If September was all about fiction, I made up for it in October with plenty of non-fiction reads.
January. February. March. April. May. June. July. August. September.
BOOKS I READ IN OCTOBER — THE SHORT VERSION

- If You Lived Here You’d Be Home By Now — Christopher Ingraham ★★★★☆
- The Comfort Crisis — Michael Easter ★★★☆☆
- The Story She Left Behind — Patti Callahan Henry ★★★☆☆
- The Trolley Car Family — Eleanor Clymer ★★★★★
- Wild Dark Shore — Charlotte McConaghy ★★★★☆
- The Brain at Rest — Joseph Jebelli ★★★★☆
- Softly, as I Leave You: Life After Elvis — Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, Mary Jane Ross *not rated
- A Truce That Is Not Peace — Miriam Toews *not rated
- My Friends — Fredrik Backman ★★★☆☆

- The Ritual Effect — Michael Norton ★★★☆☆
- Chester’s Miracle — M. Jean Pike ★★★★★
- The Joy Luck Club — Amy Tan ★★★★☆
- The Correspondent — Virginia Evans ★★★★★ (audiobook)
- We Do Not Part — Han Kang ★★★☆☆
- Awake: A Memoir — Jen Hatmaker *not rated
- Project Hail Mary — Andy Weir ★★★★☆
- High Season — Katie Bishop ★★★☆☆
BOOKS I READ IN OCTOBER — THE LONG VERSION
If You Lived Here You’d Be Home By Now: Why We Traded the Commuting Life for a Little House on the Prairie — Christopher Ingraham (non-fiction) ★★★★☆
This was an interesting read about how Christopher Ingraham started an online brouhaha when he wrote about Red Lake Falls and dubbed it “the absolute worst place to live in America.”
Well…he ended up moving there with his family and then wrote a book about the experience.
Most of the book was great and pulled me in, but I found a few chapters really dragged and some of the story-telling jumped around in chronological order which was confusing. My biggest issue was the amount of profanity which seemed wholly unnecessary.
Overall, though, a very interesting and easy read that I thoroughly enjoyed! (Lots of food for thought in terms of the tradeoff of living in different locations: urban vs. rural; white collar vs. blue collar; temperate vs. cold-weather climate.)
- Trigger warnings. Profanity.
The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort To Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self — Michael Easter (non-fiction) ★★★☆☆
I have mixed feelings about this book.
Things I liked: it offered a good reminder that we aren’t designed to be sedentary, constantly snacking, and looking for the easiest route from Point A to Point B (literally or figuratively).
Things I didn’t like: a wealthy man is able to leave his wife and children for a month to go into the Alaskan tundra to hunt caribou and live off the land. He loses tons of weight, pushes his body to extremes, and comes back rejuvenated. This is not accessible to the average person, certainly not a woman with children.
There was also a lot of talk about how our forefathers ate, organized their days, and were constantly in motion. But the world has fundamentally changed. We are not chasing tigers or living nomadically, travelling 1000s of kms each year by foot. My ancestors might have emotionally eaten, too, if they were constantly exposed to social media and lived in the modern age with all it’s stresses and pressures!!!
The swearing felt gratuitous at points and wholly unnecessary.
- Trigger warnings. Graphic descriptions of hunting animals for food. Regular profanity.
The Story She Left Behind — Patti Callahan Henry (historical fiction) ★★★☆☆
I wanted (and expected) to love this book but…blergh. I found it to be such a tedious read. The secret language was annoying and downright ridiculous. The resolution at the end was far too neat and did NOT leave me satisfied. I found much of the prose to be stilted and overwritten. The plot moved at glacial speed. I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters (Charlie was my favourite). If I had known it wouldn’t get any better, this would have been a DNF.
Sadly, I couldn’t wait for this book to end. Which is disappointing since I LOVED The Secret Book of Flora Lea. On that note, while this is loosely based on a historical story, it felt like there was too much overlap with The Secret Book of Flora Lea (some of the plot points were extremely similar).
