October 2023 Reading List

One of the talked-about books of 2023 that I enjoyed reading.

Told from the point of view of June Hayward, an unsuccessful author.

When June’s friend and popular author Athena Liu dies June decides to take her friend’s manuscript, edit it and release it as her work. But as it’s a novel about Chinese labourers in World War 1 she uses an Asian-sounding alias of Juniper Song.

This book raises many questions about cultural appropriation, racism and the affects of social media.

The first book in the Tuesday Night Survivors Club Mystery series.

I was drawn to his book by its central topic of breast cancer. I had breast cancer in 2014 and at the time I couldn’t find too many fictional books. How good it would have been to have been available so that I could find some strength from? But alas, this was released in 2022.

Rarity Jones is the new owner of a bookshop and had breast cancer, but is now cancer free. She wants to help others who are also survivors by setting up a book club.

Word gets out about the group and members slowly start joining, but one of their members goes missing so the group work together to solve the mystery.

A lovely easy listen that has introduced quite a few characters in the group as well as the local town to turn it into a series.

Narrated by C.S.E. Cooney, it runs for 7 hours.

Book 1 in the Happily Inc. series.

Pallas Saunders is the new owner of Wedding in a Box, where themed weddings are held. And is also one of the big drawcards for the town.

When she needs a carpenter she hires Nick Mitchell. It’s a job beneath his skill level as he usually creates intricate wood carvings that sell for huge amounts of money, and his talented artistic family question his decision to take on the job.

We also meet quite a few other characters, once again setting it up for a great series around artists, wedding event planners, and even the local game keeper.

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more in the series.

Actor Alan Rickman is well known for his roles in Love, Actually and Harry Potter. And these are his diaries from 1993, until his death in 2016.

There is a lot of “name dropping”, which is to be expected, but what I didn’t expect is all the travel that he had to do.

It was quite insightful into his thinking about life, but throughout it I felt a bit unsettled about reading his diaries. They were released after his death and it wasn’t made clear that he actually gave permission to share them publicly. It’s likely his family did give permission, but it just made me feel a bit “icky”.

My son is starting high school in 2024 and this was the most recommended reading I could find online.

I did listen to it as an audiobook so I didn’t take copious notes like I really should have done, but rather let the information wash over me. I may look at reading it on my Kobo sometime in the future.

It covered quite a few topics but in the area of having an autistic child starting high school, like my son, the information was pretty sparse. I have put a hold on Sue Larkey’s The Essential Guide to Secondary School, at the library so I think that would be more helpful in my situation.

Narrated by Michael Carr-Gregg and Sharon Witt, it runs for 6 hours and 6 minutes.