September 2022 Book List

 9/1: Dawn (Xenogenesis #1) by Octavia E. Butler (library, 1987) - Super thought-provoking without being preachy. Sci-fi at its finest. 5/5 stars

9/1: Moon Called (Mercy Thompson #1) by Patricia Briggs (library, 2006) - Reread of the start to a much beloved series.  I stand by my earlier claim that it seems like a Sookie Stackhouse ripoff and the world still did not hook me. 3/5 stars

9/2: Hot Milk by Deborah Levy (library, 2016) - Introspective look at a mother-daughter relationship.  It didn't hook me, but it's short, so if you like that sort of thing, it's not a huge time commitment. 2.5/5 stars

9/6: Jade War (Green Bone saga #2) by Fonda Lee (library, 2019) - Such a great series. I really love this gangster/urban fantasy world and stayed up way too late reading. 5/5 stars

9/7: Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly (library, 2017) - Clever little book. I really enjoyed it and wish I could write half as well as Fennelly. 5/5 stars

9/11: Jade Legacy (Green Bone saga #3) by Fonda Lee (library, 2021) - I cannot express to you how absolutely wonderful this big book was. I loved every second of this trilogy. 5/5 very enthusiastic stars

9/12: Binti: The Complete Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor (library, 2019) - The first novella was absolutely amazing. The other two were not as stellar, but still pretty good. 5/5 for the first novella, but 4/5 overall

9/15: The Address by Fiona Davis (library, 2017) - Good history, predictable story. 3/5 stars

9/15: The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson (library ebook, 2006) - It's fine. Fine. Fantasy at its most mediocre. 3/5 stars

9/18: Devil in Spring (Ravenels #3) by Lisa Kleypas (library ebook, 2017)- Funny dialogue, terrible characters. What are you going to do? 4/5 stars

9/22: Lover Arisen (Black Dagger Brotherhood #20) by JR Ward (library ebook, 2022) - The last two books in this series have been incredibly lackluster. I'll probably read the next one because it's about an interesting character, but if it's not any good, I'll probably stop reading. The series has become bloated with too many characters and storylines and it has stopped being about romance and it's more about what's going on in the vampire world overall and that's not really why I'm reading these books. 2.5/5 stars

9/23: Iluminae (The Illuminae Files #1) by Aime Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (library, 2015) - This is yet another time when I say I would have liked this a lot more when I was a teenager. I'm an old-ass person now and I don't have time for teen shenanigans, even though I liked the premise of the novel.  3/5 stars

9/24: Legacy by Nora Roberts (library ebook, 2021) - I read this while recovering from my COVID booster. It was pleasant to read, but follows the same exact formula as The Obsession. 3/5 stars

9/24: Separate Beds by LaVyrle Spencer (library, 2003) - This was set in the Twin Cities and I liked that the characters went to school at the University of Minnesota and I really enjoyed the descriptions of campus. Other than that, I have to say this book was kind of boring, I don't enjoy motherhood as the defining feature of life trope, and the politics were quite conservative. *shrug* Not for me. 2.5/5 stars

9/26: Adulthood Rites (Xenogenesis #2) by Octavia E. Butler (library, 1988) - The big questions continue from Dawn and the brilliant writing remains. 5/5 stars

9/27: Undead and Unwed (Undead #1) by MaryJanice Davidson (library audiobook, 2004) - This "humorous" book about a woman who becomes queen of the vampires by accident does not hold up well. The homophobia and ableist language are jarring in 2022. I like the Twin Cities location and setting, but would not recommend overall. 2/5 stars

Total: 16 books

Average star rating: 3.6/5 (which seems crazy because I had so many five star reads, but I guess they were balanced out by some not great reads)

Sort of read, but not really

9/18: Raft of Stars by Andrew Graff (library, 2021) - This was our book club pick and it was well-written and I am not here to slag on Graff, but there was violence against children by adults and no one in the small town was doing anything, and it just cut too close and I skimmed most of this so I could talk about it at book club. I think I'd probably read more from this author, but the content was not my jam.

Did Not Finish

Shipped by Angie Hockman - Almost right away, I wanted to strangle the main character and then the hero told her she shouldn't let other men call her pet names at work because it was unprofessional, as if she can control other men and then I hated both of them and then I just stopped reading. DNF at 15%.

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki - It's really a good book, but its content was about childhood mental illness and I just couldn't really deal with it at this point in my life. I found myself doing just about anything I could to avoid reading it, so I finally gave myself the grace to just bow out. I think Ozeki is a fascinating writer and the structure was pretty interesting, but it just wasn't the book for me right now.  DNF at page 240 (44%).

Curse of the Mistwraiths (The Wars of Light and Shadow Vol. 1) by Janny Wurts - I am noticing a trend in my DNF books which is that I just stop reading when a book isn't vibing for me. I think this is probably a wonderful book, but after 100 pages of just not knowing what was happening and having new characters introduced every three pages, I just kind of gave up.  I imagine a more patient reader would love this, but I am not that reader. DNF at page 106 (18%).