September/October 2025 Book Marks
The fall has been consumed with work and projects, the days gradually grow shorter and the nights are cool for sleeping. This blog has sat on my computer for far too long, so I’m pushing it out in the world, wondering how it’s already October, with pumpkins melting in the hot sun. Happy reading and I always love to hear what YOU are reading!
Fiction:
Life, & Death & Giants by Ron Rindo
It was too late to save Gabriel Fisher’s mother. In the late stages of a terrible labor, she was brought to the local “English” veterinarian in the Amish community of Lakota, Wisconsin. Born at 18 pounds and 27 inches, Gabriel began to walk at eight months. He had the ability to talk to animals, and due to his size, was gifted with enormous physical attributes and athletic abilities. Raised by his Amish grandparents, it soon became obvious that Gabriel was different than other children, able to lift giant bales of hay as a child. A football coach spotted the boy in a field and brought him into the world of the English, where he rose to fame. This prominence affected his world in both good and bad ways. He found love, fame and infamy. Gabriel’s story is told through numerous characters from different perspectives. This is a delightful book about being human; about love and loss, sadness and joy, and the highs of triumph juxtaposed against humility. The novel is based on the real-life story of Robert Wadlow, born in 1940 and the tallest human being ever documented.
Fiction:
Twice by Mitch Albom
Who hasn’t wanted a second chance or a do-over when it comes to love? Albom plays with this magical conceit in his latest book with a character named Alfie Logan. The story begins after Alfie has just won $2 million in a casino and is being grilled by a detective who is certain he’s cheating. As his “unbelievable” take unfolds, we come to learn that Alfie has been born with an ability to utter the word “twice” and go back to a specific time to get a “do-over.” But the rules of life mean that whatever he chooses, he must live with the consequences of that action. When Alfie falls in love with Gianna Rule—he chooses to use his power in interesting ways to travel back through the years and try to impress her. Once again, Albom delights us with the creation of a character who has both a strong moral compass as well as run-of-the-mill human failings and intelligence. His easy writing style draws in the reader, sprinkling in spirituality and magical thinking that made me examine my own life in important ways. This story is a delightful and much-needed escape from today’s headlines.
Fiction:
I Am Cleopatra by Natasha Solomons
As the favored daughter of the Pharaoh, Egyptian Princess Cleopatra is one of the most iconic female figures in history. This novel goes back to her origins, reimagining the powerful queen’s life through the perspectives of Cleopatra herself, and Caesar’s longtime mistress Servilia. More than Shakespeare’s portrait of an aging seductress, this book paints a kinder, more sympathetic and complicated version of Cleopatra, demonstrating how she uses her wits and beauty to court the Roman Emperor and save her life, her throne and her beloved Egypt. It’s a fast-moving tale written with a haunting voice that immediately fixes you in the character. It’s a tale of a woman both powerful and fragile, who knows love and loss, and faces both friendship and betrayal.
Fiction:
Starting From Here by Paula Saunders
It’s 1973 and Rene’s dreams of being a dancer will never be realized in her hometown of Rapid City South Dakota. Her mother, Eve, is also invested in the dream, and she devises a way for her daughter to go to Phoenix and live with a (horrible) family in order to get the best lessons. Rene tries desperately to fit in, and begins to starve herself to compete with the other girls, but when that fails, she moves on to Denver, encountering a new crop of eccentric, dazzling and shystery folk all bent on some level of predation. Lest you think the book sounds like a total downer, this book makes you root for Rene, and even the fame-driven mother Eve to a degree. All of us are indeed imperfect and the author carries that off in this story about the turns and twists of adolescence. It’s a well-written book about love and perfection and the ties that yank us back home.
