There were two outstanding books I read this month: Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena and The Heart by Maylis De Kerangal. They have been sitting on the sidelines for quite some time and I am glad I finally got around to both of them. Soviet Milk follows the lives of three generations of Latvian women and The Heart is a French novel which explores loss, grieving, identity, and human connections. Both are well worth reading.

September stats in brief: 11 books read (9 in English translation); 8 novels and 3 short story collections; 2443 pages; 6 languages represented from 9 countries; 4 ebooks and 7 real books; authors: 4 male and 7 female; translators: 3 male and 6 female.