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October Reading Challenge

We’re in the home stretch! Only three more months left in 2019, and arguably the busiest quarter of the year. Have you been playing (reading) along? I’ve had varying success at sticking to my own challenge, but autumn is the season in which I both want to spend more time reading and I have to spend more time reading simply for my sanity. Plus, I schedule my workload to be light from Thanksgiving through New Year’s (the big benefit of being self-employed) so it makes for a bit more cozy reading time.

Without further ado, this month’s challenge is a pleasant one: Read a bestseller that you’ve either avoided or missed. If you got carried along by the flood of new releases and couldn’t quite get to the “it” books that everyone was talking about earlier in the year, you now have full permission to backtrack and pick up a copy. Or if you’re like me and try to get most of your books from the library, maybe that hold is just now coming in six months later now that the excitement has died down.

Either way, tell me in the comments below what you’d love to read for your October bestseller backtrack. And remember, it doesn’t have to be from 2019. You can take it all the way back to Dickens if you’re so inclined!

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September Reading Challenge Recap

September is coming to a close…and with it summer! The switch over to autumn always puts me in a cozy reading mood, especially since it’s taken longer and longer for the days to warm up in Colorado, even if we are still getting highs in the 80s. (I manage to ignore this by just staying inside after 2 pm. Take that, Indian summer!) But the good news for me is, I actually got a fair amount of reading done, even considering several DNFs of challenge books that just didn’t do it for me. (A shame too, because they had great illustrated covers!)

Here’s a look at the ones I completed (challenge books in bold):

  • Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple
  • The Good Widow by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke
  • My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella (audio)
  • Playing with Matches by Hannah Orenstein
  • Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple

Tell me in the comments below: did you read any great books with illustrated covers? What was your favorite read for September?

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Carla Recommends: Playing with Matches by Hannah Orenstein

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Playing with Matches is a book I picked up on a whim at Barnes & Noble, mostly because it had an illustrated cover that fit in with my September reading challenge. However, it turned out to be a pleasant, page-turning surprise! While it’s billed as a rom-com, I’m going to classify this one as Millennial chick-lit with a twist… and you’ll just have to read it to know what the twist is.

What It’s About

A new college graduate desperate for a job so she doesn’t have to move back home takes a position as an elite New York City matchmaker. Hilarity ensues.

What I Loved

I’m a couple of decades past my college graduation year, and it’s been over twenty years since I dated… so I love books about what it’s like to be a young woman looking for love in the modern world! Orenstein captures both the angst of dating in a post-Tinder world and the excitement and sense of possibility of being young in a vibrant global city like New York. Quirky characters abound, along with realistic portrayals of female friendships.

What I Didn’t Love

There wasn’t much I didn’t love, but for those sensitive readers, I should mention some language and sexual situations (though nothing graphic).

Who Should Read It

If you’re a Millennial or older Gen-Z-er, you might think that romance novels are fun but ultimately unrealistic in an age where you’re more likely to swipe right on a potential match than to bump into your soul mate at a coffee shop… and this is one of those books that gets you. If you’re a fellow old like me, you’re probably wondering why people don’t date like they used to… this is also the book that shows why. Plus it’s quirky, fun, and well-written. Basically, if you liked the movie Friends with Benefits or books by Jennifer Weiner and Sophie Kinsella, this is probably right up your alley.

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Carla Recommends: Recursion by Blake Crouch

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Welcome to this new feature on my blog, Carla Recommends. To be honest, this is just the #2MinBookReview in written format, since I’ve mostly only reviewed books that I can recommend. However, I’ve been so busy this summer that I’ve been living in leggings with no makeup and messy hair (why oh why can’t a messy bun be a thing when you have a short bob???)… and while you know I’ll sometimes jump on Facebook Live in workout wear, I’m really not sure I want to regularly commit this version of myself for posterity on YouTube.

What It’s About

A detective’s investigation into a mysterious disease dubbed “False Memory Syndrome” leads him to a scientist whose research has had unintended consequences on the very fabric of space and time.

What I Loved

Blake Crouch knows how to craft a page turner. Interesting characters, tight writing, and twisty plots hold my attention from start to finish…something that’s not so easy to do these days. When I start one, I know I need to cancel all appointments, order in dinner, and stock up on concealer for those dark circles the sleepless night is going to cost me… I’m not putting it down until it’s done.

What I Didn’t Love

The story seemed so unique when I began, but as we began to dig deeper into the mystery behind False Memory syndrome, it started to feel a bit like an amalgam of recent science fiction movies. It felt a bit like what you’d get if you blended The Time Traveler’s Wife with the Tom Cruise sci-fi romp, Edge of Tomorrow (also billed as Live, Die, Repeat) and bits of a few disaster movies for good measure. Whereas I’d been blown away by the originality of Dark Matter, I was able to anticipate some of the twists in this book before they happened.

Who Should Read It

Crouch’s books are the best kind of science fiction: accessible to the general reader, even those who don’t typically enjoy the genre. If you like to be taken on a thrill ride of twists and turns, you won’t be disappointed…even if like me, you start to anticipate the curves before you get there.

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