Memoir:
All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert
Elizabeth Gilbert’s powerful way with words and her brutal, self-effacing tone make reading this memoir feel like stepping on a live wire. It’s her story of life in the wake of the gigantically successful “Eat, Pray, Love.” But this is the aftermath, a quieter, painful and often self-destructive journey lived out of the public eye, the opposite of the first memoir that served as an aspirational blueprint for so many readers when it came to healing and finding oneself. At its heart, this book is a love story, as well as a tale of addiction and recovery. Strap on your seatbelt as Gilbert takes us through the backroads with her wife, Rayya Elias, a force of nature and former addicts whom Gilbert met and befriended years earlier as her hairdresser. Ultimately becoming inseparable, the two eventually realized they were in love. Not long after, Rayya was tragically diagnosed with cancer, and her sober life began to unravel, giving way to chaos and self-destruction that is painfully detailed with tenderness and clear-eyed self-awareness. This book is an unflinching look at destruction and then rebirth when we choose to be the architect of our own lives. If you’re an audiobook fan, Gilbert’s reading voice is soothing and intimate as she tells the tale.
Memoir:
Becoming a Badass – From Fearful to Fierce by Margie Goldsmith
Some people simply live life out loud. Margie Goldsmith became one of those people when she set out to break the constrictive expectations of women during a time of low expectations. Surviving and escaping a dysfunctional childhood, Margie travelled to Paris after college, where she met and married an older director who had been blacklisted in Hollywood. From that early beginning, she learned the craft of filmmaking and created her own production company back in new York. Life then threw her in the path of a successful, charismatic lawyer, who wooed her until she agreed to marry. The next chapter of her life was spent playing corporate wife, a role she often chaffed against. When the marriage ended in divorce, Margie finally took the time to discover who she was and what she wanted. She began traveling, writing, and challenging herself to do “scary” things, including playing harmonica in a blues band, which she does to this day. Her scariest experience was facing down pancreatic cancer and then lung cancer and she writes movingly about grappling with her own mortality. This memoir is a reminder that we can do anything we put our minds to, and that life is meant for the taking.
Biography:
Kingmaker–Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction and Intrigue by Sonia Purnell
This sweeping biography about a controversial and incredibly accomplished woman focusses on the charm, savvy and influence that kept her at the nexus of international power for more than five decades. A gangly girl, born to an English aristocratic family, Pamela married the son of Winston Churchill, becoming her father-in-law’s confident. Behind the scenes, using wiles and guile, Pamela helped move the chess pieces around negotiations and intrigue during World War II. She was comfortable amidst world leaders, celebrities and power brokers, taking lovers in a way that made tongues wag and obscured her accomplishments and her intelligence. Marriage was her means of gaining wealth and influence, but those relationships were not easy. Pamela was both confined by the times and also able to break the constraints by using intelligence, a sixth sense, and legendary ability to entertain and beguile in the bedroom. Her power and influence extended up to the day she died, as an advisor and kingmaker to many in politics.
Non-Fiction:
Deliver Me From Nowhere–The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska by Warren Zanes
Springsteen fans everywhere are anticipating the Bruce biopic about the period in his life following the fame and stardom of the highly successful “Born in the USA” tour. After establishing the rocker as a superstar, Bruce holed up in a simple house with a four-track recording device and created the watershed album “Nebraska.” Nobody saw that one coming and yet critics hail it as a masterpiece in many ways. Through the telling of this story, we get a portal into Springsteen’s life, the time period with a country in turmoil and the angst in the artist’s own life. The book also contains interviews with a dozen celebrated artists and the story behind the making of the movie with Jeremy Alan White and Jeremy Strong playing the lead characters, Springsteen and long-time manager and confidante, Jon Landau.
Non-Fiction:
Letters from the Edge–Stories of Curiosity, Bravery and Discovery by Jeff Wilser
Curated from The Explorer’s Club, this book is a compilation of letters, email exchanges and field journals culled from The Explorer’s Club member’s correspondence. What does it mean to be on the edge of the world? How does it feel to be at the far reaches of the globe? This book expands the map and lifts back the curtain on what it feels like to explore other cultures and add to our knowledge bank. Whether it’s an individual in the midst of a lava-spewing volcano, someone facing the harsh arctic tundra or diving below the sea to investigate the wreckage of the Titanic, these stories help us to know ourselves, our limits, and the world around us.
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 rent books at your local library or buy from your local bookstore, I very much support that!
