October started out strong for me with reading – I had a lot of down time while I was on vacation to just relax and read! I think I made it through three or four books while I was away. I haven’t quite kept up that pace back at home, but I still read consistently the rest of the month. Here’s everything I read in October.

Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors

I really loved this story – I felt like it really nailed the dynamics of sisters so, so well. The Blue sisters – Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky – are all dealing with the complicated grief of losing their fourth sister, Nicky, and figuring out how to navigate their relationships with each other without her. All three sisters are very different, and are all dealing with their grief in very different ways. A year after Nicky’s death, the sisters come together, back in the apartment where they grew up, to try to stop their parents from selling it – bringing up complicated feelings and revelations about each other, and about themselves. While the book deals with heavy topics (grief, addiction), ultimately, it still feels hopeful.

The Anti-Ableist Manifesto by Tiffany Yu

(I got an ARC of this through Netgalley, but it’s out now!) I’m so happy that this book exists! It’s a great look at disability and ableism, ranging on a smaller, individual level all the way to a big picture societal level. I loved the examples from disability advocates included throughout the book, too. There are great examples of lived experiences and ableism in all aspects of life (personal and professional), examples of things to change and do to become actively anti-ableist, and ways to reflect on your own thoughts and behaviors.

Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff

I devoured this smart new romance novella – I think I finished it in a day while I was on vacation. Maya is a political rising star, but her ex-husband’s very public affair has put a damper on her shine. She lands a new job, but it comes with strict instructions to keep any personal drama far, far away from the campaign. And then she gets an offer than teenage Maya would’ve lost her mind over – Charlie, the lead singer of her childhood favorite boy band Mischief, is staging a comeback career and wants her help. Maya isn’t willing to throw away her political ambitions, but can’t quite stay away from Charlie, either. She has to decide if sometimes, a little bit of drama is worth the consequences.

The Book of George by Kate Greathead

This book was a disappointment for me! The blurb painted it as a portrait of millennial masculinity, and while I understood what the book was trying to show, it just fell totally flat for me. The story follows George throughout the decades of his life, in separate but related vignettes of what he’s going through at that point in time. In each one, George is struggling with some issue, and in each one, he paints himself as the helpless victim. It’s incredibly frustrating to read, and overall, never really drew me in to care about or feel for George. I had high hopes, but it just didn’t work for me.

Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten

I’ve always been a casual Ina Garten fan, watching clips of her TV show and cooking from her recipes, but after reading this I am so impressed by and in awe of her! The book follows Ina throughout her life – starting with her childhood, on to her time working for the government, and then, of course, when she decided to buy a small store in the Hamptons and the career we know her for began. I really loved how open she was, both about her childhood and about her relationship with Jeffrey, after being called “couple goals” so many times. And her passion and dedication and ambition made me reinvigorated to work on my own projects! I listen to this on audio and highly recommend it that way, as she narrates it herself.

Wish I Were Here by Melissa Wiesner

(I got an ARC of this through Netgalley, but it’s out now.) This is the second book I’ve read from Melissa Wiesner, and I really enjoy her mix of romance and magic – it’s so cute and fun! Catherine is as Type A of a person as possible – she has been working for years to achieve her dream of working as a math professor, and it’s finally within reach. But on the day of her orientation, she is unceremoniously told that she doesn’t exist in the system – her name and her SSN don’t connect to any person, at all. She’s given a few days to figure it out before she loses her dream job forever. She is offered help in the most unexpected way possible, from her chaotic, spontaneous, and definitely not Type A doorman at her new apartment complex, Luca. But the more Luca and Cat work together to solve this mystery, the more Cat begins to realize that somewhere along the way in her carefully planned life, she may have forgotten to think about what she actually wants, not just what she’s supposed to want. This book is set in Pittsburgh, and I had so much fun reading and picking up on all the mentions of the city!

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

This is the follow up to Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, and I enjoyed it just as much as the first. In this one, Emily and Brambleby flee Cambridge to the Austrian Alps after Brambleby’s mother send assassins after them. In the Alps, Emily believes that they’ll be able to find the door the Brambleby’s realm, and Emily can work on her map of the Otherlands – the faerie realms. But while there, Brambleby starts to get weaker and weaker, and Emily’s search for the door to his realm becomes even more important – not just so that he can reclaim his throne, but so she can save his life. This is exactly the right blend of cozy and action for me, with just a dash of romance, and I really enjoy reading this series.

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

I am a big Sally Rooney fan, but this was not my favorite of her books. It follows two brothers, Ivan and Peter, who have had a complicated relationship for years, and are struggling after grieving the death of their father. Peter is a an incredibly successful lawyer who is in a relationship with a younger woman but still in love with his ex, who broke up with him years prior after an accident. Ivan is a chess wiz but struggles socially, but starts to date an older woman who he meets at a chess event in a local center. The ensuing relationships are examined – by themselves, by each other, by the people around them – and we learn the different forms that love can take. It’s definitely more overtly political than her other books, and I just didn’t feel myself drawn to the characters the way I have in her other books.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

(I got an early version of the 20th anniversary audiobook reissue of this through Libro.fm, but it’s out now.) This is such a cool, intricate story about magic in England, but WOW, it is long! It’s the 1800s, and magic is understood to be extinct in England, but one scholar, Mr. Norrell, emerges and shows that it is not. He gains fame and notoriety almost instantly, and soon a second, younger magician emerges – Jonathan Strange – and becomes Mr. Norrell’s pupil. Mr. Norrell, however, is not good at sharing his books or his knowledge, and Jonathan Strange finds himself increasingly drawn to the darker sides of magic. One magician wants to protect magic, the other wants to make it public, and tensions grow and grow until they come to a head. I listened to this, and was really impressed by how it handled the footnotes – they flowed, but you could tell that they were an aside. If you’re a fantasy reader, I think you’d like this!

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