I stayed right at my average for this month- 9 books, 3422 pages, so an average of 110 pages per day. 4 of the books ended up being supernatural, so that worked out well for the month of October! Let’s get down to it, shall we?
Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer (658 pages). Judge all you want. But as bad as they were, I love me some Twilight. When the original draft for one chapter from this book leaked years ago, I read it. So of course I had to see what the finished product was! The Twi-hard in me loved every chapter. It was interesting to read it from Edward’s perspective- why he did what he did, his confusion with his inability to hear Bella’s thoughts, his interactions with his family. Was it great writing? No. Was it enjoyable? Quite. I finished in 5 days.
The Book of V. by Anna Solomon (300 pages). The stories of three women- modern day Lily in Brooklyn, 1970’s Vee in DC, and 480’s BC Esther in Persia. I enjoyed the stories of Lily and Vee. Lily is a second wife (an Esther if you will), struggling with motherhood, sacrificed dreams and her mother‘s cancer. Vee is a first wife (a Vashti if you will), who eventually finds herself after her husband asks a degrading favor from her. I did not enjoy the bastardization of the story of Esther. At all. Names were changed, characters added, magic added (huh, what?), and Esther did not save her people in the way the Bible states. So those chapters were awful. The only redeeming factor of the Esther chapters was that we learn what happened to Vashti. I finished in 4 days.
Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy (371 pages). So I read the second book in this series first (accidentally). But I had already seen the Netflix Dumplin’ movie (which I loved). Willowdean Dickson is, in her own words, fat. But she’s also quite confident. She has a best friend. And they share an undying love of Dolly Parton. But Willowdean’s mom runs the local beauty pageant. And Willowdean decides to enter. Joining her are some of the other outcasts at their high school. Along the way, Willowdean finds love and acceptance. And discovers that her own confidence could use some work. It’s a great book about self-acceptance and friendship. I finished in 4 days.
The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult (413 pages). This was my Once Upon a Book Club book. So in addition to gifties, which I LOVE, this is also one of my favorite authors! Exciting times two! In ancient Egypt, the Book of Two Ways was a text that would help the dead navigate one of two paths through the underworld- the path of water or the path of land. Dawn Edelstein is a former Egyptology doctoral candidate turned death doula. When she miraculously survives a plane crash, she is faced with her own two ways to continue her life- return to Egypt and the work (and man) she left behind 15 years ago OR continue home to Boston where her husband and daughter wait for her. The novel explores both paths. Typical Picoult- excellently researched, thoroughly engrossing. I could not stop reading. There could have been no gifts and I still wouldn’t have been able to put this book down. I just had to get to the end and find out which path was taken! I finished in 2 days.
A Tale of Witchcraft by Chris Colfer (432 pages). Bristol Evergreen is now firmly in place as the Fairy Godmother. Magical creatures are beloved now. At least by most people. Unfortunately the Righteous Brotherhood (a secret society who was responsible for outlawing magic 600 years ago) is back and ready to destroy every magical creature alive. Meanwhile, Mistress Mara has begun the Ravencrest School of Witchcraft. Which presents Bristol with a whole new set of magical people to deal with. These books are so cute and just fun reading. I finished in 4 days.
Gatsby Girls by F. Scott Fitzgerald (284 pages). This was a collection of 8 short stories that Fitzgerald wrote for the Saturday Evening Post. The stories are fun and flapper-filled. As F Scott once said, he married the heroine of his stories. I could see Zelda in all of them. I was 100% positive that I’d only ever read one work of F Scott’s, The Great Gatsby. Turns out, I’d actually read two of these short stories before. And I liked them just as much the second time around. I finished in 4 days.
The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth (340 pages). Lucy loves her life, for the most part. Her husband is great, her children are wonderful. Her mother-in-law, on the other hand, has always been a bit difficult. Diana is cold and distant from Lucy, not at all what she wanted in a mother-in-law. But when Lucy and Ollie open the door to two policemen who are there to tell them that Diana has committed suicide, they are shocked. Her suicide note says that it’s due to the cancer that is slowly destroying her. But the autopsy shows no signs of cancer. So what actually happened? And why did Diana change her will to exclude her children shortly before her death? I finished in 4 days.
The Haunting of Ashburn House by Darcy Coates (329 pages). This was the Spooky Halloween special edition box from Once Upon a Book Club. So the gifts are on social media. Omg- sooooo creepy! Adrienne learns that she has inherited a house in a small town from a great aunt Edith she didn’t even know existed. It seems a gift- she and her cat are basically homeless after her mother’s death. But strange things happen at Ashburn House. And if the local tales are to be believe, the grisly murder of Edith’s family left ghosts behind. But Addy doesn’t believe in ghost stories. Until she realizes she’s living in one. Honestly, this book would make an awesome scary movie! I finished in 2 days.
15 Minutes of Flame by Christin Brecher (295 pages). This was the Sweet Halloween special edition box from Once Upon a Book Club. Again, the gifts are on social media. While helping to set up for a Halloween fundraiser, Stella Wright comes across an actual skeleton of a blood soaked Quaker woman hidden in the walls. Stella is convinced that the woman was murdered and sets about on her own investigation to uncover the truth behind Nantucket’s most infamous love triangle. But when a person is killed during the course of the investigation, Stella begins to realize there’s more to the 100 year old story than she thought. And it’s up to her to uncover the truth. I finished in 2 days.
This month’s favorite was.....The Book of Two Ways. But The Haunting of Ashburn House came in a very close second
