Well, I guess it's good that cyclocross season is over, because things are really getting away from me. Here it is December 12th, and I'm finally doing my October books post.
I ended up reading 10 books in October. I have no idea how I managed that. I usually save up all my scary/suspenseful/murdery kinds of books for October, but I ran out of those by the end of the month. Anyway, here is my list of book trips I took this month.
1.) The first adventure I went on was to Africa during 1800's and then it switched to the US and Africa and back to Africa up to the present. "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi was an incredible book about how horros of slavery and racism affect people even today. It was very well written. I couldn't put it down.
2.) "White Tears" by Hari Kunzru was pretty bleak. It was about a ghost getting his reparations from a wealthy Southern family who killed him back in the past. He was a musician and he was able to get to the family through their youngest son who was obsessed with old timey blues music.
3.) Shirley Jackson's "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" took me too a large house with a family who didn't fit in with the rest of the town. There was a tale of abuse in there from the past and the youngest daughter tried to take care of it. I love Shirley Jackson. She always sets such a creepy mood.
4.) My fourth trip was all the way to Transylvania and England in the 1800's. I read "Dracula" by Bram Stoker. I read it for the first time in my early 20's and I remember liking it. This time around I still loved it. The whole idea of femininity and masculinity was pretty amusing and the story itself was riveting.
5.) The fifth book I read was "Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History", by Tori Telfer. It was non-fiction and took me all over the world during many different eras. What I learned is that most women either killed their servants, or tried to get money out of men, or were protecting themselves from men and the sexist environment around them and they almost always used arsenic to kill their targets. It was a deadly trip, but perfect for Halloween.
6.) "The Cabin at the End of the World", by Paul Tremblay was very disturbing, just as it should be for October. Parts were very stressful. It took place in rural New Hampshire right around now. I'm not going to give anything away, let's just say, it is not for the squeamish.
7.) "The Witch Elm" by Tana French is the only book by her that I've read that wasn't part of the Dublin Murder Squad series. It took me to Dublin, Ireland in the recent past and then in the characters' pasts as well. It was a mystery book, and it started out a little slow, but then I thought it got really good.
8.) I entered the land of Orcs and Wizards in "The Two Towers" by J. R.R. Tolkien. It was the second book of the trilogy. Coadster told me it was a lot slower than the first book and she was right. I still really liked it, I just skimmed a bit here and there.
9.) The last of my Halloween reads and the last of my Jane Austen books was "Northanger Abbey". It wasn't my favorite Jane Austen, but as far as I'm concerned, there isn't a bad Jane Austen. I always get engrossed in her novels. I'm just sad that I can never read them all for the first time again.
10.) Since I ran out of Halloween type books, the last book I read was "Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career" by George Plimpton. It's non-fiction and basically a collection of quotes about Truman Capote and his life. He was one crazy character. I don't think I could be friends with him, but he seems to have made an impact wherever he went and his writing was great too.
Okay. So, I finally did my book post for October. I've got two more to write for the year and then my annual book rating post by January. So many book posts, so little time...
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