What I read in September

As surprising as it seems, I only read 3 books during September...but I feel like I should get points because they were all LONG...I'm including number of pages this time! All three books were great--I recommend them all, if you have several hours (days?  weeks?) to read each.

1.Monuments Men by Robert Edsel...468 pages.  Bears little resemblance to the film, which was also good, by the way.  The book was well written, entertaining and informative...A "nice" World War II piece, with some art history, biography, geography thrown in.  I kept putting off reading it, afraid it would be dry and it keep me engaged.  Lots of characters though--there is a "guide" in the beginning of the copy I read so I could keep people straight.

2. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowlings)...455 pages.  I think Rowlings' mistake with her first post Harry Potter book was that it wasn't a mystery, it was just a novel and the characters didn't do anything interesting...they just cursed and cheated on each other...I have to admit I never finished it.  I found out about Cuckoo's Calling, the first book in this series, (written under the name "Robert Galbraith") kind of by accident and ordered it from the library...Both Cuckoo and Silkworm are mysteries (as Harry Potter really is) and both are wonderful.  There is more "language" than in Harry, of course, and more gore..but good books.  The main character is an English Afghan War veteran who owns a private detective firm.  His secretary is awesome (she is my favorite character!) and many of the main and secondary characters have complicated personal lives that add to the story.  I really hope she continues with this series!

3.  The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness...564 pages..The first book in this three book series was recommended to me by a friend and I tore through both it and the 2nd book...but there was a gap of about two years between book 2 and 3...so when I saw this one was coming out I read the "free sample" from Amazon right away...and was so confused I didn't buy it.  This series has a ton of characters, who all have complicated back stories...finally, I ordered the book from the library and, surprise, the book doesn't start where the sample did...it has some back story (whew!) so I could get my bearings, so to speak, and jump back into the story.  Once I figured out what was going on I didn't want to put the book down--loved it and it ended the series nicely...while possibly leaving the door open for more books or another linked series.

We've continued with the 39 Clues Series in the car--I think the one we are listening to could be the last one in the series, at least for awhile.  Next up in the car is Moon over Manifest, one of The Girl's required reading books for 8th grade.  I've also picked up some shorter books to read this month...we'll see how far I get with that!