Welcome to Quick Lit, where we share short and sweet reviews of what we’ve been reading lately on the 15th of the month.
I’ve noticed an interesting divide in my reading life of late: I’m listening to lots of backlist titles while my print reading consists primarily of forthcoming titles. (Right now I’m focusing on titles publishing between January and April 2024, as we’re hosting our Spring Book Preview event in January.)
Apparently I’m making time for the brand-new as well, as today’s round-up includes three titles relatively new to bookstore shelves: Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting, Alexandra Lapierre’s Belle Green, and Janice Hallet’s The Christmas Appeal. It’s been a great reading month: we have literary fiction, a novel in translation, dystopian climate fiction, a holiday novella, a biographical pageturner, informational nonfiction, and several good-on-audio books.
As always, I’m tracking my reading in the My Reading Life book journal, which makes it easy to see and share what I’ve been reading lately.
I hope you find something that looks intriguing for your TBR on this list (and in these comments!), and I look forward to browsing your recent reads below. Thanks in advance for sharing your short and sweet book reviews with us here!
Welcome to November Quick Lit
The Christmas Appeal
The Light Pirate
Self-Care for People with ADHD
The Bee Sting
The Personal Librarian
Belle Greene
What have YOU been reading lately? Tell us about your recent reads—or share the link to a blog or instagram post about them—in comments.
P.S. That top photo is the staff pics shelf at my local indie Carmichael’s Bookstore. I knew you would want to know!
55 comments
This month’s reading wrap up is a combo of a few books I adored and a few that weren’t great, so you can find out which to read and which to skip!
https://neverenoughnovels.com/2023/11/15/november-2023-mini-book-reviews/
That’s my favorite thing about reading reviews!
I’m so excited to read the Christmas Appeal; I loved the first one!
My favorite read of the month, by far, was Happiness Falls: it had everything I want in a book—strong character development, an intriguing premise, a little mystery, quality prose. . . it will definitely be on my list of favorite books of the year. I also read a few other very thought-provoking novels, some fun children’s lit with my kids, and nonfiction that had me intrigued and inspired.
https://kendranicole.net/quick-lit-november-2023/
Just finished Happiness Falls and can’t stop thinking about it. It deserves a re-read to absorb all the fascinating ideas the author presents. And on another note—any L.M. Montgomery fans should check out Elizabeth Egan’s essay in today’s NYT about the Emily of New Moon series. Loved Emily back in the day—think I will have to reread that series too!
I loved Emily—and am amazed that LMM could develop TWO characters who are both so engaging!
I’ve been reading lots of Christmas/Advent-themed inspirational books in preparation for an upcoming post, but David Brooks’s new How to Know a Person keeps pulling me off task!
Here’s my latest review–a juxtaposition of two lives. Brother Lawrence wrote The Practice of the Presence of God from his days in a monastery kitchen. Hundreds of years later, his words encouraged Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic in a wheelchair. Fortunately, we don’t have to take monastic vows or be afflicted with paralysis to make a grace focus our daily choice. Here’s the link: https://michelemorin.net/2023/11/15/presence-of-god-accept-invitation-without-agenda/
I read that one as an ARC. Pretty good stuff.
Books 67-73 of the year: https://thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com/2023/10/reading-update_28.html
Books 74-77 of the year: https://thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com/2023/11/reading-update.html
My crazy-about-Christmas / deeply-in-love-with-Jesus friend talks with us about her newly published Advent companion, a unique combination of devotional & memoir
https://lindastoll.substack.com/p/the-bookbag-angela-and-i-chat-about
The Personal Librarian sounds great! It’s hard not to like a book about books 😊
Here’s what I’ve been reading: https://readeatrepeat.net/2023/11/15/books-in-progress-november-2023/
I loved The Personal Librarian!
I loved the book The Personal Librarian. You must visit the museum in NYC. The actual library of JP Morgan is amazing.
Thanks, Anne – I’ll add The Christmas Appeal to my tbr. Sounds like a fun story!
Here are 9 books I recommend this month, including this interesting novel, Search, by Michelle Uneven.
https://lisanotes.com/books-i-recommend-october-2023/
This was a lighter reading month for me (six books), but there were some great ones! https://cocoonofbooks.blogspot.com/2023/11/what-ive-been-reading-lately-quick-lit.html
I finished The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow (loved every bit of it!) before moving on to Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon (an intense book).
I’ve also been thinking about twists on the traditional book club format and how to get a new group started!
https://www.karacwhite.com/post/a-beginner-s-guide-to-starting-a-book-club
I’ve got a historical memoir I’ve been meaning to read for decades, a new literary smash hit, and a fun new middle grade with a very dapper miniature schnauzer.
https://carolinestarrrose.com/quick-lit-what-ive-been-reading-lately-30/
The Christmas Appeal sounds like a fun read for this time of year! A 600+ page biography slowed my reading down, but I have still managed to fit in a few good fiction reads too. https://fromourbookshelf.com/october-2023-reading/
I just put library holds on The Light Pirate and The Christmas Appeal.
