Show Us Your Books! - What I read in September

My friend Jana at Jana Says and I are both big readers. So the second Tuesday of each month we're blogging about the books we read the previous month. We thought we'd do this together, and if any of you readers out there would like to join us, that would be grand. Give a shout in the comments if you'd like it to be a link up.

Like my initial book post about what I read this summer, I will never be summarizing books because others do it better. If you want the book summary, click on the title and it'll take you there in a jif. The purpose of this post is to let you know what I thought of it.

As always, big shout out to the Philadelphia Free Library system for supplying me with all of these books. Much obliged.

My September Reads
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton - I really enjoyed The Secret Keeper when I read it last year. This book gets three stars out of five. I just didn't really click with it.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling - This was an enjoyable read and cemented the fact that I'd like to be friends with Mindy Kaling. Did I like it as much as Bossy Pants by my best friend Tina Fey? No, I did not. But I did like it.

We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas - This book was in all the magazines as the book to read. To be honest, for a while, I was like what the hell is so great about this book? It felt like it would never end - it was 648 freaking pages. I'm glad I stuck with it, but an editor whacking off at least 200 pages would've been a good thing. However it's the author's debut novel so I'm sure he fought for his blood, sweat, and tears to be contained. As far as characters go, Eileen was perpetually disgruntled even when things went her way, so by the time they were really not going her way, I had little sympathy left. The son was an epic turd and the father...What it ends up being about was interesting enough for me to keep reading, but if you don't have the time or the patience, skip it.

Overseas by Beatriz Williams - I have sung the praises of A Hundred Summers and The Secret Life of Violet Grant, both by Williams, on this blog before. This one, not so much. It was like a cross between a soft core Fifty Shades of Grey and a less well written version of The Time Traveler's Wife. The dialogue made me die inside a little - Williams way overdid the cheeky English words. Not my cup of tea, but if it's yours, check it out.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins - It's about, you know, crank...which the main character refers to as the Monster. Written as you see below, it was easy to devour. I can't imagine going down that hole, but I'm sure a lot of people couldn't before they started using. It was hard, subject matter-wise - why the hell would someone do this? What kind of life is this? But those are the same things that made it page turning.

Inside the pages of Crank

Never Fade (The Darkest Minds #2) by Alexandra Bracken - YA dystopian lore, the second in a series (my take on the first can be found here). I enjoyed the second more than the first and will continue with the series. This shit is sort of crazy, but isn't all dystopian lore?

The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad #5) by Tana French - I devoured the first four books of this series that's not a series like you think of a series as being in 2012. The latest one was released in January 2014, and I finally got around to it. It did not disappoint. I had to stay up until past 1 a.m. one night to finish it. I truly enjoyed all of these books and this one was no exception.

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Haikuesday

Slide into a book...

Is reading all day a job?

If not, can it be?

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What was your favorite recent read? Are we friends on goodreads?