September Reads

SEPTEMBER READS

SEPTEMBER READS

I couldn’t possibly hit “publish” on this post without first adding my thoughts and prayers to those who lost loved ones in the Las Vegas shooting last night. Such a horrific and painful thing to have happened. To those who are hurting right now: I stand with you and I’m hurting with you. Sending my love and prayers. 


I’m back in town from a quick weekend getaway to Chicago. My alma mater is in the suburbs of Chicago, so Nate and I drove out there for a night so he could see my college campus, then we spent a night downtown to explore the city for 24 hours. I’m barely pulling myself along on this Monday morning…but the weekend was worth it!

Chicago is a great city, and I’m thankful for the year I got to live downtown. I’ll share more about that trip soon.

Today, though, I’ve got my September Reads to share with you!

I read a couple easy “vacation read” books. To me, a vacation read is one that doesn’t take more than a few chapters to get into, and it’s not super challenging. I try not to read too many of these, because I want to learn and grown from my reading, but they’re just so much fun!

I also read a longer book that I’ve been wanting to read for about a year, and I finished the month with a quick and meaningful audio book. Here they are!


1. The Girl Who Chased The Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

I’m putting this in the “instantly gripping” category. It was one of those books that’s good for vacation: I started reading, and was instantly captured by the story. I read straight through!

Now, this book was actually a bit of a stretch for me to try…I typically avoid books with fantastical elements to them.  But I read a good review and decided to borrow it from my library, and I’m so glad I did!

It’s set in a small town in North Carolina, where a girl goes to live with her grandfather. She looking for answers to some of the riddles about her mother’s recent death. There are elements of magic and fantasy in this book, which I typically don’t love…but I loved this book!


2. Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead

This is another book that captured me from the very beginning. The story line follows several generations of professional ballet dancers, and that world is fascinating to me! I’m not a dancer, so I’m always amazed by the hard work, bleeding feet, lack of calories, and fierce competition these artists face in their short careers.

The story line was slightly predictable, but I loved it anyway! It’s an easy book to read, and it’s a good one to add to a Christmas break reading list. 🙂


3. A Gentleman in Moscor by Amor Towles

My book club picked A Gentleman in Moscow for our September book discussion. I was happy about that, because I’ve been meaning to read it since its release date 12 months ago, and I kept putting it off.

This is such a popular book right now, so there are thousands of reviews on it. (I try to get all my books from the library, but there was such a long wait on this one that I just bought it on my kindle instead.) Here’s my impression of this book: I appreciated it and I enjoyed our discussion, but I didn’t love the book. I thought the characters were colorful and often funny, and I enjoyed the author’s dry sense of humor, but I probably won’t put it on my list of favorite books of the year.


4. Between Breaths by Elizabeth Vargas

My little sister Kylee told me about this one. She was listening to it as an audio book and told me I’d enjoy it, so I downloaded it and listened to it, too! It’s a short, potent, powerful book.

Elizabeth Vargas shares her history of anxiety and alcoholism. I was amazed by how she managed to hide the pain that she was feeling as a result of her disease; she appeared calm and in control on screen in front of millions for so many years, yet she was fighting a life-or-death battle under the surface.

I was also fascinated by the high profile news world. Newscasters appear calm and composed, but reading about the behind-the-scenes world revealed the stress and pressure that so many of them feel. Elizabeth Vargas reads it, so this one is a great one to listen to as an audiobook.


Any favorite reads for you lately?

Kelsey

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Tristan | Gold Lion Style
6 years ago

I absolutely love that you check out books from your local library. As a kid I’d go to the library once a week and get the maximum number of books I could get; I’d love to get back into doing that. The Girl Who Chased the Moon sounds so good! Between Breaths also sounds extremely interesting. Thanks for sharing Kelsey!

terra @ terragoes.com
6 years ago

I do love my book club because it always seems to make me read books I’ve been meaning to read for months and sometimes years.

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