Better late than never, here’s my reading wrap-up for October. It was a busy month, as I traveled to Phoenix last weekend to visit my family, plus two of my sisters came out earlier this month to visit my dad. It was wonderful to reconnect with my mom and my three sisters, and we also had fun exploring Phoenix. We had great food and local beer and I particularly enjoyed seeing all the murals and new development downtown.
Here’s what I read in October:
- The Siren of Sussex by Mimi Matthews (audio)
- Soul Taken by Patricia Briggs
- The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin (audio)
- The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews
- Oh William! By Elizabeth Strout (audio)
- Down a Dark River by Karen Odden (audio)
Favorite reads:
In addtion to Lenni and Margot and the two books by Mimi Matthews, I loved Karen Odden’s Down a Dark River. This is her first in a new historical series about Inspector Corravan, a Scotland Yard inspector with a rough upbringing. Corravan brings his experience as a river policeman to this novel about a killer who’s murdering young women, then setting each victim in a boat floating down the river. I love a mystery where the character of the inspector is just as important as the elements of the story, and Odden didn’t disappoint. Her second book in the series just came out this month.
Books I didn’t finish:
I have two ARCs I needed to read this month. Wise Gals, by Nathalia Holt, is nonfiction about the women who helped start the CIA by working in intelligence in World War II and the Cold War. It’s fascinating but very detailed and slow going. The second book, When We Had Wings, is historical fiction by three authors, Ariel Lawhon, Kristina McMorris, and Susan Meissner. It’s got great reviews from readers, but I’m finding it tedious. The historical aspects are unclear, the characters are indistinguishable, and the situations don’t seem realistic. This is a book about how difficult life was for nurses in the Phillipines under Japanese occupation, yet all that seems to be happening are people are moved around from camp to camp and the likelihood of rape is hinted at but never happens. Maybe that’s because the writers are trying to soften the violence for us, but in historical fiction I want to understand the reality, whatever it was.
Blog posts and challenges:
I had limited time this month, but I wrote about my favorite old and new horror novels for Halloween, and reviewed Belle of Belgrave Square and The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot. For challenges, nearly all of my reading this month was historical fiction.
What I’m reading now:
I’m reading Dahlia Lithwick’s Lady Justice, nonfiction about inspiring women attorneys fighting back during the Trump presidency. Lithwick is a law school friend and I’m so excited about her book. Other books I’m reading include Anne Bishop’s second in The Others series, and Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez.
What’s coming up:
My only ARC this month is Michelle Gallen’s Factory Girls. Gallen wrote Big Girl, Small Town, which I loved. Highly recommended for anyone who’s enjoying Derry Girls as much as I have. I’m excited to read this one.
Added to my TBR:
I added the next in the Inspector Corravan series, Under a Veiled Moon. I also added the next two books in Mimi Matthew’s Belles of London series, but those won’t be out for a while.
That’s all here – hope you’re reading something good! What do you think of the new look on Goodreads, and do we need to quit Twitter now that it’s been bought by Elon Musk?
