September reads. The last few weeks of September were so busy that this number is deceivingly low. I have a few books that I’m close to finishing so maybe I’ll make up for it in October, but that’s also a busy month so who knows. I’ve read 97 books so far in 2025.

❤️❤️❤️❤️Around the World in 30 Seconds by Nusseir Yassin. This was the first book in my Reading The World Challenge and a perfect place to start. (review here)

❤️❤️❤️❤️Waking Lions by Ayelet GundarGoshen was my fiction choice for Israel and it was a slow read, but a good one. (review here)

❤️❤️❤️❤️Before I Do by Sophie Cousens. I always love her romances and loved the age gap and different stages of life on this one. (thoughts here)

❤️❤️❤️❤️Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas is the first in the series. I liked it but am still undecided on whether I need to rush through like I did with ACOTAR.

❤️❤️❤️+Heat Lightning by John Sandford. I love all of his 30+ Lucas Davenport books, especially the ones with Virgil Flowers, but the Virgil ones where he’s on his own aren’t quite as fun for me.

❤️❤️❤️Someone to Watch Over Me by Lisa Kleypas. She’s one of my favorite historical romance writers but this one wasn’t a favorite.

❤️❤️❤️Where I’m From by Chante Thomas. She’s a local geography teacher who was giving out her book at One World Day and she signed it for Gage. It’s a cute picture book about where didn’t kids live and where their parents came from.

What was your favorite book in September?

It’s 1902 in New York City and Francesca, a 20-year-old bluestocking, openly works for reform while secretly attending Brainard College.  She is the youngest of three and still lives at home with her parents in what is called the Marble Palace because of its opulence.  Francesca is determined to get a journalism degree and become the first woman reporter for a major New York newspaper and her mother is just as determined to see her marry well.  Francesca is beautiful and wealthy and suitors have never been a problem, but she is known to be different from other girls her age, so her best friends are her sister Connie and her brother Evan.

If you like turn of the century New York, wealthy and powerful men and beautiful and smart women you should give it a try.  The mysteries are good and the romance is hot. If you are sensitive to the way alpha males treat the women they love then this may not be the series for you.  It’s a favorite series of mine and they really need to be read in order.

The series, each book linked to my thoughts.

#1 Deadly Love

#2 Deadly Pleasure

#3 Deadly Affairs

#4 Deadly Desire

#5 Deadly Caress

#6 Deadly Promise

#7 Deadly Illusions

#8 Deadly Kisses

#9 Deadly Vows

This series is on my Top 100 Series list.

Amos was a standout college football player at THE Ohio State University (Go Bucks!) and his big time opportunity came with the Cleveland Browns (Go Browns!). On the first play of his NFL career he was brutally injured, not only ending his career, but changing his life forever. From that day forward he couldn’t forget anything, total recall of every moment of his life that he could flip through like a photo album anytime he wanted. This was the case when he went home one night after his shift as a police detective and found his wife, daughter and brother-in-law murdered in his home. The case wasn’t solved and Amos lost his way and ended up living in a dive hotel. That’s where we first meet Amos, at the hotel buffet.

Amos is one of those quirky, damaged characters that is also agenius that I always seem to like. Maybe it’s because at his core he’s just a good person who wants todo what’s right. Because of his remarkable mental abilities (called hyperthymesia) he is able to see things that other people miss. I’ve liked the secondary characters, especially Alex, Melvin, and now Freddie and the love they’ve shown to the sometimes hard-to-take Decker. The mysteries themselves are out there, but not so ridiculous that you can’t appreciate them.

In the latest book, Long Shadows, he gets a new FBI partner, listens to his first partner commit suicide, and also some concerning news about his health. I don’t know what the future will hold for Amos, but I’m excited about how many interesting changes there were in this 7th installment.

Read if you like – Smart but grouchy detectives, tragic backstories, well plotted mysteries, character growth.

The series linked to my thoughts about each book.

#1 Memory Man

#2 The Last Mile

#3 The Fix

#4 The Fallen

#5 Redemption

#6 Walk the Wire

#7 Long Shadows

I just finished Long Shadows this week (9/23) and will update this post as more books are published in this ongoing series.

Any other Amos Decker fans out there?

In a comment, give me your 5 words (or less!) and earn $1 for charity. Once we get to $100 the person with the most reviews will choose the charity. Click here to see the past winners, the charities they chose and the other reviews you can add to. Anyone is welcome to join in at any time. Click here to see past movie posts.

