Back again for the monthly update! Not quite full-time fall temperatures here in the Midwest, sadly, but at least it’s not in the upper 90’s, so I’ll take that. (Seriously, give me the cool, blustery Octobers of my childhood and not this I’m-still-sweaty-when-we-walk-to-school-in-the-morning nonsense, what is this mess???) September was just a toasty whirlwind of a month, and I’m more than aware that it ended in a nightmare scenario for a lot of good people in the US. I’m so sad to see the pictures coming out of North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Utterly, utterly heartbreaking.

I’ll talk more about work below, but suffice it to say here – it’s awesome. I love it so much!

Anyway, let’s get this recap started, shall we?

Books I Read in September 2024

1. The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels by Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans

2. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by AVI (read out loud to my daughter)

3. Honey by Isabel Banta

4. The World in Your Lunch Box by Claire Eamer (read out loud to my daughter)

5. Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical, Religious Cult by Faith Jones

6. Rift: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy by Cait West

7. Stripped, 2nd Edition: More Stories from Exotic Dancers by Bernadette C Barton

8. I Can’t Remember If I Cried: Rock Widows on Life, Love, and Legacy by Lori Tucker-Sullivan

9. The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann

10. Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel

11. Catching Air by Sarah Pekkanen

12. The Matchmaker’s List by Sonya Lalli

13. The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

14. Marley Dias Gets It Done: And So Can You by Marley Dias (read out loud to my daughter)

15. Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

16. The Frindle Files by Andrew Clements

17. Given Up for Dead: American POWs in the Nazi Concentration Camp at Berga by Flint Whitlock

18. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (read out loud to my daughter)

19. Gay the Pray Away by Natalie Naudus

20. Do I Know You? : A Faceblind Reporter’s Journey into the Science of Sight, Memory, and Imagination by Sadie Dingfelder

21. Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix (read out loud to my daughter)

Whoa, twenty-one books! That’s a pretty great month. I think things will be slowing down a little from here for other life reasons, but this is more than I thought I’d read. The Unclaimed was just a heartbreaking read about what happens to unclaimed bodies in Los Angeles; the whole thing made me sad. The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians is an absolute DELIGHT of a book. I cried multiple times throughout this; I cannot recommend this highly enough. Truly one of the sweetest books I’ve read this year. The Shipping News was…not my usual fare. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t quite enjoy it either. It was a different one for me, that’s for sure. And The Frindle Files, Andrew Clements’ last book (*sob*), what a lovely way to top off a brilliant career of getting kids to love reading and books and stories. If you enjoyed Frindle, don’t miss this one.

Twenty-one books! Ten nonfiction, eleven fiction (one of these was a graphic novel). Eleven of these were from my own shelves; four were from my TBR. I’m happy with that!

Bookish Things I Did in September 2024

I did go to a book sale and came home with a bag of books, but I didn’t get a picture of my loot. Mostly fiction for my daughter and me; lots of Andrew Clements for her, a Jennifer Weiner, a John Irving, a Gilly MacMillan, and two Anita Diamants for me (among others). It was a good time!

State of the Goodreads TBR

I was at six last month; this month, with a bit of luck and diligence (and hunting for some books not at my library!), it’s at three! One, I’m going through day-by-day, as it’s intended; one, I started reading yesterday; and the other comes out this month, so we’ll see how fast I can get a copy of that. Not bad!

Books I Acquired in September 2024

Just the books I mentioned above from the book sale, plus a book I’ll talk about a little below.

Current Podcast Love

I’m all over the place here. First, I was listening to a podcast called Myths and Legends; I really enjoyed this and will definitely go back to it. Now, I’m mostly listening to And Then They Were Gone, a true crime podcast about missing people. Heartbreaking and utterly fascinating.

Stephanie’s Read Harder Challenge

Still slooooooooowly making my way through Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, on the days I have time, which isn’t often enough, unfortunately.

Real Life Stuff

PHEW. Busy, busy, busy. I run my butt off at every hour of every day, trying to get stuff done. Work is going REALLY well; I love what I do at the library, I love learning new things and being as helpful and productive as I can, and I love my co-workers, who are kind and thoughtful and patient and fun and funny. I couldn’t ask for a better job. 

Eventually, though, in a few years, I’m going to go back to school, and I’m looking at doing the medical coding certificate program at the local two-year college, so in my spare time, I’m starting to prepare for that. It’ll be a few years, but I figure I can get a head start on getting familiar with medical terminology (I bought a used book for this!) and preparing for the anatomy and physiology course I’ll have to take  (I dug out an A&P book from my basement shelves). I’m spending a lot of time studying these, and I have to say, I’m really enjoying it. It’s nice to feel like I’m actually using my brain these days! It definitely keeps me on my toes, though.

That’s the biggest change lately. Otherwise, I’m still reading every chance I get, desperately trying to keep my head above water everywhere else. Most days it feels like I hit the ground running before 6 am and don’t get a second to breathe before I go to bed around 10:30. My Fitbit sure loves my step counts, though!

That’s really all I’ve got right now; I’m a pretty boring person this month. Hopefully you’re also doing well and safe; my heart goes out to everyone that’s been devastated by Hurricane Helene. I know there are more hurricanes coming down the chute, and it worries me.

Stay safe and healthy, friends (COVID is still out there; a number of folks I know have been down with it lately). Wishing you a lovely October full of beautiful leaves and great reads!