On audio, I wrapped up Uprooted, a quick, fun take on the classic damsel-in-distress fairy tale; devoured Sharp Objects, a dark and fairly fucked up murder mystery with the most dysfunctional of families; abandoned Cleopatra after remembering that narrative non-fiction really doesn't click for me on audio; and am now working on A Tale of Two Cities, which I'm enjoying with the help of Cliffsnotes (truly!) to make sure I'm keeping track of who's who and what's where.
I powered through several review deadlines for a great stack of books: Bohemian Gospel (look for my review in Shelf Awareness in November); Ashley Bell (my review is here along with an interview with Dean Koontz himself!); and The Japanese Lover, a complex and incredibly well done historical fiction novel from Isabel Allende (on sale in November); The Heart Goes Last (not my favorite of Atwood's works, but I liked it well enough).
Because October is a crazy busy month for publishing awesome books, I also reviewed all of these for Shelf Awareness: Gold Fame Citrus; The Dead Ladies Project (seriously one of the best books I've read all year); Not on Fire, but Burning; The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015; My Year of Running Dangerously.
And last, but certainly not least: the backlist. This time of year is one of my favorites as reviews tend to slow down for the holidays, so I can focus on those books I've been accumulating. I got a jumpstart on that with the Readathon, during which I gobbled up the very, very, excellent Fates and Furies (seriously, this book is SO excellent); followed by the emotional, complicated, intelligent writing of Claudia Rankine's Citizen. Continuing the trend of heartbreaking, incredible, impressive and depressing novels, I finally got around to Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward.
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My favorite things on the internet this month:
- I got a chance to talk with the author of the stellar and amazing new cookbok, The Food Lab. This interview with J. Kenji Lopez-Alt was fun *and* informative.
- Andi at Estella's Revenge talks about a few new digital communications tools and the changing landscape of the blogosphere. As one who took several weeks off this month, this got me thinking.
- Leah at Books Speak Volumes draws parallels between Harry Potter and Jane Eyre. Mind. Blown.
- I know, I know: I won't shut up about running lately. But I really enjoyed (kind of?) my October half marathon; here's my recap of the run and my thoughts along the way.
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| 12 miles in, 1.1 to go |
- And because it's Halloween, check out this Mighty Girl round-up of awesome Halloween-themed cocktails!
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OK. That's all I've got. For now. (Usually these monthly round-ups are smaller because I drop off the books I didn't really love... but this month was a truly stellar one as reading goes, if not as writing does.)
What are the best things you read this month?
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