We’re at $85 right now.  Your charity could be next 

Barbie, 2023 (Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrara, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, Will Ferrell) B+

Best experienced in pink-filled theater.

Talk to Me, 2022 (Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Otis Dhanji, Miranda Otto, Zoe Terakes) B

Possession by hand runs amok.

Love, Rosie, 2014 (Lily Collins, Sam Claflin, Christian Cooke, Suki Waterhouse, Jaime Winstone) B

Childhood best friends find love.

About Fate, 2022 (Emma Roberts, Thomas Mann, Britt Robertson, Madelaine Petsch, Wendie Malick, Cheryl Hines, Lewis Tan) B

Funny, sweet mistaken home spoof.

Split, 2016 (James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Becky Buckley, Jessica Sula, Hailey Lu Ricchardson) B–

A few personalities too many.

Happiness for Beginners, 2023 (Ellie Kemper, Luke Grimes, Nico Santos, Ben Cook) C+

Love on the Appalachian Trail.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem, 2023 (voices-Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon, Ice Cube) C-

Never been a Turtle fan.

I read 24 books this month, bringing the yearly total to 147.

Fiction (1)

*****The Stars Are Fire by Anita Shreve

Living on the Maine coast with her husband and two small children, Grace’s life is turned upside down when wildfires advance toward their town. Grace is left on her own to save her children.

It’s a slow burn at first, but by the middle I hated to put it down. This book has an unexpected hitch and I was concerned and rooting for Grace the whole way. It was tense for a bit! Shreve got the to the heart of what it was to be a woman in the 1940s. Highly recommend.

Graphic Novel (1)

*****Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith by Grace Ellis and Hannah Templer

Thriller (2)

*****The Good Girlhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18812405-the-good-girl by Mary Kubica

I really liked this twisty tale. Told from three perspectives until the epilogue where we get a fourth, this is the story of a kidnapping for ransom that goes awry. We hear the story from during the abduction and after all mixed together from the voices of the detective, the kidnapper, and the victim’s mother.

An oldish thriller, but one perfect for your summer vacation if you haven’t already read it.

****Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson

An atmospheric thriller that you’ll move through fast even as the absurdity hits you.

Abigail was getting married and her uber rich husband to be sends her and her bridal party off to a winery in California. Abigail, has a few drinks too many and makes one very bad decision. That very bad decision shows up at the private island resort where she and her husband are honeymooning 3 weeks later. As you might imagine, it doesn’t turn out well.

If you like sinister thrillers then I’d give this one a go. If you are marrying soon, please read this as a cautionary tale 😉

Romance (1)

****It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover

A fine follow up to the bestseller, It Ends With Us.

Non-fiction (3)

****Sincerely, Your Autistic Child edited by Ballou, da Vanport, Onaiwa

****The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story by Marie Kondo

****The Yards Between Us: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Football by RK Russell

Kids Picture Books (14)

*****Addy’s Cup of Sugar:Based on a Buddhist Story of Healing by Jon J Muth

Have you had to deal with the death of a pet (or even a loved one) with a child? It’s tough enough for adults and a child has little way of making sense of it.

Addy’s cat was killed by a car and she asks Stillwater to help bring him back to life. Stillwater says he can help, but first Addy needs to borrow a cup of sugar from a neighbor, but not from any home who has lost a loved one. Sounds easy enough but as Addy learns, loss is a part of everyone’s life.

Addy’s Cup of Sugar: Based on a Buddhist Story of Healing ❤️‍🩹 is a wonderful book for children. It’s based on the Buddhist legend, The Mustard Seed, but it is a book for any faith (or none at all).

*****One Little Bag: An Amazing Journey by Henry Cole

Encourage your kid to save the world one little brown bag at a time. A wordless story until the Author’s Note on the last page.

*****Endlessly Ever After: Pick Your Path To Countless Fairy Tale Endings! by Laurel Snyder and Dan Santat

This oversized 85 page picture book is gorgeous. Go ahead and slide through some of the pages. Gage loves choose your own adventure books and when I saw this I knew it would be fun lunchtime browsing material. After he chose at least a half a dozen endings he rated it a 10 out of 10.

Obviously, there are a few favorite fairytale characters you can run into and some of them are scary 🐺. The illustrations are great and the reading level is maybe 3rd grade?

*****We Are Branches by Joyce Sidman and Beth Krommes

For the younger elementary kid. I’m obsessed with this and open it to a random page every time I walk by it. The art is GORGEOUS. I may have to buy this one just to have on our shelves.

