May reading roundup

There's something to be said about taking a stack of books with you on vacation -- at the end of the day, when you're finished with the sights, experiences and other fun stuff that make up your time away from the real world, you can pick up a book and lose yourself again in a different way. 

That's exactly what I did during the month of May; not counting all the catch-up I had to do after being away for three weeks, I had quite a bit of quality reading time that I put to good use. As far as reviews, well, there are a few I haven't quite got to yet because of said catch-up,  but I'm thinking they can easily slide right on into June's reading. 

Without further ado:

UK fiction:

• Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel
• A Summer of Drowning, byJohn Burnside 
• Gillespie and I, by Jane Harris 
• Trapeze, by Simon Mawer 
• The Greatcoat, by Helen Dunmore (not yet reviewed) 
• Waiting for Sunrise, by William Boyd (not yet reviewed) 

 Canadian fiction
The Headmaster's Wager, by Vincent Lam (not yet reviewed)

crime fiction

• Hour of the Wolf, by Hakan Nesser (not yet reviewed)
• A Florentine Death, by Michele Giuttari

 odd/weird fiction


Sacré Bleu, by Christopher Moore

nonfiction

• Enemies: A History of the FBI, by Tim Weiner 
•  Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China, by Paul French

other book-related stuff:
1) The book group read Solar, by Ian McEwan. Some people found Michael Beard to be a sympathetic character -- the jury's still out on that one for others.  But it did provide a great discussion!

 2) Added to the Amazon wishlist this month:
Basti, by Intizar Husain (there I go again, reading all of this obscure literature)

 3) Books bought this month:
Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945, by Leo Marks
Until Thy Wrath be Past, by Asa Larsson
Trackers, by Deon Meyer
Bel-Ami, by Guy deMaupassant
Pure, by Timothy Mo
At Night All Wolves are Grey, by Gunnar Staalesen
The Little Red Guard: A Family Memoir, by Wenguang Huang

4) Currently reading: 
The Mark Inside, by Amy Reading
New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird, ed. Paula Guran

All done for this month; in June I'm going to try to make a dent on my massive collection of historical fiction. And when I say massive, I'm not exaggerating. 

-ta