Okay, maybe that’s not such a shocking confession after all. But seriously, part of the reason why I’ve been neglecting my blog so much lately is because I’ve been furiously reading my way through the huge stack of books in my “To Read” pile. Sometimes when I’m reading a book I get so caught up in the story that I forget about everything else in the world except the world inside the book.

This month, I’ve been semi-participating in the “Don’t Go Over in October” challenge (meaning I’ve been cutting back on spending, but I was too lazy to make a budget on Mint.com). The worst part of this challenge for me was not being able to buy a book for a whole month. Forget the cute fall wardrobe that I need to fill my closet with; what I really crave is new book smell. Until I saw my “To Read” stack had grown to about 8 or 9 books. It was abundantly clear that I had been more concerned with filling my bookshelf rather than actually reading the books. So this month has been about trying to diminish the stack. Recently I’ve read:

• Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. This book was our September pick for our book club. The book is 320 pages but I finished this book in less than 24 hours (and I even slept during that 24 hour period). Sarah’s Key was quite the page turner; the story is based around the events surrounding Vél d’Hiv, which I knew nothing about until I read this book.Of course being based on events taking place during the Holocaust, some of the story is very heart-wrenching. Each chapter was short and I just wanted to keep reading more and more. The main characters were very compelling, even though I felt a few of the supporting characters didn’t add much to the story. The author managed to weave together past and present events in a very effective and interesting way. So far this was one of my favourite choices from book club.
• The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. A few friends had all heavily recommended this book to me so I was eager to check this one out. The characters were interesting and well written, and the plot was well paced. It had a certain air to it that you don’t find in most contemporary novels. This book is definitely a different sort of mystery, and I’m sure this will be a book that I read again. I won’t say much about the plot because I don’t want to give away any of the secrets, but I highly recommend this one.
• The Friend Who Got Away: Twenty Women’s True Life Tales of Friendships that Blew Up, Burned Out or Faded Away by Jenny Offill & Elissa Schappell. This book was loaned to me by my good friend Molly. She first told me about this book after the demise of my friendship with someone after I wrote a post about wanting to put the kibosh on the friendship. This book is composed of 20 essays about friendships gone wrong, for whatever reason. I haven’t quite finished this one, but I can still appreciate the frankness of these women telling their stories. As Molly and I have discussed, women discuss breakups with their significant other ad nauseam but keep loss of friendships to themselves. When my friendship ended I felt dejected, and this book helped me realize I wasn’t alone in my internal conflict.
• The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I can basically sum up my opinion in one word: Meh. It certainly ranks third out of the three Robert Langdon novels. Since The Davinci Code and Angels & Demons were wildy successful, I can’t blame Dan Brown for not changing his writing model much but really, the plot in The Lost Symbol is seriously lacking. When I was finished all I could think was ” Wow, I just read 500+ pages for that ending?” I’m disappointed that my time would’ve been better spent reading another book more worthwhile; instead I wasted a few hours on The Lost Symbol.
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. Reading this book was a long time overdue. Growing up, my family vacationed annually in Hilton Head, SC and we always made day trips to Savannah, GA while we were there. My mom purchased this book years ago, and I had always meant to read it but never really got around to it. On my last trip home to Pittsburgh I snagged it from her bookshelf and promised myself I would read it before I returned. Well I finally did, and now I’m kicking myself for not reading this years ago. I could hardly believe that this book is a true crime/nonfiction novel based on the literary style and the characters themselves. It didn’t take long for me to become completely engrossed in this book. What compelled me the most was the fact that Savannah itself seemed to be a character in the book, recalling me back to past days spent there. I’m so glad I finally got around to reading what I was missing all these years.

So what’s on the plate next for me? The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne, followed by Look at the Birdie: Unpublished Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut. Yeah, I still have about 6 other books after that to finish but I’m trying to pace myself. Our monthly book club meeting is on Monday, so I have November’s pick to look forward to as well.

What have you been reading lately?

**Side note: our book club was featured in the Chicago Tribune’s Printers Row section a few weeks ago. Some of the members were missing, but it was still cool for us to be interviewed and featured.

Image c/o Allie Osmar/Chicago Tribune