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My Month in Books | October 2024

October is officially my favorite month now. I’m sure of it. The autumn colors, the start of knitwear-scarf-coat season, and that -ber month feeling finally settling in. Forest walks with fallen leaves crunching beneath my boots. Hot drinks. Cinnamon-spiced everything. This October’s readings also seem to align with my general mood, as it’s been a fantastic month filled with books that made me feel warm and cozy inside.

Photo by Alena Zadorozhnaya from Pexels

Books I’ve Read in October

In October, I’ve read a total of 6 books:

As part of my mini October Fall Bucket List, I set out to find an autumn-themed book to really get into the season. That’s how I came across ACF Booken’s Plotted for Murder, which is set in autumn. This book is part of an 11-book (as of now) series called St. Marin’s Cozy Mystery, where Harvey Beckett moves to a charming town to restart her life. She opens a bookstore, where she inadvertently begins her work as an amateur sleuth. A charming middle-aged female protagonist. A cozy bookstore and café. A lot of pets (including plenty of pups and a cat!). Classic amateur sleuthing tactics. A cast of quirky, fun characters around town. It has all the elements of a cozy mystery that I absolutely love!

I’ve been on the lookout for another cozy mystery to obsess over ever since Audible pulled the Coffeehouse Mystery Series from the UK, and after I finished the A Cookie House Mystery Series. I think I’ve found the perfect one. (Plus, I can listen to all the books in the series for free via my Everand subscription—love that app!) What I really appreciate about these books is that the cases aren’t always as straightforward as they seem. The series also tackles profound topics like racism, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. While these themes are heavier than usual for this genre, I admire how the storylines handle them with sensitivity and depth. The town’s quirky charm and the characters’ personalities still give it that distinct ‘cozy mystery’ feel that I love.

Out of the first four books I’ve read, Plotted for Murder is my favorite so far. This particular case centers heavily on sexual abuse, and I was moved multiple times by how the plot points were handled. The fundraiser scene, in particular, really struck a chord with me, and I remember shedding a few tears while trying to prep dinner. I also loved these words from Harvey near the end of the book:

“Trust [your] instinct. If something feels unsafe, it is unsafe to us. And it’s okay to leave that situation just because we feel that way.”

I also read two non-fiction books this month. The first is Daunt Books Publishing’s In the Kitchen: Essays on Food and Life, which shot straight to the top of my list of favorite reads this year. I’ve been really into essay and short story collections lately, and this book was perfect—short but impactful vignettes expressed through beautiful writing by some of the most exciting contemporary writers lately. I have a few favorites in this collection, but I think my absolute favorite is Our Grief Books by Mayukh Sen, which explores how cooking feels like a form of release and how food can hold so many memories, especially of those we’ve loved and lost. It also inspired one of my newsletters (READ HERE) over at The Firefly Folios. (Oh, I made a newsletter! I’d appreciate it if you could check it out and subscribe. 🫰)

The second one I read this month was Dolly Alderton‘s Dear Dolly —a collection of selected articles from her weekly Dear Dolly column in The Times, where she answers reader questions as an agony aunt. I’ve been so in love with Dolly ever since I finished her memoir, Everything I Know About Love. At this point, I’ve read all of Dolly Alderton’s books, and I want more! She was also the one who introduced me to Nora Ephron (or, more accurately, piqued my interest in reading her books). And, as if a full-circle moment, I feel like (at the moment) Dolly Alderton is to me what Nora Ephron is to her. (Fun fact: If it weren’t for Dolly, I wouldn’t have discovered Amy Key, and I wouldn’t have read what turned out to be my favorite book of 2024 so far, Arrangements in Blue.)

I wanna be friends with her. I want her to keep writing so I can gobble up anything that comes out of her pen. The Times is paywalled, so I don’t always read the Dear Dolly articles. But this book is a gift – distilling so many lessons and pieces of advice that never feel preachy because Dolly just feels like one of us. I listened to it all the way through, wishing I’d bought a physical copy so I could highlight all my favorite parts to remind myself of these gems. I read it thinking my girl friends need to read this, and I hope they do.

“You loved someone. And it changed you. Aren’t we the lucky ones.“

What I’m Currently Reading

  • Ladies’ Lunch and Other Stories by Lore Segal – Lore Segal passed away at 96 on October 7, and the world lost one of its lights once more. I’d had Ladies’ Lunch on my TBR list for a while, but Katie’s heartfelt review of the collection made me feel so many things. So, I ordered it through Amazon and received it the next day. I flew through the Ladies’ Lunch stories, a series about old friends who lunched together for 40 years and found them charming, hilarious, and heartbreaking at times. “[…] we are the people in the world to whom we tell things.” I find myself wishing for a friendship like this. I’m now on the second half of the collection, the Other Stories, and I can’t wait to dive into Lore’s gorgeous writing.
  • The Vegetarian by Han Kang – I started this one recently, and I feel like it’s perfect for spooky season because this book just creeps me out and makes me uncomfortable whenever I read it. I hadn’t looked into Han Kang’s work before—sure, I’d seen some of her books circulating on Instagram, but I never felt compelled to read any of them, until she won the 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature. I also didn’t expect The Vegetarian to be fiction. I’m almost halfway through, and all I can say is—what the heck am I reading? It engrosses and disturbs me at the same time. I can’t look away.

What I’m looking forward tO

Aside from Intermezzo by Sally Rooney, I think I’m just going to focus on finishing everything on my Currently Reading list. I put it on the backburner for now because it was bumming me out, but I still want to read it before the end of the year.

I’m predicting I’ll be spending a lot more time indoors with the shorter, darker days that November brings. That means more time cozied up with activities like reading to keep me busy during these colder days. Time seems to fly by so fast in the last two months of the year, and I hope I can still squeeze in as much as I can. Till next month! 👋

2024 Book Read Count as of writing: 43 /24

HOW ABOUT YOU? HOW WAS YOUR READING MONTH THIS October? DID YOU HAVE ANY NOTABLE FAVE? 
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