Summary Sarah is a recent widow with a toddler and a child on the way. After the death of her husband, secrets began to unravel about her dead husband. Unable to support herself and driven to protect her family from those who thought they were close friends, she accepts help from her mother-in-law. Thoughts This was a page-turner! A few nights I regretted staying up late reading the book and paid the price dearly the next morning. This thriller has it all – suspense, rich old ladies, drama, secrets, and unexpectedly… A cult! Despite it being a page-turner, I found the beginning of the book to be annoying. I couldn’t help but think… “Again?! This lady can’t get a break!”.…

Summary Remembering Peasants: A Personal History of a Vanished World by Patrick Joyce is a non-fiction book about the history of peasants in Europe, mostly in Ireland. It also serves as a slight memoir of Joyce’s family history. Thoughts Not what I was hoping for this book to be. I was expecting more of a journalist collecting personal stories from peasants about their daily lives. Instead, it’s a very dry history of peasants – defining peasants, the population and decline of peasants, life and death rituals, houses, etc.  The topics and chapters were poorly arranged throughout the book, and I found the syntax difficult to follow. Several times I found myself thinking this chapter is unnecessarily long, with paragraphs that…

Summary In 1925, renowned British explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett and his two companions disappeared in the Amazon jungles in search of a hidden ancient civilization he dubbed Z. Since then, hundreds of explorers and rescuers also vanished in search of Fawcett and his team, and the Lost City of Z.  Journalist and author David Grann set out to solve the mystery of Fawcett’s disappearance and the Lost City of Z. What happened to Fawcett, and did the Lost City of Z truly exist? Thoughts I’ve come to love David Grann’s work over the last several months. I binged his entire collection of books he’s written this year. Grann’s talent for journalism translates well into the books he’s written. He has…

Summary Troubled by Rob Henderson is a memoir of foster care, family, and social class, as explained by Rob Henderson. Henderson grew up in the foster care system in Los Angeles and later went on to graduate from Yale and Cambridge University. Henderson shares what it’s like growing up in foster homes, the impacts of a stable and unstable home, and the differences between upper and lower social classes of America, as he was able to experience both. Thoughts As with many of the books I read, I stumbled across this memoir on a Goodreads list. Without much thought, I marked it as to-read since I’m a sucker for memoirs. When it was available to borrow from my library, I…

Welcome back to another month of monthly reads! As fall is settling in, there’s no better time than to cozy up with a new read. Check out what I’ve been reading lately and if it’s worth a shot or not! *Links go to Goodreads and Amazon CA. Any of these books caught your attention?! Let me know if you’re planning to read one of these and if you’ve already read one or two of these novels on the list, let me know what you thought of it!

New segment alert! I absolutely love reading but writing dedicated review posts for every single book I read is not my forte. I figured a monthly round-up is the way to go with brief reviews of the book!All links directs to Goodreads. Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2) by Martha Wells Rating: 3/5. An average follow-up to the 1st installment and not as exciting as the 1st. I found it lost a lot of good opportunities for a surprise plot twist, or to create an eerie feeling when reading some of the scenes (especially during the tunnels!). I wasn’t a fan of the plot where Murderbot had to help a bunch of young adults and overall lacked a good storyline…