October: What I Read

This has been a perfectly adequate month, full of perfectly adequate reading, and I read a perfectly adequate number of books.  I eased up on the listening to books thing because I can only find REALLY BAD books that are ready for immediate download.  I do have some REALLY GOOD books whose waitlists I have been on FOREVER coming up in my queue though.

And!  Instead of books, I listened to 2 totally amazeballs podcasts that I would unreservedly recommend (ha!  I use that phrase in EVERY rec letter I write)  (and!  I always mean it!):  Accused: The Unsolved Murder of Elizabeth Andes (she lived in Oxford, OH where I went to get my MA!  And worked at the drive through liquor store RIGHT NEXT TO MY APARTMENT! And my mom told me to listen to this eleventy billion times and I finally did, and I am NOT SORRY) and In the Dark about the Jacob Wetterling kidnapping in Minnesota in 1989 (this was SO SCARY because of bad small-town police work, and I made the mistake of letting Harry listen to part of it and he had to borrow my phone to go trick or treating).

(I drank a Diet Coke at lunch so I could tackle my 3-page t-do list in time to see Time Kaine and Matthew Desmond (separate events, obvs) this evening, so that's what's up with all the exclamation points, caps lock, and parentheses.  In case you were wondering.)

10.  All the Summer Girls by Meg Donohue: The audiobook schlock that broke the camel's back and sent me back to podcasts.

9.  Twisted River by Siobhan MacDonald:  The penultimate audiobook.


The next 4 were pretty good-- hard for me to rank them, even, but all books I think you should read.

8.  Problems by Jade Sharma:  The back calls it Girls meets Trainspotting, and I totally concur.

7.  Model Home by Eric Puchner:  A really good audiobook.  I love this family after they annoyed the shit out of me for a few hours.

6.  Party of One by Dave Holmes:  The memoir of an MTV VJ that's also the story of his coming out and is structured like a mix tape.  Hilarious and poignant.

5.  The Fortress by Danielle Trussoni:  DAMN.  An excellent and suspenseful memoir.

4.  Mischling by Affinity Konar:  Had I realized this book was about Jewish twins who were part of Mengele's experiments, I would have never picked it up.  But I didn't realize that and picked it up anyway and then had to deal with it for a few hundred pages.  YIKES.

My top 3 this month were all excellent and you should be clicking over to put them on your library holds list RIGHT NOW.  I'll wait for you.

3.  The Hopefuls by Jennifer Close:  About political power couples in DC and friend rivalry that's applicable across contexts-- a really fast and engaging read.

2.  Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler:  READ THIS so we can talk about it because the main character is totally unlikeable and I liked the book anyway and I am always so intrigued by this phenomenon.

1.  The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante:  I am so sad to see this quartet end.  If you haven't read it, you really should.  Hillary Clinton read it, so it has to be good right?

Buckle up friends because it's NaBloPoMo time!  I have 29 more riveting posts where that one came from to celebrate the almost 10-and-a-half-year anniversary of the Harry Times, since I forgot the actual 10-year anniversary in June.  Oops.