October in Review, Projections for November

This month was somewhat okay. What it implies is that I'm getting back to my usual levels. Out of the total 7 books I read in October - including the Best Short Stories of 2004 edited by Lorrie Moore (which I'm still reading), four were on the list of six books I projected to read.

In all I read a total of 1749 pages or 56.42 pages per day. The following were the books I read:

1. Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks. I didn't enjoy this as much as I have enjoyed all the James Bond movies. In this book, Sebastian Faulks, writing as Ian Fleming to celebrate the latter's birthday, took the reader on a seemingly cliffhanger adventure. Perhaps, I was expecting too much and therefore remained unsatisfied.
2. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. There is nothing much to say about McEwan than that he is the perfect person to trust when you want a short intense reading. His writing is on-point and he wastes not words. This story is about two men who attended an ex-lover's funeral and ended up with hatred and mutual murder.
3. Women Leading Africa: Conversations with Inspirational African Women by Nana Darkoa-Sekyiamah (Editor). This is the story of several women across who are working to push the feminist agenda. It includes Margaret Dongo, Tstitsi Dangarembga, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, Verbah Gayflor, Leyman Gbowee, Ama Ata Aidoo and more. Interesting conversations they are.
4. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. This 2006 Winner of Man Booker Prize got me thinking. It's about the life of several Indians both at home and at abroad. It's about the struggle they had to go through to maintain their humanity. It's about love, life and love-life. The texture - if there is such a thing - of this novel is similar to that of Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things.
5. The Place we Call Home and Other Poems by Kofi Anyidoho. This collection of poems traverses just the Home. It's musical and intelligently woven. Kofi Anyidoho uses traditional folklores and songs to tell the stories of his poems; it's therefore a wonder the poet talked about bigger issues like the 9/11 in the same medium. Accompanied by two CDs, with the author's voice narrating the poems, this is a collection one mustn't miss.
6. The Best American Short Stories 2004 by Lorrie Moore (Editor). This is an anthology of 20 short stories. I'm reading them towards my 100 Shots of Shorts project. It contains some interesting short stories from completely new authors.
7. IPods in Accra by Sophia Acheampong. This continues the story Makeeda as she journeys from London to her homeland of Ghana to participate in the female Rites of Passage ceremony. It continues the story which began in Growing Yams in London. This YA story is funny. Makeeda's relationship with Nelson becomes complicated, as they always do. It's a true teen story.

Unfortunately, I have not lined up any books for November. I will have to make on-the-spot decisions. However, I have picked the following two:

1. Reading Lolita in London - A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi. Currently reading this.
2. Fury by Salman Rushdie. To pave the way for Midnight Children.

What did you read? Did you enjoy them?