This has to be the most books I have read in a month! October was a good reading month for me. I think I am finally back on track to my reading goal of 75 books for the year which is encouraging! I also read some GREAT books this month, including a 5 star one that I did a full review post on the other day. The genres of these books are all over, but I read some good stuff this month, so maybe you’ll find your next read!
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
4/5 stars
Tuesdays with Morrie is kind of an oldie (it’s like 24 years old now!) and I actually read it back in high school like 10+ years ago, but was looking for a short audiobook. It’s a really sweet story and it’s a very quick read/listen. Some of the advice is pretty generic advice, but it’s good advice all the same.
Men Have Called Her Crazy by Anna Marie Tendler
2/5 stars
I really enjoyed Anna Marie Tendler’s Instagram and photography during the pandemic and amidst her divorce, but maybe I was not the target audience for this memoir– Men Have Called Her Crazy. A lot of her opinions and portrayals didn’t translate well to me and even though she tried to portray that she was healed and had done so much work– I still got the vibe that she had a lot of things she needed to shift her mindset on. This book was clearly very personal, so I feel bad saying anything negative about it, but I felt my eyes roll a lot during this book.
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
3/5 stars
I had really high hopes for The God of the Woods because it was really highly rated on Goodreads. If you like well-written books, but don’t need a lot of action and prefer slow and drawn-out books, this might be for you. It is very much a literary mystery. Unfortunately for me, I thought it was too long, had too many POVs, and really lost steam around the 30-50% mark. It’s a good mystery but I thought it was kind of boring overall.
Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson
3/5 stars
There are a lot of ways to “classify” personality types. My husband read this book after taking the red/blue/yellow/green type of personality test at work and really liked it. I thought it was not the most helpful book. Most people are not one “color” so all of the advice of how to deal with a blue or red or whatever isn’t the most helpful because most people are not fully that color? Idk I think reducing people into 4 groups is pretty reductive and inaccurate.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas
4/5 stars
This is NOT my first time reading A Court of Thorns and Roses (I read it the first time in January 2023), but I enjoyed the second book SOOOO much that I wanted to re-read the first two books! I NEVER re-read books, but this series lives rent free in my head and I compare it to every other “romantasy” book I read, so it felt necessary.
I gave it 3/5 stars the first time I read it, but I gave it 4 stars this time around because it’s so much better once you have more context of the entire series.
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
4.5/5 stars
A Court of Mist and Fury is my favorite book in the ACOTAR series so far. It’s just so good. Chapters 54 and 55???? Incredible. I read it the first time about a year and a half ago and it still holds up. I do wish I could go back and read it again for the first time, but it is very fun to re-read and pick up on things that you didn’t 100% know the first time around.
Reckless by Lauren Roberts
4/5 stars
Reckless is the second book in the Powerless trilogy which is a “romantasy” type of trilogy. I read the first book, Powerless, in September (see that round up here) and gave it 4.5 stars. I thought it was so good and had so much tension. This one had a lot of tension, but I thought Kai was mega confusing the whole book. The last sentence of the book I 100% saw coming but I am THRILLED to see how it plays out in the 3rd book.
The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
5/5 stars
THIS BOOK!!!!!! The Paradise Problem was an absolute delight to read. It is a perfect romance book with a fake dating trope and I really have nothing negative to say about this book. The banter and chemistry is perfection. It’s fun but also randomly addresses some big themes very well– notably: wealth and the impact on family. It very much has some Succession vibes with spicy romance scenes. This is probably going to be on of my top books for the year! I did a full review on The Paradise Problem earlier this week if you want to read more of my thoughts!
The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron
4.5/5 stars
This book is a little cheesy at time but I think it’s a good intro into the enneagram. Which, I think, is better/more accurate than the previously discussed color theory written about in Surrounded by Idiots. I’m going to read more books about ennegram (so let me know if you want more of that content!) but this felt like a really good overarching book for someone just getting into it.
The Maid by Nita Prose
4.25/5 stars
I’m pretty sure in only the past 6 months did I learn that The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden and The Maid by Nita Prose were two different books. People have been talking about both of them for a while now and I always assumed they were the same book since they are both mystery/thriller kind of books. Now that I have read both I can confirm that they are VERY different. I read The Housemaid in August and I think I liked this one better.
I think we are to assume that the main character, Molly, is on the autism spectrum as she doesn’t understand people’s facial expressions and shes a very rigid, rule follower, and a bit naive. It was tough for me to read the first part of the book knowing that she was being used and manipulated and her being completely unaware to it. The book had a couple of twists that I didn’t see coming and I overall really enjoyed it!
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