Share Your Shelf-September

Hello readers, bloggers, friends, and lurkers. Do people still lurk on blogs? That used to be a thing where someone would read your blog but never comment, but I don't know if it's still a thing. For the record, I don't mind if people want to read without commenting. 

Anyway, let's talk books. It's the first Thursday of the month which means it's time to share what we read the month prior- aka September. If you'd like to add a link of your own or find out what others are reading, hop over to the host blogs (Memphis Bridges, My Joyful Life, Slices of Life, and The Other Side of the Road). 

I put a bunch of books on hold at my local library about a month ago and somehow most came in the same week. Bother. Several were only on loan for two weeks because they're new or extra popular so I tried to read those first. I'm famous for checking out books that have to go back before they're read and I was determined not to do that this month. 

I record what I've read on Goodreads and use their star system, more or less. My star system is probably on the harsh side. I'm stingy with the 5* ratings and if I give a book 5* then it's a book that's memorable for me. 

I give a lot of 3* reviews, which to me means overall a pretty good read, some flaws or cliched writing that bothered me, and while I enjoyed the read it's probably not a book I'm left thinking about later. I typically never give 1* ratings because if a book feels like a 1* book I'll mark it DNF. 

Okay, here we go-

1. Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This is one of those books that left me with mixed feelings. I love Taylor Jenkins Reid's writing style and that shines here as it does in all of her books. I really enjoyed the parts of the book that dealt with the thrill and danger of space travel, solving the problem at hand, and also just the mystery of space itself. I wanted more of that. 

I should have paid closer attention to the tag line -A Love Story, because this was definitely more love story than space tale. And it's a sapphic love story which is not my cup of tea. I didn't know that going in or I likely would not have picked this one up. 

The book centers around the character Joan Goodwin, a fictional astronaut in NASA's Space shuttle program in the early 1980's. I read that Jenkins Reid based the character of Joan on the real life astronaut Sally Ride. The story starts with a crisis (you might say disaster) involving a malfunction aboard the space shuttle.  Goodwin is working in Mission Control as the spacecraft communicator and will need to talk with the astronaut tasked with landing the damaged ship. The story then backs up and primarily focuses on the lives of the astronauts and the events that occurred in the lead-up to the disaster. 

I struggled to rate this one because I had mixed feelings when I closed the book. I read a review where the reviewer said they 'wanted more of Joan the astronaut and less of Joan the girlfriend'. I feel the same. 

2. The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

This was our book club selection for September and received favorable reviews from all. I wasn't expecting to like this one as much as I did, because the way the story is told you have a key piece of information from the very beginning. The author did a good job filling in the details in a way that was engaging.  

The Berry Pickers is the story of a Mi'kmaq family from Nova Scotia who travel to Maine to pick blueberries in the summer of 1962. Their youngest daughter Ruthie disappears from the field one day,  and her disappearance naturally traumatizes the family left behind.  

The story is told from two perspectives. Joe is Ruthie's older brother, and at age six was the last one to see Ruthie before she disappeared. The other voice belongs to Naomi, a young woman from an affluent Maine family who grows up with an overprotective mother, and a father who is a judge by profession, and is a mostly kind but somewhat aloof father. The dual storyline worked very well. 

The Berry Pickers explores themes of family, grief, trauma, and cultural identity. My favorite read this month and I gave it four stars.  

3. Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall 

Have you ever read a book where you know from the very first page it's going to break your heart? Well that's Broken Country. You know a lot of sadness is coming your way, but you keep reading because you need to know how it all turns out in the end. 

This book has been super hyped (it's a Reese Witherspoon book club pick), and I'm always a bit leery of over hyped books. I thought the writing was excellent. The novel centers around a love triangle, and while there's obviously more to it than that, this triangle is at the heart of the book. I just really didn't care for two of the three parties involved in the triangle. While I had tremendous sympathy for Beth, I struggled with so much of her behavior which I will describe as pretty crummy, that I found her hard to like. Three stars for me. 

4. The Champagne Letters  by Kate Macintosh

I like historical fiction and really enjoyed this one. I also like champagne and we've spent some time in the champagne region of France, so the setting felt familiar.  The Champagne Letters  is a work of historical fiction set in Reims France in the 1800's, with a second but related modern day story line set in Paris and Reims. 

The storylines follow Mme. Cliquot and then a modern day Chicago woman named Natalie Taylor who has run away to Paris following her divorce. Natalie finds a collection of the Widow Cliquot's published letters in a book stall beside the Seine, and she uses these letters as inspiration for starting a new life. Her escape to Paris takes a very unexpected turn and Natalie is forced to make a choice-return home or fight for her future. 

