September Wrap-Up

What a great month! I was able to read (and listen to) a lot of books and I also amassed a lot of books! I got a ton of great books for my birthday and treated myself to just a few as well! I cannot wait to see where they will fall into my upcoming TBR.

For this month’s wrap up **check out previous posts for more information on previous weeks.** otherwise scroll to the bottom for a table view of the complete month.

This last week I was able to finish a lot of books mainly due to most of them being started earlier in the month,  I only managed to start one book this week and it was a little novella that I read in twenty minutes over lunch.

 I finally finished Fox by Kelly Oliver. I received a free e-book copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I really wanted to like this story. I really like the kick off. It fell flat for me though. I am not sure if it’s because you need to read it as part of a series (this would be the third book). Or if it was really just not that good. Jessica James wakes up naked behind a dumpster with severe pelvic pain. She thinks she has been raped and decides she doesn’t want to report it because it just too embarrassing for her… yeah, already losing me. In the end though, she does end up at the hospital and reports what she knows. She had drinks with a cute guy in scrubs and woke up behind the dumpster. The hospital lets her know she wasn’t raped and sends her on her way with ominous notes about how she had surgery recently. Again, the story loses me. A girl walks in thinking she is raped, she isn’t, you hint at surgery but don’t explain what type you think she had even though she adamantly refuses that any surgery has taken place in anytime during her life…It was hard to get my interest back after that and it was overly obvious what was happening and who was doing what or not doing what. Maybe start with the first book and see if you like it?

 Then I finally finished Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore. This was another free e-book copy in exchange for an honest review. I will let you I liked this one much more. The cover illustrations are as unique as the story. I will say though, I did get bored with it after a while and the only thing that kept me going was the romance between Death aka Suzie and Milo.

Milo is nearing his 10K life. He is one of the oldest souls and he argues the most wise as well. If he is so wise, and had so many chances to reach perfection, why does he keep failing? I really enjoyed how uniquely this story was told. We experience some of Milo’s lives in chapter form while others are limited to brief sentences. Some are “normal” existences while others are amazing and far reaching. Some stories were relatable and others too odd/weird/other worldy to even consider trying to rate/explain. If the story was a bit shorter I think I would have rated it higher but it did get to be much of the same towards the end.

Catching up on book club reads I finally re-read How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I really enjoyed this as a re-read especially after going through and reading the comments that this book generates. It made me giggle that some people read it almost as a self-help book versus the business book it was meant to be.

Knowing the age of this book, it is starting to show unfortunately. As Google celebrates its 19^th year in business it just shows gaping holes missing from this text when it comes to the Internet and social media. It would be nice to see someone from the foundation or another respected business guru step in and make some edits and inclusions to allow for the modern day happenings.

A random selection using Libby by Overdrive I listened to Behind Closed Doors by BA Paris. Honestly, I don’t know what kept me from sleeping more, It by Stephen King or this read. My wonderful friend Michelle received a copy of this as an ARC a while back and was honestly creeped out when the publisher sent a follow up note written as a woman trapped in her hotel room. Great marketing I tell you! This is totally worth the read and or listen. I might even just have to go buy myself a physical copy so I can stare at it horrified…

As mentioned, I was also reading It by Stephen King and was able to finish that as well. The book club was reading this (them for the first time, me as a re-read) so that we could do a girls day to see the movie together on the 28^th. I believe I was 10, maybe 11, the first time I read this book. It took me 17 years to read it again. The scene with the sink bubbling out blood, yup, still creepy as all heck. I loved it the second time around but found the same problems as I did when I was younger. There are a lot of rambling on that could have been whittled down a bit and not lost the building dread and the ending was hugely disappointing. King does such a fantastic job with building his stories but I often feel like he gives up on the endings, or doesn’t have a firm vision on where he wants the endings to go. He is still the master of horror for me though and I still highly recommend this book. Maybe not to a 10 year old though…King is pretty messed up and does love his racial slurs as well as graphic sexual scenes that can be perverted or violent at times.

Then to save my sanity and be able to sleep at night… I read Dataclysm by Christian Rudder. This was the nonfiction pick for the Charmed Book Club. This was an interesting read. As a woman over the age of 22 the first two chapters were very brutal and aggressive to get through. Look at the source though, a male that started an online dating site. It was all true, data driven analysis but didn’t make it any easier to read. Rudder relies heavily on his research from his own dating site so you need to take that into account. It got a little old towards the end how heavily it was relied on, his exclusive access to OKCupid data. I like psychology though and it was an interesting peak and jumping off point for research. Worth the read but don’t get heavily invested in everything he says, its one opinion based heavily on one source pool.

I also sneaked in another graphic novel, Avatar the Last Airbender Vol 1 by Michael Dante DiMartino, Shopaholic on Honeymoon by Sophie Kinsella and finally managed to finish Requiem for A Dream by Hubert Selby Jr.

Avatar was cute and reminded me of the TV show. I did borrow up to volume three from the library but not too sure I am interested enough anymore to read them. It wasn’t bad, I just think it fell outside my current interest zone.

This was a short novella and super cute. I just love her voice in these stories!

Requiem for a Dream, I have no idea why it took me so long to read. This was part of October 2016 challenge… Yeah, I was a year behind on my reading challenges. This book just kept getting pushed down but I am so happy I finally read it! I have a love hate relationship with the movie. I watched it several years ago for the first time and it freaked me out. The different, interconnected story lines were beautifully woven together and showed many paths addiction can take. I think the movie is a must watch and book must read for those entering high school and adulthood in general. It was very emotional and eye opening.

Final recap below:

Source	Format	Title	Author
B	A	When the Bough Breaks	Jonathan Kellerman
BT	E	Loud Music	Gloria Geiger
B	A	The Sun is Also a Star	Nicola Yoon
B	A	The Lightning Thief	Rick Riordan
F2R	E	Spellbook of the Lost and Found	Moira Fowley-Doyle
P	A	The Count of Monte Cristo	Alexandre Dumas
B	P	Bakuman Vol 1	Tsugumi Ohba
B	P	Bakuman Vol 2	Tsugumi Ohba
P	P	Rogue Lawyer	John Grisham
P	P	Inferno	Dan Brown
GR	P	The Show-off Monkey and Other Taoist Tales	Mark W McGinnis
B	P	Bakuman Vol 3	Tsugumi Ohba
F2R	E	How to Find Love in a Bookshop	Veronica Henry
P	P	The Tea Planter's Wife	Dinah Jeffries
B	A	Partners	John Grisham
B	E	Fifty Shades Freed	E. L. James
P	P	The Zookeeper’s Wife	Diane Ackerman
B	P	Coraline	Neil Gaiman
NG	E	Fox	Kelly Oliver
F2R	E	Reincarnation Blues	Michael Poore
P	P	How to Win Friends and Influence People	Dale Carnegie
B	A	Behind Closed Doors	B.A. Paris
A	E	Shopaholic on Honeymoon	Sophie Kinsella
P	P	It	Stephen King
B	E	Dataclysm	Christian Rudder
B	P	Avatar	Michael Dante DiMartino

I am so excited for October and all the fun challenges hosted by @thetallented who is running @thecharmedbookclub on Instagram. This lady comes up with the best challenges!

Source:
A = Amazon Top 100 Free
B = Borrowed/Library
BT = Book Tour – Honest Review
F2R = First to Read (Penguin) – Honest Review
G = GoodReads – Honest Review
NG = NetGalley – Honest Review
P = Purchased

Format:
A = Audio
E = E-book
P = Physical

Instagram: @shelf.loving

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/shelfloving