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A thread where you can let us know how your reading went this month, if you had trouble completing this month's task, if you enjoyed the book you read and whether you'd recommend it.

I read 3 books this month for the challenge:

Amazonia - 2 stars - I mostly picked this up because I saw someone else was going to read it, and I LOVED this author growing up. This one wasn't one of my favorites by him, but I still liked it well enough. I was really appalled at the issues re: racism and sexism I noticed though. Sometimes it doesn't pay to revisit beloved books once you're an adult, though now I am curious to go back and read others I loved by him to see if they have the same issues (spoiler alert: probably).

Perfect Days - 3.5 stars - Edit: I went back and changed the rounding from 3 to 4. I initially gave it 3.5 and rounded down because I was just so angry at the ending that I think it clouded my judgment on how well-written it actually is. This book FUCKED ME UP.

Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus - 3.5 stars - Really interesting from a historical standpoint, not as engaging as a work of literature. It's very sobering and raw, and I think it's ultimately an important book to read.

Overall, I want to say thank you for this month's challenge!! It helped me broaden my horizons and I learned some things in the process :)

I read The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao- 4 stars. I really enjoyed it! The women in the book were all really interesting.

I just finished The Complete Stories as this got posted. The beginning of the collection was pretty rough for me, but it got so much better...I want to say about halfway through the third section, The Foreign Legion. The fourth and fifth sections, Covert Joy and Where Were You At Night, were easily my favorites.

I read The Alchemist without realizing the author is Brazilian lol. I enjoyed it but it wasn't amazing. There's some good stuff in there though.

I ended the month on a bit of a reading slump so I only managed to read one book rather than the two I was hoping for. You've all heard me talk up 1808 since the beginning of the month so I don't have much else to say. I'm glad I didn't force myself to read something that didn't feel like it was right for the moment I'm in.

This year is the first time I've read anything more than a handful of graphic novels in a very long time, so it's exciting to pick up something for a challenge that I wouldn't normally have read, but at the same time I am being pretty generous with myself and not beating myself up if I'm not expanding my boundaries too much beyond the usual genres I enjoy.

Had 2 books for this month but only read one of them, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. Oh well...

I read The Hour of the Star, and I enjoyed it, although the story was weird, the prose was beautiful.

I read 1808. I enjoyed the history but felt that it dragged on a bit.

I'm going back through the wrap-up threads to double check what months I missed.

For this month I had read Perfect Days. Totally messed up book!

My favourite Brazilian fiction read this year was probably Vidas Secas (Barren Lives) by Graciliano Ramos. Most people read this at school, I didn't (my school picked other books). It's wonderful and really sad.

I was recently at a bookshop speaking to a foreigner, who asked me to recommend a book on Brazilian history, as he couldn't understand the country. The one I recommended was Brazil: A Biography by the historian Lilia Moritz Schwarcz. It's a big tome, but if anyone is really interested in Brazilian history, it's a good one. As for understanding the country, that I can't guarantee! lol