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This was a weird reading month. I had a lot of vacation time (a week away with Jimmy alone PLUS a weekend with him in DC for my birthday) and I thought I’d read way more than I did.
But with a couple of exceptions, I didn’t truly connect with much this month. It was kind of odd. Anyway, I’m officially close to meeting my Goodreads 2017 goal. I wanted to read 95 books and I’ve completed 82. Wondering if I’ll meet my goal in October! Hmmm.
As always, you can follow me on Goodreads to see what I’m reading in real time.
So here’s what I read in September:
Little Fires Everywhere // Celeste Ng
I love Celeste Ng. I do. I love her uncanny ability to dissect the mundane and the every day. I love how she explores the nuances of mother daughter relationships. I’m shocked I didn’t love this more and I’m not sure I can even explain why I didn’t. It just D R A G G E D on and on for me. I got a bit more into it by the end but it never truly got its’ hooks into me.
☆☆☆
The Arrangement // Sarah Dunn
Good Lord this one just ended up annoying the crap out of me. Everyone just came across as so self-involved and narcissistic. I knew how this was going to end up from page one and I wasn’t wrong. I have to say that I did love reading about something so foreign to me. It was a little bit naughty and salacious without being smutty.
☆☆ 1/2
Saints for All Occasions // J. Courtney Sullivan
I expected to love this one more than I did. I found it very slow, borderline tedious. It did beautifully examine guilt, obligation, and the ties that bind when it comes to family.
☆☆☆
The Garden of Small Beginnings // Abbi Waxman
Abbi Waxman made me laugh out loud throughout this entire novel. I loved her so much I immediately found and followed her on Twitter. She writes very similarly to how I think about motherhood. I read several passages out loud to Jimmy. This is a sweet gem of a book that covers loss and love and starting over. I also really enjoyed learning more about gardening.
☆☆☆☆
The Names They Gave Us // Emery Lord
I grew up super active in the church and could really identify with Lucy. I loved this sweet YA book. I think it perfectly captured the mixture of fear, love, confusion, sadness and faith in Lucy’s life. It hit that nostalgic sweet spot for me . I didn’t have a sick mother growing up, but I identified very much with the rest of Lucy’s story. The characters were very vividly written and I fell in love with each of them a little bit.
☆☆☆☆1/2
Before the Storm // Diane Chamberlain
This one’s just a generic mehhh for me. I mean, it was just fine. But it wasn’t anything special. I did read it really quickly and there was *something* that kept me reading, but I’m not sure what it was. It was perfectly okay.
☆☆
Be Frank with Me // Julia Claiborne Johnson
Oh this book…this book. The perfect mix of wit, heartbreak, quirk, and magic. It won me over from page one. This gave me the same feels that The Rosie Project and Eleanor Oliphant gave me. It’s the story of one amazing kid and the people who love him. It warmed my heart big time.
“‘Frank will be okay, Alice,’ Mr. Vargas said. ‘He’s an odd duck, but brilliant children often are. It may take him a while, but someday he’ll figure out how to live in the world of ordinary mortals.’”
☆☆☆☆☆
Caraval // Stephanie Garber
At times I found myself really swept away by this one. I found it similar to The Night Circus in that I could completely envision the world that Garber described. However. I found a few things realllly annoying. The way Scarlett used colors to describe feelings was completely unneccessary and got annoying fast. I’m also kinda over the damsel in distress trope. I could have used more “tough chick” and less helpless.
☆☆☆
I chose Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang. I have read and heard SO much about this one so I’m really excited to dig in. It sounds magical. I also added Stephen and Owen King’s new book to my box.
DEALS:
+ Try 1, 2, or 3 months for just $9.99 each
+ Get John Green’s new novel FREE when you join Book of the Month
+ Get Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King FREE when you join Book of the Month
Sold // On Second Thought // Forest Dark // One Perfect Lie // Love and Other Consolation Prizes // The Alice Network // The Secret Keeper
So there you have it! September in a nutshell. So what about YOU! What did you love, hate, feel meh about?
xoxo
S
Great bedside table stack! I’ve read Love and Other Consolation Prizes , The Alice Network and The Secret Keeper and gave all three a solid 4 stars. I’m quite stingy with 5 stars 🙂 Heck- I’m quite stingy with 4 stars. Enjoy!
