September was an odd reading month for me. I didn’t make it to double digits in books read, which is always a secret goal of mine. But the books I did read were fantastic and many will make my favorites list at the end of the year. It was an odd month with a vacation, an unexpected evacuation, and a really busy month of work, so I’m not too bummed about it. I just know that I feel better when I’m reading a lot, so I’m trying to figure out ways to make that happen.
Books Read
1) Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau (★★★★★ – e-book, Amazon) – A wonderful coming-of-age story about a girl who becomes a nanny and the family she works for.
2) Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey (★★★★★ – e-book, Libby) – A contemporary romance that had a lot to say about the stories we tell ourselves.
3) Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery (★★☆☆☆ – print, owned, indie bookstore) – A book about a young girl who goes to live with her aunt after her father dies; it did not age well.
4) A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus (★★★★★ – audiobook, Libby) – A really sweet middle-grade novel about three orphaned siblings and their quest to find a new family.
5) A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy (★★★☆☆ – e-book, owned, Amazon) – A historical romance that just didn’t hold my attention like I hoped.
6) The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare (★★★☆☆ – print, owned, Book of the Month) – A powerful novel about a girl in Nigeria who aches for education and a way to share her voice with the world.
7) You Got Anything Stronger? by Gabrielle Union (★★★★★ – audiobook, Libby) – A new essay collection from actress Gabrielle Union that includes poignant essays about motherhood, aging, marriage, working in Hollywood, and more.
8) Pint of Contention by Susannah Nix (★★★★☆ – e-book, owned, Amazon) – A sweet contemporary romance novel about a man who’s hiding a secret and the woman he falls in love with.
9) Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (★★★★★ – print, owned, Amazon) – An excellent sports novel about a woman who returns to the world of professional tennis after five years away to take her Grand Slams record back.
Book Challenges
1) Book Club: For book club, we read Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau, which we all pretty much loved. It was a 5-star read for nearly all of us, and it was fun talking with everyone about the different parts we loved about the novel.
2) Unread Shelf Challenge: The prompt for September was “a book that represents the reader you want to be,” which, hello, talk about an existential crisis! The reader I want to be, though, is someone who reads widely, reads about cultures different than mine, and reads diversely. So I picked up The Girl with the Louding Voice, which was such an impactful read but booooy was it heavy.
3) Goodreads Challenge: Oops, I didn’t read anything for my Goodreads Challenge this month! We’re getting to crunch time so I need to read a lot more books in October than I did in September.
Book Stats
- # of books read: 9
- # of pages read: 3,154 pages
- Genre breakdown: Romance (33%), Fiction (33%), YA/Middle Grade (22%), and Nonfiction (11%)
- Format breakdown: e-book (44%), print (33%), and audiobook (22%)
- Fastest read: Mary Jane (4 days)
- Slowest read: The Girl with the Louding Voice (11 days)
- Star average: 4.1
- % of books by or about BIPOC or the LGBT community: 22%
- Abandoned books: 0 (hooray!)
- Goodreads goal check-in: I set a goal of 135 books this year and currently, I am 7 books behind schedule. (I am not planning on catching up on this goal. Now I’m hoping to read at least 125 books!)
Superlatives of September
- Favorite book of the month: Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Favorite romance of the month: Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey
- Most disappointing read of the month: Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
- The book that totally lived up to the hype for me: Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau
- The book that was the hardest to get through: The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare
What a great month of reading. I’m always impressed at the variety of types of books you read – you’re a real inspiration to me when I just want to read a romance novel every day!
If it helps, I *do* read a romance novel every day – that’s why I read multiple books at one time! I get to gobble up all the romance I want while also reading other books!
That is a lot of 5-star reads which is awesome! So the quantity wasn’t where you’d like it but the quality was there! I can’t wait to read Carrie Soto. And Mary Jane was free through amazon prime so I have that on my kindle. I just need to get through my holds before reading it. I just started a romance called “The Roughest Draft” that Sarah of Sarah’s Bookshelves Live recommended. It’s written by a husband/wife team. I just started it, though, so can’t say if it’s a hit or not.
Ooh, I hope you love Mary Jane as much as I did! It was such an excellent read.
I continue to be impressed with your reading – you get so much done (and watch shows and listen to podcasts!) I always feel like you pack a lot into the free time that you have 🙂
I try my best! I don’t always go to bed at a decent hour, though, haha.
So many good books! And you were only one off from double digits, I’ll point out. 🙂 Here’s hoping that October is ALSO an excellent month of reading. I completely forgot that you read Mary Jane – it sounds so interesting every time I see a review. Also, I think I need to read something by Tessa Bailey. I feel like she’s gotten good reviews from a number of bloggers I follow…
I’d love to know your thoughts if you ever pick up Mary Jane. I just loved it so much.
Tessa Bailey is one of my favorite historical romance novelists. She’s great!