemed such an uphill task! To continue my interest in the subject, it is extremely important, that I spice things up and I go to other end of the spectrum to read The Raj at War – A People’s History of India’s Second World War by Yasmin Khan. I have heard some amazing things about the book and am really looking forward to it! Now for Fiction, I have everything from 19th century Russia to 19th century England and finally, 19th century India. I should complete Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. I also continue with The Pickwick Paper Read Along and finally, I am hosting The Shadow of the Moon Read Along, for which the plan is to finish reading this month! I also have on my Kindle, The Red House Mystery by A.A.Milne (of Winnie The Pooh fame and yes, he wrote a adult mysteries as well!) and Desperate Remedies by Thomas Hardy; his first book which is considered to very different from his Wessex Rural novels.
All in all and exciting (I think!) and somewhat exasperating Reading month! I leave you all with a video that I think capture the very essence of Indian monsoons!
Happy Reading!
Mockingbirds, Looking Glasses & Prejudices... 
We don’t have monsoons but we have giant thunderstorms and sometimes tornadoes and before the happen the heat and humidity builds and builds and then we get a relief for a day or two and it starts all over again. all that to say I have an inkling and I feel for you! But at least you do have lots of (mostly) interesting reading to help distract you. And, as you say, fall is only 3 months away 🙂
You have more than an inkling Stefanie! You describes it perfectly! But Tornadoes are scary….which puts a whole new angle to the events! Thank Goodness, Fall is only 3 months away!
That weather sounds so unrelenting. Thucydides and Augustine at the same time and in that heat sounds a bit ambitious! I would very much recommend the Yasmin Khan book which is utterly fascinating and original (I mean to read her account of partition soon).
Thanks Ian….the heat is terrible and Thucydides is painful and does not help! But Yasmin Khan is brilliant….loved, loved the book; especially it is actually a people’s narrative where its the stories of everyday men and woman and not leaders, if you know what I mean!
Have you noticed that I haven’t tempted you into any reads lately? Are you thankful? However, don’t get too comfortable ….. I am already eyeing Gormenghast ….. 😉
I’m trying to finish Shadow of the Moon, The Republic and City of God. Finally I’m on holiday and have some time at least!! I also have Dead Souls and The Pickwick Papers with me and I want to begin Plutarch’s Lives. Oh, if only half of life was a vacation (you notice I said “half”? I’m trying to keep a tenuous hold on reality, ha ha!)
Hope you’re doing well although you seem as busy as I!
I know and I cannot be tempted even if I tried….I am working 13 hrs, getting a new certification and planning a trip with friends cross country! 😦 But yes, I do want to get to Gormenghast!! There ….I am tempted, just when i have literally no time! I am making zero progress on Thucydides, though I am doing well on Dead Souls and Pickwick Paper! I need vacation ….desperately seeking vacation!