September Reading Wrap Up

September was a good reading month for me, although it was one of my slowest blogging months. Real life obligations and a little burn out had me dragging my feet on blog posts. I'm hoping that I'll be back on track this month with more regular postings! I read seven books in September and added three to my favorite reads list, which is excellent! I struggled through one audio book that I didn't manage to finish until a few days into this month, but since I mostly listened to it over September I'm adding it here. If you read something great or disappointing during September, let me know in the comments so that I can check them out! Well, without further ado, here's my September wrap up!

Sing, Unburied, Sing was the first book that I finished in September and it was an amazing read for me. There's so much packed into this fairly short book. It has magical realism (ghosts), haunted pasts, broken current realities, along with social and family traumas that kept me engaged the entire book. You can read my full review of it along with a video from the author here. 

I zoomed through Caliban's War  (The Expanse #2) by James S.A. Corey. It is an action packed quick read that is a good continuation to the series. Holden continues to develop as the leader of his rag tag team. struggles to find a balance of what he needs to do to get things done while holding on to his standards and boundaries. The whole crew faces challenges that aren't easily solved while facing another part of the threat that could ruin all human life. I am really enjoying this series and I'm looking forward to moving on to book 3 this month. 

Bluebird, Bluebird is not only my favorite read of September, but will be a contender for my favorite read of the year simply because of how deeply I connected to the setting. You don't have to have Texas roots to enjoy this one and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to jump in on the beginning of what I hope will be a great series starring a flawed protagonist that just happens to be a black Texas ranger! You can read my full review along with a commentary video from the author here. 

I was able to catch up and read City of Saviors, which is the latest installment of the Detective Eloise Norton series. It was thoroughly enjoyable, but also emphasized how much I hate to wait for continuations in series! Who knows how long I have to wait until we get the next book since poor Hall JUST gave us this one and my greedy self wants the next book like yesterday! :) Anyway, this is a really entertaining crime/detective series that I highly recommend!

I finally picked up one of the many King books that I have been collecting from thrift stores over the years!  Dolores Claiborne was a quick read and is a good example of why King is so popular. He writes characters with so much depth and nuance and seems to be able to do that effortlessly. If you are a horror chicken like me and want to read King, but do not enjoy being traumatized, I would recommend this one as it's not scary at all!

Unfortunately, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was a disappointment for me. It was a pretty good read, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I had anticipated. I had a really hard time deciding on a rating for this one. There are some parts that made me squeamish. Jemisin is not afraid to touch on things that make people uncomfortable. I, personally, do not like when old creatures such as gods and other supernatural beings, appear in the form of children. It makes ANY sexual innuendo become pedophilia in my mind even when there is no actual sexual act. I can handle almost anything else pretty well, but I can't square sexualized children. Having real sexual tension in this story was surprising, but I didn't mind it as much since I also read romance. However, the back story of the three original gods in this story are siblings and are alone in existence, and results in what basically amounts to incest among them. As the story takes place, it is no longer an issue, but provides the history and context to the ongoing conflicts among the trapped gods. Jemisin does not go into explicit detail of what happens between the siblings, but it's clear. 

I am going to continue the series since the next book is set around a completely different protagonist and I think that it's ten years in the future. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms wasn't as strong for me as the Broken Earth series and the Dreamblood duology were, but I'm still glad that I picked it up. 

I won a copy of Blacking in a Goodreads giveway and I am so glad that I did! Blackwing is gritty and darkly intriguing. I'm going to admit that McDonald had me clutching my pearls a few times, but it was worth it! Coarse language, graphic violence, and frankly gross tattoos that are capable of creating something that gave me the willies. I haven't read any other story quite like this one. All of the characters have secrets and blackness in them that works well for the overall story. I'm being careful not to give anything away because this is one that is hard for me to review without spoilers. I'll just say if you like the grim dark stories that makes you think that the world you are reading about is just going to hell in a handbasket, pick this one up!

Lacybourne Manor is the only audio book that I listened to in September. It took me almost three weeks to finish it because I just wasn't that intrigued by what I was listening to. This is definitely not my favorite KA story. The characters felt recycled and the story was particularly unoriginal. It was just an average contemporary romance with a bit of the paranormal thrown in. Although the narrator, Abby Craden did a good job, especially with the male voices, I don't think that I would listen to it again.