10.03.2019

Books I Read in September

After the Flood by Kassandra Montag
I really liked this one! Full review here.

Burnoutby Emily and Amelia Nagoski
I started this audiobook during a time of great stress this summer, and it was a soothing balm of a book. There wasn't any earth shatteringly new information inside - much of the research about stress I have read articles about in various web articles over the years. But, it was nice to have it all pulled together and looked at as a whole.

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
Another quintessential YA novel from the queen of YA novels! I gobbled this one up just as quickly as the others I've read by Dessen, and I adored the characters in this novel the most. Macy's story also hit home because my father died in a similar fashion, abruptly and while jogging. Though I was much younger (almost half of Macy’s age) so my story was much different, but I think the dynamic between her and her mother really made the book for me - so real and raw. The romance was obvious from the first 15 or so pages, but it's always fun to see how she will fill in the blanks to get to that happy ending.

My Friend Anna by Rachel DeLoache Williams
Holy cow! This was such an engrossing audiobook told by the woman who was conned by the ‘fake heiress’ of New York. Like listening to a friend spill the tea, I was constantly thinking, OMG what next!? And Williams delivers the whirlwind tale with a lot of reflection and heart. And Netflix has the rights to Anna's story, so this will be the scandal that keeps on giving...

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Patchett is amazing and rarely disappoints - full review here.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri
I’ve had my Puffin in Bloom box set for about three years, and I finally got around to rereading Heidi. I read this aloud with my nine-year-old daughter, and it was such a treat! Heidi is very reminiscent of Anne Shirley, one of our all time favorite characters (and another book in this set). I highly recommend Heidi for a read aloud, as it’s tightly written, humorous, and each chapter is nearly a self-contained story, which makes it easy to pick up where we left off.

The Unbreakables by Lisa Barr
This story of a middle aged woman who's life falls apart grabbed me from the first couple of pages with it's juicy and right-out-of-a-soap-opera drama. Sophie's inner monologue got somewhat repetitive for me, and I found her daughter to be slightly irritating. But the page turning dramatics do not cease until the very end and it was a fast, frothy, fun, sexy, female empowering romp of a book.

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
I loved Brown Girl Dreaming and jumped at the opportunity for an early audiobook copy of Red at the Bone, through Libro.fm. So many reviews of the former book gave glowing reviews of the audio, and given it's lyrical prose, I could see why. However, I didn't find Red at the Bone nearly as engaging, and I'm wondering if I just process fiction and prose better on the page. Despite her usual lovely turns of phrase, this felt languid and scattered, never fully grabbing my interest.