September Wrap Up
After struggling all summer and only reading a few books a month, I ended up with 9 books in September. All hail the audiobook! 4 of those books were on audio. Amazing. Let's review.
The Good Vampire's Guide to Blood & Boyfriends by Jamie D'Amato - This was a fun, silly, goofy time. Last March Brennan seriously considered unaliving himself at a bridge in the forest near his college. After a stint in an inpatient facility, he is back at college and doing much better. He's still depressed, but better. Until he gets struck by a car near the same bridge. When he comes to, he's not quite right. On his way back to campus he's delirious and he eats a bunch of squirrels and rabbits. Great. He's a vampire. Now what? It turns out there is an association of vampires in New England, but since he's not on Facebook, he didn't get any of that info. The Facebook page is run by a 90 year old vampire who struggles with technology and can't believe someone so young would not be on Facebook. The other leader of the group is an Instagram influencer. There is also Cole. Cole is the cute boy who works at the library who didn't tell on Brennan when he stole a bunch of blood bags from the college blood drive. Cole is fascinated by Brennan. When a couple of backpackers are viciously murdered in the forest near campus, the vamps race to cover it up and find out who did it. Then someone steals all the blood bags from local hospitals and blood banks and dumps them all in the river. Now we have problems. Brennan and his friends are determined to find out who is trying to out the vampires and how do they stop it? Like I said, it is light and fluffy, and the library has cataloged it as YA which tracks. Brennan could be really annoying in his depression and self-blame for every little thing, but I guess that's realistic. Anyway, this book did what it set out to do and it was a romp.
Jane Austen: Women, Politics, and the Novel by Claudia L. Johnson - This book went through each of Austen's works, beginning with the Juvenilia, and pointed out the ways that she was subverting the popular reasoning of the time that the family was the first priority and that it was led by a man and women should be subjugated and have men make all their decisions, either a father, brother, or husband. Austen's novels appear to be following the party line, but subtly point out how the going rationale is harmful to women. It took me almost 2 months to read it, but I enjoyed hearing what Johnson had to say on the subject. Unfortunately there are far too many comparisons to today's cultural mindset.
Sisters In the Wind by Angeline Boulley - Lucy is alone in the world. Her mother left almost immediately after her birth. Her father died when she was 14, leaving her with the horrible stepmother who is quickly spending her father's savings. After she burns down the stepmother's storage facility that held all the expensive stuff she bought with his money, the woman un-adopts her and Lucy goes into foster care. As the book opens, she is 19 and after she celebrates her 6 month anniversary at the diner where she works, she is planning to disappear. Lucy is running from someone. She doesn't know who, but they send her messaged every time they find her. They've found her again and it's time to move on. Except on her planned last night at the restaurant a bomb explodes and she ends up in the hospital with a concussion and a very broken leg. Also in the hospital are two Native people who say they knew her sister Lily (which Lucy didn't know about) and that Lucy's mother is Native (her dad told her she was Italian.) These two people clearly have history together (see: The Firekeeper's Daughter) and Lucy doesn't trust them at all. But since she can't put weight on her left leg for at least 6 weeks, and they are willing to take care of her, she stays with them until she gets another threat from the people who are after her. The end is amazing. The bad guys are truly diabolical. The character growth is believable. All in all, it's a good read.
The Love Haters by Katherine Center - Katherine Center's romance novels are of a higher caliber than most. There is usually a secondary message under the romance. In this one, the underlying plot is about body image. There is also a minor sibling rivalry situation, but it's very minor. Katie is a videographer who makes documentary films and promotion videos. She gets sent to Key West to film a promotional film starring Hutch who rescued Jennifer Aniston's Golden Retriever a few years ago and became instantly famous. Probably also because he is drop-dead gorgeous. Hutch thinks his fame is stupid because he was just doing his job. He's a rescue swimmer for the Coast Guard. He doesn't give interviews and he's only doing this promotional video because his boss ordered him to. He thought his brother Cole (yes, another Cole) was coming to do the shoot and he was hoping for a reconciliation after their falling out a year ago. He is annoyed that Katie is there instead. And it's even worse because she can't swim. He has to teach her. Katie is the one with the body-image issues. She basically hates everything about her body and wants to keep as much of it covered with as much black clothing as possible. Predictably, black is not convenient in Key West. Cole's and Hutch's Aunt, who owns the cottage where Katie is staying and helps her get her feet under her, is a fun side character. And Katie's sister who is making her find 10 things about her body that she likes, is a wise voice of reason. There is a daring rescue at the end that is not something you see every day. It's another fun time.