- Summary. Clara Harrington grew up in the shadow of her famous mother, Bronwyn, a child prodigy author who disappeared off the coast of South Carolina when Clara was eight. Decades later, Clara is now an illustrator raising her own daughter, Wynnie, and wrestling with the ache of not knowing what really happened to her mother. When a British researcher (Charlie) contacts her claiming to have found her mother’s handwritten dictionary from a secret language she once invented, Clara’s curiosity wins out. She and Wynnie travel to London to uncover the truth, only to arrive in the middle of the Great Smog of 1952.
- Trigger warnings. Discussion of suicide.
The Trolley Car Family — Eleanor Clymer (YA fiction) ★★★★★
I’m pasting my Goodreads review verbatim:
My first written review on Goodreads [clearly this review was written a while ago]. After 100’s of books, why now?
Quite simply, The Trolley Car Family is the book that sparked my lifelong obsession with reading. There were books before, and there have been thousands since, but this book will forever hold a special place in my heart.
It’s an unassuming story that moves at a slow and steady pace; there are no explosions, magical fairies or hidden treasure and, despite my admiration for Nancy Drew, nary a mystery to solve. But The Trolly Car Family is fun and comfortable. Reading this book feels like slipping on your comfiest pajamas and curling up in the nostalgic blanket of childhood, all in front of a raging fireplace…during a blizzard.


My tattered copy, gifted to my sister the year I was born, is a delight to me each time I return to it. I’m attached to every character: their good hearts and adventurous spirits. And who could resist falling in love with miserly old Mr. Jefferson who transforms from cranky milkman to self-assured dairy farmer, falling in love with Aunt Hannah along the way. Not me!
Now, all these decades later, to be reading this book to my children, who love it nearly as much as I did/do — well that’s pure joy.
Update: Oct 2025. I read this to my tween at bedtime and it was such a delight.
- Summary. After Pa is laid off, the Parker family decide to turn an old trolley car into their new house for the summer. They move to the countryside, bringing along their grumpy milkman neighbour from town, Mr. Jefferson, who — spoiler alert — ends up becoming one of the loveliest characters in the whole book. They make new friends, plant gardens, milk cows and figure out how to maintain their quality of life in the face of big changes (trolley cars are being replaced by buses — scandalous!).
Wild Dark Shore — Charlotte McConaghy (fiction) ★★★★☆
4.5 stars rounded down to 4.
I really enjoyed this book. I found the multiple perspectives engaging and relatively easy to follow (mostly because there wasn’t a huge cast of characters). A few of the plot lines felt wildly unrealistic, but I read it in a single sitting.
A tiny niggle — I cannot stand the name Dominic Salt.
Bonus points: they live in a lighthouse!
- Summary. Set on Shearwater, a remote island near Antarctica, this story follows Dominic Salt and his three children who are caretakers of the island’s seed bank. Once bustling with scientists, Shearwater is now abandoned except for the Salts, whose lives have become as bleak and isolated as the landscape itself. Everything changes when a mysterious woman (Rowan) washes ashore during a violent storm. As Rowan becomes entangled with the family, tensions rise and people have to decide between protecting secrets and protecting one another. There’s sabotage, loss, and just enough suspense to keep you flipping pages (or, in my case, reading it straight through in one sitting).
- Triggers warnings. Suicide, sexual assault, occasional strong language.
The Brain at Rest: How the Art and Science of Doing Nothing Can Improve Your Life — Joseph Jebelli (non-fiction) ★★★★☆
This was an encouraging read about the importance of rest, and included suggestions of various ways to incorporate more rest into our lives, along with a general summary of why we need to step back and savour our lives.
Nothing was groundbreaking or shocking, but it was full of simple facts and reminders, and I really enjoyed the book.
Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis — Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, Mary Jane Ross (non-fiction; memoir) *Not rated
I have never read any books about Elvis before, so was coming into this “blind.”
What a sad, tragic life story. The writing wasn’t amazing, but as always, I appreciate getting behind-the-scenes glimpses into celebrities lives and it’s yet another reminder of the many pitfalls of fame and fortune.
- Trigger warnings. Substance abuse, overdose deaths.
A Truce That Is Not Peace — Miriam Toews (non-fiction; memoir) *not rated
I’m not sure how this book ended up on my TBR list and, to be honest, I wanted to stop reading it many times. It was a deeply uncomfortable memoir, told in a fractured, raw tone.