*****The Fantastic Bureau of Imagination by Brad and Kristi Montague

A very creative story that will engage the older elementary kid. Ideas weren’t being shared and the inventions, songs, and performances were overwhelming the Cave of Untold Stories.

*****All Rise: The Story of Ketanji Brown Jackson by Carole Boston Weatherford and Ashley Evans

I thought this was very well done, taking us from her childhood to when she became first Black woman to serve as a US Supreme Court Justice. It only took “232 years and 115 prior appointments.”

*****How Dinosaurs Went Extinct: A Safety Guide by Ame Dykman and Jennifer Harney

Hilarious for both young kids and adults!

*****Becoming Charley by Kelly DiPucchio and Loveis Wise

Fun for younger kids about becoming the person you were meant to be.

****When You Can Swim by Jack Wong

****Free At Last: A Juneteenth Poem by Sojourner Kincaid Rolle and Alex Bostic

****A Day With No Words by Tiffany Hammond and Kate Cosgrove

***Real to Me by Minh Le and Raissa Figueroa

***Action!:How Movie Began by Meghan McCarthy

**A Day in the Sun by Diana Ejaita

Middle School Fiction (2)

****The Onts: Secrets of Dripping Fang #1 by Dan Greenburg, Scott M. Fischer illustrations.

It was good enough that we’re reading book 2!

****Too Small Tola by Atinuke, Onyinye Iwu

Set in Nigeria about a young girl living with her brother, sister, and brother. Also part of a series.

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd, fiction, 4.5/5 stars, 392 pages, 2022

Nell Young’s whole life and greatest passion is cartography. Her father, Dr. Daniel Young, is a legend in the field and Nell’s personal hero. But she hasn’t seen or spoken to him ever since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation after an argument over an old, cheap gas station highway map.

But when Dr. Young is found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, with the very same seemingly worthless map hidden in his desk, Nell can’t resist investigating. To her surprise, she soon discovers that the map is incredibly valuable and exceedingly rare. In fact, she may now have the only copy left in existence… because a mysterious collector has been hunting down and destroying every last one—along with anyone who gets in the way.

But why?

from Goodreads

The Cartographers was in my TBR box last fall and I’m sad that it took me this long to get to it. I didn’t really know much of anything about it and went in blind. Finding some maptastic magical realism along the way made me happy 😁

Nell was estranged from her father and her college boyfriend for 7 years because of a disagreement at the NYPL map division, where they all worked. When her dad is found dead in his office it sets off a hunt that Nell can’t quite quit even at great danger to herself.

I really liked this one. There are a lot of characters, but one storyline. I liked learning more about map making. The mystery was good and told at just the right pace to keep me hooked. If you don’t like bits of magic in your book, you might try a different title.

The Love You Save. Memoir, 4.5/5 stars, 288 pages, 2023

Aunt Gerald takes in anyone who asks, but the conditions are harsh. For her young niece Goldie Taylor, abandoned by her mother and coping with trauma of her own, life in Gerald’s East St. Louis comes with nothing but a threadbare blanket on the living room floor. 

But amid the pain and anguish, Goldie discovers a secret. She can find kinship among writers like James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. She can find hope in a nurturing teacher who helps her find her voice. And books, she realizes, can save her life.  

Goldie Taylor’s debut memoir shines a light on the strictures of race, class and gender in a post–Jim Crow America while offering a nuanced, empathetic portrait of a family in a pitched battle for its very soul. from Goodreads

The Love You Save by Goldie Taylor is a memoir you’ll not soon forget. Growing up in East St. Louis Goldie’s childhood was full of trauma, strength, and ultimately survival. The journalist lays bare a period of her life that will surely inspire others to hold on or to reach out. Aided by her love of literature and a teacher who pushed her to excellence, Goldie saw a way to overcome.

Her ever changing relationships with her Aunt and Mother were beautifully told and some of my favorite parts of the book. The way that her Aunt and Uncle took in anyone who needed a place to stay, even with its hardships and tragedies, ended up being a place that she needed to be.

If you’re a fan of memoirs, like the Glass Castle or I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, then you need to pick up this gem.

The writing pulled me in and her honesty did the rest. Thanks to TLC Book Tours for sending me a copy. I’ll be recommending this to many people, but I’m not sure I want to run the risk of loaning it out and not getting it back!