#WhatILearntFromBooks-August Edition

Here we are again folks!
The end of another bookish month and some more useful facts about things I picked up along the way in August.

How was your reading month?

Did you get more or less reading done because the children were off school?

Are you an emotional reader who reads certain books this time of year, what did you pack to take on your hols with you? Did you pack your books first and then your clothes?

Drop me a line and let me know!
As you may have been aware, this month has kicked off my year long Indie Book Love Fest so I have been ploughing through publisher Eye and Lightning‘s back catalogue whilst cutting right back on blogtours so this month , I was in a state of panic about it, and worried that there was a looming bookslump in my rearview mirror…

So here we go!

‘The Exphoria Code’ by Antony Johnson cast me back to my teen years and reignited my love for 80’s goth music.I also learned that I could understand a tech thriller and enjoy it without pestering my infinitely suffering webmaster husband for a translations of terms.

I am so grateful not to have a mother in law like the horrible Helen who makes Juliette’s life a misery in ‘The Bad Mother’s Diary’ by Suzy K Quinn or Anne in ‘The Daughter In Law’ by Nina Manningwho are both monsters!

Thanks to Abi Silver’s ‘Burton and Lamb’ thrillers, I now understand the difference between a barrister and a lawyer- a barrister is a lawyer who provides specialist legal advice and representation whereas a lawyer can refer to either a solicitor or a barrister.

There is poetry and meaning in the unknown moments of every day which was really brought home in ‘The Beat of the Pendulum’ by Catherine Chidgey where her novel is made from the conversations, washing instructions, facebook messages and many other interactions curated over 12 months.

I fell in love with Australian literature after reading works by Ryan O’Neill and Emily Maguire-from experimental short story forms to thrillers with a social and feminist heart, these award niminated authors became firm indie favourites of mine!

Frankie Collins’ ‘Honeymoon For One’ showed that an island paradise for couples is not the best place for a cheated bride to be mend a broken heart-or is it?

Zydeco music is a unique, Louisiana based music form, comprised of blues, rhythm and blues and Afro Caribbean beats mixed with Cajun accordions that provides a killer soundtrack to Faye Snowden’s ‘A Killing Fire’  .

‘The Mating Habits Of Stags’ by Ray Robinson taught me so much about the potery of the moors of North Yorkshire and also how stags mate-I don’t want to say how as that is a big moment in the book, please read it it is wonderful!

The artist Hieronymous Bosch ,and his explorations of the nature of God in his paintings,particularly ‘The Last Four Things’ was something I knew nothing about until reading ‘The Hurtle Of Hell’ by Simon Edge sent me down the most fabulous rabbit hole.

The first stringed musical instrument was the harp, or Messopotamian zither at around 3000 BC, and was one of the instruments on a an early gramophone recording from 1897 according to James Hall’s ‘The Industry Of Human Happiness’

I am sure there was a lot more to take from these wonderful books, let me know if there was anything that you really enjoyed finding out about or if you read something that sent you off on a chase for more information on a particular subject.