I loved the twists in the modern day story, the setting for both, and the champagne talk. There's a movie based on the life of Widow Cliquot that was released in 2023 which I haven't watched yet, but it's on my list. I gave this one 4 stars. 

5. Culpability by Bruce Holsinger

A really interesting and original topic, one that definitely makes the reader think. The plot is centered around an accident that happens in a self-drive vehicle. Have you been in a self-drive car yet? I've been in a friend's Tesla which had this feature and I have to say it's a little freaky. 

While on their way to a lacrosse tournament in their self-driving minivan, the Cassidy-Shaw family, with 17-year old Charlie behind the wheel (but on autonomous mode), and other family members distracted by their phones, are involved in an accident with fatalities and injuries. 

Who is responsible-the distracted teen? the parents? AI? You find yourself thinking about this technology from a couple of different angles,  and the accompanying storyline where hidden secrets are revealed definitely held my interest. 

Four stars for me. 

6. Nightshade by Michael Connelly 

Hubs and I had a road trip this month and we always try to listen to something on Audible when we travel. When I asked him what he wanted to listen to he said, 'nothing educational' lol. We often listen to non-fiction or a very lengthy biography when we road trip (hey, we're a captive audience) and those can sometimes get heavy. A friend mentioned she'd just read this Michael Connelly book and enjoyed it so we opted for that. 

I have always liked his writing and loved The Lincoln Lawyer and his Bosch series especially, so knew it would be a good choice. We both enjoyed it. 

The plot centers around a disgraced LA county sheriff (Stilwell) who is sent to work on Catalina Island as part of his 'punishment'.  When the body of a woman with a streak of purple in her hair is found weighed down in the waters of Catalina Harbor Sheriff Stilwell is called into action. Besides the Jane Doe murder there are additional crimes to be solved,  including the illegal beheading of a buffalo, and the theft of a marble statue from a men's fishing club. Are the crimes connected and if so, what's the connection? 

The story unfolded at a nice pace and you were rooting for Sheriff Stilwell throughout. He's a very likable character and a new one for Connelly. I imagine and hope there will be more stories where he's featured in the future. I gave this one four stars. 

So what did you read in September? 

Hullo Monday

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for their regular Monday morning chat about how we spent our weekend. Ours was fun and full. Here we go...starting with Thursday because I've told you before I feel like the weekend starts on a Thursday. 

Plus we've been on holiday so everyday is the weekend right now. 

Thursday the boys had school so hubs, Little Miss, Daughter1 and I decided to go into Cambridge and see what we could see. We've been in a couple of times since we got here, once for tea on my birthday and once for dinner at The Eagle. 

After walking the boys to school we hopped on the bus to get to the city center. It's not far, but as I said in an earlier post, the bus is easier than finding a parking space. There are 31 colleges that make up the University of Cambridge, and we started our day with a visit to the King's College Cathedral. 

Yes, another cathedral. This is England after all, and I'm here to tell you stepping inside one of these magnificent buildings never gets old. This one is particularly spectacular-

King's College was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI and is known for it's cathedral. 

Little Miss pointing out baby Jesus in the painting. She is absolutely precious. 

Also a bit of a firecracker, an excellent traveler, and so much like her momma our hearts can hardly handle it.

We came out of the cathedral and into a space known as The Backs. This is a park like area that's  basically the backside of the various colleges that run alongside the river Cam. 

We punted here one long ago Father's Day weekend, but this time we just admired the beauty. 

It was a gorgeous day. My daughter wanted us to visit the Wren Library at Trinity College so we headed that way next. Christopher Wren attended Oxford, and is the architect behind so many of England's most beautiful buildings, with this library being yet another. 

Wren Library has been open to visitors since 1695, but in 2024 visiting is only permitted between the hours of 12-2, with just 15 visitors allowed inside at any one time. It's a working library for the students of Trinity College so everyone is considerate of that. 

What a treat. I'm so glad to have seen this, something most visitors to Cambridge may not know is even something you can do. It's a beautiful space. There were students working in the carrels along the side of the room, and they all had stacks of ancient books piled high beside them. Everyone is on a computer, but pretty sure they're not taking notes from Wikipedia. 

I'd like to be a student here. 

