Recent Reads September 2021
This was a big audiobook month for me. For some reason I just haven’t had the energy to read at bedtime, and I haven’t wanted to read on the train (and have been mindlessly scrolling TikTok, which I recently joined, so go follow me if you haven’t yet!). So, thank goodness for audiobooks, and the fact that I’ll never hear the end of it from my husband after resisting audiobook for so long!
This was a hard book to get into, but once the flow of this story started, I was hooked. The story follows widower Astrid and her family through major life changes. The perspective shifts between Astrid, her daughters, two sons, and granddaughter as the family navigates through major changes. There isn’t necessarily a “happy ending” in this book, so I wouldn’t go into it expecting that, but it’s a story that has a lot of realness to it; I really connected with the characters and was invested in their development, and was happy to see where they wound up.
The Restaurant - Pamela M Kelley
This was our book club pick for the month. It was an easy, breezy read. This is the story about 3 sisters who inherit a restaurant and have to work there for at least a year before deciding whether they want to sell it or keep it in the family. Along with mouth-watering descriptions of food, there is love, heartache, and just good fuzzy feelings all around with this story. Easy reads are great this time of year, so this was a good pick for book club.
Girl Wash Your Face - Rachel Hollis
I am pretty late on reading this one, I know. But after falling in love with her cook book, I decided to give this Rachel Hollis book a try. While it often veered a little too far into the Jesus speak for my personal liking, I really appreciated the message behind everything she was saying. I also really appreciate how open Rachel is with telling her story to engage the reader and really hit home all her points of positivity. A really nice read, and since I own this one on Audible, I will probably take a listen to it again down the line when I’m feeling like I need a pick-me-up.
Christmas at the Restaurant - Pamela M Kelley
So I read this because I liked the first book, but the ending of this one really irked me. There was a relationship throughout the book that other characters weren’t super into, and then all of a sudden at the end of the book they were like, ok yeah actually it’s all good we like this going on. It was just really bizarre that everything changed that quickly. Overall it had the same feel as The Restaurant, but it was like the end was just thrown together and all the loose threads tied together a bit too perfectly for me.
I really enjoyed The Grace Year, so I decided to borrow this from the library hoping it would be another book that I enjoyed. Let me tell you, this book was just weird. I really had no idea what was going on the whole time; there’s some weird relationship with the past and people have different “powers” and there are some people that are immortal, and the cornfields eat people…. I was just so confused the whole time. This may have been a book that would have been better tangibly read, but I won’t be recommending this one to anyone
The Story Keeper - Lisa Wingate
This book was a surprising gem to read! It was suggested to me by my library’s audiobook app, and it really drew me in from the start! It follows the main character, Jen, who has just received her dream job as an editor at well-known publication company. Somehow, a mysterious manuscript winds up on her desk, but it is unfinished and doesn’t have an author listed. Jen is immediately enthralled by the story and does research trying to find the author, coming to the realization that she believes it is a well-known science-fiction author who has become a recluse and hasn’t written anything in years. In an attempt to obtain the rest of the manuscript and find the book that will make her career, Jen has to travel back to the area of her own hometown, which she has tried to distance herself from, and face her family and the past she has tried to forget. This story was fantastic, and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a great read.
Never Saw Me Coming - Vera Kurlan
This was another library audiobook suggestion, and another page-turner! This story follows students enrolled in a special program designed for clinically diagnosed psychopaths. Students involved in this program are not supposed to know each other. However, once a student is murdered in the psychology department where these students complete surveys, the students try to find each other, and find out which one of them is the murderer! A true page-turning mystery. For a more in-depth review, make sure you check out my Reading Mom’s Monday column at MomsBeyond.com next week!
The Girls With No Names - Serena Burdick
I’ve been on a roll with the audiobook suggestions this month. A lot of the books on my to-read list aren’t available through the app, so I’ve just been flying by the seat of my pants by the suggestions given to me. I’m not quite sure why this book is called The Girls with No Names, because the girls did have names; the story follows two sisters in the 1910’s, Luella, strong-willed and ahead of her times, and Effie, sickly and a miracle to have survived to her teen years. After befriending “gypsies” (and the afterward from the author describes why she refers to them using this term, knowing it is now considered derogatory), these sisters lives are changed forever, along with their family’s. I really enjoyed their story and struggles, it was a well developed story with well-developed characters. I highly recommend this book!
What did you read in September? What are you reading now? What’s on your to-read list?? Please share in the comments below!!
