{"id":7040612,"date":"2026-08-17T10:30:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T10:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/books\/what-i-was-reading-and-doing-10-years-ago-august-2016-annabookbel\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T10:30:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T10:30:24","slug":"what-i-was-reading-and-doing-10-years-ago-august-2016-annabookbel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612","title":{"rendered":"What I was reading (and doing) 10 years ago: August 2016 \u2013 AnnaBookBel"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"\"
4 novels for #WITMonth 2016: from Korean, Vietnamese-Canadian, Belgian & Japanese women authors.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

This is the fourth post in my occasional series of archive posts in which I look back ten years. (See others here<\/a>.) Being the school holidays, It was a good month of reading \u2013 18 books finished, 5144 pages, and I posted eleven reviews on the blog, more at Shiny New Books<\/a>. They included 4 YA novels, all with mental health themes and all very readable. At this stage I was still reading YA novels as my daughter was a mid-teenager. I also read, 4 titles for that year\u2019s #WITMonth, of which Marie<\/a><\/em> by Madeleine Bourdouxhe and The Nakano Thrift Shop<\/a><\/em> by Hiromi Kawahami were the stand outs for me, but all four were excellent.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
MY TBR Rainbow: The Medal Edit<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

One of my interittent projects of 2016 had been making a rainbow of coloured book spines, colour by colour. That had finished, but with the 2016 Olympics happening, I did a \u2018medal edit\u2019<\/a> pile of gold, silver and bronze ones. <\/p>\n

My reading also included not one, but two re-reads for Book Group: The superb Maltese Falcon<\/a><\/em> by Dashiell Hammett (read for July\u2019s book, reviewed August) and the equally superb but totally different historical novel John Saturnall\u2019s Feast<\/a><\/em> by Lawrence Norfolk for August\u2019s book, reviewed Sept). We were picking our books by theme keywords at that time \u2013 \u2018Noir\u2019 and \u2018Food\u2019 respectively.<\/p>\n

Several others read were reviewed in later months too including Jane Thynne\u2019s 4th Clara Vine<\/a> book and Shopgirl<\/a><\/em> by Steve Martin. <\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

However, my reading highlight was my discovery of Becky Chambers through the first volume of her \u2018Wayfarers\u2019 novels \u2013 The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet<\/a><\/em>. What a treat this was! Intelligent SF with a heart and humour. It is full of alien species \u2013 \u2018sapients\u2019 mostly living in relative harmony with each other. The Wayfarer is a tunneling ship, a patchwork vessel whose job is to create and stabilise wormholes in between space to make travel over great distances possible and safe.\u00a0The novel follows new crew member Rosemary, a human from Mars, and introduces us to a colourful cast of humans and aliens onboard. All of the crew have depth and well-rounded characters, and form\u00a0an inclusive bunch in the best\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0tradition (additionally, the Galactic Commons are the equivalent of the Federation and the Toremi take the place of the Cardassians in this narrative). However, the story is\u00a0told with\u00a0Red Dwarf\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0sense of humour which keeps things light-hearted and optimistic even in the darkest moments. <\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Finally on the books read front, the prize for best cover of the month goes to The Atomic Weight of Love<\/em><\/a> by Elizabeth J Church. An academic romance of sorts, set in the Manhattan Project\u2019s rarefied atmosphere, with some birdwatching on the side. <\/p>\n

I also got to the theatre twice in August. <\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Firstly to the Old Vic to see Groundhog Day<\/a> <\/em>\u2013 the musical, with book by Danny Rubin who wrote the original screenplay, and music & lyrics by Tim Minchin. Largely following the film, this was so well done, with loads of visual effects to allow all the permutations of events to happen. It only had a limited run at the Old Vic, not transferring into the West End, but it won a slew of awards at the Oliviers and on Broadway. Andy Karl (left) who played Phil Connors was amazing! A huge standing ovation from the audience at the end. <\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Secondly, I managed to find a good seat at short notice to see Kenneth Branagh as Archie Rice in John Osborne\u2019s The Entertainer<\/em><\/a> at the Garrick. Scenes alternate between the Rice\u2019s home and Archie\u2019s stage act. What is immediately clear is that Archie can\u2019t turn it off \u2013 his life at home is another act.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Right from the start, Branagh made it obvious that he wasn\u2019t in thrall to Olivier. He and his director Rob Ashford, wanted to show more of the hoofer side of Archie, the song and dance man comic. In a wordless intro, Branagh comes through the back door in his vest with a towel around his neck, practising his tap dancing. Nothing fancy, a few shuffles and kick ball turns sort of thing \u2013 a gentle warm-up but with a heaviness to it that warns of angst to come. Meanwhile his four chorus girls prance around him in their dressing gowns. Then Branagh disappears, the girls pull forward a few bits of furniture and we\u2019re in the Rice residence. Always a pleasure to see Branagh on stage.<\/p>\n