In general, it goes through the deep trauma suffered by the author (a celebrated novelist) after the suicide deaths of her father and sister.
There is a lot of symbolism and depth to this book, much of which went over my head. While I don’t think I’d recommend this book to others, it was unique and emotionally compelling.
- Trigger warnings. Frequent strong language, frequent discussions of mental illness and suicide.
My Friends — Fredrik Backman (fiction) ★★★☆☆
I know I’m in the minority on this seemingly universally beloved story…but by the end, reading this book felt like a complete and utter slog.
I really liked some of the characters (especially Louisa and Joar) so that’s why I kept reading, but this book was much too long for my liking. Getting to the resolution, which fell a bit flat for me, seemed to take forever and there was some cliffhanger-type suspense that also frequently did not live up to my expectations.
I feel like this is a book that could have been phenomenal (Backman is a gifted writer), but simply got bogged down with too much detail and filler. But maybe that’s just me…
- Summary. A world-famous painting of a group of teenagers looking out to sea is up for auction. Young foster child, Louisia, is deeply attached to the image because of the three tiny figures sitting at the end of a pier. Through a series of bizarre coincidences, Louisa, ends up inheriting this priceless painting and goes on a mission to uncover the stories of the teenagers on the pier and the friendship that inspired the artwork.
- Trigger warnings. SO MANY. Domestic abuse, sexual assault (implied), parental death, substance abuse/overdose, petty crime, profanity.
The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions — Michael Norton (non-fiction) ★★★☆☆
Meh. I was hoping for more! I am fascinated by routines and rituals and was SO excited to get my hands on this book.
It felt watered down, generic, and most of the anecdotes weren’t overly engaging. I did really enjoy the chapter, ironically enough, on rituals surrounding death and grief. If the whole book had been as interesting, I would have been hooked.
I also felt the relatively constant institution-dropping of his role at Harvard a bit unsavoury.
The book was fine, but disappointing, especially about a topic that can be so rich and engaging.
And not that this ultimately matters too much (and if you read the book you’ll understand the symbolism), but I also don’t like the cover (or ANY of the cover iterations). Again, I feel like it could have been much more engaging.
Chester’s Miracle — M. Jean Pike (Christian fiction) ★★★★★
Jean has done it again! What a wonderfully uplifting novella, released right before Christmas. Based on a real-life support dog (named Chester), I enjoyed every page of this festive book! It’s Christian fiction at its best; a story that simply and clearly points readers to Christ.
- Summary. Aimee Perkins is headed to rendezvous with the boyfriend she met online — for Christmas Eve! Things take an unexpected turn before she gets there when Aimee rescues Chester, an aging service dog about to be put down. En route, her fairy-tale date unravels. A blizzard hits, her boyfriend disappears (his number’s disconnected and his profile’s gone), and Aimee ends up stranded and terrified on a snowy mountain road. Just when she thinks all hope is lost, she’s rescued by Marty, a gentle, big-hearted mountain man who’s been looking for love. And Chester get’s the chance to prove he’s still in the business of saving lives.
The Joy Luck Club — Amy Tan (fiction) ★★★★☆
4.5 stars rounded down to 4.
This book is incredibly sad. It’s also brilliant. I thought the way Tan unravels the various characters and plums the depths of mother-daughter relationships, especially in the context of cultural nuances, was wonderfully done. Seeing the layers of the past being slowly removed was fascinating and it was a great reminder that we often have no idea of the level of trauma people (including our own parents) have experienced.
There were some parts of the story that I found confusing and I did CONSTANTLY have to flip back to the first few pages to keep the different family pairings straight, but I really enjoyed this book. Gold stars to Engie for hosting a Cool Bloggers Book Club focussing on this book.
- Summary. The book follows four Chinese mothers and their American-born daughters as they navigate love, loss, and the impossible gap between generations. The mothers fled China carrying trauma and hope, while their daughters grow up in San Francisco trying to live American lives without fully understanding their mothers’ sacrifices. The novel moves between voices and timelines, gradually revealing the everyone’s histories and the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters.
