AUGUST 2018 - READING LIST AND PICK OF THE MONTH

August's reading was a bit less than the previous month and I failed to hit double digit figures for reading, which is my usual goal.

I did manage to read a raft of short stories in the month - AUGUST 2018 - 31 DAYS, 31 SHORTS!

Nine books read in the month though probably only four would pass as full length novels with the same again as novellas and one short story.

No 5 STAR read in the month, though four ran close. On the basis that it is the one I'd pick up first for a re-read Martin Stanley's Fighting Talk is my pick of the month.

The three other 4.5 STAR reads were Les Edgerton's The Genuine, Imitation, Plastic Kidnapping, Of Blondes and Bullets by Michael Young and Glen McGoldrick's short story Dead Flies

The full nine were....

Les Edgerton - The Genuine, Imitation, Plastic Kidnapping (2014) (4.5)

Michael Young - Of Blondes and Bullets (2015) (4.5)

Glenn McGoldrick - Dead Flies (2017) (4.5)

Henry G. Sheppard - Haematemesis (2016) (4)

Steve Shadow - Sin-ema (2012) (3)

Chris Thomas - The Edge of Sanity (2018) (4)

Robert Parker - Morte Point (2018) (4)

Douglas Schofield - Killing Pace (2017) (3)

Martin Stanley - Fighting Talk (2018) (4.5)

More trivia for my own amusement ....


3 of the 9 were 4 STAR reads and very enjoyable - Robert Parker's Morte Point, Henry G. Sheppard's amusing non-fiction account of battling illness Haematemesis and Chris Thomas's The Edge of Sanity

2 - 3 STAR reads - Steve Shadow's pornographic Sin-ema and Douglas Schofield's thriller Killing Pace

9 reads from 9 different authors,

4 of the 9 were new-to-me authors, Michael Young, Douglas Schofield, Steve Shadow and Henry G. Sheppard. I have more to read on the pile from Steve Shadow

Les Edgerton, Robert Parker, Chris Thomas, Glenn McGoldrick and Martin Stanley have all been enjoyed before with more from Les Edgerton and Martin Stanley sitting on the TBR pile.

Gender analysis -  9 male authors, ZERO female - OOPS - shocking but no big surprise. Deja-vous - I keep deferring my all female reading month.

Of the 9 authors read, 4 are English, 3 hail from the US, 1 now sadly passed was from Australia and 1 unknown - possibly English!

8 of the 9 of the reads were fiction - 4 novels - 3 novellas, 1 short story and one non-fiction biographical account of illness and a medical journey - Henry G. Sheppard - Haematemesis

All of the books were published in this decade ....3 from 2018, 2 from 2017, 1 from 2016, 1 from 2015, 1 from 2014 and 1 from 2012.
That's 2 months running I don't think I've left this decade. I've definitely lost the knack of reading older books.

Settings -  an Australian hospital, 70s Chicago, New Orleans, Teesside, Devon, Florida and Italy, more North East England, London and some other random spots which I can't be arsed to look up

5 of the 9 reads were pre-owned. Of the other 4 - 2 came from the author, with a duplicate copy from the publisher, another 1 was received from a publisher via Net Galley and 1 came from a publicist. Chris Thomas and Robert Parker were read as part of author blog tours.

Favourite cover? Robert Parker - Morte Point

Second favourite cover - Michael Young - Of Blondes and Bullets

My reads were this long  270 - 81 - 14 - 73 - 118 - 302 - 266 - 276 - 111

Total page count = 1511 (2966 in July ) ....... an 1455 page drop off

5 were Kindle reads, and 2 were paperbacks, 1 was a hardback and 1 was an EPub file read on my laptop


1 < 50,
2 between 51 < 100,
2 between 101 < 200,
3 between 201 < 300,
1 between 301 < 400,
0  > 400 pages

Chris Thomas - The Edge of Sanity was the longest read at 302 pages

Glenn McGoldrick and Dead Flies was the shortest at 14 pages long.