October 2024 Book Marks
This month is about crisper temperatures, gorgeous fall leaves and blue skies. I miss the days of going all out on imaginative Halloween decorations; carving pumpkins, skeleton candles and ghosts on the front door. These were the days long before those giant inflatable monsters and ghouls on the lawn, that end up looking like a used sheet on the grass each morning.
I’m hiding the candy bowl from my husband, and remembering the days we had to spell each other at the front door when we took the kids trick or treating. So here is to all of you with your own little witches, Frankensteins or whatever else the trendy costume is this year.
Speaking of candy, how about a little “eye candy” in the book department? Here’s a great crop of October reads, so sit back and choose your adventure.
Fiction:
The Trade Off by Samantha Greene Woodruff
After the success of “The Lobotomist’s Wife,” Woodruff (no relation, sadly) tackles an historical fiction about a young Jewish woman in the 1920’s with a math brain and a talent for picking stocks. Bea Abramovitz’s dream is to work on Wall Street at the House of Morgan, but those are secretarial jobs for the well-to-do girls. Instead, she creates a plan to feed her brother Jake the tips as he climbs the ladder in finance. Over time, his own ambition pushes her out of her comfort zone and off the street. But Bea’s sharp instincts begin to point to the fact that an economic crash is looming, and now she has to make some fast moves to try to save her family, before they lose everything. This story covers a pivotal time in history, and who doesn’t love a strong, smart heroine?
Fiction/Thriller:
The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins
The author of “The Girl on the Train” is back with a moody thriller set on an isolated Scottish island, accessible only when the tide is out. Reclusive artist, Vanessa Chapman’s health and relationships have been in decline for a while. Living and working in a remote house with her friend Grace, the years of solitude began to untether the artist from reality. Her marriage to a philandering, career-jealous husband ended and he hasn’t been seen since he visited her 20 years ago. Chapman has passed away at the beginning of the story, which is set in motion by the macabre discovery that a piece of artwork, on display in a London museum, contains a human bone. From that point on, the three main characters, who have protected an intricate web of secrets and lies, begin to circle one another as truths are exposed.
Memoir:
Be Ready When Luck Happens by Ina Garten
She first beguiled us with her recipes and easy, breezy, down to earth barefoot manner. Now America’s favorite “chef next door” shares her own personal story in her strong and unmistakable voice. Garten’s engrossing memoir pulls back the curtain on all the hard work, personal challenges, career twists (did you know she was a DC bureaucrat?) and so much more. This book is not just a good story, it inspired me to think about how we can all grab opportunities and passions when we least expect it.
Memoir:
California Medieval – Nearly a Nun in 1960’s Dan Francisco by Dianne Dugaw
Diane Dugaw grew up riding horses, wrangling cows and singing professionally in taverns. But for three years in the late 1960s, she lived in a Franciscan convent near San Francisco, originally lured by the opportunity to play the organ and teach music. In a memoir designed for music lovers, the author details the rituals and musical heritage that comprises the flow of day-to-day life in a nunnery. And it’s even more vivid to think about that environment juxtaposed against the flower power era that was exploding at the end of the decade when she made this decision to cloister. She writes of the small joys and mini-rebellions, drinking whiskey in the kitchen pantry with a Sister and smoking her first cigarette. When Dugaw finally leaves, driving off in a red convertible, she readily embarks on the next stage of her life. The book provides insight into a time when women had fewer options, but a spirited person could chart their course.
Fiction:
All the Summers In Between by Brooke Lea Foster
It’s the summer of 1967 in the Hamptons, and privileged summer girl Margot meets scrappy, hard-working Thea when they both take jobs at a record store. It’s a time when the music scene is exploding, and the two become fast friends. But one August night something unspeakable happens, and the two don’t see one another for ten years, when Margot reappears in Thea’s life needing help, and harboring a dangerous secret. By now, Thea is a housewife, slightly bored with her routine and fascinated by how much to let her old friend back in, keenly aware it could ruin all she’s built. Toggling between two summers, a decade apart, this book is both a coming of age story and a cautionary tale that some friendships are better left in the past.
Non-Fiction:
Can Anyone Tell Me? Essential Questions About Grief and Loss by Meghan Riordan Jarvis
With 20 years of experience as a trauma trained therapist specializing in grief and loss, Riordan Jarvis has written a beautiful and instructive book for anyone searching to find the way forward after the gut punch of loss. She gives more context to how our physical bodies absorb grief, whether that manifests as brain fog or sleeplessness, anger and isolation. She gives words to that ambiguous sense of guilt I’ve felt at times when experiences a “dislike” for friends and strangers whose lives seem to have gone on as usual. The book is an accessible guide that provides clinical insights, real world stories, lessons and practical steps for navigating the way forward.
Fiction:
How Does That Make You Feel, Magda Eklund? By Anna Montague
Therapist Magda Eklund is approaching her 70th birthday, and looking at her life, it seems to fall into a predictable routine. She has her patients and her colleagues, but she’s grieving the sudden and unexpected loss of her best friend, Sara. While helping Sara’s widower sort through her friend’s possessions, Magda finds a journal where Sara had been planning a surprise road trip for her milestone birthday. She decides to honor the plan, taking Sara’s ashes along on a road trip that criss-crosses the country and sets in motion some unexpected adventures, from a funeral in New Orleans to a women’s retreat and so much more. Out of her comfort zone, Magda finally must face the truth about herself that she has long kept locked away. And the story is a sweet reminder that you’re never too old for a new journey.
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