September:
105. Postcard Poems by Jeanne Griggs - A sweet little book of poems, mostly about travel but some about the difficulty of seeing one's children fly the coop. Charming and made me think of my own travels. I could also, of course, relate to how hard it is to let go of your children as they go out into the world. This is definitely a volume I highly recommend and will keep for rereads.
106. Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger - Elatsoe (Ellie) is a 17-year-old with a special skill that runs in her family. She can call the ghosts of animals from the Underworld. When her ghost dog (formerly a family pet) suddenly begins frantically running through walls, Ellie is concerned. He doesn't act this way unless something is very wrong. When a ghost reaches out to her, telling her the name of the man who murdered him. Ellie knows she must do her best to find justice. With the help of her friend Jay, her own skills, a fairy ring portal, and some snooping around a very strange little town, Ellie will do her best to unravel an untimely family death. A fantasy/mystery with an indigenous (Lipan Apache) heroine, Elatsoe touches on racism and grief in a dangerous magical world where one may have unique skills but they must be used with care or they'll cause harm. Elatsoe was a perfect read for #RIPxx, both genuinely frightening and atmospheric with some unique elements that I really enjoyed. It's the first in a series and I didn't love it enough to read on but I appreciated a lot about the story and would particularly recommend it to fans of books like Mexican Gothic.
107. Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child by Thich Nhat Hanh - OK, first of all, my inner child is fine so I didn't read this book because I have old wounds to heal, although we all do have things that boomerang on us emotionally, now and then. Instead, I read Reconciliation because I was in need of some emotional support reading. The topic didn't matter; Thich Nhat Hanh is comfort reading for me. However, I liked what he had to say about speaking to your inner child, forgiving people who have hurt you (whether or not they're still alive) while recognizing that their own pain may have been the cause of damage done to you, learning how to confront people when they've said or done something to cause you grief, and dealing with your own suffering when old hurts come back to haunt you. My favorite part of Reconciliation was actually the personal testimonies written by people who had been through some sort of experience in dealing with the past through their Buddhist practices and how such practices helped them to move on and let go of the pain. While I didn't read this book out of need for help with past hurts, I thought it was excellent and will return to it if/when some old pain comes back to haunt me.
108. One for Sorrow by Mary Downing Hahn - I've read a couple of Mary Downing Hahn's ghost stories and someone recently mentioned her, so I went to Hoopla to look her up and found One for Sorrow. Annie has moved to a new town. On her first day at her new school, she's latched onto by Elsie. Elsie is determined to be Annie's best friend and even follows her home. But, Elsie is not a nice person. She is destructive, mean, and jealous. Eventually, Annie manages to extract herself from Elsie's literal and figurative grip and make her own friends. Then, the Spanish Flu arrives. Annie and her friends discover that they can pretend to be grieving in order to get into homes where the bereaved have set out a feast for mourners. But, when one of their classmates dies and becomes a vengeful ghost who goes from possessing Annie to destroying almost everything she owns, Annie ends up in a terrible bind. How can she help this vengeful ghost to move on and return to normal life? OK, so . . . I didn't like this one. All of the characters were bullies, at some point. While Annie was mostly a good child, because she resorted to bullying when her friends did, it was very difficult to get behind her when things were going wrong. I'll read more by the author, but probably not right away. Also read for #RIPxx.
109. The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin - 14-year-old Lizzie is half American. Her mother has gone missing in Poland during the German occupation and her brother is working but she hasn't seen him in quite some time. With the invasion of Britain looming, Lizzie's been summoned to Cleveland by her American grandmother. Convinced her mother is still alive and that she must find her, Lizzie jumps ship and then goes to the London address her brother has given her for correspondence. Jakob fetches Lizzie and takes her to Bletchley Park, where he's working to try to figure out how to break the Enigma code. There, Lizzie is put to work but she continues to try to unravel what's become of her mother. Will Lizzie find out what's become of her mother? Will Jakob and the other math whizzes with whom he works crack the Enigma code so that Great Britain can avoid invasion? Absolutely one of the most delightful WWII books I've ever read. Lizzie is a hoot but also a kind and very likable person who happens to be extremely smart and observant. I loved everything about this book. It's upbeat, educational, and just pure fun. Highly recommended!
110. Galápagos by Kurt Vonnegut - I'm a Vonnegut fan from way back, but my eldest son has just recently discovered Vonnegut and Galápagos was his first read by the author. He was so enthusiastic about it that he sent me his copy ("on loan only; I want it back.") Told from a million years in the future, the events of the story take place in 1986. Machines are taking over all the jobs, economies collapsing, people starving, wars starting over food. But, a handful of people have arrived in Ecuador to go on a nature cruise. Some will die and some will be the only people left on Earth, stranded on one of the rocky islands they've come to tour. This is not a spoiler as the narrator keeps telling you about what will happen to everyone and humorously puts an asterisk by the names of each of the people who are about to die. It goes back and forth in time a bit, so you're both waiting for people to die as you read and for other events to unfold while knowing a bit about how it all ends. A ridiculous little riot of a book that makes me want to dig out more of my Vonnegut reads.
