r/suggestmeabook • u/AutoModerator • 14d ago
Reading Roundup September Reading Roundup
Hey all, last month’s August Reading Roundup went great! So we are back to do it for the books you finished this past month.
Tell us what you read this September! What books did you finish that you would especially recommend?
*We hope this will help people find book suggestions when they don’t know what to even ask for or what they want to read. :)
Looking forward to your replies! Happy Reading!
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u/lascriptori 14d ago
Gosh, I was kind of trashy this month. I read:
- This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me. It was fine and I know it has a super passionate fan base. I had fun reading it but didn't love it.
- How to Fake it In Society by KJ Charles. I adore several of her books. This one was enjoyable but didn't blow me away.
- The Year's Midnight. Ditto to the enjoyable but didn't blow me away.
- The Book Witch. Cute, cozy, enjoyable, sweet, didn't blow me away.
- Katabasis by RF Kuang. I've avoided Yellowface bc I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like it. Katabasis is pretty polarizing but I actually really liked it. It was weird, smart (maybe trying a bit too hard to be smart), some lovely prose, and a good dark academia goes to hell vibe.
- The Earth Abides. This was a rec from this sub -- I'm 3/4 through and have enjoyed it so much. It was written in the 1950s and it's about a plague that wipes out almost all humanity and the group of survivors who make a life in the ruins of San Francisco. There's some 1950s misogyny and racism (though it would have been anti-racist for its day). I conceptually adore books about plagues and disasters but so many of them are disappointing in execution (looking at you, End of Men) and this one is really delivering.
And then what I actually did this month -- I keep compulsively rereading the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I'm not even tracking it because it's embarrassingly the second time I'm rereading the series this year. Plus, I turned on the Audible trial and am also listening to the books. It's become my emotional support book series.
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u/ReddisaurusRex 14d ago
The Book Witch was darling! I expected to think it was meh, or dislike it, but it surprised me! Creative and very heartfelt for its genre :) I find a lot of books-about-books or cozy witch books to be twee or derivative/nothing new - this one was neither of those for me!
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u/Logical-Brother1945 14d ago
A chaotic month:
Fantomas - The Centennial Omnibus Edition (the first five novels) by Pierre Souvestre & Marcel Allain
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister by Jung Chang (still reading) - it’s a well-written biography of three sisters, powerful ladies in the 20th century China
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u/postapocalyptictribe 13d ago edited 13d ago
2 stars
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls - Hendrix: I had several complaints about this book but my biggest is that it isn't horror, it's more of a social commentary on the misogynistic nature of 1970s American society, which was horrific, but not the kind of horror I was hoping for.
Outlaw Planet - Carey :This book is perfectly fine. I just could not get into it and didn't really care for it. I've read, and loved, other MR Carey books. Just not this one.
3 stars
The Astral Library - Quinn:- This was was not what I was expecting. I've read one other Kate Quinn book, The Diamond Eye, and this didn't even feel like the same writing style. But I liked it, it was a cute, cozy, fantasy and as a library worker I'm legally required to read all books that are set in a library.
The Romance Revival - Lauren: Not terrible but not as good as I'd hoped. I have really loved a few of their books but this one was just meh.
Every Summer After - Fortune: I was really enjoying this book until the big reveal and then it kinda went south for me, taking what could have been a 5 star read into just ok territory.
Harvest Home - Tryon: The autumn and small community vibes of this story are immaculate. If you need to get into the fall mood then look no further. It was a slog in some places but I still enjoyed it.
4 stars
Dead Beat - Bardugo: The middle book of the series was so boring that I actually was kind of dreading reading this one. I needn't have though, it kept it moving the whole time and tied everything up really nicely.
5 stars
This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me - Andrews: I went into this thinking it was a stand alone and was absolutely heartbroken when I got to the end and A) there was no conclusion B)I learned that this was the first of a series and C) it had not been finished yet. I'm going to have to wait who knows how long for the next one. I was engrossed from start to finish. It reminds me of how good the first two books of the Queen of Tearling series is and how I devoured them... but if it ends like that series did, I will riot. RIOT!
