Everything I Read in September, 2024

September: 

98. The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood - Delphie is hiding from the world. She's a talented artist but collects art supplies and doesn't use them because of a bullying incident, years ago. She has a downstairs neighbor she considers her enemy and an elderly man across the hall whom she watches out for, fixes breakfast, and checks in on regularly. When she dies and ends up in a very strange afterlife, she meets her soulmate, Jonah, and worries that elderly Mr. Yoon won't be able to live without her. Then, it turns out that Jonah's not really dead so he's sent back. Delphie begs to return to her body, as well, and is given 10 days to get Jonah to kiss her. If he does, she will be allowed to stay alive. But, Delphie doesn't know Jonah's last name or where in London he lives. With the help of her annoying neighbor, Delphie goes on a quest that will take her through a host of romantic tropes and into a large circle of friends and an unexpected fling. But, will she find Jonah and get a kiss in time to continue living or end up dying all over again? What a sweet, funny, inventive story! My friend and former blogger, Brittanie, read this book, loved it, and gave me her copy when we met for lunch. I'm so glad she did because it was just the kind of light-hearted read I needed. 

99. Wool (Silo #1)by Hugh Howey - I've had Wool on my shelf for a dozen years and was friends with Hugh Howey at NaNoWriMo in the early years. Since my eldest son has recently reminded me that the Silo series has become a TV program on Apple+ and I happened to find my copy of Wool in the Library Annex (aka, the "closet"), it seemed like the perfect time to read it. And, let me tell you . . . anytime is the perfect time. Juliette is a mechanic in the Down Deep of the silo in which she lives. After the previous sheriff is sent out for "cleaning", a form of the death penalty, the mayor and deputy come all the way down to Mechanical (by stairs—about 160 floors) from Up Top to ask her to take over the job as sheriff because she was helpful in a recent murder investigation and the deputy thinks she's smarter than most. Juliette is curious what happened to Sheriff Holston and his wife. Why did they both go to cleaning willingly? Were they crazy? Is it really toxic outside or is someone hiding the fact that the outdoors is safe? What will happen when Juliette begins to find answers . . . answers that are forbidden knowledge? Wow. Just, wow. What a fascinating, thought-provoking dystopian story. I have the next two books in ebook form and I'm going to try to stretch out the reading like I did with Wool because I enjoyed it so much. Highly recommended. 

100. Before We Say Goodbye (Tales from the Cafe #4) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - The fourth book in this lovely time travel series is more of the same. A man wants to say something important to his wife before she falls into a coma. A woman who is distraught that she was unable to stay awake for her beloved dog's last breath thinks about returning to see the dog one last time. A young lady who turned down a proposal and regrets it decides to go back to the day of the proposal, even though her boyfriend later left her for someone else. A daughter who was extremely rude to her father and then never saw him again wants a second chance. As I said elsewhere, the stories are always a bit on the saccharine side but it's a good kind of sweet. Everyone goes into time travel knowing they can't change the present. And, yet they go anyway, often with the hope of saying something kinder and turning a bad moment happy. I love this series and will continue reading them as long as more are released. I read Before We Say Goodbye on ebook via Hoopla.

101. Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards - A book about the Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood, I think in 1889. I've had this book on my shelf since a friend recommended it and I got a copy from Ye Olde Paperback Swappe (before it was ruined by additional fees and I left). Celestia is wealthy but she has fallen for Peter, a young man who is common. She spends the summer in the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club with her family and he lives in Johnstown, where his father works in the mines. Maura has four small children and another on the way but she's happy living with her small brood while her husband works as a train engineer. There's also another woman whose beloved boyfriend drowned and who is training to be a nurse. When it rains heavily and the dam fails, sweeping away most of two towns, their stories will collide. Written in verse, Three Rivers Rising is a super fast read but I guess I'm just made to drag things out because it could be read in a couple hours and instead I spread it out over several days. The story is fictionalized but, like The Watch That Ends the Night (a book about the Titanic, which I read earlier this year), you get to know the characters long before disaster strikes so it's all the more real when the flood happens. I got a little teary toward the end. 

102. Cat + Gamer, Volume 1 by Wataru Nadatani - An ebook I found while perusing Hoopla, the first in the Cat + Gamer series is about a young woman who is considered anti-social because she rushes straight home after work and always turns down invitations to go for a drink or to a party with her work associates. Riko's a gamer and spends every spare minute playing video games. But, when a kitten is found in the parking lot outside her workplace and she agrees to take it, everything changes. Suddenly, she's got to figure out how to care for a small creature and the kitten takes time away from her gaming. But, she's completely besotted with her new friend. I particularly liked this book for the cat art. The artist is extremely good at capturing the expressions and movement of a cat. But, it's also a sweet story. 

