October Reading Recap
Happy November, book lovers! The holiday season is right around the corner, which means the best of the 2023 book list will soon be gracing us with their presence. I always look forward to going through each list and seeing which ones I have read and which ones I will be adding to my ever-growing TBR list. The NPR list is the holy grail, in my opinion. Of course, I’ll scour the lists and put together a post about the books I’m most excited to read. I had a great month of reading and was fortunate enough to read 12 (!) books this month, with most of them being pretty good. What have you been reading that captivated you or that you could barely get through? Comment below!
Swim Home to the Vanished by Brendan Shay Basham
Quick Synopsis: After losing his brother, his last living family member, Damien leaves his hometown and travels as far south as he can. He stumbles upon a small fishing village, where he’s put to work as a line cook in exchange for food and housing. Grateful for the hospitality, Damien ignores the rumors about his caretaker, Ana Marie, and her possible connection to the killing of people around her.
Strong Points: Hmmmm… I enjoyed… I guess that it was relatively short, although it still felt very, very long.
Weak Points: I don’t mind books where not a lot happens, but I need some character development, deep reflection, or beautiful writing. This book lacks all of that. The story also relies heavily on magical realism, which I’m not the biggest fan of. Overall, it was not a very enjoyable book. I forced myself to finish it.
Writing Style: 1/5
Characters: 2/5
Plot: 2.5/5
Flow/Pacing: 1/5
Overall Rating: 2/5
Not Recommend
Mister Magic by Kiersten White
Quick Synopsis: Thirty years ago, a beloved children’s show shut down after a mysterious tragedy struck the set, leaving no evidence of the show behind. The surviving castmates are fatefully reconnected to discover what happened on that deadly last episode and who is behind the show’s mysterious host in the black cap.
Strong Points: This spooky book was a page-turner. It made me look differently at the children’s show I grew up with. (Anyone remember Bear in the Big Blue House or Wishbone?) I liked the concept of a children’s TV show being erased from the internet and the kids who grew up with it only having a faint memory of it. They are sure it existed, but they can’t find evidence that it actually did. It’s an eerie feeling.
Weak Points: The ending was a little convoluted. There were parts where, if you thought too hard about it, it didn’t make sense, but overall, I was satisfied with it. It was a fun October read.
Writing Style: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 4.5/5
Flow/Pacing: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
Recommend
The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions by Jonathan Rosen
Quick Synopsis: Michael Laudor was a brilliant student who graduated summa cum laude in just three years, landed his dream job, and was accepted to go to Yale Law School. However, after suffering a psychotic break, his life changed. He was locked in a psychiatric ward and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Instead of letting his diagnosis define him, Michael went to Yale Law School and tried his best to hold it together. His story became a phenomenon, with a profile in The New York Times, a memoir, and a movie directed by Ron Howard based on his life. After suffering another psychotic break, he stabbed his girlfriend to death, thinking she was a robot coming to get him. His perfect life was turned upside down.
Strong Points: Since the author lived through this experience with one of his best friends, you get a more in-depth and emotional side of Michael Laudor that you wouldn’t get otherwise. I’ve read quite a few books about schizophrenia, and this one put a more human touch on the story. I can’t imagine what it is like to work so hard every day to feel okay and to be prescribed medications that don’t work and only exacerbate the symptoms. To be looked down upon in society and flagged as someone to avoid. I also really enjoyed the history of how society views mental illness, from the 1970s to the early 2000s. The government would rather bury their heads in the sand instead of spending the money and getting our fellow humans who are suffering help. To be honest, I’m not sure we’ve evolved too much even now.
Weak Points: Perhaps it would have benefited from more editing to cut out some of the fat. I didn’t care to read a full page on the plot of a movie the author had liked when he was in college. It didn’t add to the story.
Writing Style: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Flow/Pacing: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
Highly Recommend
The Old Woman with the Knife by Gu Byeong-Mo
Quick Synopsis: 65-year-old Hornclaw isn’t the spry assassin she used to be, but she is not ready to retire. Her body and mind aren’t as sharp. After a slip-up on a job, a series of events might just force her into retirement for good.
Strong Points: I can’t remember the last time I read a book set in South Korea, or maybe ever. A goal for me this year was to expand my reading palette a little more and read more translated fiction. A strong point was the commentary on aging and how society perceives it.
