Books Read in October 2021

October was a very good reading month. I read nine books this month. Three hardback books, three audio books, and three books on my Kindle. Five books were excellent, three were varying stages of good, and one was just weird.

"The Lost Girls of Devon" by Barbara O'Neal was pretty good. The plot of this book centers around four generations of women in the Fairchild family. Lillian, the elderly matriarch is a famous author of a popular mystery series (think Agatha Christie), her 60-ish hippie-dippie daughter Poppy, her prickly 40-year-old granddaughter Zoe, and recently traumatized 15-year-old great-granddaughter Isabel.  The four women are brought together when a mutual friend disappears. The women are each haunted by secrets, past betrayals and rifts in their relationships. Will they find their missing friend, restore their relationships, and find redemption? The real star of this book is the setting, which is a small town on the coast of Devon in England. The descriptions of the countryside will make you want to renew your passport and go there at the earliest opportunity. There are a couple of mysteries in the book, a bit of romance, and lots of great descriptions of life in an English village by the sea. It is a good deal on Kindle right now. 3.5 stars.

"The People We Keep" by Allison Larkin was a surprise. When I read the description about the protagonist being a 16-year-old teenager who has been abused and abandoned by her father, who steals cars to play her music at open mike night at local bars, I wasn't so sure it would be for me. I was wrong, I really enjoyed it. It turned out to be a story of a plucky, down on her luck, friendless teen who is forced to figure out life on her own. It gave me a real glimpse into what it would be like to be young, homeless, with no means of support, and totally on your own in a dangerous and often unfriendly world. Our main character April, is actually quite compelling, and you will find yourself rooting for her success in the music business, hoping that she will start making better decisions, and find protection in found family. The supporting characters in this book are very well-drawn and became as important to me as the protagonist. It was a well-written book that made me feel lots of emotions. 5 stars.

"Lie To Me" by J.T. Ellison is a backlist book from 2017.  This book seemed to be a copycat of Gillian Flynn's "Gone Girl". Husband and wife seem to have it all, but actually, pretty much hate one another. The wife disappears and the husband becomes the primary suspect. Been there, done that. Amazon describes this book as "domestic noir". If you like domestic drama, mystery, snarky unlikeable characters, and an unreliable narrator, you will find this fast read very entertaining. Rounded up to 3 stars.

"The Lincoln Highway" by Amor Towles was easily the best book I read in October, and will surely be one of my favorite books of the year. The book opens in 1954 with our main character 18-year-old Emmett Watson being driven home from a juvenile detention work farm by the warden. Emmett has gotten early release because his father has died, leaving his little brother Billy in need of care. The bank has foreclosed on the family farm and all Emmett has left is Billy and a 1948 Studebaker. The two boys decide to travel the Lincoln Highway from Nebraska to California to start a new life and search for their mother who abandoned them some years previously. As the boys make their plans, they are interrupted by two other 18-year-old boys who have escaped from the juvenile work farm and hidden in the trunk of the warden's car. And guess what? They tell Emmett there's been a change of plans and they are going to New York and he's driving them in the Studebaker. An epic odyssey ensues, with all sorts of misadventures and meet-ups with astonishing characters. If you enjoyed William Kent Krueger's "This Tender Land" or "Huckleberry Finn" or Homer's "The Odyssey", you are going to love this book. It is a big one, but I savored every page. I loved it so much I plan to get the audio version and give it a listen for a different experience. Outstanding book. Don't miss it. Off the chart 5 stars.