- Trigger warnings. Some profanity; miscarriage and infant loss; war.
The Correspondent — Virginia Evans (fiction) ★★★★★
This book is everything a book should be. It pulled me in (I listened to the audiobook — a rarity for me — and having the different narrations was stunning), and left me IN PIECES at the end.
It gives you a bit of everything: I laughed out loud, I (almost) cried. There is a lot of heartbreak, but there is also plenty of levity.
As someone who loves to write letters and grew up watching my mother send long handwritten notes to friends and family week after week, this book struck a nerve.
I also appreciated how you see the flaws in the main character, Sybil. She didn’t get everything right. Her actions did have repercussions — some of them incredibly serious.
I rarely listen to audiobooks, but do think this book was greatly enhanced by having different accents/characters. I’m not sure if it would have been a 5-star book for me if I had been reading it in paper format.
(Hands down Theodore was my favourite character!)
- Summary. Sybil Van Antwerp is a woman who writes letters to make sense of her life — to her brother, to her best friend, even to famous authors and university presidents. She writes Joan Didion. She writes her next-door neighbour, Theodore, she writes a customer service representative at an online DNA testing site. She writes to make sense of her strained relationship with her daughter. Through her letters, we see her deepest joys, regrets, and the complicated ways different stories interconnect.
- Trigger warnings. Some profanity, child loss, mental illness, attempted suicide, infertility.
We Do Not Part — Han Kang (historical fiction) ★★★☆☆
This book is beautifully written and giving it 3-stars simply reflects my own inability to fully appreciate the cultural and literary nuances. The second half of the book is written in a dream-like perspective and I found it increasingly difficult to follow. Again, I suspect that is on me.
For me it was not an easily “accessible” book but FULL of symbolism and cultural nuance.
- Summary. A novel set against the backdrop of the Jeju Uprising in Korea. Kyungha’s friend, Inseon, is involved in a woodworking accident and asks Kyungha to go to Jeju Island to rescue her pet bird, Ama, who has been left behind without food and water. Kyungha goes to Jeju in the middle of a horrible snow storm and starts to work through personal and historical trauma.
- Trigger warnings. Graphic details about the Jeju massacre; descriptions of medical trauma.
Awake: A Memoir — Jen Hatmaker (non-fiction; memoir) *not rated
I’ve had complicated feelings about Jen Hatmaker for a while, and her most recent book continued that trend!
This memoir is written in the wake of her sudden (and very public) divorce after she discovered her husband (a pastor) was having an affair. It jumps back and forth between her conservative Christian upbringing and current life.
Something about her writing has always struck me as inauthentic and off-putting, but I would consider this to be a memoir that will have very different impacts on different people.
- Trigger warnings. Some profanity.
Project Hail Mary — Andy Weir (science fiction) ★★★★☆
This was a great book. I don’t typically reach for science fiction but this was incredibly well-written. It makes complex concepts in mathematics and physics feel accessible to the everyday person.
That said, the middle section dragged a bit (a common theme for me), and I found myself skimming more than I’d like.
The ending was very satisfying and redemptory and I’m looking forward to watching the upcoming movie.
- Summary. Ryland Grace (a middle-school science teacher) wakes up alone on a spaceship, light-years from Earth, with no memory of who he is or why he’s there. As his memories return, he remembers he’s humanity’s last hope: the sun is dying, and if he fails, everyone on earth will soon freeze to death. Then he meets Rocky, an alien (who doesn’t speak English!) from another planet facing the same crisis. Despite their species’ vast differences, the two form an unlikely friendship and work together to solve the mystery threatening both their worlds.
- Trigger warnings. End-of-the-world scenarios, very limited profanity.
High Season — Katie Bishop (fiction; thriller) ★★★☆☆
I really enjoyed the first half of the book, but by the end it felt cumbersome and the ending was…blah. I actually guessed the punchline within the first few chapters (without knowing all the nuances).
Oddly, I felt like I connected with multiple characters at the beginning, but that connection faded and I felt less and less attached to them as the book went on.
