Happy Fall, y’all! This week has felt magical where we are – cooler temps (and a little rain finally!). I don’t know what it is about waking up with the temps in the 50’s and 60’s, but it just makes me smile! I hope you are experiencing a great first few days of Fall, too.
Upcoming Changes
This is the time of year where I generally start evaluating how the Reading Challenge has gone and start planning for next year’s prompts. While that’s still in progress, I’m also reevaluating our review and post schedules. Since school started back, and with our youngest in an actual school setting this year, my time has been limited. I know I’m failing to meet the commitment I made to my readers and have missed several posts recently. As much as I know you all probably don’t care about that as much as I do, I don’t want to promise something I can no longer support.
With that said, you are going to notice a few changes to our platform here. Starting next week, you’ll get a newsletter post on Sunday which will discuss the prompt for the week and the book I’ve chosen with a short review. Full reviews for the advanced copies I receive of upcoming releases will still be posted on Saturday and will be referenced in the newsletter with links. Other articles like these monthly reviews, the monthly theme, and event reminders will still be posted and will be linked to in the newsletter as well. For those of you who subscribe to our newsletter or post emails, the biggest change will be the reduction in those emails – you will no longer receive an email for anything other than the newsletter. I am hopeful this will give me more time to support my family and read all these fantastic books, but also still share what I love with you. If you have questions about this change, please reach out via the email links above or in the comments on this post.
September Review
In September, I reviewed 10 books – 7 audiobooks and 3 physical copies. Let’s take a look back the reviews of those books – click below to visit the reviews:
5 Stars
- Christmas at the Ranch, Julia McKay
- Confronting Evil, Bill O’Reilly & Josh Hammer
4 Stars
- Bitter Orange, Clarie Fuller
- Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry
- I’ll be Home for Christmas, Jenny Bayliss
- John Tyler: the accidental president, Edward P. Crapol
- On Location, Sarah Smith
- Terminal Velocity, M.P. Woodward
3 Stars
- The Odyssey, Homer
- Velvet was the Night, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Both of our 5-star reviews this month are new releases hitting shelves soon! I have been a huge fan of Bill O’Reilly’s nonfiction books (not the politics…just the books) and have also learned so much from them. Our 5-star Christmas romcom was delightful as well – none of our other Christmas novels so far this year have lived up to this one! But in choosing the top book of the month, I went with the one I couldn’t stop talking about and thinking of in conversations – Confronting Evil. As usual with his works, I learned so much I didn’t know before. I appreciate that he started with early history and worked forward to modern day headline makers. It also shows that history repeats if we are not careful. With this being the second in the Confronting series, I can’t wait to see if there are more on the way!
October Reading Plan
I cannot wait to read books with you in October! We have a few of my favorite prompts this month – Magical Realism and True Crime! We are also honoring our teachers, going on adventures and, of course, celebrating All Hallows Eve.
One word of caution. I typically avoid books by authors who are surrounded in controversy because of their personal behavior or who use AI. My current projected choice for our “Halloween” prompt is Coraline by Neil Gaiman. I know there is controversy around his reputation, and I would prefer not to spend time diving into that. If you do not feel reading books by this author is appropriate, I am 100% ok with you choosing another book and even suggesting it in the comments. I will not, however, allow our comment sections to be overwhelmed by discussions about the author themselves and have restricting commenting through the end of month due to the foreseen issues.
A few sponsored books I’m reading this month:
- A Sea Glass Christmas, Davis Bunn
- Tom Clancy, Executive Power, Andrews & Wilson
- Lead Boldly, Robert F Smith
I can’t wait to read these great books with you – keep an eye out for the weekly previews on Sundays for what I’m reviewing each week!
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