September 2018 Wrap Up

I’m going to be honest, August and September were crappy reading months. I was in the middle of moving everywhere and spending time on people’s couches and on air mattresses. I feel like the last thing on my mind is reading a book, which is something that I don’t normally say to anyone.

But I did finish reading some books in September and finished the month strong with 8 books. September felt like a lull in the beginning and then a mad rush to read as much as I can before the end of it. Some were shorter and others were longer, but all of it enjoyable. Check out what I read below.

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

This was an absolute delight to read. I mean, the entire book is like sitting on the edge of your chair while waiting your turn for a root canal. But it was good. I will say this was one of my favorites from this month.

The funny story I have behind this one was that I was on a plane heading to California when I finished it. The woman next to me had just finished reading The Nightingale, which I’ve also read and wanted to know what I thought. I told her it was great and it’ll make you cry. I don’t know if it was the altitude or something, but yeah it really made me cry.

You can find my full review here.

Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

I wasn’t that big of a fan of this one. I think it’s mostly because it felt really disorganized in comparison to the movie. There wasn’t much conflict outside of being blackmailed by some guy in school. I didn’t feel like this was a huge success, but I did love how cute the relationship Simon and Blue created online. I can definitely see why this got a lot of love.

You can find my full review here.

There There by Tommy Orange

This was another one of my favorites of the month. The story follows a group of Native Americans a few weeks before they all head to this powwow in Oakland Calfornia. I think it’s kind of funny that I’ve read two Native American authors this year in comparison to years past. I’m really excited to have read this, and I can see how much the United States have neglected these people and made them feel like their heritage means nothing. Also, I loved how the younger people almost didn’t care about where they came from. Very good story.

You can find my full review here.

Life on the Leash by Victoria Schade

I really wanted to like this one, but I thought it was a pretty straightforward story about a young dog trainer trying to find the niche in her life. I think I was more frustrated by the fact that it’s kind of packaged like a romance, but the romance was the last thing that they touched on throughout the story. If anything, you’re reading a beautiful story about how a young woman invents herself and her life with a little bit of help with her friends.

You can find my full review here.

Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I was super excited to hear that Taylor Jenkins Reid wrote a short story published by Amazon. I wasn’t excited about the Amazon part, but the short story for sure. Then, I read the story and the whole thing was in letters. The letters began because a woman finds out that her husband is cheating on her and she wants to confront the woman’s husband. Thus beginning a beautiful relationship that obviously turns into more.

You can find my full review here.

The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory

I also really wanted to like this one, but similarly to Life on the Leash, it felt a little meh. The story starts off with a young woman named Nikole who is publicly proposed to. Of course, this is from a guy she only met five months ago. However, at that game she’s met by another man, Carlos, that helps her out of that embarrassing situation and eventually they become friends. And you can see where I’m going from there.

And there wasn’t anything inherently wrong with this story. It was just very straightforward with very little conflict. I was even surprised by the conflict that did show up.

You can find my full review here.

Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

This was also another one that I really wanted to like this month. I don’t think it had anything to do with the story itself, but the writing. I wasn’t a fan of the writing style here and that always throws my reviews off because it’s a preference and nothing to do with the story itself. The writing felt like I was reading a book with elements of magical realism. I was really hoping for spirits or wood creatures or something to pop up out of nowhere, but it never happened.

However, with this story, I think it was also a bit slow. The beginning of the book is obviously laying out the characters and the lives between Chula and Petrona, but it felt overwrought and a little boring. But when it got good, it got really good.

You can read my full review here.

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This book doesn’t publish until March 2019, but it is all the buzz. It’s also been picked to be turned into a limited series. With Reese Witherspoon. So obviously I went into this book thinking that it was going to be fantastic.

And while the book had a lot of that Behind the Music and Almost Famous feelings, I wasn’t a fan of the writing style. Taylor Jenkins Reid decided to write the entire book in the form of an interview. Starting with the name of the person chatting and a colon, every single line and story was delivered in this way. I honestly wished that there was some story to read and not just hearing an oral history of someone’s life.

You can read my full review here.