November: What I Read

11. What Happens in Paradise by Elin Hildebrand:  Nope.

10. Slow: Simple Living for a Frantic World by Brook McAlary:  I am not a minimalist gal, OBVI, but I have started to follow some of those Instagram accounts.

9. How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones: Incredibly, this author also did competitive forensics, but he's a little younger than I am.  A great memoir.

8. You Have Been Volunteered by Laurie Gelman:  What can I say?  Jen Dixon is funny.  But I think Gelman is making fun of the Midwest in a not very funny way.  Still, the Class Mom books are my guilty pleasure jam.

7. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates:  I agree with all of the reviews

6. Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes: This is lovely.

5. Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson: The kids in this book are a total metaphor.  SPOILER.

4. Akin by Emma Donaghue:  Honestly, I really loved this book a lot, and I can't decide if I liked it better than The Institute.  Let's call it a tie?

3. The Institute by Stephen King:  This is terrific.  Such an engrossing plot, great child characters.   The end feels a little rushed to me, and the only reason it still works is that King depends on his readers to read in characters from his other books, if that makes sense.

2. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett  YES YES YES.  I loved this book so much.  I might even like it better than Commonwealth.

1. Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout:  YES YES YES.  It just picks up where Olive Kitteridge left off, and now that I have seen the HBO miniseries, I am only picturing Frances McDormand.  And!  It is so suspenseful because you know Strout will let terrible things happen to her characters and then you realize the terrible things are just life and wow.