103. The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James - A nice, creepy ghost story set in the 1920s with a side of romance, The Haunting of Maddy Clare is about a woman who works temporary jobs and has no living family. When Sarah Piper gets a request to go for a job interview, she's not expecting a ghost hunter to be her future employer. Alistair Gellis is a handsome, upbeat man who travels around, trying to prove or disprove the presence of ghostly spirits and then writing books about them. He has a regular assistant, Matthew, but he needs a woman because the ghost in question hates men. In life, Maddy Clare was found muddied and traumatized. Taken in by the elderly Clares and their housekeeper, Maddy stuck close to their home till she took her own life. Now, she haunts the Clare barn and Mrs. Clare says she's become intolerable. The reason for Maddy's trauma is eventually revealed (and fairly predictable) but I thought the author did an excellent job of slowly peeling the onion, so to speak, and writing some genuinely frightening scenes. The ending was also extremely satisfying. A perfect fall read. 

104. Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg - A children's picture book, Just a Dream tells the story of Walter. A litterbug who doesn't bother sorting trash from recycling, Walter likes to daydream of a utopian future world in which people own robots. He's perplexed when his neighbor is excited about getting a tree for her birthday. He wishes to see the future but when Walter falls asleep and his dream comes true, what he sees is a ravaged world that changes his opinion of how he should live. I'm surprised I've never read this book since it was published in 1990 but it certainly shows how little progress we've made at stopping such things as clear-cutting of old grown forests. I like the fact that Walter learns his lesson and is excited about planting a tree, in the end. 

105. Pretty Little London by Sara Santini and Andrea Di Filippo - Italians living in London, the authors of this book have a very popular Instagram account in which they show little tucked-away places that are must-see London spots. At least, in their opinion. A beautiful book that I bought mostly for the photos and nostalgia (it's been about 7 years since we visited London, maybe longer), it's designed primarily for visitors who want to find places to take Instagrammable photos and divided by the seasons. There were a few things I disliked about this book: 1. There's no index, although there is a map at the beginning of each section. 2. Sometimes the photos are captioned and sometimes not — and I prefer to know exactly what I'm looking at. 3. There's a lot of focus on places to buy drinks, stay in hotels, and eat. Our London visits have primarily involved a borrowed flat, frozen food from Marks & Spencer, and cheap sandwiches from news agents and drugstores. I haven't checked hotel prices but those shown all look very expensive. I especially enjoyed photos and descriptions of places we've enjoyed on past London visits, some of which brought back some wonderful memories. There's no copyright date that I can see in the book but I did notice Pollock's Toy Museum is one suggested place to visit and it's sadly been closed for a couple years. I only know this because I was thinking about it recently and looked it up. 

106. Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson - This is the second collection of short stories I've read by Jackson, not including a book that had a hodgepodge of stories and essays. The other was The Lottery. It seemed to focus more on social issues while the Dark Tales stories are very subtly horrifying stories in which Jackson beautifully sets the scene and then ramps up tension. My particular favorite was a story about a girl who is probably what you could call strongly psychic. She knew her parents were going to die in a car accident months before the neighbor came to deliver the bad news and has already finished mourning. Her neighbor just doesn't understand. However, she knows her obligation and takes her in. But, the girl keeps making predictions, they keep coming true, and the neighbor still can't be bothered to pay attention to what's happening all around her. Masterfully written and a book I'll definitely return to. 

107. Dial A for Aunties - Meddelin (Meddy) Chan fell in love in college but never could convince herself it was safe to introduce Nathan to her mother and meddling aunts. And, then there's the family curse — all the men leave. Is it even worth it to try to keep him in her life? Now, she's a photographer in her family's wedding business. There's a big wedding coming up but when Meddy's mother sets her up with a hotel manager and things go wrong, she has a body to deal with. Enter her 3 aunties and mother, who will do everything within their power to help a family member in need. A bit on the slapstick side and it took time for Meddy to grow on me because she started out slightly bristly but the further I got into Dial A for Aunties, the more I enjoyed the story. I love Jesse Q. Sutanto's sense of humor and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. 

I consider this a pretty good month. I didn't read any more than I read last month, but I no longer felt like I was in the midst of a slump and I liked or loved everything I read. I'm particularly enjoying supplementing my home library with ebooks from Hoopla when I need a lighter read. Having run out of new mangas in my house, it's exciting to find something I like through the library. Images of the two ebooks are below the flatlay image. If I had to pick one favorite, it would be almost impossible but . . . I'm going to say Wool because it was the most immersive. Other favorites were The Haunting of Maddie Clare, Dark Tales, The Love of My Afterlife, and Dial A for Aunties, with honorable mention to the Cat + Gamer, which has terrific cat art and made me smile. I'm also still enjoying the Tales from the Cafe series and looking forward to the next release, which friends tell me is coming soon. On to October!

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