Whew. It’s been a minute.
School starting is just always like my world explodes for a while and I have to wait for the dust to settle before I get anything fun done. Like reading. And these posts.
So I figured I’d recap August and September together. For one, I didn’t really read a whole lot in August, but the books I did read were worth talking about! (Mostly.) In September, I had a really productive month, in terms of books completed. Sure, they were mostly shorter and quicker than my normal reads, but Goodreads is only tracking books completed, right?
This post contains four 5-star books, and another five 4-star books. Overall, I read some really. good. books.
Books are listed in the order they were read. For more mini-reviews, check out my What I Read tag.
Monthly Stats
- Total Books Read in August: 5 Books
- Total Authors Read in September: 9 Authors
- Total Pages Read: 4,921 Pages
- Total Books Quit: 2 Books
- Average Days Per Book: 3.4 Days per Book
- Average Pages Per Day: 80.9 Pages per Day
Long Story Short…
- If you want an amazing audiobook, check out Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.
- If you want a captivating award-winner, read The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton.
- If you want to change aspects of your life, dive into Atomic Habits by James Clear.
- If you’re looking for a great mystery, read The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager.
- If you like gut-wrenching YA, read I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson.
- If you like learning about history (with a touch of romance), check out Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton.
The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce
Premise: Queenie is dying. She knows that — that’s why she’s in hospice. In an effort to clear her affairs before she dies, she writes to Harold Fry, a former coworker of hers. When Harold decides to start a pilgrimage to see her, Queenie realizes that this is her opportunity to tell Harold the truth about everything.
Rating: 4 Stars
Thoughts: If you haven’t read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, go do that now. Seriously. It’s one of my favorites ever, and it’s a book that feels light when you’re reading it, but afterwards, you’re thinking about it for days. This book is the companion to that novel, and I say companion because it takes place in the same timeline as Harold Fry, but from Queenie’s perspective.
I’m really glad I read this book. There were a lot of things in Harold Fry that were murky and left hanging, and this novel really cleared up a lot about Queenie’s roll in Harold’s life. The book was beautiful, but a bit disjointed (which I think was the intention). Often, Queenie would jump from talking about the people in the hospice to her past with Harold, then back to her cottage near the sea. It wasn’t confusing (there were paragraph breaks or chapter breaks between these jumps), but I did kind of itch to hear more of one story and less of the rest of it. Overall, I’m glad I read it and I’m glad to have some closure on Harold’s life.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Anyone who likes slow-paced, thoughtful books. Anyone who likes character studies.
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Premise: Trevor Noah should not have been born. It was absolutely illegal for his mom, who was black, to have a child with his father, who was white. As a consequence, he spent his childhood trying to find his place in the world, among the various races and cultures in South Africa.
Rating: 4 Stars
Thoughts: I heard amazing things about this audiobook, and it did not disappoint. I really enjoyed listening to Trevor Noah tell stories about his life, and it is important to go into this book realizing that he is telling stories about his childhood. There were times I was aching for some chronological order (especially when chapters referenced events we didn’t know about yet), but the stories he chose to tell were interesting and eye-opening and insightful.
Trevor Noah talked about some serious atrocities in such a straightforward, matter-of-fact way, that there were several times I had to go back and listen to parts again to see if I had heard him correctly. He talks about not fitting in anywhere, how to survive poverty and abuse, and a variety of very illegal things he had to do to survive. He definitely made me want to learn more about the apartheid in South Africa, and I’m ready for him to come out with another book that explains how he got from selling pirated CDs on the street to hosting a daily news show on Comedy Central. The whole book was great, but the last chapter was truly a masterpiece, and if you aren’t sure about this book, it’s worth it to get to that chapter.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who likes Trevor Noah and The Daily Show. Anyone interested in reading more about the apartheid.
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Premise: On one day during the gold rush of New Zealand in 1866, a man goes missing, another is found dead, and a woman is found after attempting suicide. The entire story pieces together the events of this night.
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Thoughts: I’ll be honest… this book has been sitting on my shelf for like 6 years now. It’s just so large and intimidating, with its MAN BOOKER PRIZE sticker on the front. But I was determined to read it this year, and I am so glad I finally picked it up. Although it took me a while to get into the language and story of the book, it picked up quickly, and, by the end of the book, I could not put it down.
There are a lot of characters in this novel, and a lot of points of view. Once the story got moving, however, it wasn’t difficult to sort between the characters, and it does help that it’s all in third person. It felt like watching a murder mystery dinner… each character revealed the story from their point of view, but you had to hear everyone’s stories before you could see the biases and inaccuracies in any of them. It was masterfully written and beautifully executed, and I thought the story was so captivating for how long this book is.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who likes stories with a lot of characters. Anyone looking for intrigue and mystery. Anyone who enjoys a well-crafted book.
