Oh September. Always a crazy month… School in full swing, grades needing to be posted, football season driving me crazy. I somehow managed to read NINE books in the middle of all the craziness, probably because it was a great escape from all of the research papers I should have been grading. True, four of the books were rereads, but I love rereading novels, and this seemed like a good month to revisit some favorites.
Overall, it was a good month of reading, with mostly four star books. I absolutely blew through the All Souls trilogy, and quickly followed up with Harkness’s new release, Time’s Convert, which accounted for four of my nine books of the month. I think I loved them even more on my second reading! Also, A Visit From the Goon Squad was a surprisingly good start to my month, and These Broken Stars was a great ending! Check out what I read below.
Books are listed in the order they were read. For more mini-reviews, check out my What I Read tag.
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Premise: Bennie is a record executive from a major rock label who is struggling. He drinks gold flakes in his coffee and he’s losing his touch. Sasha is his assistant who also happens to be a kleptomaniac. This is the story of them, and of the people they have known throughout their lives.
My Rating: 4 Stars
Thoughts: I really hated this book at the beginning. It was confusing, disorienting, and seemingly unstructured. We meet Bennie and Sasha, but the chapters that follow show people interacting with them, embracing them, hating them, or actually completely unrelated to them until a surprise twist three chapters later. The book jumps back and forth in time (Bennie middle aged, young Bennie, young Sasha, Bennie on his deathbed, all back to back), but it doesn’t alert you to where in the timeline you are moving. It also switches points of view every chapter — most of the time to a new character that hasn’t been introduced yet. There is one chapter that is told in second person POV (so “you” are the one doing everything), and there’s an entire chapter told in PowerPoint slides (seriously, it’s 50 pages and the best part of this book).
The reviews online of this book are definitely of the LOVE IT or HATE IT variety. It’s won a ton of awards, which is what drew me to it in the first place. I’m really glad I stuck it out, and I’m really glad I took some time to focus on it, rather than just reading it a few pages at a time here or there. It’s a book that requires time and attention. I really enjoyed it, surprisingly.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who likes weird books. Anyone who likes experimental (realistic) fiction. Anyone who loves rock and roll.
All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness
For a full review, check out this post.
Premise: Diana is a scholar of science history at Yale, and she also happens to be a witch. When she discovers an ancient manuscript that has been hidden away for centuries, other creatures come out of the woodwork to discover how she found it. Her favorite of these creatures is Matthew, the very handsome vampire.
My Rating: 4.5 Stars
Thoughts: Ok, so maybe my summary is a bit cheesy, but it’s kind of like this book. First and foremost, this is a love story between a witch and vampire. There’s also a lot of yoga and battles and family history, but, in it’s essence, this is about love and protection and how far we are willing to go for the people we care about.
This was my second time reading the trilogy through, and I think I loved it even more than I did the first time around (despite the hype I had built up in my head). The whole series has enough history and science and intrigue and suspense and battles and conflict to keep even the most heartless reader interested, and, for those of us with a heart, it has a pretty great love story. Plus, the second book takes place in Elizabethan England, and there was a new book released this month (Time’s Convert, see below) that served as a companion for the series.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who loves paranormal books (vampires, witches, and daemons, oh my!). Anyone who loves a good love story.
The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle
*Note: I was given a free copy of this book from the publisher. It in no way impacted my review (obviously).
Premise: When Sabrina shows up for her birthday dinner, she gets a surprise. Seated at the dinner table is Audrey Hepburn, her estranged father, her philosophy professor from college, her ex-boyfriend, and her best friend. As the night goes on, more and more secrets are revealed about Sabrina’s past and her future.
My Rating: 2.5 Stars
Thoughts: I thought not liking Girl, Wash Your Face would make me the most unpopular person on the Internet, but this may outstrip it. I have seen this book popping up everywhere, mostly due to the publisher sending out 2,500 free copies and it being a Book of the Month club choice in August. I’ve seen some rave reviews out there, but I didn’t have super high hopes for this book, based on the first chapter that I read online… I knew the writing wouldn’t be wonderful.
But, I’ll be honest, it wasn’t terrible. I pushed through it pretty quickly. But it was very, VERY reminiscent of The Light We Lost. As in, Gabe and Tobias are basically the same person — selfish artists with whom the main protagonist falls for and then loses everything about herself in an attempt to hold on to him so tightly. As much as I hated Tobias and Sabrina’s relationship (and also their names, geez), I wouldn’t have minded the book so much, except it was so predictable. I called the twist way ahead of time, and the rest of the story was much more compelling and far too overlooked. I wanted more about her relationship with her father and her friendship with Jessica, and less of the toxic relationship she kept hoping to resurrect.
