Reading List: October 2024

What I read this month.

October is almost over, and I took my sweet time making this list because I also took my sweet time reading this month.

The TBR pile(s) in my studio are out of control, and I spent the month plucking titles from the stacks willy nilly. There is no rhyme or reason to any of these selections, no common thread, no theme. For a brief moment I thought, oh, what if I only read spooky books and then I remembered that the last horror book I read was so scary I actually couldn’t keep it in my house.¹

Not my TBRs but pretty close to what they look like.

A note before we begin: paid subscribers get access to monthly book giveaways. Probably 90% of this newsletter is free for everyone, but this is one perk for the people who make this work possible. I’m going to have a pretty big giveaway at the end of the year because the bookshelves are SAGGING!

What I read this month:

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante was the biggest undertaking of the month. I switched between hard copy and digital when I got to the airport and realized I had left the book on my bedside table. I didn’t always know which character they were talking about (there’s a legit family tree in the front of the book) but I did understand that borderline romantic tension between girls who have grown up loving and competing with each other. I bought the next three novels before I was done with this one so I could complete the series (and start the HBO show), because the last sentence made me gasp! Bookshop | Amazon

I Will Do Better by Charles Bock is coming up on an episode of TTFA; I started it a few months ago but finally committed to it this month. Charles is a novelist and reluctant father whose wife dies of cancer, leaving him with a daughter to raise alone. He writes like a novelist (a compliment) and I truly appreciated the view he gives into the uglier parts of grief: how unsure he was if he could raise his daughter, how unprepared he was to shepherd a toddler through her unfolding grief. Bookshop | Amazon

Democracy in Retrograde by Sami Sage and Emily Amick is a good antidote to whatever angst you’re experiencing about our country right now. I love despair and anger as much as the next girl (probably more!), but what if we channeled our regularly scheduled panic into sustained engagement and action?? Amazon | Target

How Do You Feel by Dr. Jessi Gold is a memoir that explores the intersection of mental health and the medical field. If you care for a living (or care about people who do), this book will be fascinating and comforting. Bookshop | Amazon

The Plan by Kendra Adachi is a time management book for people who have bought every time management book (me) and still felt like they can’t manage (also me). Because guess what? Those books are not about living your life, they are about striving for a life that you may never have! This book is kind and helpful and I dog-eared and underlined the hell out of it. Target | Amazon | Bookshop

Dinner for Vampires by Bethany Joy Lenz is a cult memoir. Did I watch One Tree Hill? Nope! Did I still enjoy this? Yes! Did I want her to examine a little more closely how her family of origin may have impacted her life choices and circumstances? Yeah, but I also understand that might have been a scab too big to pick. Target | Bookshop | Amazon

I Do (I Think) by Allison Raskin is equal parts memoir and reporting on the state of marriage today, including interviews with individuals, couples and researchers alike. That’s interesting enough, but it’s Allison’s story that makes it a great read: Allison is a writer/podcaster/performer who has lived with OCD since childhood and who, like many of us, spent her adult life dating with the express purpose of finding a husband. Unlike many of us, she was ghosted by her first fiancé…and in spite of that, still ended up getting married (to another guy). Bookshop | Amazon

Book Giveaway!

I have extra copies of the following books. Leave a comment if you’d like one and I’ll randomly pick winners, send the winners a message, and mail them out!

• How Do You Feel?

• Democracy in Retrograde

• I Will Do Better

• The Plan

• I Do (I Think)

xo,

Nora

1. It’s a great book, though! I do recommend it!