Reading Recap September 2024

 Books I read in September!

Crank by Ellen Hopkins: A very sad story, told in verse, about a girl who becomes addicted to drugs and ends up with the very much wrong crowd, with pretty awful consequences. There are many more books to this series and I'm scared what ELSE is ahead for this character! Does she ever get her act together? It appears maybe not! Anyway... so sad. I'm giving it  ⭐ ⭐⭐⭐ because of the beautiful and compelling writing. 

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell: I re-read this for book club and loved it. Again. Maybe even more than I loved it the first time. It's about the story of how Eleanor and Park get together and bond over their common nerd interests. And I find it to be such a sweet, happy, heartwarming romance. The disturbing part of this book is how Eleanor has to deal with her abusive stepfather. It made me anxious every time she has to go home. And then there's Park with his lovely happy family, which I also appreciated. (Because sometimes I think writers are scared to write about a good happy family.) We had quite the discussion at book club because people either loved it or hated it. It was interesting to see what made people end up in each of these camps. But it is hard for me when I love something like this so much, to try and understand why someone else hates it so much. I struggle. But it's also fascinating to realize how different we all are! And that's what makes book club discussions interesting. Anyway, it's a definite ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for me still.

The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod: My sister in law mentioned this book one day, so I ended up reading it to see what I think. The idea is that if you get up just a little bit earlier than you have to, and you do these six things, your life will change. The six things: meditation, affirmations, visualizations, exercise, reading and writing. And you just spend 5 or 10 minutes on each one. The thing that I need to change in my life is negative thinking, so this whole affirmation thing will be my struggle, but might be the thing that changes everything. I started it once October hit, so I'm only a few mornings in now.  We'll see how it goes. He says you need to do it for 30 days before you decide! Giving it  ⭐⭐⭐⭐  simply because of the happy, pep talkiness of it! 

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab: The second book in the Darker Shades series. I loved the first one and have been anxious to get to this second one ever since. It wasn't as great as the first one, but I still love the writing and the world and the mystic. So so awesome. I really truly needed more interaction between Kell and Lila though.... maybe in the book 3? I will be reading that one soon I hope. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Forever by Judy Blume: I read this one because it's on the banned list our state just put out last month... to be taken off the shelves of school libraries. (One of 13 on this most recent list... a list that oh boy, is certainly making the waves in  a lot of bookish circles! You'd think no other state has ever banned a book!)  Anyway, I wanted to know about it, so I grabbed it from the library. And yeah, um. It's about sex, but not love. Which...for me... I like when the two are together. It was so unemotional and clinical, and just made me grimace. I just... need some EMOTION, you know? So, in the end, I'm going to prove my friends wrong and finally give a book a one star. Which I don't even know what that technically means, but in my world, it means I did not at all like it. But I finished it anyway. ⭐

For October, I'd like to:

• read The Passengers for book club
• read House of Leaves for my spooky month book
• read The Invisible Life of Addie Larue that I randomly checked out of the library
• maybe start book three of Darker Shades
• hopefully keep going in To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
• read Fahrenheit 451 with the city wide "book club"
• listen to Making It So when I go to Las Vegas for a concert

I think that's plenty for one month's goals!

Links to the Channel from the past month:

September Check In (the above list, but I'm talking instead of writing!)

Ten Books That Made Me

Weekly Vlog (including two author events: Liane Moriarty and TJ Klune)

Books I'm Excited to Read (a tag)