Best Books of October
As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she read that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better about doing this.
So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.
These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from October.
The Magician’s Land (Lev Grossman): ChickieNob and I completed listening to the trilogy during our afternoon walk. That was a hard day: to come to the ending of a book series that made us so happy. We’ll probably listen again soon, but we’re currently listening to something else to mix things up. In the meantime, I leave you with my favourite line from this book (which should be required reading for all teenagers): “When I came back I didn’t have a weapon, I was the weapon.” Shivers. And what a powerful moment to flip loss on its head.
Dial A for Aunties (Jesse Q. Sutanto): This book was so. much. fun. I loved it. I loved it so much that I followed the author on GoodReads and added all of her upcoming books to my TBR when I was just a few chapters in. I’m not saying it’s the perfect read—the ending is a little bit rough—but I had so many moments when I laughed aloud reading it.
Rock Paper Scissors (Alice Feeney): Feeney got me so good with this book. It’s pretty rare that I’m blown away by a twist, but I was blown away by this one. She is a master at using your assumptions and turning them against you.
Under the Whispering Door (T.J. Klune): This is the kind of book you pick up if you need a good cry. I read his book, The House in the Cerulean Sea, at the beginning of the pandemic, and it got me through the first few days of worry. This is a beautiful, emotional book, and I highlighted so many lines that made me feel better about life in general. There are so many little endings and big endings baked into life. This is the sort of book that can help you through them a bit.
What did you read last month?
2 comments
I was looking at “Dial A for Aunties” in the bookstore this week. It looked like it might be fun. 🙂
I read three books in October (all reviewed on my blog):
* “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown (a Robert Langdon mystery). I wanted to get it read before the new TV series began. It’s a typical Brown/Langdon mystery — it’s not great literature, but it’s entertaining (and, no surprise, the book is better than the TV series!).
* “Gerald and Elizabeth” by D.E. Stevenson (for my DES online fan group — we’re currently reading & discussing, chapter by chapter). Not one of her better books, but not bad either.
* “The Radium Girls” by Kate Moore. This one had been in my TBR pile for a while, and it was the October pick for another online book club. Long and very detailed, but quite readable. It’s a rather horrific story in some ways (and it really happened), but the bravery of these women had me cheering them on.
Ooh, Rock Paper Scissors is currently sitting on my shelf, waiting to be read, and I had wondered about a couple of your other reviewed books. Glad to hear your reviews of them!
I finally read The House on the Cerulean Sea in October and really enjoyed it. I’ve seen it described as “big, warm, gay hug,” and I would agree with that assessment.
A few other books I read and enjoyed in October: A Thousand Splendid Sons by Khaled Hosseini (I actually cried, a VERY rare occurrence for me with a book); The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly; and I read my first Georgette Heyer book (my BFF has talked a lot about her over the years but I’d never read one of her books) — this one was The Grand Sophy.