This month I’m joining Life According to Steph and Jana Says in their monthly Show Us Your Books linkup! I’m a newbie, but looking forward to sharing my recent reads and getting some good recommendations from other participants. 

My primary reading focus in September was the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths. My Audible account recommended a newer Griffiths book, The Stranger Diaries, and I absolutely loved it, so went looking for more by this author. I’ve plowed through the first 3 Ruth Galloway mysteries and am enjoying them – the main character is a forensic archaeologist living in tiny cottage on the edge of a remote sea marsh in Norfolk. She’s single, she’s smart, she’s introverted, and her expertise gets her enmeshed with the Norfolk police to investigate burial sites – both new and old. The mix of archaeology, history, British procedural, the location, the immensely likeable main character and several other interesting and endearing cast members have all contributed to my growing fondness for this series. I have the 4th on order from my library and will just keep going until I run out of steam. 

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley would fall into Host Steph’s “passed the time just fine” category. The dust jacket review that compares it to Ruth Ware is spot on, but Ruth Ware does it better. A group of university friends and their partners gather at a bleak and isolated Scottish hunting lodge for their reunion…fancy dress, a shooting party, lots of champagne, nostalgia, dark secrets, and of course, MURDER. I liked the setting, and I enjoyed the switching narrator, although the guests were more entertaining than the staff.

Daisy Jones & the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid – I read a lot of raves about this book, and I flew through it. It was a breezy, page turning read – it moves – but in the end I was just meh about it. There were too many characters and too many of them were just band guys that I couldn’t keep straight, and I didn’t love the interview-style multiple narrators. I never felt like I stayed with any character enough to care about them or connect with them. In addition, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this book was written just to make a movie out of (I’m sure someone’s already bought the rights).

My DNF this month was The Jane Austen Diet by Brian Kozlowski. I picked it up off the new book shelf at my library, was mildly entertained by the first chapter, and then never picked it up again. I’d rather read Jane Austen than read someone’s deliberately cheeky interpretation of her “Secrets to Food, Fitness, and Incandescent Happiness”.  Might be good for a diehard Austen lover.

Please check out the linkup hosts and their books, and as always, I love a good recommendation so please feel free to leave one in the comments or DM me!