Navigating Difficult Situations in Public Libraries by Margaret Ann Paauw - Oh my god this was boring. It was helpful yes, but it took me forever to get through it because I just couldn't stay focused. Basically it gave tips on how to deal with problem customers from a trauma-informed background. Which means you just assume that someone is behaving however they are behaving because they have past trauma. Also the staff need to recognize their own trauma responses and learn to mitigate those while dealing with other people's trauma. Very useful. But boring.
Now I Rise by Kiersten White - This is the second in a series. I read the first one eons ago, but I didn't have much trouble remembering who was what. The series is a restructuring of the Dracula mythology. Basically, it asks what if Lord Dracul was a woman. Woman is stretching it a bit because Lada Dracul is a teenager, but ok. In the first book she and her brother Radu are given to the Ottoman Sultan as collateral for a peace treaty with Wallachia. When their father dies, the children are abandoned there to be raised with the Sultan's son. Lada is pretty cruel and heartless and takes whatever she wants. Radu is more of a people-person and can connect with people. At the beginning of this book, Lada leaves the Ottoman Empire to go take her rightful place on the throne of Wallachia. Radu stays behind to help Mehmet, the new Sultan, conquer Constantinople. The story oscillates between the siblings' perspectives. Radu goes to Constantinople as a spy for Mehmet and struggles with his feelings for Mehmet and his feelings for all the people in Constantinople that he meets. Lada lays waste to anyone who gets in her way on her quest to the throne. I hope I own the third book (I do!) so I can find out who it all ends.
The Mercy of the Sky: The Story of a Tornado by Holly Bailey - This was one of my 10 oldest books. The author grew up in Moore, Oklahoma where this book takes place. Specifically it is about the May 20, 2013 tornado that struck Moore at about 3 in the afternoon. This is significant because it was the largest tornado ever recorded. Also it was the first time a tornado had struck during school hours. The students have practiced tornado drills for decades without ever having to actually put them to the test. For this storm, those drills weren't going to be enough. The schools were not built with safe rooms or basements. The ground is mostly clay and basements just don't work here. Some teachers realized the usual hallway hiding spots were not safe enough and moved their children into closets and restrooms. 7 students from one elementary school died from being crushed by cement walls. In total 24 people died. I remember this event, but I hadn't read closely into exactly what happened. Tornadoes are terrifying, y'all.
The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat - This is a classic of Iranian literature that my kid gave me for Christmas last year. It is bizarre. A guy keeps seeing the same old man and the same woman. The woman comes to his house and dies and he cuts her up and puts her in a suitcase. This old guy (maybe the same old man?) helps him take the suitcase to the cemetery and bury her. But he still keeps seeing the same scene of the old man by a stream and the woman giving him a flower. It was just weird. I don't have any idea what it was supposed to mean. The blurb says it has been compared to Poe's works. Ok I see that.
The Celebrants by Steven Rowley - This was less cute and warm than the Guncle books, but I still enjoyed it. The characters are almost exactly my age, so I thought they were relatable even when they were annoying.
They met as sophomores in college at Berkeley. There were six of them, but one died of a drug overdose 2 weeks before graduation. They made a pact that when ever one of them was in a low place in life, they would trigger the pact and all come together to celebrate that one person. A living funeral if you will. The story jumps back and forth in time between the three past living funerals and the situation in the current day in which one of the men has received a terminal cancer diagnosis. He doesn't want a living funeral, but his husband wants him to trigger it.
The plot points are interesting and unexpected (Ouija board anyone?). And there were a couple of twists that made me gast. The end is fast-paced and also unexpected. Well, the one guy does die, but before that it's pretty breath-taking. It was very good.
And that, my friends, is everything I read in September! On to October!