October Reads

A month full of unexpected reads and show stopping stories!

All Fours by Miranda July

I didn’t know what I was expecting when I started reading this, but it wasn’t this, and I was so glad. For one thing, Miranda July is a spectacular narrator, both on the page and in the audiobook. The characters felt so real and authentic, and many of the discussions in the book were things my friends and I had discussed. Everything you’ve heard about this book? So so true, and I HIGHLY recommend it.

In the Event of Love by Courtney Kae

I hate to say it, but…it was just okay. Maybe it was because I wasn’t in the holiday spirit when I read it, maybe I just wasn’t interested in the “spicy” scenes, who knows. I believe I’ve said this before, but miscommunication is one of my least favorite tropes. There were some funny lines and bits of dialogue, but other than that…yeah, it was OK.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

I read a few chapters of Lamott’s book on writing back in college, so I was glad to read the rest of the book this past month. There was some awesome writing advice in there, from ways to get to know your characters to dealing with the thralls of publishing. An immediate favorite!

Greasepaint by Hannah Levene

My friends have heard me talk about this book in the two-ish months it took me to read it–I brought it with me when we went out to the bar, when we went on a weekend trip to Portland, I even read it aloud at parties. 

Reading this book was like watching a play, though it wasn’t written like one, if that makes sense. There were so many fantastic quotes that practically every page in my copy was underlined. It was a little slow to get through, since the style was very experimental and there were little to no paragraph breaks, so I had to take my time and make sure I wasn’t missing anything. 

I recently watched a youtube video describing the phenomenon on BookTok and Bookstagram where the influencers don’t actually read the books they buy–they skim the pages and only read action or dialogue lines; when a chapter is “too long,” they’ll just skip to the end! Can you believe it? So, not only was this book beautiful to read and experience, I also read it out of spite, since I have a feeling those book-fluencers won’t like it. There were little to no paragraph breaks, dialogue without quotation marks, and a completely non-linear story. In short, I highly HIGHLY recommend it.

Dirt Creek by Haley Scrivenor

In my goal of reading 100 books this year (which I managed to reach with this month’s batch of books!) I’m learning which genres I like and don’t like, so that I don’t over buy books or automatically add books to my TBR just because they look slightly cool. And in this journey, I found I LOVE mysteries (blame Nancy Drew and the Cat Who books). There were so many twists and turns, and I DID NOT see the ending! Again, this felt like one of those books that the aforementioned book-fluencers wouldn’t like, since, if they’re only interested in the plot and action, then they wouldn’t like this book. In the first chapter, the readers find the missing body of the dead girl. But the how, the why, the when, the who, that’s what makes reading fun. That’s what makes reading fun. That’s why we read–to experience the story and go along for the ride.

M Train by Patti Smith

I had read Just Kids earlier this year, and I heard that M Train was just as good. Her quotes about creativity and writing really stuck with me, and Smith’s narration on the audiobook was phenomenal. While Just Kids followed a more cohesive story with Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe’s friendship, this book was more of a collection of stories and essays, with an overarching theme.

Everything I Need I Get From You by Kaitlyn Tiffany

This book described how fangirls, in this instance One Direction fangirls, crafted and cultivated the internet culture as we know it. As someone who was never invested in One Direction or the fandom, it was interesting to read about how they molded the internet in the 2010s. I found it fun to learn about Tumblr culture, especially EARLY Tumblr culture, since I grew up with it by proxy (from Pinterest screenshots). There were some things I didn’t know, like random bits of internet slang. 

The history and impact of the One Direction fandom stops around 2020-ish. I would be interested in reading an updated version up to 2024, mainly incorporating Liam Payne’s unfortunate passing. Reading this I also saw a lot of parallels between the intensity of the One Direction fans and Chappell Roan’s fans. Finally, I loved the acknowledgement fangirls have been throughout history, especially Star Trek fans and Beatles fans.

Kittentits by Holly Wilson

And now for something completely different! I have to say, the title was what really grabbed me, and I just jumped in, not knowing what to expect.

I’m glad I listened to the audiobook version, since I think I would have consumed it slower if I had physically read it (it was one of those books that didn’t have quotation marks around the dialogue)(and nothing wrong with reading things slowly!). It’s not a big “bookish ick” for me, it just is a bit confusing and hard for me to process. So, I liked the audiobook because I had help distinguishing the different characters and dialogue. Props to the narrator!

I LOVED the main character, Molly; throughout the book I was thinking “Chill girl, you are ten years old!” She’s a brat and has a horrid potty mouth, but sometimes you can’t help but find her endearing. She has this obsession with Jeanie, the newest member of her family’s hostel(?), and I think a lot of us as kids became obsessed with an older member of our community. You want her to have a repaired friendship with Jeanie, but you also know that Jeanie is not a good person and treats Molly horribly. So, you also want her to move on. It’s heartbreaking.