- Summary. Twenty years ago, seventeen-year-old Tamara Drayton drowned in the pool at her family’s glamorous villa in the south of France. Her six-year-old sister, Nina, was the only witness and she told police she’d seen their babysitter, Josie, push Tamara under the water. Josie was convicted of murder, and the Drayton family fell apart. Now an adult, Nina’s not so sure she got it right. Her memories of that night are blurry (at best) and when a true-crime documentary crew announces plans to revisit the case, she’s drawn back into the world she’s tried to forget.
- Trigger warnings. Frequent alcohol consumption, substance abuse, sexual assault, profanity.
Your turn.
- Any commentary to add regarding any of the books mentioned above?
- If you read The Correspondent, who was your favourite character?
- Best book you read in October?
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Ah, I completely agree with your take on “The Comfort Crisis”!
Sure, modern life has made us soft, and a little intentional discomfort does us good, but a solo month in the Alaskan wilderness feels like a rather luxurious way to escape modern comforts to “find yourself.”
And your line about emotional eating in the age of social media is spot on!
Right? I feel like it’s comparing apples and oranges, but we’re made to feel bad for being oranges!
Such a great month of reading! I adored Wild Dark Shore but had to giggle at your point about “Dominic Salt.” Sounds like a character from Dahl or Dickens, doesn’t it? I just posted my review of The Correspondent, which I adored. I also listened to the audiobook version — so well done! If you are ever looking for book recommendations for your kiddos, my daughter LOVED Project Hail Mary. We listened to the audio version, which was fabulous. Especially Rocky’s voice.
I’ve heard such good things about the audio version of Project Hail Mary!
That name rubbed me in all the wrong ways. Seriously? That was what she came up with; I don’t know, it just…didn’t ever feel right to me!
Also DID NOT LIKE the Bakman book and feel similarly about Jen Hatmaker, although her book is FOR SURE on my list.
I am so glad to know I’m not the only one re. Bakman! I mean, it was fine. I didn’t hate it, but it dragged soooooo much for me in the middle.
That’s a good month of reading! I’m taking note of If You Lived Here and The Comfort Crisis. I think it’s only fair that the author’s wife should get a month off to pursue her dreams. I’ve been ignoring Wild Dark Shore because the title reminds me of Wild Game, which is a book that I did not like, but now that you told me it’s about a lighthouse, how can I not read it?
I’m on the fence about Awake. I heard her on a podcast and liked her, but I feel like I’ve overdone divorce memoirs.
I don’t think I will read The Brain at Rest, simply because I think I know the punchline, but now that I’m four days into not working, I can tell you that life is amazing.
I’m going to try the audio version of The Correspondent. I DNF’d the print book b/c I couldn’t concentrate, but I feel like audio might work better for this one.
You definitely know the punchline of The Brain at Rest. I don’t remember a specific thing about it at this point…but I feel like it would be worthwhile re-reading once a year just for the positive affirmation about the importance of rest.
I AM SO GLAD YOU ARE FINISHED WITH YOUR JOB. RETIREMENT, BIRCHIE. Woot, woot.
I don’t think I would have liked The Correspondent nearly as much in print. (Though the one downside of audio is you can’t skip all the narration of the e-mail addresses etc; I do listen on 1.5-1.8x though.
I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THE ELVIS BOOK
Small tidbit about me: I read Elvis and Me when it came out in…1986? I was 11, I think, or maybe 12. Anyway, I was obsessed. Obsessed with Elvis, obsessed with their story, and if you don’t know the story, here it is: Priscilla was in Germany with her family (dad was in Army) and she was 14. Elvis was in the army. She meets Elvis. She’s 14 and he’s 24 and they start a romance. It’s fairly chaste but still. Anyway, Elvis goes back to America, she’s still in Germany, but when she’s 16 SHE MOVES BACK TO THE STATES TO LIVE WITH HIM AND NOW HE’S 26. They do eventually get married, have Lisa Marie, and then get divorced. It’s a pretty wild story and I thought it was so romantic! Now I think “OMG gross.” Anyway, you can BET I will read that book. Wow, I can’t believe I didn’t know about it. I hope it talks about her time on Dallas!
It is SO WILD. She lived with him for years at Graceland – platonically, she claims – until they got married. AND HER PARENTS LET HER DO THIS. It’s crazy.