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
Premise: After her dad dies, Jules goes to an artsy summer camp and meets a group that dub themselves The Interestings. The kids in this group are interesting, or at least they think so. What follows is a look at the routes their lives take over the next 50 years.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Thoughts: This was such a hard book to rate. It’s long and meandering, and there were times where I was so, so annoyed with the characters that I thought about giving it 2 stars and calling it a day. But there were other moments when I was so invested and so interested in the story the author was telling and the themes the author was promoting that I got completely sucked in.
On the one hand, the characters were just kind of awful human beings sometimes. Privileged, self-centered, unable to see their own weaknesses… They were kind of the worst. But I think that was the point? The author did a great job of showing how people can get caught up in the glamor and shine of being “unique”, and how they later struggle against the real world and having to find a job and life that may not be so unique. It was a long book that definitely could have been shorter, but I did enjoy it and it made me think.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who likes ensemble casts. Anyone who likes artsy characters. Anyone who wants a long, meandering book.
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Premise: When Arthur Less’s most recent (now ex-) boyfriend sends him an invitation to his wedding, Arthur decides now is the perfect time to go abroad, taking advantage of all of the invites to conferences and award ceremonies and writing opportunities that he can. Throughout his travels, he works on overcoming heartbreak and finding peace with the life he created.
Rating: 2.5 Stars
Thoughts: I started with 3.5 stars, but just kept downgrading it the more I thought about this book. It’s interesting because I just read and loved The Luminaries, which won a Man Booker prize, so I thought that maybe I had finally reached a point in my life where I would really enjoy award-winning books. Alas, maybe the Pulitzer is still not for me.
The good things about Arthur Less? He meets some intriguing characters. His travels take him far and wide, and he meets some people who really captivated me. However, it’s never good when the most interesting characters in the book were the side characters, and Arthur Less was so foggy, so disengaged… it was hard to feel anything towards him at all. We kept being told by the mysterious narrator that he was innocent and intriguing, but we never actually see him doing things that prove the narrator right. I just realllllly didn’t get this book.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who likes road trip books. Anyone who enjoys great secondary characters.
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Premise: Your life is made up of a series of habits, and, by being more mindful of these habits, you can change your life.
Rating: 5 Stars
Thoughts: Holy. Cow. I read a slew of personal development books last year, to varying degrees of success, and all along, this book was sitting under my nose. This was the best personal development book I’ve ever read. It met all of my criteria: It was short. It wasn’t repetitive. It was clear (with chapter summaries!). It gave decisive steps to help you improve. It had great anecdotes without being overly personal.
The only downside to this book is that I feel like I missed a bit because I listened to it on audio. The author’s website (which I haven’t visited yet, but plan to peruse tomorrow) seems to have all of the resources mentioned in the book, but I would have liked to see all of those things in front of me as I was reading. So… skip the audio and read this one. I plan on buying it to take notes in.
Who Should Read It: Anyone looking to quit bad habits or adopt good habits. Anyone interested in a small life shift.
The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
Premise: Emma was at Camp Nightingale when her bunkmates went missing. The trauma of never getting closure on their kidnapping/murder has haunted her, so when she gets a chance to go back to camp as an adult, she jumps at the chance.
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Thoughts: I’ll be the first to say that I’m a bit burned out on thrillers. They all seem predictable (aka crazy woman and/or unreliable narrator), and, man, if I never read another domestic thriller again, I’ll be a-ok. So when I reached the “psychological thriller” prompt in my reading challenge, I was less than thrilled. Even though I was lukewarm about Final Girls, I did a little research and decided to pick up this novel to fit the prompt.
AND YESSSS. I’m so, so glad I did. This story was so captivating and so twisty. It had little to no descriptive violence, but was great at making me second-guess everything. It was predictable in a soothing way, but unpredictable in ways I never saw coming. I’m a bit bleary-eyed from reading 300+ pages of this book in one day, but trust me when I say that this one is worth reading.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who likes psychological thrillers. Anyone who went to summer camp. Anyone who likes an unpredictable story.
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
Premise: Noah at 13 is very adamant about who he is — at least on the inside. He knows he is in love with Brian. He knows he wants to go to the local art school. Flash forward to his twin, Jude, at 16, and it looks like both of their lives have taken a sharp turn from where they were just three years before.
Rating: 5 Stars
Thoughts: You ever finish a book and just give it a big hug? Surely it can’t be just me, but it takes a really good book to make me do that. And THIS BOOK. The plot is great — there are twists and turns and unexpected circumstances that made me gasp out loud in the doctor’s office. But the stars of this show are the words.. the beautiful words.
Jandy Nelson has astounded me and stunned me and made me see the world in more color and beauty through her writing. Her characters are stunning and fully formed and complex. The relationships that the characters have with each other and the world around them just felt so real and vibrant. Honestly, I’m babbling because I just loved this book so much. For an in-depth review, flash back to this post I wrote back when I read this book for the first time.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who loves beautiful words. Anyone who wants great characters. Anyone who is interested in a great plot. Just… anyone.
Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce
Premise: When Emmy gets a job working at a magazine, she is thrilled! With her fiancé away at war, she feels that now is her time to become a war reporter like she’s always dreamed of being. However, when it turns out she is just working as a typist for Women’s Friend, she realizes she’s made a mistake.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Thoughts: This was an adorable little book. Emmy was quite progressive for the WWII era, which she did credit to her parents, so I felt a connection to her wanting a career in a way I often miss with historical fiction set during this time. I also really loved her best friend Bunty and all of the really colorful characters.
This book stood out from other WWII historical fiction because it depicted real life for the people who were not in the war. There were no spies, no quests, no coded messages — just two girls living in London and worrying about their boyfriends and careers and family. Sure, they were dodging air raids and dealing with war-time things, but, at the heart of this book, there was friendship and hope and everyday worries that really actually put WWII in perspective. And I loved that.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who likes WWII fiction. Anyone who enjoys colorful characters. Anyone looking for a sweet read.
Chemistry by Weike Wang
Premise: When our narrator realizes that working towards her Ph.D. in chemistry may not be the best course of action for her, her life begins spiraling out of control.
Rating: 2.5 Stars
Thoughts: This book was short and sweet… although it really read like an anxious tirade, vacillating between science facts and emotionless descriptions of the narrator’s life. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the book. The structure makes it a quick read and I basically read it in two sittings. I thought the anxiety was so perfectly depicted, and the struggle with identity felt very real.
The biggest problem I had with the book was that I just couldn’t find connection with the main character. I mean, theoretically, I understood where she was coming from and I’ve felt that indecisive “I-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-my-life” feeling (and the paralyzing anxiety that comes with it). But there was no ending to this book. There was no decision made, there was no conclusion. I felt like the character was keeping everyone (especially the audience) at arm’s length, and then the book just ended. I needed more.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who wants to read more about the immigrant perspective. Anyone who wants a quick read.
Meet Cute by a whole bunch of authors
Premise: This short story anthology by some of the most popular authors of YA literature takes a look at the common YA trope: the meet cute. This book features the beginning of many love stories, from fantastical islands to summer jobs to Mars.
Rating: 4 Stars
Thoughts: This book will give you cavities. I mean, honestly, it was the most adorable, sweet, heart-warming book I’ve ever read. I picked it up because I was intrigued — the author list on this one is long and prolific. I don’t typically go for short stories, but I got this one on audio and I was not disappointed.
Some stories were obviously better than others, but, for the most part, I enjoyed all of them. There was a huge diversity of characters: male, female, transgender, straight and gay relationships, variety of races… it ran the gamut. I looked forward to getting in my car each day so that I could listen to more of this loveliness.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who likes rom-coms. Anyone who needs a pick-me-up. Anyone who enjoys short stories or YA lit.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
Premise: January is a normal, if a bit spunky, girl being mostly raised by Mr. Locke, her father’s employer, while her father travels the world, looking for archeological pieces to add to Mr. Locke’s collection. When January’s dad goes missing, however, her life suddenly takes on a different meaning.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Thoughts: This book took me forever to read. Not because it was long or because I didn’t like it, but… it was too easy to put down and too hard to pick back up. For the first half of the book, the points of view switch between January and a diary that she found. While the diary was fantastical and intriguing, January’s life was kind of stagnant. It was hard to connect with her and I didn’t really see the point in caring about what happened to her.
The second half of the book took off, though, and I found it a much quicker and easier read once January’s plot line started moving. She became a more dynamic character (even if her transformations were a bit obvious and spelled-out), but I thought the adventure in this book was fun and mystical and unique from anything else I’ve read. I probably won’t be recommending this one from the rooftops, but I’m glad I read it.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who likes adventure. Anyone who enjoys magical realism and fantasy worlds.
Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton
Premise: Elisa is living in 1950s Cuba in the midst of a revolution. It’s not easy, but given her family’s wealth, it doesn’t really affect her life… until she falls in love with a revolutionary. Fast forward to 2017, and Marisol traveling to Cuba to spread her grandmother’s ashes in the country she loved and had to leave, but Marisol doesn’t realize all that she will find when she returns to Eliza’s country.
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Thoughts: I absolutely DEVOURED this book. Like… read it in 2 days, barely coming up for air. This was an amazing example of historical fiction. There was romance, for sure, but the meat of this novel was the hard look at Cuba, both pre- and post-Fidel Castro. I knew nothing about the events leading up to Communist Cuba, and I barely knew anything about what Cuba looks like now. But this book! It did a great job of casting a tempered look at the state of things without glossing over the more difficult aspects of poverty and racism and colonialism.
In this writing, you could feel both sides of the equation. There was a deep love for Cuba’s beauty and personality, but there was also a harsh criticism of Cuba’s government and reality. Aside from the political, though, there were love stories, stories of deciding between family and country, and stories of hope stripped away. When I picked up this novel, I thought it would be a cute, frivolous love story, but it was so much more.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who loves historical fiction. Anyone looking for a page turner. Anyone interested in the history of Cuba.