Thanks for sharing your books! They look good, I added to my pinterest list of books! I am reading “The Marriage Pact” by Michelle Richmond and so far it’s pretty good. I also have the latest Laine Moriarty book (forgot the title). I really need to start writing down what I read because I always forget the titles!
I just checked your beside table list. I can’t wait until my library gets One Perfect Lie! We met the author at a bookstore in Bethany Beach this summer! She is so nice. Read a few of her books and really liked them. So do my teen daughters.
Thanks again for sharing all these great ideas!
I have to ask, why 95? As a person who seems to be too mathematical in her thinking i was trying to do the math and divide by 12 to see if you had a monthly goal or by 52 to see if you had a weekly goal and it seems to not divide evenly into either! (sorry i am way too weird, i know.) I didn’t set a goal for the year but i am tracking and i am on book 221 at the moment. only love love loved a handful of those of course.
I recently read “Stay with me” and liked it, a different book, for me, and of course loved Brene’s new book, too. . Forest Dark is also on my checked out pile. Reading The Ninth Hour at the moment. I have Dark Forest up next and then some YA to mix things up: Warcross, They Both Die at the End, and Jane Unlimited (if you haven’t read Kristin Cashore, I love her, no victim women in her books.) And then I have some non fiction: The Four Tendencies and the amazing Byron Katie’s new book.
Ahem I meant I have Forest Dark up next.
I love you our book recs so I’m currently reading The Blinds. Good so far!
I read a YA book called The Court of Thorns and Roses. It was pretty good and it’s a trilogy so I’ll probably finish those at some point.
I absolutely loved The Secret Keeper. One of my favorite books and the authors has written other books that are pretty good too. So enjoy!
I had a good September as I read 5 books! Blossom Street Brides by Debbie Macomber. I like reading her stuff when I want an easy read that intertwines characters I have gotten to know throughout her series. Then I read Woman of God by James Patterson. I love his books and this was very different, but I found the journey that the main character went through to be gripping. At times when it seemed it might get too depressing, it always found its way back out. A very different read for me. Then I read Beyond Basketball by my all-time favorite coach: Mike Krzyzewski. Reading his book just solidified why I gravitated to him and his style so many years ago. A great outlook on life. Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline was one of those books where you really want to get to the end to be sure you have figured it all out. The main character was certainly experiencing the phenomenon of “when it rains, it pours”. I loved it for the edge of your seat aspect. The last one was The Sculptress by Minette Walters. I have always loved things that are dark, so I recognize that this is not a book for everyone. However, I wanted to know if the main character was being manipulated or if she was on the right track. Interesting. Now I am reading Law & Disorder by Mary Jane Maffini (a Canadian author, so some of the places she is describing I can actually see in my head because I have been there). I am 1 book away from my 25-book goal at Goodreads for 2017, so will definitely surpass it. Yay!
Sorry your reading month was “meh”! I read The Glass Castle — loved it, much more than the movie, which I saw after I finished it. I also read The Light We Lost. This one was three stars for me because as much as I loved the beginning, I didn’t buy into all of Lucy’s actions towards the end and actually wound up being a little annoyed with her. I wanted to love it as Much as Me Before You but didn’t. My favorite book of the month was November 9. Oh how I loved this book. I actually read it in two days, which is a record for me. Totally engrossed me and it had a really satisfying ending!
I just finished The Secret Keeper and loved it! I have enjoyed all Kate Morton books. I hope you enjoy.
After reading your list, I went along to our local library and found Garden of Small Beginnings ! Honestly, I have never devoured a book so fast in such a long time. It was brilliant – just my kind of book . Looking forward to your next months list!!