"The Last Garden In England" by Julia Kelly was so good. There are three timelines in the story, and all of them were equally interesting to me. Don't you hate it when there is more than one timeline and you don't care a fig for one of them and can't wait to get back to the story that interests you? First, we have Venetia Smith, a landscape designer in 1907, who plans formal English gardens for the wealthy. She is thrilled when she is commissioned to design the gardens at Highbury House, and has no idea that her life will be changed forever. Next is 1944's Beth Pedley, who volunteers as a "Land Girl" on a farm that neighbors Highbury House. Beth becomes enmeshed in the gardens at Highbury and the estate itself which has been converted into a wartime convalescent hospital. There are two additional female characters (Stella and Diana) in the 1944 timeline, who are really interesting. Last, we come to the present day, when Emma Lovett has been hired to restore the run-down gardens of Highbury House. Of course, once Emma starts "digging" she discovers all sorts of long-lost secrets. This was a great story, and I think most of you will love it if you like sagas based on women tackling challenges. The descriptions of the gardens are divine. I promise you will be poring over seed catalogs and planning your spring garden when you read this. I listened to the audio version, which has three narrators, one of which was t.e.r.r.i.b.l.e.  I recommend the physical book over the audio as a result. 4 stars.

"Plain Bad Heroines" by Emily Danforth. What can I say? I wanted something kind of spooky for October and reviews of this book said it was a Gothic-style tale set in a turn-of-the-century girls' boarding house. There is an alternating timeline that takes place in the present day, when Hollywood comes to the site of the old school to make a movie about the mysterious events that took place there in 1902. You will never feel the same about yellow jackets after reading this book. If you read it. I found it very strange and way way too long. 2 confused stars.

"Not a Happy Family" by Shari Lapena. Fred and Sheila Merton are rich. Very rich. This is a pretty good "rich people behaving badly" book. The Mertons have four adult children who have each, in their own way, been a disappointment to their father. Fred is an unpleasant, unkind man who seems to enjoy humiliating his children and playing them against each other. That being said, the children are expecting to inherit millions when Fred passes away. After a horrible Easter dinner at the Mertons, all sorts of hurtful things are said, and the guests all leave in a huff. Later that night, Sheila and Fred are brutally murdered. Of course, their children are devastated. Or are they? This book was actually fun, and I found myself very invested in trying to figure out "who done it". My only complaint is that the ending was wrapped up very anti-climactically, which was a disappointment. 3 stars.

"The Nothing Man" by Catherine Ryan Howard. You may recall last month I reviewed a book by this same author called "56 Days", which I loved. "The Nothing Man" is an earlier book by this Irish author and was equally enjoyable. A young woman named Eve Black is the only member of her family to survive the attack of a serial killer when she was a child. Her life has been understandably traumatized by this horrible event, and as an adult, she has decided to write a book about the experience in the hope that interest in the case will be revived and the killer finally caught and brought to justice. Across town, supermarket security guard Jim Doyle notices Eve's book for sale and is very upset. Because all those years ago he was the serial killer. This book was so suspenseful, and flip flops back and forth between the points of view of Eve Black and Jim Doyle. Very interesting from a psychological aspect, and not too gory if you are squeamish. I look forward to more books by this author. 4 stars.

"All the Lonely People" by Mike Gayle is a book that you will hug when you finish it. I listened to the audio version, which has an outstanding narrator. Here's the set-up. Hubert is a Jamaican immigrant who came to England in the 50's. He's been married, had kids, and is now widowed. Totally alone in the world, 84-year-old Hubert has turned into a complete curmudgeon. He has weekly phone calls from his daughter Rose, who now lives in Australia. Rose is worried about her dad being alone, and Hubert regales her with stories of his rich social life, countless friends and activities. Sounds great, but Hubert is making it all up. Then Hubert gets some unsettling news from his daughter: she is coming to visit him and can't wait to meet all his friends. Now Hubert is in a panic and sets out to meet some people he can pass off as "friends". This book is primarily about loneliness, but covers so many other topics that affect us all. The secondary characters are so well conveyed you will feel as if you know them all personally. The chapters alternate between "Then" and "Now". You will laugh and cry throughout this marvelous book, and your jaw will drop in amazement at a twist I promise you will not have seen coming. This book has it all, and very well could be one of the very best books you have ever read. I cannot recommend it highly enough. 5 strong stars.

So that's it for October books my friends. Really good reading month! If you have read any of these, let us know your thoughts.