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u/ReddisaurusRex 14d ago
I had more duds than usual this past month. Hate it when that happens!
The Antidote by Karen Russell was the only one that knocked my socks off - it will be a top 10 fave of the year for me. Dare I say top 3?
I had 2 rereads, which I still loved, but can see people being offended by the second one if they can’t separate the past with current “sensibilities” due to triggers, etc.
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (reread of a book club) - still excellent
The Autobiography of Brown Buffalo (reread for other purposes/originally read it ~30 years ago.)
The following were fine, if they interest you, but didn’t WOW me or anything. I’ll leave off my duds all together, other than to say, avoid the audio of Witches of Cambridge at all costs! Print fine, but just barely.)
You With the Sad Eyes by Christina Applegate
Brimstone Hollow (Annie Gore #2) by Archer Sullivan
Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette
Etna by Paul Yoon
Days of Miracle and Wonder: Paul Simon and the Trials and Triumphs of Graceland by Ashley Kahn
The Devotion of Suspect X (Detective Galileo #1) by Keigo Higashino
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u/cozynite 14d ago
I read a lot of romance. And I’ve been trying to get back into all the NetGalleys I am backed up on, so:
Cross My Heart, I Hope You Die by Mallory Arnold (horror)
Once, Again, Always by Amanda Gayle (tearjerker romance)
A Little Too Wild by Devney Perry (romance)
Summer People by Sally Blakely (romance)
Any Trope But You by Victoria Lavine (romance)
The French Illusion by John Grisham (thriller)
1
u/Raineythereader 4d ago
Not a super productive month for me, but I finished:
- Victorian Ghosts, 1852-1907 (York University English department, 3/5)
- Murder at Cape Three Points (Kwei Quartey, 3/5)
- The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman, low 4/5)
- Tales Accursed (ed. Richard Wells, 5/5)
- Silk and Sinew (ed. Kristy Park Kulski, high 4/5)
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u/lexiebeef 14d ago
This was probably the month I read more in my life. I finished 7 books and am halfway through an 8th.
- Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro: This book became one of my favourites. I love the unreliable narrator, the quiet tragedy and seeing history of 20th century through the eyes of Stevens. Couldn’t recommend this book more.
- A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini: A sad, sad book about life of women in Afghanistan. I had trouble reading it and thinking of what’s still happening there and how history repeats itself in the worst way possible. The writing style wasn’t my favourite but the plot is very good, though devastating.
- Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut: My third Vonnegut of the year and he’s rapidly becoming my favourite author. What a book, what a brilliant mind Vonnegut had. Using the most absurd situations to talk about the stupidity of war.
- Piranesi, Susanna Clarke: What a fun book! I love books where you don’t know what’s happening for like half of the book and then slowly get hints and create theories. I loved the book, it warmed my heart.
- Memory Police, Yoko Ogawa: My least favourite book of the year. The plot had so much potential, I love a dystopia, but i really didn’t like the execution. The book was very repetitive and the characters fell flat. I think in a quiet dystopia, you need either cool characters or answers and this one had neither.
- Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes: What a simple but brilliant book. I really recommend this book for people in a reading slump, it’s just such an easy book to fall in love with reading again. The ending broke my heart.
- I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman: I can’t help but compare this book to the Memory Police and say this one is unbelievably better. The ideas behind them are somewhat similar (dystopian worlds, not many answers) but the characters in this book are so much better and the plot never gets boring (THE BUS SCENE ???).
- Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov: I haven’t finished this book yet (around 40%) and I already know it’s gonna be one of my favourite books ever. It’s weird, you don’t really understand what is happening, but it’s so brilliant. I love absurd, weird literature, and the devil, poncio pilatos and a smoking cat are filling that void for me. What a book