We saw a Winnie the Pooh manuscript gifted to the college by A.A. Milne himself. He was once a student at Trinity. We saw a Shakespeare folio, and several pieces by Lord Byron who also studied here. One piece was a letter Byron had written his aunt at the age of ten, and in it he says it's the very first letter he's ever written. His penmanship is perfect. 

Remember when people wrote letters. Sigh. 

We stopped for lunch at Nandos which is an old favorite. My daughter and I reminisced about trips to Nandos in the shopping area where we lived when she was a teenager. It was like our UK Chick-fil-a fix when there was no chick-fil-a. 

It's actually nothing like chick-fil-a other than the fact that it's chicken and it's delicious. 

We caught the bus home so Little Miss could have her nap and we could collect the boys from school. We had one of our favorite dinners Thursday night, one we'd been looking forward to since we arrived. We ate at The Dumpling Tree and had our fill of crispy duck. We used to get this a couple of times a month when we lived in England, but haven't found it this way anywhere near our home in the US.

If you're not familiar this is duck (they served it sliced, but we used to get it shredded) on a small thin pancake, topped with thinly sliced cucumber, thinly sliced green onion, then finished with a dollop of plum sauce, rolled up and enjoyed. 

It's so good! We also ordered steamed dumplings (Max's favorite food), spring rolls, and a cucumber salad in some sort of sweet and sour style sauce that was really yummy. We walked home and I was wishing once more I lived where I could walk to dinner and then walk home. 

Friday the weather was supposed to be mostly rainy so we opted for an indoor activity. We got back on the bus (all of us except my son-in-law who had to work) and went back into Cambridge to visit the Fitzwilliam Museum. 

It's fabulous! And free, which is always nice. There are more than half a million objects, artifacts, and works of art  in this museum and it's all beautifully displayed and easy to view. 

They had color sheets for the kids to find various items in each room, with space to draw what they saw and everyone enjoyed the morning. 

The armor was a favorite of all the boys, but there was an entire room of porcelain I could have lingered in a little longer. We had lunch at a cute spot near the museum called Fitzbillies which is a bakery on one side and a cafe on the other. 

I had eggs benedict England style-a crumpet instead of an English muffin and ham instead of Canadian bacon. Delish! We bought some Chelsea buns to take home too. 

It was drizzling when we came out of the restaurant so we ducked under cover at Pembroke College. This is the third oldest of the Cambridge colleges, founded in 1347 by the Countess of Pembroke. It was the first college to have it's own chapel, which just happened to be open. Visitors were invited to stop in so we did-

Another beautiful space. 

We were home for naps and rest before heading back out to the main street for dinner, which was another favorite-Indian food. Hubs has been waiting for this meal since day one and it did not disappoint. We ordered poppadoms to start and the toppings were served on this cute little tabletop cart you could roll. 

We laughed about the first time we had Indian food in the UK and the server asked if we wanted poppadoms. This was 20 years ago and we had no idea what poppadoms were, but eventually hubs just said sure, bring us some poppadoms. Then the server asked how many and hubs randomly said four even though we had no clue what we were getting. England is where we fell in love with Indian food. 

Saturday morning found us back on the futbol pitch. The sun was shining but it was chilly and we enjoyed watching the boys attack and defend and improve their skills with the ball in this exceptionally well-run program. 

My daughter and son-in-law had plans for a date day/evening so after lunch they headed to catch a train into London and we were left in charge of the littles. Nana played a lot of Uno. And chess. I have not played chess in decades, but I liked it and my 7-year old grandson knows all the rules. I told hubs we need to play chess when we're back home. 

We walked around the corner and picked up pizza for dinner, got everyone bathed and eventually to bed before the parents came home. They had a nice time together, but both said London was positively mobbed, and I guess that's just how it is now. 

I will have more to say about that in a later post, but we actually opted to hang out in Cambridge and the nearby countryside instead of going back into London this trip. Everything is a lot in terms of walking, transport, laundry!, etc. and then you add three kids to the mix and you've got to include some low key hours into your life or you'll be dragging everywhere you go.  

On Sunday we walked to a nearby pub for a fabulous Sunday roast (some of us had roast beef, and some turkey) and it was every bit as good as I remembered. Potatoes roasted in goose fat and a light and airy Yorkshire pudding make this a pretty perfect meal. 

We hung out at home afterwards, I wrapped two birthday presents and a few Christmas presents I brought with me, played more Uno (!!!), sort of organized my suitcase in preparation for the trip home, and caught up on my blog. 

And that was my weekend. How was yours?