Required Reading: AUGUST

July hasn't ended yet but already, I was lining up titles that will comprise my reading list for August. And because my bookish buddies and I just went obsessively gaga (as in, goosebumps-all-over, teary-eyed gaga) over the freshly-released trailer of David Mitchell's fantabulous novel, Cloud Atlas, which movie comes out this October (aaaaiiieeee! it can't be soon enough!!), I have decided to make August my personal David Mitchell Marathon Month. (Another bookish friend, Aldrin, is also doing a marathon.)  :D

I began reading Black Swan Green just a couple of weeks back, right before our book club discussion of The Remains of the Day, and I'm reading it still. (Ah, work just gets in the way of my leisure reading!) I'm hoping I could finish it by tomorrow, though. Of course, I'm already done with Cloud Atlas and Ghostwritten, which makes Black Swan Green my third Mitchell novel. That leaves number9dream and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet for me to devour. :)

But first, here are my Required Reading books for July:

• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro - A reread. 5/5
• A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1) by Ursula LeGuin - High fantasy awesomeness. 4/5
• 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff - Touching non-fiction, "adopted" traveling book. 4/5
• Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen - Magic! 4/5 
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - Surprise, buggers! 4/5 

I managed to read all four books within the month, so I was able to squeeze these in, too:

• That Kind of Guy by Mina V. Esguerra - Manang is manang. 3/5
• Wander Girl by Tweet Sering - Wanderlust. 4/5

Six books for July! Yay for me! :)

Now, here are my intended titles for August ~

• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell -  I say "intended titles" for August because I have a read-along date with my awesome reading buddy set in the last quarter of the year for this book, but because of my Mitchell Marathon, I'm tentatively bumping this one up my reading schedule.
• The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides - Eugenides is one of my favorite authors, and yes, I still rave about Middlesex. And I can't believe I haven't even read his first novel yet! I'm reading this one along with my book club friends Angus and Maria.
• An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro - No, I haven't had enough of Ishiguro, and I doubt if he's written a book that I won't love.
• number9dream by David Mitchell - Looking forward to reading this one!

I am also adding this one other title to my August reading list:

• The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst - I bought the Kindle edition last month, and my bookish buddy had good things to say about the (gay) author and his beautiful writing, so I knew I just have to read this. This is my first Hollinghurst, so I'm prepping myself to be blown away.

How about you? What are your reading plans for August? :)