September 2013 books

This is the latest post in a series I started in late 2019, anticipating the twentieth anniversary of my bookblogging which will fall in 2023. Every six-ish days, I've been revisiting a month from my recent past, noting work and family developments as well as the books I read in that month. I've found it a pleasantly cathartic process, especially in recent circumstances. If you want to look back at previous entries, they are all tagged under bookblog nostalgia.

At work, Anglo-American M left my office and moved in with a nice Bulgarian chap D, who I had actually introduced her to one evening in July. They are now married with a little girl, and currently in Bulgaria where D is running in the election next month. M's replacement was Swedish/German L.

I had a fair bit of travel in September 2013: to Berlin, for reasons I cannot now remember, to Poland for the first time for a conference in Krynica-Zdrój, where I bonded a bit with Pete Wishart, and to Dublin for a one-day mission. But the biggest work development was that I found myself rather oddly representing Somaliland at the big Brussels conference on Somalia, after the government representatives of Somaliland pulled out at the last moment. Since I wasn't allowed inside the hall, this mainly meant hanging around in the atrium of the Egmont Palace looking for people to talk to, though there was one exciting moment when I found myself (successfully) lobbying the Italian foreign minister (who I knew) about the final communique.

The Northern Ireland representation in Brussels had a fantastic culture night, with this amazing piper (whose name I have sadly forgotten), followed by the head of the office performing.
We also had the Oud-Heverlee Zomerfeest.

And Loncon II became the seated Worldcon, with this fantastic handover video, which I don't think has been excelled:

I read 19 books that month.

Non-fiction 4 (YTD 35)
Clean: An Unsanitised History of Washing, by Katherine Ashenburg
The Theology of the Gospel of Mark, by W.R. Telford
Who and Me, by Barry Letts
Strengths Finder 2.0, by Tom Rath

Poetry 1
Meeting the British, by Paul Muldoon

Fiction (non-sf) 4 (YTD 34)
The Body In The Library, by Agatha Christie
A Murder Is Announced, by Agatha Christie
Evil under the Sun, by Agatha Christie
Home Truths, by Freya North

SF (non-Who) 3 (YTD 49)
Royal Assassin, by Robin Hobb
The Queen's Bastard, by C.E. Murphy
The Moment of Eclipse, by Brian W. Aldiss

Doctor Who 5 (YTD 47, 58 including non-fiction and comics)
The Suns of Caresh, by Paul Saint
Just War, by Lance Parkin
The Year of Intelligent Tigers, by Kate Orman
The Beast of Babylon, by Charlie Higson
Shroud of Sorrow, by Tommy Donbavand

Comics 2 (YTD 24)
The Books of Magic, by Neil Gaiman
The Castafiore Emerald, by Hergé

~5,200 pages (YTD 49,900)
7/19 (YTD 58/191) by women (3xChristie, North, Hobb, Murphy, Orman)
0/19 (YTD 8/191) by PoC

The best of these, though a reread, was The Moment of Eclipse, by Brian Aldiss; you can get it here. I enjoyed almost all the rest, especially poetry collection Meeting the British, by Paul Muldoon, which you can get here, and chick-lit novel Home Truths, by Freya North, which you can get here - fourth in a series where I had not read the other three, but very accessible to a new reader. Was very unimpressed by the Agatha Christie Evil Under the Sun, which you can get here.