September Reading

Okay friends, I'm going to make this goal! I might spend all of December reading, but I'm going to read 52 books this year! Here is what I finished in September

33. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara.

I loved this. It's a historical fiction book, narrated by different generals in the Civil War, specifically the Battle of Gettysburg. The author used journals and personal accounts of the battle to paint an amazing picture of those few days. It was suspenseful, touching and really made me feel engaged in Civil War history. Go read this.

34. Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls

I read The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls and just loved it. The Glass Castle is her memoir of growing up with eccentric (that is putting it nicely) parents. Half Broke Horses is a fictionalized memoir of her grandmother's life. She used as many sources as she could to verify details, but because she couldn't substantiate everything, she decided to build a fiction piece around the facts of the story. It was a sweet novel about a woman with an interesting life in the early 1900's in New Mexico and Texas. I would also tell you to go read this.

35. 22 Brittania Road by Amanda Hodgekinson

I picked this for an online book club I'm in and for a readers group I started here in Hong Kong. It was not a good selection. It was bulky and hard to get through. I liked the idea of the story, but the execution was so bogged down by excess and I felt like there was an abundance of sex scenes that did not add to the story line. The story is about a family that is reunited after spending six years apart during WWII. I liked the idea of exploring the family relationships after such a long and intense absence. But I just wasn't impressed with the character development. I wouldn't read this.

36. A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True by Brigid Pasulka

I really enjoyed this book. It was set in Poland, bouncing back and forth between Poland in the late 1930's and early 1940's and then Poland in the late 1990's. I preferred the story line during the War years, mostly because it was more captivating and there was a lot more action. But I think it was really interesting to explore the long term impacts of war on a country and, more specifically, on a family. I bawled like a baby during several parts of this book. I would recommend it.

37. Alice I have Been by Melanie Benjamin

I read this for my online book group for August and finished it in September. It was fiction but built around the idea of the relationship between Alice Liddell and Mr. Dodgson, the man who wrote Alice in Wonderland (under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll). Alice, as a young girl, was the muse of Mr. Dodgson, a mid-20's professor. The story focuses on Alice's life and the impact of the story and Mr. Dodgson's affections. I was frustrated throughout this story because of the Victorian traditions/morals that affected many of the choices the characters made. I kept wanting to scream at the characters to act sensibly and not like crazy people.

38. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

I really enjoyed this story of a retired general and his developing relationship with the femals Pakistani shop keeper in his neighborhood. I loved the exploration of class and race in modern England. I thought it was a delightful read, but gave you something to think about as well. It was a quick and simple read that I really enjoyed.

14 more books to go! Thanks for the support my sweet friends!