Happy October! We’re finally getting some fall weather here in Maryland and I’m about to start reading some creepy books to get ready for Halloween. What I’ve read so far this month has been pretty eclectic, but nothing has disappointed!
Here’s what I’ve been reading:
Final Girls, by Riley Sager
Three girls, all the sole survivors of horrendous acts of violence that left many dead, have a connection with each other that no one else has. They’re Final Girls. And now many years later, one is dead under suspicious circumstances. The two remaining final girls band together, but is it for the best?
I wanted a thriller that I could tear through and Final Girls was just what I needed.
Auma’s Long Run, by Eucabeth A. Odhiambo
Set in Kenya in the 1980s, the story focuses on Auma, a 13-year-old girl with great aspirations. She’s hoping her talent for running will help her get scholarships to school so she can eventually become a doctor, but the future doesn’t look too bright. Everyone is dying from a new and mysterious disease: AIDS. This was one of the final books I read as a potential book to include in my fifth graders’ Newbery study, and in the end, it was just a tad too mature for their age level. I would, however, definitely recommend this to older middle schoolers. It covers a topic and culture that hasn’t been explored very much in young adult literature
Sourdough, by Robin Sloan
The descriptions of Sourdough sound pretty hokey: a young coder is gifted with a magical sourdough starter that opens the door to an underground tech-focused farmers market scene that changes her life. What?!? Magic bread? I was skeptical, but I am keen to read anything about food, so I gave it a shot and I absolutely devoured it (haha). Sourdough was a blend of twenty-something angst, friendly teasing of futuristic tech, and the healing (and sometimes destructive!) power of food. Be warned, though, you will have major cravings for soup and sourdough bread while you’re reading this book. I don’t even really like sourdough and I was dying for some.
The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion
I started listening to The Rosie Project on a Monday and finished it that Wednesday. For you audiobook listeners out there, you know this is exceedingly fast. The narrator’s Australian accent was a factor, but really, the book was just so much fun, I couldn’t stop listening! The main character, Don Tillman decides that the only way he can find a romantic partner is for women to pass his very extensive compatibility questionnaire. But then he meets the seemingly very incompatible Rosie, but let’s just say, opposites attract… If you want an uplifting book with lots of laughs, you have to give this one a read.
Reading People: How Seeing the World through the Lens of Personality Changes Everything, by Anne Bogel
Learning my Myers-Briggs type was a real game-changer for me in my early twenties. I loved Anne Bogel’s concise overview of Myers-Briggs and many of the other personality frameworks, especially because she deftly uses characters from literature as examples of different personality types. The book has inspired to me to learn more about the Enneagram framework, so I’ll be tapping into the resources Anne gives at the end of Reading People.
Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng
I really enjoyed Ng’s first book, Everything I Never Told You, but I think this one is even better! I’ll have a more in-depth review of the book in my next Worth the Read? post.
What have you read lately? Share in the comments below!
Leave a Reply