It’s been three months since my Summer Reading recap, so I figured we were due for another installment. Maybe I’ll make this a three-month tradition, although I’ll still be the throes of Winter when February rolls around.

Speaking of seasons, let’s give a last hurrah for Fall. This is what it looks like around here. Leaf mania.

Although Joe and I drove around this afternoon and I found a few trees holding on and shining bright.

 

 

These happened to be right outside our front door, an entry we never use, so in turn hardly ever see. Ha!

Then this little one joined me outside on this gorgeous day. She makes me so happy, this little fur baby. I think she’s pretty stoked to have me home.

 

Back to my list: The Logan Library has done an amazing job swarming me with books. On my last list I included books I wanted to read and they’ve quickly provided every single one. I think only J.K. Rowling’s book holds my last reserve request. Not bad, not bad. So here are the books I’ve read this Fall, and (bonus!) you get 7 instead of 5!

6 & 7. Sharp Objects & Dark Places, Gillian Flynn

I mentioned how amazing I thought Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl was, so I was anxious to read her two other novels. I read them back-to-back, I decision I question now, because it just felt like too much time in her warped brain. It left me in a dark place (pun not intended), but I recognize her amazing ability to turn a story on a dime. I really admire her writing.

5. The Interestings, Meg Wolitzer

This story of summer camp friends starts in the tee-pee where they meet and follows them through adulthood. I. Loved. It. As someone whose closest friendships were formed at summer camps/band camps, I related to these characters a lot. Highly recommend this one, especially to those that have lifelong friendships.

4. Reconstructing Amelia, Kimberly McCreight

Buzzfeed—my favorite internet pastime—had a list of books you should read before their movie version was released. This title caught my eye. I had read a few reviews over the summer and thought I’d give it a go. It was pretty depressing. More depressing than the thriller the reviews painted it, at least. I’ll be curious how HBO goes about adapting the screenplay.

3. Life After Life, Kate Atkinson

This was the summer book list rage, hailed as “the next Gone Girl.” Uh…wrong. Gone Girl this is not. But! It was good in its own way. A very interesting concept that at times you have to muscle through, but its message is poignant and leaves you thinking – which is what every author wants, I imagine.

2. The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg

Here’s my non-fiction pick of the season. It was an interesting look at the habits of individuals, organizations and communities and what happens when those habits shift. I am a total creature of habit. I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch, I perform the same morning and bedtime routine, the list goes on. I could stand to change a few of my vicious cycles and this book showed me how. Now it’s just a matter of doing it.

1. The Last Runaway, Tracy Chevalier

My mother-in-law and I share many of our favorite authors and when she visited she told me that two of them had new releases. How did I not know this?! Tracy Chevalier has been one of my favorites since China, when I read her Girl with the Pearl Earring. I was mesmerized and quickly read everything else she’d ever written. This title was just as phenomenal. I actually read it in a day…Monday, in fact. I think I needed the mental break after returning home and her world of Quakers and slaves in 19th-century Ohio was the perfect escape. I’d recommend anything and everything she writes.

Currently reading: Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, Jennifer Chiaverini

One of the other authors my mother-in-law told me about was Jennifer Chiaverini, who I also started reading while in China. She wrote an extensive series about quilters in Pennsylvania, which was more exciting than it sounds. But now she’s shifted her focus to historical novels. I hope I enjoy them as much as I did her Elm Creek series.

Still in the queue:

John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars
Jennifer Chiaverini’s Sonoma Rose
J.K. Rowling’s The Cuckoo’s Calling
Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina
Veronica Roth’s Divergent Triology
Jennifer Chiaverini’s The Spymistress
Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto
Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success

Suggestions? What are you loving these days? What are your favorite authors?