I had a good October- one five star read and four four stars. Life is full and books are saving me!
http://www.allthebooksihaventread.com/blog-1/2023/11/10/show-us-your-books-november-2023
I put the ADHD one on hold at the library immediately. Do you have a list of books for parents with ADHD and/or other executive functioning issues? One book that I have found helpful during difficult times (not necessarily depression—often when I just can’t get motivated) is Get It Done When You’re Depressed by Julie Fast. Reviews suggest it’s not helpful for everyone, but it was for me.
I am also on the hunt for books for parents of kids with ADHD. My kiddo is adopted, so there’s no biological/genetic link for ADHD in our family. This means that both his dad and I feel really out of our depth and often confused about how to navigate stuff. Would lovvvve recs on this!
I’ve also been turning to backlist audiobooks after some frustration with new releases—it definitely got me out of a listening slump. Here’s what I read last month: https://www.mindjoggle.com/october-2023-book-reviews/
The Christmas Appeal sounds like a good choice for the upcoming season and a quick read which makes it even better.
I have 4 books to share this month that were all recommended to me by someone, including What Should I Read Next. I had family members recommend THE HIDING PLACE and RED SKY OVER HAWAII. Author Heather Gudenkauf recommended TO CATCH A STORM, and finally, THE STORIED LIFE OF AJ FIKRY made it to the top of my reading list. All great reads but check out my thoughts https://www.sincerelystacie.com/2023/11/quick-lit-november-2023-edition/
This past month, I enjoyed reading The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey and Mrs. Mike by the Freedmans. Both are set in cold climates so they were seasonal-right, and wow, were they emotional! Interestingly, both feature married couples as the main characters.
https://bookdevotions.com/book-reviews-october-2023/
I also loved The Snow Child! And I loved how the shifting perspective shaped my understanding of the story– and how I sympathized with the characters.
It was beautifully crafted! At the end, I was a little annoyed because I kept thinking, “What is this story ABOUT? Why??” And, of course, a few weeks later, I was like “OH!” It struck me that we are ALL asked to love our children who will one day leave us, depart the home, no longer be children. Our time with them is fleeting. It took me a while, but it finally clicked, and I was much more satisfied with the story after that.
Just finished The Lost for Words Bookshop. Love a book set in or about bookstores or libraries.
Highest recommendation for Flatlands by Sue Hubbard. A very different WWII story, really well written and beautifully told.
I loved Tyler Page’s graphic memoir BUTTON PUSHER. It’s all about his ADHD diagnosis.
Thanks for this recommendation, Afoma
Really enjoyed the first cozy mystery by PD Underhill called Murder Inmortal. It has everything I love about Ellery Adams books.
https://www.amazon.com/Murder-I%C5%84mortal-Fona-Macaw-Mystery/dp/B0CLYPZ9KD
My favorites recently have been:
Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George–delightful series for elementary-aged children!
Julie, by Catherine Marshall
Whippoorwill, by Joseph Monninger
The Fourth Turning is Here, by Neil Howe
Both the Christmas Appeal and the Personal Librarian appeal to me. I see my TBR list growing. My reading was on the lighter side https://myviewofthehoneypot.blogspot.com/2023/11/what-i-read-november.html
I loved the Christmas Appeal, too. Such a fun read. Here’s what I’ve been reading lately: https://forthejoyofbooks.com/november-2023-quick-lit/
I read The Light Pirate back in February. I gave it 5 stars which is rare for me. The author does a great job of world building. I live in Florida so I could envision this happening. I’ll stop I don’t want to give spoilers it was a great book to escape into as my dad died in January and reading has been very hard for me to get into this year. Im just averaging about 4 books a month which is way less than my usual reading.
As I was reading The Bee Sting I was unsure if I would ultimately like it- but then.. Wow what an ending. Would be a very worthy Booker Prize winner.
Celeb memoirs are not my thing but the Brittany Spears memoir was getting such buzz for the audio book narration by Michelle Williams that I decided to give it a listen. Williams is phenomenal!
In the wee hours of the morning, when sleep escaped me I finished Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, which had a puzzling ending, that I suppose was purposely done.
The day before yesterday I finished Jesmyn Ward’s Let Is Descend. Very good. Some magical realism, which I am not very familiar with, but in this case worked well, and I liked. The author was able to bring a voice to the unspeakable horrors of slavery. I will definitely go back and read more from her. This is up there among the year’s favorites which include The Covenant of Water and Small Mercies.
Rereading of all things: Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley after seeing the new Sofia Coppola film. I read it many years ago. It is an easy read. My conclusion on the film is that this has been done and done and done and that Elvis was such a unique individual. Truly one of a kind. But we must keep in mind, this is Priscilla’s story.
I have Amanda Peter’s The Berry Pickers arriving at my local library today.
I was given a copy of The Family Izquierdo by Ruben Degollado at last week’s November book club meeting and will hopefully meet the author at my hometown library’s book festival this Saturday. I actually handed the copy to my husband and he is more than halfway through it.