It’s also clear that she really loved Elvis and that his death left a massive hole in her life and, in many ways, was the undoing of Lisa Marie. Such a sad story.
She does talk quite a bit about various acting roles; you’re in luck 🙂
i read the print version of The Correspondent and also gave it 5 stars- so it works both ways. I can see how the audio would be amazing though. I’m definitely reading Project Hail Mary soon (well, soon after the holidays). i’ve heard it described as a book that almost everyone would like, and I’m intrigued! You liked it although you don’t usually read sci fi, so I guess the claim is accurate.
i also found The Joy Luck Club to be SAD, but also a beautiful book. I had a hard time keeping the characters straight, but in the end that didn’t bother me. I just read it as if it were a collection of short stories that were loosely connected.
I never read The Trolley Car Family, and I feel like I missed out! I love that you still have the copy from your childhood.
I think you’ll love Project Hail Mary, Jenny. Can’t wait to hear what you think.
It was hard to keep things straight with Joy Luck Club. I started taking notes. It was the only way I could keep the different threads separate in my head and even then, like you’ve said, I approached it a bit more like it was distinct short stories.
I’m waiting for the Correspondent through my library, but my guess is it will be a long wait. It sounds really good. I think the last epistolary book was the Guernsey Potato Society and I loved that book. A writer that doesn’t sound authentic is definitely not for me. I’ve not heard of Jen Hatmaker, so I’ll skip that one. I have decided I’ll have to read the Trolley Car Family to Kay. Maybe over Christmas break. I really liked Heartwood. I read that in October.
I listened to it on Spotify (I get 15 hours of audiobook listening each month). I don’t typically go for audiobooks, but it was perfect for the long drive to my parents AND I think it was better as an audiobook!
The Trolley Car Family is so easy to read and just…wholesome and heartwarming.
Noooo! My Friends is next on my list and I’ve been SO excited for it, as it seems to be almost universally loved. I’m curious now to see what I think about it. I’ve also been hearing a lot about the Correspondent, so will definitely be adding it to my TBR list.
Please let me know what you end up thinking about My Friends. Like I said, I think I’m in the minority. It just really dragged for me in the middle.
The Correspondent really lived up to all the hype for me.
The Correspondent is my top read of 2025 and I cannot imagine another book topping it! It was such a wonderful book and I’m especially impressed that it was the author’s debut! I can’t wait to see what she does next but wow does she have a lot to live up to! I always feel a little bit bad for authors who publish an excellent debut because it’s a tough act to follow!
I read Awake and appreciated it – I’m not sure what other word to use as it’s not like I enjoyed a memoir about such a heart breaking experience? I do like Jen, though, so I was bound to like it. I respect how her views on things have shifted over the years – that would be really hard to do as a public figure in the evangelical church!
Such a good point! It will be hard for her to top The Correspondent!
More trigger warnings for The Joy Luck Club (cannibalism, abortion, child death – not just infant! poor Bing! gross depictions of food preparation). That book really was just trauma porn as far as I’m concerned. Boo. I have regrets about my CBBC choice, but I’m happy that other people seemed to get more out of it than I did.
But The Correspondent! What an absolutely perfect novel. That’s all.
Oops. You’re right. I missed MORE trigger warnings.
It was a lot to handle, but I did think it was beautifully written, albeit depressing at MANY times. I will admit I never once noticed anything about gross good preparation (outside of you mentioning it on your blog).
P.S. This feels a bit like My Brilliant Friend in reverse. I know you love that book and I…I loathed it!
Yes, I thought about that as I was forcing myself to read the JLC chapters. That must have been what all the My Brilliant Friend haters were feeling!
I think the sheer improbability of Wild Dark Shore is where a lot of the magic comes in – it’s such a WILD concept, so unfathomably different from anything I or anyone I know has experienced. Definitely compulsively readable – listenable, in my case. (Steve West as narrator? Oh yes!)
I bet it would have been FANTASTIC as an audiobook!
So many thoughts!
1. Mike Rowe* interviewed Michael Easter about The Comfort Crisis, which caused cheap-o me to buy the book, devour it, feel like a lazy blob, and give the book away. I HATE cold water and like the effects of exercise but not the actual doing of it.
