September was a pretty good book month! Quite a variety, Jacob was shocked I was reading a books involving a sports story haha! Check it out!
“I Must Betray You” was a great read about communist Romania in the 1980s. I have never read about that time period in that country and what those people went through, what the people fought for and sacrificed to escape the government ruling them. There was a whole system in place that basically made the people spy on each other, turning families and friends against each other. The people bravely joined the revolution, and worked towards change to better their country. I left this book looking up more online about that time period, and some of the more well known people that lived through it like Nadia Comaneci, a Romanian gymnast. Books like this definitely give you perspective and make you so much more grateful for the country we live in.
“Book Lovers.” I loved the story of this book, but ugh, the language wasn’t great. Easy to skim over most of it, but it kills me when cute rom-coms like this go that route once you’re already invested in the story. Nora, a literary agent, is convinced by her sister to take a holiday in a small town in North Carolina. She keeps running into a book editor that she knows and is not fond of, but they are pushed together over and over working on a book together, that she gets to see another side of him. I loved how their relationship developed over reading and editing a book together, it was really cute.
“A Bride’s Guide to Marriage and Murder” was a cute one too. I love these Countess of Harleigh novels, based in London in the 1800s, always clean and interesting. Frances and George are finally getting married, but of course it can’t go as smoothly as planned. Rival families are invited to their wedding, and one man is killed. So of course, they can’t leave and go on their honeymoon, they must stay and figure out who did it and what happened, especially since Frances’ brother is a prime suspect. This was fun to follow along and see what happened.
“Carrie Soto is Back” was the book that Jacob was surprised I was reading hehe…Carrie is a retired tennis player, but she decides to come back and take her place at the court again. She was literally the best that the world had ever seen, so she has come back to reclaim her title. I read this one so fast one day when I was sick with the flu, it was a great story, but again, sometimes with Taylor Jenkins Reid, language can be bad, and it wasn’t great in this one.
I loved the All Souls Trilogy, and was so excited to finish up with “The Book of Life.” Diana and Matthew return to the present, to his home in France to be reunited with their family. They continue their search for the Ashmole manuscript, and finally make sense of what the manuscript contained and the message it had for everyone. The ending was fabulous, I really liked how she tied everything together in this one!
I listened to “What Happened to You,” and loved that it was read by Oprah Winfrey, she just has one of the best voices to listen to. I won’t lie, I was a little skeptical about this one, because I’m not the biggest Oprah fan…but once I listened to the stories she shared about her childhood and growing up, my perspective of her and what she overcame changed dramatically. I have so much respect for that woman, and how she took what happened to her and used it for good in her life to help others…how she overcame what her mother did to her and forgave her in the end…so much good stuff in this one, about flipping our approach of “what is wrong with you” to “what happened to you.” So many times we think that people/children’s behavior is because of their personality and just making poor choices or having a lack of self control, but this was so eye opening that it can be so much more than that. And knowing that, we can have more patience, understanding and love for each other.
This also made me laugh, because somehow I managed to marry someone who is not a reader!!! Shocking, I know! I’m hoping maybe once Jacob retires and isn’t reading financial documents all day that he will feel like reading with me in the evenings hehe, right now though, it’s just a dream!!
If you’re interested in seeing what else I have read this year, check out my links to other months below and lots more book reviews under my Book tab!
What I’m Reading – January 2022