September 2024 Book Marks
The smell is in the air. You could blindfold me and take me out to an Indian summer day and I could name the season. Fall’s scent is tinged with a kind of hardwired nostalgia for the death of summer and that old feeling of back to school.
Cut-offs get put away, sundresses folded and there’ a rush of cooler air coming through the windows that makes for some of the best sleeping nights.
I worked hard to find time to read this summer, other pursuits kept me busy, but I’m happy to showcase some September releases I enjoyed, hopefully with enough variety to make everyone happy ….
Fiction:
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
I imagine all of us, at some point, have wondered how we will die. And what if you could know? In Moriarty’s newest novel, passengers on a flight from Hobart to Sydney are agitated when it’s delayed. But once they take to the air, an ordinary woman, who happens to be a psychic, walks down the aisle and tells everyone how and when they will die. The flight lands and everyone arrives safely, but almost all of them will be forever changed, unable to forget the pronouncement, even as they tell themselves she is crazy. And then, people begin to die, exactly as predicted. It’s an engaging story that takes a look at destiny, grief and love, and how little we do and don’t control in the ever uncertain world.
Fiction:
The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave
She’s back at it again! Laura Dave is out with another riveting suspense with the signature heartbreaking ending you didn’t see coming. Liam Noone was lots of things to lots of people, a hotel magnate running from the past, a complicated husband to his three ex-wives, and a distant father to his children. When he dies falling from a cliff, it’s ruled as an accidental death. But his estranged children Nora and Sam aren’t so sure. Liam has been keeping a secret for more than 50 years, and when his kids form an uneasy alliance, they uncover pieces of their father’s past that could change everything.
Fiction:
Snake Oil by Kelsey Rae Dimberg
Rhoda founded a billion-dollar wellness company named Radical. But behind her Instagram perfect veneer, gorgeous skin and business sense with the venture capital gang, she’s growing paranoid that everything she’s built could be taken away. Dani, newly pregnant and a devotee of the brand, is thrilled she has a job at her dream company, but she’s feeling pressure to show her loyalty. And then there’s Cecelia, whose chronic illness is her proof that the claims of Radical to cure sickness are fake. She’s determined to expose Rhoda and her false “Radical honesty” and bring her down. Everything comes to a head the night of the company party, when an unexpected death means that all the employees will need to confront their own loyalties and what they believe is real, or just snake oil.
Non-Fiction:
The Joy of Connections by Dr. Ruth K Westheimer – with Allison Gilbert and Pierre Lehu
We all know her as the direct and plain-speaking powerhouse on sex and sexuality. But prior to her recent death, Westheimer uses her unique perspective and expertise to help us break out of the current epidemic of loneliness. As social animals, we all need to create lasting connections, but it’s so much harder in this present world to find and make friends. This book is a straightforward and simple roadmap, a tutorial on how we can all take steps to feel connectivity and community, overcome isolation and begin to act immediately. It’s exactly what we need to deal with these present times.
Non-Fiction:
Radio Free Afghanistan – A Twenty-Year Odyssey for an Independent Voice in Kabul by Saad Mohseni
Throughout history there have been people who stepped out of their comfortable lives to take a new path, to right a wrong or to simply do the right thing. Saad Mohseni left an international banking career to start a radio station in Kabul with his siblings, embarking on a twenty-year effort to bring free press to his country after nearly a decade of Taliban rule, an effort that continued even after they rose to power in 2021. As CEO of Moby Group, he recounts the early heady days of American occupation, where he and the rest of the country dream of the dawn of a new nation. This powerful book captures the spirit and resilience of the people of Afghanistan, sharing the stories of how this media empire brought him in contact with people from the White House to Hamid Karzai to the millions who come to rely on the radio and TV networks for vital information, as well as simple pleasures, such as soap operas and music.
Non-Fiction:
The Blue Plate – A Food Lover’s Guide to Climate Chaos by Mark J. Easter
For anyone concerned about how the climate crisis effects our food chain and food supply, this book from Patagonia (yes, the company, not the country) introduces us to the scientific point of view around the carbon impact of our favorite foods. The simple fact is that more than a quarter of the dangerous climate-heating gas emissions produced globally come from the simple steps of growing, catching, processing, transporting and cooking food. And it’s something we can all help to change. Easter digs into the carbon footprint of food, aiming for a “blue plate” which consists of delicious, nutritious, low-carbon food. He travels the globe, talking to carbon-farming pioneers, working to reverse the course of climate change and talking to people to understand the ways we grow and prepare food to make it healthier and less damaging to our planet. Like everything Patagonia does, it’s an elegant, gorgeous and relevant book.
Fiction:
Exposure by Ava Dellaira
Two friends meet by chance in 2004, Juliette, a white college freshman and Noah, a black high school senior. Years later, Noah has made it in Hollywood with a new film and his wife is about to give birth to their first child. Juliettte has been reunited with her best childhood friend Annie, who is back in LA and spending time in the Topanga Canyon home of Juliette’s mother, a well-known photographer. The return of her friend sets in motion a discovery from the pivotal events of one night that could unravel everything that’s been built. This is a novel about secrets, discovery, race and artistic expression all told from different perspectives and points in time.
Fiction:
In Our Likeness by Bryan Vandyke
Graham is a tech start-up leader who also has a crush on his co-worker, Nessie Locke. When she asks for help testing a new algorithm designed to help detect lies on the internet, he is eager to impress her. Very soon, Graham discovers that what they’ve created is far more powerful than he has realized. When he makes a small tweak to Nessie’s profile to test the product, Nessie herself changes in real life. With the realization that he can alter the real world, Graham is both horrified and drawn by the power and potential. And when tech guru David Warwick discovers what he has, he is drawn by the potential for chaos and fame. Now Graham must decide what to do, and what it means to trust in a world where the truth can be changed with a few keystrokes.
Thriller:
Dangerous Play by Elise Hart Kipness
Sports reporter Kate Green is an accomplished sports journalist and star athlete. But after being involved in a murder case, she’s almost lost her job, but is back on assignment and covering the women’s Olympic soccer team. When famous jewelry designer Alexa Kane is found dead in the locker room, Kate’s own past resurfaces. More than her complicated past, her investigation puts her in close contact with her estranged father, an NYPD detective who has his own past and secrets.
*These are books I genuinely love and am thrilled to recommend to my friends. These are Bookshop.org affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I get a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Alternately, if you prefer to check books out of your local library or buy from your local bookstore, I very much support that!
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