Autumn always gets me back on track. In some ways it feels more like a new year than the proper New Year does. I attribute this to nineteen years of education with the school year starting up in September and really getting into the groove of it in October.
This year has been no different. I’ve renewed my list of personal goals, including reading more. At the start of the year I always do pretty well, keeping up the pace of reading two to three books each month. Then as the weather gets warmer and I spend less time indoors, I don’t read as much. I’ve never been able to get excited about audio books; my mind wanders while the narrator speaks and I miss most of the story. I think reading actual pages is a good exercise for my imagination (and also probably my attention span).
Last year I kicked off the season with an October reading list, too, so here is my reading list for October 2021. I’ve got fiction, personal development, some sci-fi, and a few books I’m anticipating for November already.
This one probably comes as no surprise to readers, but Nine Perfect Strangers is also an excellent place to start if you have no idea what to read this month. You’re checking the pop culture box, given the made-for-tv adaptation of this book that has been so popular on Netflix. In fact, the show is responsible for my discovery of this book.
Moriarty is also the first new-to-me author in quite some time that I’ve felt compelled to read more books from. I’m about halfway through Nine Perfect Strangers and I can tell you that (1) the book is better than the show, and (2) I’ve laughed out loud multiple times at well-timed and beautifully executed humor. Her writing is deeply insightful, capturing the nuance of human experience in fewer words than most would require.
Having said that, I was genuinely astonished to find such mixed reviews about this book on Goodreads. If you’re looking for opinions, reviews there are typically helpful. They also have an excellent plot summary if you haven’t seen the show.
My non-fiction, personal development pick this month was Atomic Habits by James Clear. I’ve seen this book everywhere, including on friends’ coffee tables, and have never picked it up.
The premise is simple enough: Change your habits to improve by 1% every day. Are there any groundbreaking ideas in here? Not that I’ve come across so far. Rather than offering a shiny new approach to self-improvement, Clear expounds upon habit formation principles that have already been popularized by other authors. To his credit, he explicitly states that this was his intent early in the book, which was a smart move to get out in front of criticism that would paint him as a copycat.
I’m about one third of the way through this one and have found it enjoyable. Since many of his ideas are based upon the foundational principles in The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, I recommend reading that one first. Clear does provide an excellent overview of Duhigg’s work, but having read it yourself will make this one easier to digest and faster to implement.
This is one that I actually picked up in September and finished right at the end of the month, but it deserves to be on this list.
Kingdom of Shadow and Light is the final book in the Fever series authored by Moning over the last thirteen (geez) years. I read the first book and each subsequent release real-time, and waited and waited for each next installment. By the time KOSAL (as die-hard fans dub it) was released, I almost told myself that I’d aged out of the subject matter and shouldn’t bother reading it.
I’m very happy to say that I ignored that idiocy and got on my library’s waiting list.
How to explain the Fever series in a few sentences? To me, the real story is about the evolution of a popular party girl from Georgia into a powerful, self-possessed alpha woman who loves her man, her family (born and chosen), and…well…her Kingdom. Her journey takes you into a beautiful, dangerous world of mythical beings, magic, and deceit, with a healthy dollop of romance. (I dare you to read it without developing a crush on at least one fictional character.)
You can read more about Ms. Moning and her books on her website here.
Reading Time: 7 minutes This post contains affiliate links. If you use the links to make a purchase, I may receive a small commission, at no additional cost to
Reading Time: 7 minutes This post contains affiliate links. If you use the links to make a purchase, I may receive a small commission, at no additional cost to
Reading Time: 7 minutes I learned a big lesson in chronic stress and slowing down last week. I talked in my last post about acknowledging my chronic stress as