2. Waiting for My Friends and The Correspondent; haven’t heard anyone yet who likes My Friends. As a lifelong letter writer with 2 of my favorite books of all time being written via letters**, I can hardly wait for The Correspondent.
3. I read the Joy Luck Club when it first came out and loved it, having visited China about 10 years earlier. It caused me to be a big Amy Tan fan. Now I can’t remember the story, only that it required much flipping to remember which daughter belonged to which mother.
4. I’m sorry that Jen Hatmaker’s husband cheated but that doesn’t make me like her enough to read her book.
5. Thank you for all the suggestions and reviews; I looked up several on GoodReads and believe you have saved me from adding any more books to my TBR!
6. I am sick of gratuitous profanity, both hearing it flung around needlessly and seeing it in books. Come on, people, can’t you develop a better vocabulary? Sigh.
7. What are you going to do for books while in Europe for 4 months? All e-books? Yikes. That fills me with concern and dread for you (and sadness for us because maybe you won’t do your monthly reading recaps!)
8. I will check out Your Brain at Rest only if I happen to stumble across it in the library. Doesn’t sound worth waiting for.
*The Way I Heard It is the best podcast I’ve ever listened to; still not tired of it in spite of listening to almost every single episode since the beginning.
** Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. Okay, three, because Dear Enemy is the sequel to Daddy Long Legs.
So much profanity AND so much infidelity in plot lines lately. Both drive me crazy 🙁
I think it will be all e-books in Europe and I am dreading that. Oh well. I don’t think I’ll have a lot of time to read anyway, and maybe I’ll find some little free libraries along the way…that have English books??!
There is A LOT of profanity in My Friends, so I’ll be curious what you think.
The only books I’ve read from this list are Wild Dark Shore (I didn’t like it as much as you did, but I can definitely see the appeal!) and Project Hail Mary (LOVED – cannot wait for the movie!).
I’m curious about your thoughts on Jen Hatmaker! I don’t follow her very closely, but I did read one book by her (something with the number 7 in the title) and thought it was so good. I was shocked when I heard about her marriage ending!
The best book I read in October was Blue Sisters. It started off as a 2-star read but the author really pulled me in, and it was 4.5 stars when I finished it!
People who think our hunter gatherer ancestors would not eat a sleeve of Girl Scout cookies in front of the cave drawings are kidding themselves. They did not have the resources we have.
The Correspondent…wow wow wow did I love that book. I’m going to buy it when it comes out in paperback, though like you I listened to it and ADORED it. I am generally not into episalatory (bah, I can’t spell) novels, but this one, wow. And OMG, did Suzanne hit it out of the park with her review, right? SO AMAZING.
“People who think our hunter gatherer ancestors would not eat a sleeve of Girl Scout cookies in front of the cave drawings are kidding themselves. They did not have the resources we have.”
YES AND AMEN TO THAT! Also…haha.
And Suzanne is just the best in every possible way and that review really drove that fact home <3
I just finished the Unshaken Faith podcast discussing Jen Hatmakers book, and would recommend it for a gospel- centered take on what she has to say. It’s a long one though- I had to break it into chunks just for the sake of time. I was interested in knowing the content of the book but didn’t really want to read it since I know I disagree with a lot of her current thinking.
Thanks for the recommendation!!!
I also read The Joy Luck Club, My Friends, and Project Hail Mary. I also didn’t love My Friends; it bogged in the middle for me too. I’m currently listening to Fredrik Backman’s Bear Town “; I’m almost finished, and I can’t wait to be done with it. It’s not my fave, but I’m not gonna quit!
I also can’t wait to see PHM on screen—what will Rocky actually look like, because what I had in my brain was wild.
It makes me feel so much better to know that other people found My Friends dragged in the middle. I’d only heard rave reviews so felt like I was an anomaly.
Wandering in late to say thanks for reminding me to add some of these to my TBR. You had a GREAT month of reading! Also.. I am realizing that I cannot STAND profanity in books. Well, useless and/or excessive profanity. Why??? I appreciate you calling it out. It’s led to me not finishing several books in the last year or so.
There is so much profanity in some books. I find it endlessly frustrating.