October 2021 Reads

What have you read and loved lately? Here's what I finished in October (I loved all of them except one, which I sort of accidentally finished, LOL)!

Reading "Mrs. March" by Virginia Feito was like a continual exercise in tapping in to empathy. At the beginning I felt alternately perplexed, annoyed, and horrified by the characters quirks and actions and I kept thinking... there is more for me to understand about her. And indeed, as the book unfolded, even though I continued to struggle with her character I kept circling back to the origins of her hurt. I felt unsatisfied at the end but I also was compelled to finish it.

I was gripped from the very start of "The Last Thing He Told Me" by Laura Dave and as someone who at one point dated someone who later revealed that he was connected to the mafia, it felt both surreal and real. The threads around the power and evolution of blood and non-blood relationships really moved me as well. Highly recommend.

I need to read details more clearly. I picked up "The Guilt Trip" by Sandie Jones because of the rave reviews and then found myself pushing through to the end even though I didn't enjoy it because I thought, "surely, this is going to get better?" I finished the book and turned it over to realize almost all the praise was for the author's other book "The Other Woman." OMG LOL.

"The Heart Principle" by Helen Hoang was exactly what I needed in a next read. I have jabbered on to anyone who will listen about Hoang's books...she is the author who opened my eyes to smart romance writing and this book did not disappoint. There was added meaning too, given that the central character is a violinist (I used to be a semi-pro violinist).

Oh man, "The Push" by Ashley Audrain. Lyrical, painful, aching, horrifying, frustrating. It is a book about motherhood and how wounds unfold over time and it's a doozy. Was also experiencing a ton of cognitive dissonance over the character Violet, given my sweet, loving Violet.