Weak Points: The concept of an older woman assassin is funny and unique. A 65-year-old woman is the least suspect for an assassin, giving her an edge. I wish that the book would have been more comical. It fell a little flat for me. Besides the main character, you didn’t get a lot of character development or emotion, leaving the reader at times to not quite get the other characters’ motive, which made the story fall a little flat. The setting was also a little vague at times, so you couldn’t tell that the book took place in South Korea. With a book with a synopsis that was unique and exciting, I felt like it lacked passion and action and was just... eh.
Writing Style: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Plot: 3/5
Flow/Pacing: 3/5
Overall Rating: 3/5
Eh, recommend
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Quick Synopsis: Dr. Montague is on a mission to find evidence of hauntings. He borrows Hill House, a notoriously haunted house, and enlists the help of four others. As their stay goes on, the house’s powers grow stronger and stronger.
Strong Points: I was gifted this beautiful Penguin Horror (if you don’t know these editions, look them up) for a Christmas book exchange with my book club, and I have been saving it for October. I am a new reader of Shirley Jackson and have been loving discovering her spoooooky stories. This one delivered just that. It was filled with eeriness, mystery, and suspense. The writing was beautiful, and the storytelling was solid, with an ending that packed a punch. I really enjoyed it!
Weak Points: There really weren’t any weak points to this story.
Writing Style: 4.5/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 4.5/5
Flow/Pacing: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
Recommend
The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
Quick Synopsis: Anisa is a translator of Bollywood films but wants to expand her career. After meeting Adam, who seems to become fluent in languages overnight, Anisa pushes him to tell her his secret to his success. Adam reveals he’s part of this secret society called Centre, where it promises fluency in any language in just 10 days. Eager to learn more, Anisa discovers the dark side of Centre and realizes there are sacrifices to be made.
Strong Points: I loved the concept of becoming completely fluent in another language just by listening and completely absorbing the language for 10 days. As someone who has been trying to learn Spanish for almost two years, I wish this was real.
Weak Points: What a mess of a book! What this book suffers from most is a lack of organization. There is odd commentary on race, identity, immigration, and class sprinkled throughout that goes in too many directions and doesn’t connect to the story. The repetitive dialog drove me bananas. Oh, and this bizarre part where Anisa makes out with her friend’s father, and he indicates he wants to take it further, and all of a sudden, she’s horrified and goes into a feminist speech for 5 pages about how older men take advantage of young women, but then goes into detail about what it would be like if she did sleep with him. Anisa is such an unlikeable character that is so self-absorbed and arrogant, yet there’s no development. I’m not sure why the author would create such an unlikeable character for us to follow without some reward. To sum it up: cool concept, poorly executed.
Writing Style: 1.5/5
Characters: 1/5
Plot: 3/5
Flow/Pacing: 3.5/5
Overall Rating: 2.5/5
Not recommend
Holly by Stephen King
Quick Synopsis: Holly receives a call from Bonnie Dahl asking Finders Keepers to help her find her missing daughter. With Pete sick with Covid, Holly is left to take the case on her own.
Strong Points: Reading Stephen King is like a warm, comfy blanket. His writing is so comforting. I loved the Finders Keepers series and the character of Holly, so I was thrilled to read this one, and King delivered. I especially liked how the reader got the POV from the murders intertwined throughout the book when Holly is hot on their trail.
Weak Points: In scenes where new characters are introduced to each other, they would say, “I’m double vaccinated with Pfizer" or, “I just got Moderna, so we can take off our masks." It took place in the summer of 2021, so being vaccinated was still a hot topic, but I don’t recall ever using that as a measure to see if you could take off your mask. Of course, I was living in the south, where nobody even wore masks in 2020, so maybe that was the case for other places in the states. It just took me out of the story a little and made me feel corny.
Writing Style: 5/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Flow/Pacing: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
Recommend
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
Quick Synopsis: In the 1920s, the Osage Indian Nation lived on oil-rich land, making them the richest people per capita. Also making them a large target. Slowly, more and more Osage people were mysteriously murdered, and their land was being taken over by white men. Investigators were brought in to get to the bottom of these crimes, but they were soon murdered as well. That’s when the newly formed FBI stepped in to help.
