September Reading List

 With a full week of rain, the number of books read is going up - 7 this month.

There were some books I wanted to read that the old hometown library had that the local one didn't. I hadn't been down there since the start of the covid self-isolating, so I made a quick down and back trip and brought home the top four on this pile:

 

Everything I Never Told You is by Celeste Ng and after reading her Little Fires Everywhere last month, I knew I wanted to read her first book, too. It is good, but not as good as Little Fires Everywhere.

i'll be your blue sky by Marisa de los Santos is the third in her Love Walked In series. I read the first one of the series in April, 2012 and really liked it. Then she fell off my radar until I happened to see that 2012 book review again and was reminded of her. I searched both libraries and found two of her books at Corning.

This book has everything, romance, mystery, magic, lyrical prose, bravery, truths, universal love and a very satisfying ending.

I'd Give Anything is the other Marisa de los Santos book at my former library and this author's latest book. It begins with four very close high school friends and the tragedy that rends their friendship one night during their senior year. Twenty years pass before they are reunited and learn the true story about what happened that night.

This author gives us beautiful prose and believable characters and settings along with mystery and romance. But I did not like this book as much as her previous ones.

The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs was on the September new books list from my local library. I added it to my 'want to read' list, but knew it would be awhile before I found it on the shelf - there would be a number of names on the wait list. But there it was on the New Shelf at the Corning Library, I didn't have to wait to read it. Yay! (This has happened several times with other new titles.)

This book is part of Wiggs' Bella Vista Chronicles series, but they seem to stand alone without any need to be read in order. I can't remember any books about bookshops that I haven't loved and this one is no exception. There's enough mystery, romance and happy endings for any reader, but it is the references to books that stimulates me. Wiggs is a competent author who tells a lovely story.

A quote from this book: "Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."

Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel is by Ruth Hogan, a new author for me and one I would definitely like to read more of . This novel is told by the voices of young Tilly and Tilda, her grown up self. As a child she interprets her world from her limited viewpoint and doesn't understand the reasons behind her parents' actions. She blames her mother for the disappearance of her beloved father from her life, resulting in the lifelong rift between mother and daughter. Adult Tilda has to discover, then understand and come to terms with what really happened and how her life was affected. 

This was a good read and I would really like to read Hogan's other novels, especially The Keeper of Lost Things . 

The Guest List is by Lucy Foley, another new author for me. I knew I was going to enjoy this mystery from the first words on the inside jacket cover: "On a remote island off the coast of Ireland...." What a well-crafted murder mystery! Foley deftly weaves together a list of seemingly unrelated suspects to deliver the most unsuspecting, at least to me, perpetrator. I would definitely read more novels by this author.

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters is a book I chose to read based on a review by a Facebook friend of mine from Portland, OR. (A real life friend of my daughter.) This isn't the title she was reviewing, but the only one by the author that my library has. And I have learned by experience that any author/book recommended by Joan is going to be good.

The book is set in London in 1922, when everyone is suffering and dealing with the devastations of WWI, even the genteel widow Wray and her spinster daughter Frances. Their plight is made more dire when they learn the deceased Mr. Wray had squandered away the family's wealth. With neither of the two women possessing work skills, their only way to earn some income is to open their home to boarders.

This was such a satisfying read, I'm going to get two more Waters' titles through Interlibrary Loan.

The days are already growing shorter and the nights longer. The weather cools. I foresee plenty of good reading hours in my future.