Q3 Book Roundup: 2022

I didn’t get through quite as many books this quarter as I had hoped. The summer is always busier than I think it will be, which is great for business but less great for my tbr list. Here are the ones that pulled me in on the warm evenings and sweltering weekends.

We Run the Tides

This is a beautiful novel about female friendships and how they evolve as we age. It follows a group of 13 year old girls in San Francisco in the 1980’s, and there are lots of great 80’s cultural references. I highly recommend this one.

The Kingdoms of Savannah

This is another novel I really loved. It’s got so many of my favorite things: history, mystery, social commentary…it’s also really well researched (there’s even a fun map of the town), and it’s a page turner.

Book Lovers

I read this one as part of a book club over the summer. It’s not my typical genre, but it was really light and easy to read - a quick escape. The main characters are in publishing, so it was also fun to have an inside peek at that industry.

Elsewhere

This. Book. It is such a beautiful little book. There are so many layers (so many!), and I’m guessing I only saw about half of what was really there. This one is also a little outside my typical selection range (do you see a theme emerging?), but dystopian or not it is so beautiful and thought-provoking. I highly recommend it!

Sula

Ok, I am embarrassed to say that this was my first Toni Morrison novel BUT it won’t be my last. The story is heavy but beautiful, and the prose is gorgeous. I look forward to picking up another one of her books this fall.

The Pale Blue Eye

This book was dark! That shouldn’t have been a surprise given that it’s historical fiction centered around a murder mystery and a young Edgar Allen Poe. It was really good, although there were a few scenes I could’ve done without. Netflix is making this one into a movie - unclear if I’m brave enough to watch the film version or not!

The Faithful Gardener: A Wise Tale about That Which Can Never Die

This one is a beautiful story about the natural world and persevering through life’s most challenging times. It was short but sweet. I hear amazing things about another one of her books, Women Who Run with the Wolves, but I can’t seem to commit to a 600-pager. Maybe in the new year…