Strong Points: This has been on my TBR list since it came out, just sitting patiently on my book shelf, collecting dust. Once a film adaptation was announced, I cracked it open, not wanting anything to get ruined for me in the movie. As it usually goes, the book was better than the movie, but I digress. What this book really nailed for me was the mystery of who was actually behind the killings. It wasn’t revealed until later in the book, keeping the reader wanting to know more. The author did a wonderful job of introducing each character without hinting at the malicious ways of the killers. The time period and setting were painted perfectly, and the pictures included of each character and the town allowed the reader to fully picture the scenes that were taking place. The prejudice towards Native Americans made the book so devasting to read. This should be taught in history class.
Weak Points: There weren’t any weak points that I noted. It was a very strong book.
Writing Style: 4/5
Plot: 4.5/5
Flow/Pacing: 4.5/5
Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Highly Recommend
The Guest by Emma Cline
Quick Synopsis: After being kicked out of the house by her much older, rich boyfriend that she had been living with for the summer, Alex had nowhere to go. She decides to stay on Long Island until Labor Day, floating around from gated community to gated community, leaving disaster behind everywhere she goes.
Strong Points: This was stressful, albeit a page-turner. Every mistake Alex made, I had to find out how it was going to be resolved. It was so well paced, it kept me on my toes the whole time. The author did a good job of making the character a lousy person without making her completely unlikeable.
Weak Points: I hated the ending. Hated it! I don’t always need my endings to be wrapped up with a nice bow, but I need some kind of resolve, or at least a hint of one. The abrupt ending really upset me. I get what the writer was doing with it, but I wasn’t a fan.
Writing Style: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Plot: 3/5
Flow/Pacing: 4/5
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Eh, Recommend
Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror by Jordan Peele (Editor)
Quick Synopsis: An anthology of stories about the supernatural world and real-world injustices
Strong Points: A few of the stories really stuck with me and were very haunting. In one, a girl was killed in a car accident on a dangerous stretch of road, now haunts and kills drivers who were drunk or driving recklessly. It was a cool concept that was written really well.
Weak Points: I will preface this by saying I’m not the biggest fan of short story collections, but I haven’t read a ton of anthologies hand-picked and curated by Jordan Peele, the king of horror. Come on! I had to read this one. While I thought there were without a doubt several authors that were very talented, my biggest gripe was that it was just too long. It was almost 400 pages, which seemed excessive for what the book was. This leaves some stories that lacked the punchy endings that others delivered.
Writing Style: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Plot: 3/5
Flow/Pacing: 3/5
Overall Rating: 3/5
Recommend
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
Quick Synopsis: It’s no secret that Britney Spears has lived a somewhat tragic and traumatic life, and this book gives the reader an inside look at Britney’s life through her own eyes.
Strong Points: I love how honest Britney was with what she has been through, even admitting at times when she was the one at fault.
Weak Points: Jeeeeez. I went through 30% of this book thinking, "Well, you have to give props to Britney for writing this book herself." And THEN I found out she had a ghost writer! You can’t fault Britney for the poor writing, but an actual professional, who does this for a living, for the childlike, almost hard to read at times, writing. You read this one for this content and not for its prose.
Writing Style: 1/5
Plot: 4/5
Flow/Pacing: 2/5
Overall Rating: 3/5
Eh, Recommend
Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People by Elizabeth A. Fenn
Quick Synopsis: The Mandan Native Americans were the heart of the plains by the upper Missouri River for centuries. Most know them from their winter spent with Lewis and Clark, but there is so much more, such as their agricultural innovations and warm hospitality. This book is a riveting account of Mandan culture, traditions, and their forgotten history.
Strong Points: After reading Killers of the Flower Moon, I realized just how little I know about Indigenous history. I was a little worried that it might be a little dry, but it was anything but dry. There were tons of maps and illustrations that made it easier to picture trade routes and the tools that were used. The author went to the Dakotas and included pictures of what the land looks like now vs. back in the day. I liked that visual connection.
Weak Points: I wasn’t the biggest fan of the organization of the book, especially the first few chapters on the basic background of the Mandans. It felt a little unorganized and all over the place. Once part two started, it was easier to follow.
Writing Style: 4/5
Plot: 4.5/5
Flow/Pacing: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
Recommend
"The Osage elders sang the traditional songs for the dead, only now the songs seemed for the living, for those who had endure this world of killing." -Killers of the Flower Moon By David Grann