111. The Last Dragon on Mars by Scott Reintgen (The Dragonships, #1) - Described as a sci-fi/fantasy mashup, I bought The Last Dragon on Mars after the author posted the thoughts of a child who read this middle grade story. It sounded intriguing and I loved reading about the child's enthusiasm. Good decision. Lunar lives on a very hostile Mars. He's a scrapper, a person who goes out after dust storms to look for salvage he can sell to help keep the other children he lives with fed. Mars is dying and Earth is giving up on Mars, leaving its inhabitants to starve. When Lunar goes on a scrapping mission and he's caught off-guard by other scrappers who know what he's after but not where it's located, he and the other scrapper working with him are attacked and barely escape into the militarized zone, where a young dragon has been hidden. When Lunar is chosen to be the dragon's dragoon, or rider, he must train to ride the dragon into space to save Mars. OK, that kid wasn't wrong. The Last Dragon on Mars is unique and action-packed, with great characters. It does require some suspension of disbelief and that took me a while. I had to let go of the real Mars and accept a planet with life. But, once I managed to block the invasive, "This is so far from actual Mars" and just enjoy the storyline, it was loads of fun, enough to give it 5 stars and pre-order the next in the series.
112. The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich - I've read quite a few Janet Evanovich books and, in general, I love her writing. But, The Recovery Agent was disappointing. It has all the right elements, including some very funny side characters, plenty of action, explosions, and moments of kick-ass girl power. But, Gabriela is a surprisingly dull character and Rafer comes off as less sexy than annoying. And, we're supposed to buy into the idea of an MC who gave up a house in the Caribbean to get her ex out of her life? Oof, no. Having said all that, if you can tolerate descriptions and MC dialogue that are about as exciting as reading a grocery list, there is some well-paced action and a very nasty bad guy who is fun to root against. There are some fun bits of homage to Romancing the Stone. And, Pepe is a hoot. I just wish Evanovich had given Gabriela a personality instead of leaving all the fun lines to the secondary characters.
113. The Day the World Stopped Turning by Michael Morpurgo - Another middle grade read, The Day the World Stopped Turning tells the story of Lorenzo and Kazia. Vincent, who is English, is 18 and has traveled to France, lured by a quote about following the bend in the road. When he becomes fiercely ill and collapses, he is saved by Lorenzo after his dog Ami spots Vincent lying in the road. Lorenzo is severely autistic, limited verbally, but he is sweet and his gentleness helps people and animals to heal. When Vincent begins to recover, Kazia tells the story of how Lorenzo and Kazia became friends and ended up living in the farm house in which Lorenzo grew up. It's a story in which WWII eventually features, as it takes place in Southern France, which was somewhat protected by the Vichy French until a certain point. How did Lorenzo and Kazia meet and end up together? What happened when the Germans arrived? And, how did Kazia learn English? All is eventually revealed. While I didn't actually like the manner in which the story was told, with Kazia relating the story rather than the author placing the reader within those events, the ending was pretty perfect and made me a bit teary so I gave it a higher rating than I expected to during most of the reading (4/5).
OK, well. This month was my worst, by far, although I decided to "read harder" toward the end of the month and that helped to make my final book count feel somewhat respectable. While I had good reason for being too tired to read much of the month (nothing awful, just a bit of a challenge), I also wasted time on a book I wasn't enjoying. I went a full week before DNF'ing Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James at p. 123. I wasn't getting anywhere! Once I gave up on that particular read, things picked up a bit but I still had many days that I just didn't feel like reading.
My favorites saved the day. The Bletchley Riddle and The Last Dragon on Mars were both marvelous in their own ways, the former light and informative, the latter adventurous. Galápagos was nutty fun and I loved Postcard Poems. Reconciliation was soothing and Elatsoe was fascinating and unique. I wasn't massively in love with The Day the World Stopped Turning but the ending made it all worthwhile. That leaves two that I didn't love. One for Sorrow and The Recovery Agent were both disappointing. I should have given up on One for Sorrow but I've enjoyed quite a few of the author's ghost stories, so I decided to keep going. Oh, well. At least I didn't spend money on it, as it was a Hoopla check-out. The Recovery Agent improved toward the end but wasn't up to Janet Evanovich's usual standard, in my humble opinion.
As to my yearly challenges, I decided to let them go for the month. I didn't attempt to read any of those challenge reads I've mentioned (books I've meant to read and not gotten around to), nor did I ever open the Persephone book I chose for the month. Only one book was a title I've had for more than a year, the rest either purchased, borrowed, or checked out from the library, and I made a stunning number of stress purchases.
Well. Some months are like that, aren't they? My reading has been picking up as I worked on it toward the end of the month and I have high hopes for October. No need to worry about an imperfect month. Onward! And, Happy Autumn!
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