Hello Patrons! 🙂

Today in Cincinnati it was a high of 71 degrees! It was marvelous after a week of it being a high of 94 degrees. Besides my current read The Dutch House by Anne Patchett, I have 3 books I want to read this month. Let’s get into it!

The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Septys

Set in Spain after Franco takes over; two teens one an American named Daniel and the the fountains of silence other Ana a Spaniard, team up to document the outcome of Franco’s revolution. My coworker Alia, gave me her arc and I am excited to read it! It’s a chunk at over 400 pages so this might take up most of October for me.

I have read 2 of Septys’ 4 published works, Salt to the Sea and Out of the Easy and loved them both. The former is about a group of refugees trying to leave East Prussia during the close of WWII, and narrated by several different characters. The later is about a young girl growing up in a brothel in 1950’s New Orleans where her mother works, and trying to create a better life for herself. What I like about Septys’ is that she takes a time period that isn’t talked about in history classes and not only teaches her readers but weaves a story that sticks in your mind long after you finish it.

The only other book that covers Franco’s Spain is Jesse Burton’s The Muse, which I read and liked better than her more well known work The Minaturist. (The Muse is intense so be warned before getting into it).

The only book of Septys’ that I can’t bring myself to read is Between Shades of Grey which is about two Lithuanian siblings who are uprooted from their home and moved to Siberia where their father has been sentenced. Everyone who’s read it says it is heart wrenching and I can’t do that to myself. WWII fiction also isn’t my thing, and Between Shades of Grey takes place in 1941.

Be on the lookout for my thoughts very soon, as this will probably be my next read. The Fountains of Silence came out on October 1st.

Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy

dear sweet pea I don’t usually read middle grade but this is an exception. I’ve read and loved all of the books Julie Murphy has written so when I heard she was writing a middle grade book I said yes please!

Dear Sweet Pea centers around a young girl dealing with her parents divorce and helping her elderly neighbor with an advice column. Chelsea from ChelseaDolingreads loved Dear Sweet Pea so I am confident I’ll love it because we have similar tastes in books.

The cover is so cute. I am really excited to see how I like this compared to Murphy’s Young Adult novels, Dumplin’, Puddin’, Side Effects May Vary, and Ramona Blue.

Dear Sweet Pea shared a book birthday with Fountains of Silence and dropped on October 1st.

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin Craig

Highly recommended by Reagan at Peruseproject, House of Salt and Sorrows is a partial retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairytale and part Gothic novel. This family lives in a cliffside mansion in this sea side town, and everyone suspects them to be cursed. Three of the main characters sisters and her mother have already died, and the rest of the family starts to believe that they are indeed cursed. This sounds spooky. I am so here for it. (The cover is stunning) It should also be stated that this is another chunk of a book coming in at exactly 400 pages. If I read less books this month, y’all know why.

Some other books I have on my radar; Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu, The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake, The Patron Saint of Nothing by Randy Ribay, and Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera (which I mentioned in my Contemporaryathon TBR). As always, I will keep you updated as I finish books or DNF books. I am currently just under 50% in The Dutch House and am so glad that I picked this as my first October read, it’s so good. We are starting the month out strong!

How is October going for you? Tell me in the comments.