Who Should Read It: Anyone looking for more books like The Light We Lost. Anyone wanting a quick and easy read.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Settenfield
For a more in-depth review, check out this post.
Premise: When Margaret gets a summons from the Vida Winter (mysterious author of dozens of best selling books), she can’t turn it down. Little does she know how impactful writing Winter’s biography will be on her own life.
My Rating: 4 Stars
Thoughts: This was another reread for me this month, but I’m not complaining. I probably liked this one a bit less on the second read, just because it was much darker than I remembered it being. I loved Vida’s story, of course, but I forgot how intense Margaret’s storyline can be at times. Overall, I enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who likes Edgar Allen Poe’s style of writing. Anyone who likes dual timelines. Anyone who likes Jane Eyre.
Time’s Convert by Deborah Harkness
Premise: While Phoebe undergoes her transformation into a vampire, Marcus must be separated from her and live with Matthew and Diana. Throughout the summer, Marcus revisits his past and tells his tale of his early days as a vampire.
My Rating: 4 Stars
Thoughts: I was SO EXCITED to get my hands on this one, but I had very low expectations. I’m not a huge fan (nor do I know much about) revolutionary American or France, and I wasn’t sure how Marcus’s story would play out. That being said, I really enjoyed this one! The story alternated between Phoebe’s point of view as a new vampire (which was a bit disturbing at times, I have to say…), Diana’s point of view with the twins developing their powers, and Marcus’s point of view as he retells his origin story.
I will say that this one definitely lacked the suspense of the original trilogy… it felt more like a stroll down memory lane than an action-packed adventure book. I didn’t mind it, but I wish I would have known that going in, rather than have my expectations at a different place. I would definitely say that you need to read the trilogy first… there’s so much you won’t understand if you don’t.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who loved the All Souls Trilogy. Anyone who likes slow tales.
The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan
Premise: On his first week on the job, Cormac reports to a domestic abuse case, only to find a dead mother and two very frightened, very bruised children. Fast forward twenty years, and the young boy turns up dead from an apparent suicide. What Cormac finds through his investigations leads him down a road of mistrust and corruption in the police department.
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Thoughts: This novel was a classic murder mystery. There was a cop, a couple twists and turns, and a straightforward answer at the end. It wasn’t a thriller, but, in the end, moved fast enough and kept me guessing. After I finished the novel, I felt like I should have guessed that that was coming, but, while reading, I enjoyed discovering the evidence alongside Cormac. The characters were a bit flat, and the story was a bit…. something I’ve seen before. But I enjoyed this book and I’m glad I read it.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who loves a good murder mystery. Any fan of Agatha Christie and old school detective novels.
These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Premise: Major Tarver Merendsen and Lilac LaRoux are aboard a ship called the Icarus when something goes deadly wrong and they are pulled out of space. Tarver and Lilac manage to escape and crash land on a very strange planet. They must find a way to work together (despite being from such different backgrounds) and find a way off of this planet.
My Rating: 4.5 Stars
Thoughts: I’ll be honest. I had to take a while after finishing this book to process all of it because it was just so good. It was one of the first books I ever added to my Goodreads To Read list, and I’m not sure why I put it off for so very long. I read this book in (mostly) a day, and it was so beautiful and heart-wrenching and delicate… I haven’t read a whole lot of books like it (and certainly none with a story line anywhere near it).
The book had two authors, and I assume that they each wrote from a different character’s point of view. The book switches between characters each chapter, and the two voices were so distinct and so fully formed… I really enjoyed the switching points of view in this case. There was a love story, but it wasn’t rushed or unrealistic. The survival story was as real as can be expected with sci-fi, and the author didn’t shy away from the gruesome. It was all so well done and honest. My only fault with it was that the beginning seemed to drag a bit, while the ending could have taken more time. I found myself looking at the number of pages left and trying to figure out how they would fit in all of the information needed in so few pages. But they managed, and I loved the ending so. very. much.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who loves a love story. Anyone who likes sci-fi and exploring new planets.
What do you think? Did I miss the mark on any of these? Are there some that you are excited to read? Leave a comment below!
