Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby. I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book. Here are my reads for October, 2018…

The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid – After I read and loved Exit West earlier this year, I was looking forward to checking out Hamid’s earlier novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist.  The story of a young Pakistani man who graduates from Princeton and lands a prestigious job in finance, only to find his worldview coming unraveled after September 11, is compelling and thought-provoking.

Miss Mapp (Mapp and Lucia #2), by E.F. Benson – Out of order but not exactly, because I read the first of the Mapp and Lucia books last year, I picked up Miss Mapp as a lighthearted palate cleanser after The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and it didn’t disappoint.  Reading about the social machinations and misadventures of Elizabeth Mapp and her neighbors – archrival Diva Plaistow, possible love interest Major Benjy, and more – was just the delightful romp I needed.

Queen Lucia (Mapp and Lucia #1), by E.F. Benson – It occurred to me that in order to count Queen Lucia toward my new Classics Club challenge, I’d need to re-read it, and I was still in the mood to spend time in Riseholme and Tilling, so I meandered one town over to spend time with Lucia, Peppino, Georgie, Olga and the Riseholme crew.  I think Miss Mapp is stronger than this predecessor, but Queen Lucia is still most enjoyable.  (The Brinton Quartet!  I DIE.)

Fear: Trump in the White House, by Bob Woodward – A thing about living in D.C. is that when these political exposes, analyses, tell-alls, memoirs, and the like come out – everyone scrambles to read them.  I imagine that this isn’t the case in other cities, but here, the conversation revolves around a new Trump book for at least a month – and longer if the redoubtable Bob Woodward is involved.  This was exactly what I would expect from Woodward – exhaustively researched and persuasively composed – and because of its subject, it was downright chilling.  I hate that these books are being published, but as long as they are and as long as I live where I do, I’m sure I won’t be able to resist reading them.

The Blue Field (Brensham Trilogy #3), by John Moore – This month’s reading is looking like a pattern – intense/heavy, lighthearted, lighthearted, later, rinse, repeat.  Obviously after Fear I needed another couple of palate cleansers, and I had been saving the final volume of the Brensham Trilogy – lightly fictionalized memoirs about life in an English market town and its constellation of surrounding villages before, during and after World War II – for just such an occasion.  It didn’t disappoint.  Moore’s evocative writing about English village life was present in force, old friends dropped by for a visit and some government port, and the character of William Hart burst lifelike onto the page.  I’m going to come back to this trilogy again and again, and I’m so glad to have them lined neatly up on my Slightly Foxed shelf.

Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding (Her Royal Spyness #12), by Rhys Bowen – I can’t resist a new installment of the adventures of Lady Georgianna Rannoch, and this one was just as good as its predecessors.  On the eve of her wedding to the Honorable Darcy O’Mara, Georgie is once again looking for a place to live.  Her house-hunting woes are put to an end when her ex-stepfather offers her residence in his stately manor, Eynsleigh, which Georgie will inherit along with his fortune someday.  Remembering happy childhood days at Eynsleigh, Georgie leaps at the chance, but when she arrives the manor is sadly dilapidated and the staff is almost suspiciously inept.  As Georgie attempts to prepare for her wedding and set the house to rights, it becomes clear that something more sinister than run-of-the-mill Problems With The Servants is going on.  Delightful and fun as always!

The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Came After, by Clemantine Wamariya – Continuing with my pattern, the next intense read (on my friend Zan‘s recommendation) was The Girl Who Smiled Beads, a memoir of life as a refugee after the Rwandan genocide.  Clemantine Wamariya was only six years old when she and her older sister, Claire, were displaced by the war in Rwanda.  They stick together – reluctantly sometimes – through refugee camps and tough neighborhoods in seven African countries until they’re eventually granted asylum in the United States.  This book was stunning and powerful and I think it would be hard for anyone to read, but I found it particularly difficult because my daughter is six years old – the same age Clemantine was when she first became a refugee and was separated from her parents.  I kept imagining my daughter in her place and it was almost impossible to keep reading – but I did, because I think this book is incredibly important.  With the ongoing refugee crisis and the poisonous rhetoric around immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers in the current political climate, The Girl Who Smiled Beads should be required reading for everyone.

I’d Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life, by Anne Bogel – Cue up the post-intense-read-palate-cleanser.  I breezed through this slim book of essays about life as a book person in one day, and it was delightful.  My local independent children’s bookstore got shouts (hooray!) and while I already knew the story of the library in Bogel’s backyard – jeeeeeeealous – I never tire of reading about it.  There’s nothing like a book about books, and this one is a worthy addition to the shelf; I can see myself dipping back into it again and again.

The Floating Admiral, by the Members of the Detection Club – Checked one off my longtime TBR and Classics Club challenge list with this fun team-written mystery novel by the original members of the Detection Club, a collection of Golden Age crime luminaries including Agatha Christie, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers and Anthony Berkeley.  The writing was a bit all over the place, since each writer brought their own style to the project – and every chapter ended on a cliffhanger, because apparently no one could help themselves.  But it was a lot of fun and very different; full review to come soon.

Educated, by Tara Westover – I listened on audio to this month’s book club selection – a memoir by a young woman who grew up in a survivalist family in rural Idaho, where her homeschool education was spotty at best and nonexistent at worse, and she endured horrific abuse by her elder brother and gaslighting by her parents, who took his part – but she rose above all of these challenges to earn a college degree from Brigham Young University, a Harvard fellowship, and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University.  Educated was on President Obama’s summer reading list for 2018 and it was certainly fascinating.  The audio production was excellent, but man it was hard to listen to.

The Mothers, by Brit Bennett – I’ve had this debut novel on my list since it was released to wide acclaim and it was deserving of the hype.  The Mothers relates the story of three young lives – Nadia Turner, Luke Sheppard, and Aubrey Evans – and how they are shaped and changed by a secret.  The writing is gripping and the story is well-told, but what makes the book really unique is the use of the “church mothers” as a sort of Greek chorus introducing the events of nearly every chapter.  I loved the voices of the “church mothers” and found them to be a really different and well-utilized storytelling device.

Eleven books in October!  At this rate, my plan to read only 52 books this year is long-since abandoned.  What can I say?  I love to read and I can’t seem to slow my pace.  Plus – so many books, so little time, amirite?  October always seems to be a strong reading month for me; I’m not sure why.  Maybe it’s the return of chilly weather, or the fact that we’re well and truly out of the summer vacation and back-to-school seasons and I have the time and capacity to dedicate to long reading evenings again.  This October is no different and I have lots of highlights.  The two Mapp and Lucia books were such fun at the beginning of the month, and of course I always enjoy a visit with Lady Georgianna.  Educated was incredibly powerful, as was The Girl Who Smiled Beads.  But I think The Blue Field is the high point, because I just love the beautifully and poignantly drawn world that John Moore conjures up in Brensham.  Next month – I have a big stack of library books, so I’m excited about lots of good reading ahead.