September 2023 Reading Wrap Up
I really can’t believe I read ten books in the month of September. The last few weeks flew by, considering family visited my home for two of the weekends and I’ve been crazy busy at work. One Pulitzer Prize Winner. One National Book Award Winner. Two classics. Two mystery/thrillers. One romance. The rest general fiction. Below are the books in order from date read.
The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller; 4/5.
This was a super cute read to start of September. I have been watching Gilmore Girls, and therefore craved a book with a similar autumn-y “love is in the air” vibe. This book fulfilled that need. Four stars is quite a high rating for a romance, but it is dedicated to enjoyment of the small town atmosphere and delicious descriptions of desserts.
Trust by Hernan Diaz; 5/5.
Wow. Trust won a Pulitzer this year, and rightfully so. Multiple books in one. Unreliable narrators (writers?). Characters with depth. Impeccable prose. Set in the days of the stock market crash of the late 1920s. A shocking twist in the end that made me pause to soak it all in. I will probably read this again one day.
The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa; 4/5.
The Cat Who Saved Books is an ode to book lovers and avid readers. It’s a feel-good story about a boy who mysteriously meets a talking cat who encourages (well, more like forces) our main character to go on some bookish adventures in order to save books. See my review here.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah; 3/5.
I “read” the audiobook version of this book. If it wasn’t for my friend loving this, I would have quit about 20% through. I wanted to love this so much more because the main character is a strong and relentless mother, but I just couldn’t jive with how much Kristin Hannah told, and didn’t show. I think this is her weakest novel. My gut instinct would be to rate this a 2/5, but because the story was engaging nevertheless, and I did indeed learn about the dust bowl era in the context of historical fiction, I gave it another star.
She Started It by Sian Gilbert; 2/5.
This was a Book of the Month Club pick that I hadn’t read yet. I plowed through it in a few days because it was an easy beach-read. All of the characters were annoying and unredeemable. But I appreciated the bittersweet revenge that took place. The twists were obvious from the start.
None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell; 4/5.
None of This Is True threw me for a loop!! Another Book of the Month Club pick that I needed to catch up on, and I finished it in one day! I read through both the audio and physical book. The audiobook was an entire production, with sounds and music and different narrators. The only reason I didn’t give this a 5 stars was because of one major plot hole that the author wanted us to just roll with… I struggled to accept it.
All’s Well by Mona Awad; 3/5.
This novel was a fever dream. I didn’t 100% understand what was happening, but I still enjoyed it. I felt I was slowly going crazy by the end of the book, much like the main character Miranda. It starts off with her dealing with this unimaginable pain, and then we are forced into believing some magical realism aspects, where her pain is transferable to others. The more she transfers her pain, the more manic she becomes. I had no issue believing this magic, but I did have issues with having more questions than answers by the time I finished the book. I have a wild theory that Miranda actually had some sort of medical emergency (whether from overdose or alcohol) and was in a coma at the hospital the entire time during her mania in the rest of the book.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain; 4/5
I read this as part of the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge. There are over 500 books to read for that challenge, so I have a ways to go. Classic literature is hard to rate on a scale. This four out of five is simply deducing level of enjoyment. I enjoyed Tom Sawyer’s adventurous personality and maturing throughout this book. I loved his relationship with his Aunt Polly, or rather how much she loves Tom. This is a classic book of its time.
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway; 3/5.
Again, reading as part of Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge, and did not enjoy it quite as much as Tom Sawyer. I loved Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea, so I had higher expectations for The Sun Also Rises. It was still fascinating to witness the stark differences in Hemingway’s succinct prose compared to Twain’s. I am excited to continue reading more classics this year.