October TBR

Here we are. The long awaited October TBR.

I am pretty conflicted about what to put on this list, so I'll start with the obvious ones.

Jean Harlow and the Legend of Stonefish Creek by Jes McCutchen - This is the latest release by the author that is coming to visit in 3 weeks. I need to get it read. I want to have something intelligent to talk about when I talk to her.

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton - This is the last book on my 10 oldest books on my TBR list. It looks like I might actually reach that goal for the year. And, since it's October, I have 3 whole months to read it. It has about 850 pages. Yikes! That is officially the third longest book on my shelves.

At the end of September, I will have 7 books left to read to complete the Booklist Queen's Reading Challenge. With three months left, I'm going to aim for 3 books a month toward that goal. Since it's October, I will put three mysteries on the list for those challenges.

Fatal Enquiry by Will Thomas - Being the 6th Barker and Llewellyn book, of which there are now 15. This one will fulfill the prompt to read a Historical Mystery.

Dragon's Lair by Sharon Kay Penman - This will be the third in the Justin de Quincy series that I have read this year. That fulfills the BQRC prompt to read 3 books by the same author. I have to say, this is not something I typically do in a year. Usually I leave much more time between installments in a series. I did wait a couple of months after I read the first one, to read the second, but I really liked it, so I'm ready to see where we are going next.

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny - This is the third book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, of which there are about to be 19 books. I love these cozy mysteries from Canada. Inspector Gamache is reminiscent of Hercule Poirot, but maybe that's just a product of the French that is peppered about in the text. This book will meet the BQRC prompt to read a book set in a small town. Three Pines is one of those little villages that, if it were a real place, there would be many questions about the number of murders per capita that take place there.

I mentioned yesterday that I wasn't sure I could reach my goal of reading 50 books from my physical TBR. As of right now, I've read 31 of those books. That leaves 19 books from my shelves to read. Maths tells us that I will need to read at least 6 books from my shelves each month to reach the goal. It's doable, but only just. So, I will have to get very strategic about my reading. So far, this list has 4 books from my shelves on it. I need to read 2 more (or three. One of these months will have to have 7 books read to make it work.) books. I went and checked Goodreads for books with low page counts. Let's see what we find.

Some of the books with low page counts are actually going to take a lot of time and brain power to read, so I don't think those are a good idea. Some books that are longer are actually quick reads, such as romance and YA.

Eat Only When You're Hungry by Lindsay Hunter - Firstly, I kind of both love and hate this cover. Like, on the one hand, it makes me want to eat a Ding Dong, but on the other, it's pretty nauseating. I got this in 2017 from Book of the Month. I don't know why I chose it. It must have been a pretty disappointing month for selections. I do remember thinking it was a book of essays for several years. It turns out to be fiction. It's about a man whose son is a drug addict and has now gone missing for longer than he has before. The dad drives from West Virginia to Miami because he is certain he is the only one who can find his son. Apparently, the father is also an addict. To food. As he drives he contemplates his choices in life that led him to the moment he is experiencing right now. I kind of love these meditative, inner dialog situations. They aren't for everyone, though. This has 212 pages, so it is short-lived navel gazing.

Growing Older With Jane Austen by Maggie Lane - This has been on my shelves for a long time. It was published 10 years ago and I feel like I bought it in 2018 at The Tattered Cover in Denver when we took my kid to school. Now that I am 50, I feel more comfortable admitting that I am, in fact, growing older. Some of my Jane Austen books will require time and brain to read, which doesn't really bode well for finishing the book in a timely manner. This one, however, appears to be more a popular reading perspective, so I'm hoping I will be able to plow through the 240 pages pretty quickly, while enjoying the Jane Austen-ness of the book.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield - In the unlikely event that I get through all 7 of those other books, I may feel inclined to re-read this. One of my Booklist Queen challenges is to re-read a favorite. Up to now I haven't been able to pick a favorite I might want to revisit. I do, however, love to read this in October. I've read it at least twice. It's 408 pages, but hopefully being a re-read will pave the way to smoother sailing and faster reading.

That is 8 books. That is a doable number of books to read, if I can find the time and the wherewithal to read them. I don't really do audiobooks, so I am kind of forced to do all the reading with my eyes. That's ok. Generally my eyes are faster than the fastest reading speed I can listen to and still understand what's happening.

What's on your reading stack for October?