So August 2016 was a great month for reading and theatre for me. Can you remember what you were doing ten years ago?<\/strong><\/p>\n

See also: Eleanor\u2019s post here<\/a> \u2013 do feel free to join in too!<\/p>\n

\n

Like this:<\/h3>\n

Like<\/span><\/span> Loading…<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4 novels for #WITMonth 2016: from Korean, Vietnamese-Canadian, Belgian & Japanese women authors. This is the fourth post in my occasional series of archive posts in which I look back ten years. (See others here.) Being the school holidays, It was a good month of reading \u2013 18 books finished, 5144 pages, and I posted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7040613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[3915,5427,3646,1003],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7040612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-annabookbel","tag-august","tag-reading","tag-years"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat I was reading (and doing) 10 years ago: August 2016 \u2013 AnnaBookBel - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What I was reading (and doing) 10 years ago: August 2016 \u2013 AnnaBookBel - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"4 novels for #WITMonth 2016: from Korean, Vietnamese-Canadian, Belgian & Japanese women authors. This is the fourth post in my occasional series of archive posts in which I look back ten years. (See others here.) Being the school holidays, It was a good month of reading \u2013 18 books finished, 5144 pages, and I posted […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-17T10:30:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/10-years-ago.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"What I was reading (and doing) 10 years ago: August 2016 \u2013 AnnaBookBel\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-17T10:30:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612\"},\"wordCount\":809,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/10-years-ago.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"AnnaBookBel\",\"August\",\"Reading\",\"Years\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Books\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612\",\"name\":\"What I was reading (and doing) 10 years ago: August 2016 \u2013 AnnaBookBel - Som2ny Network\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/10-years-ago.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-17T10:30:24+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/10-years-ago.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/10-years-ago.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What I was reading (and doing) 10 years ago: August 2016 \u2013 AnnaBookBel\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"description\":\"Daily Deals\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":86,\"caption\":\"Som2ny Network\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What I was reading (and doing) 10 years ago: August 2016 \u2013 AnnaBookBel - Som2ny Network","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What I was reading (and doing) 10 years ago: August 2016 \u2013 AnnaBookBel - Som2ny Network","og_description":"4 novels for #WITMonth 2016: from Korean, Vietnamese-Canadian, Belgian & Japanese women authors. This is the fourth post in my occasional series of archive posts in which I look back ten years. (See others here.) Being the school holidays, It was a good month of reading \u2013 18 books finished, 5144 pages, and I posted […]","og_url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612","og_site_name":"Som2ny Network","article_published_time":"2026-08-17T10:30:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/10-years-ago.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371"},"headline":"What I was reading (and doing) 10 years ago: August 2016 \u2013 AnnaBookBel","datePublished":"2026-08-17T10:30:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612"},"wordCount":809,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/10-years-ago.jpg","keywords":["AnnaBookBel","August","Reading","Years"],"articleSection":["Books"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612","name":"What I was reading (and doing) 10 years ago: August 2016 \u2013 AnnaBookBel - Som2ny Network","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/10-years-ago.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-17T10:30:24+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/10-years-ago.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/10-years-ago.jpg","width":600,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040612#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What I was reading (and doing) 10 years ago: August 2016 \u2013 AnnaBookBel"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","name":"Som2ny Network","description":"Daily Deals","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization","name":"Som2ny Network","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","width":300,"height":86,"caption":"Som2ny Network"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/fivemor.com"],"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7040612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7040612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7040612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7040613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7040612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7040612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7040612"},{"taxonomy":"dealstore","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fdealstore&post=7040612"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fofferexpiration&post=7040612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}