I’ve met my 45 book reading challenge for the year, so I upped it to 47. Hoping to finally jointly read Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale with my daughter. She purchased a copy and I am getting mine from a slow library wait list. So it might either be my last book of this year, or my first of 2024! Something tells me with my three young grandson’s visiting for the holidays, my reading time will happily become scare. I’ll up my challenge back up to 50 for 2024.
I have had such a varied reading year and it was all rather accidental and unplanned, but worked really well for me. I always plan on reading more back list titles. This coming year will be no exception, but I always have a time breaking my habit of requesting new releases at the library. I finally read Attica Locke’s Bluebird, Bluebird after a trip to Louisiana’s River Road back in July. She will have a new Highway 59 book in September 2024. So I am poised to read Heaven, My Home (the second in the series) in preparation!
Happy Holidays & here’s wishing we all reach our reading goals and more in 2024.
There was a typo in my comment: Let Us Descend is the correct title of Jesmyn Ward’s book. Which I forgot to mention was an Oprah’s Book Club selection this month.
Whalefall by Daniel Kraus…..have never read anything like this before. Beautifully written, terse, and a gripping testimony to grief and loss. And, it takes place underwater and in the belly of a sperm whale.
I loved The Light Pirate so much! My next exciting g TBR is The Future by Naomi Alderman. I’m a huge fan of the speculative fiction genre!
I read The Magic Kingdom by Russell Banks, and it is sure to be one of my favorite novels of the year. His writing is so rich. The setting, a Shaker utopian community in early 20th century Florida, was vividly done and something I’d never read about before. A great read!
This was really well written. I started it and cannot recall why I set it aside. Thanks for the reminder!
Loved …
Being Henry (especially recommend the audio) … narrated by Henry Winkler and his wife Stacey. Publish date 10/31/23. Goodreads reader choice nominee in Humor category.
Kinfolk by Sean Dietrich. Publish date 11/14/23. Really had so many laugh out loud moments; especially after chapter 3 … give this one a chance 25+ pages.
And also The Women by Kristen Hannah due March 2024. So good!
Had my biggest reading month of the year in October, helpful for feeling productive when I feel behind on many other life things! Some shorter books but some fun romances that were easy to fly through too!
October Reading Recap
The Light Pirate is definitely one of the best books I’ve read this year! Five stars for sure!
All over the map this month as my daughter has begun reading books out loud to me for our homeschool curriculum, and I count those!! It’s like a live audio book performance.
Put Me In The Zoo, by Robert Lopshire
Our Missing Hearts, by Celeste Ng 4/5
The Cat in the Hat, by Dr. Seuss
I Must Betray You, by Ruta Sepetys 4.25/5
In Grandma’s Attic, by Arleta Richardson 4/5
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, by Dr. Seuss
A Fly Went By, by Mike McClintock
Check out our website for tiny reviews and story summaries:
https://theshoreystories.com
We read In Grandma’s Attic for our homeschool curriculum this month, too, and I was so pleasantly surprised by how sweet and funny it was.
This past month, I have read the following:
*Desert Star by Michael Connelly (#24 in the Harry Bosch series)- 5 stars
*Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light by Amy Thomas – 2 stars. I read this one due to an upcoming trip to Paris. It was written in 2012 and focused on the author’s love of pastries and her vacillations between NYC and Paris.
* The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh – 4 stars. A good thriller. Evocative of Wales.
*Exiles by Jane Harper – 3.75 stars. Number 3 in the Aaron Falk series. I liked it but did not love it as I have all of her other books.
* First Frost by Sara Addison Allen – 3.75 stars. Magical realism in a city like Asheville NC. Comforting.
*The Mystery of Henri Pick, by David Foenkinos (translated by Sam Taylor) – 4 stars. A quirky fun book about books, love and an exploration of how well we can ever know the ones we love.
* Underworld by Reginald Hill (Dalziel & Pascoe #10) – 4 stars. Excellent police procedural set in Yorkshire England.
*Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley – 4.5 stars. An excellent story of found family with quirky, endearing characters.
It was a great reading month.
Suzanne – I agree with you about Exiles. I just didn’t find it as interesting or riveting as her other books. I need to bump The Last Party up on my TBR. Clare MacKintosh is ao good at those twisty thrillers!
Thanks for sharing!
A good book to read before your Paris trip is The Most Beautiful Walk in the World, by John Baxter. We just returned from Paris on Sunday; I was supposed to go on a literary walking tour with John on Saturday but got rained out.
This past month was such an interesting diverse reading month for me which feels so satisfying. Of the four books I read, they were all different genres. Two of them were books in translation and the other two by voices that I don’t read very frequently. And they were all books I enjoyed greatly.
https://avikinginla.com/2023/11/what-ive-been-reading-lately-october-2023/
I’ve also been doing a LOT of reading on ADHD – both myself and my kiddo were diagnosed in the last year. These are a few titles I enjoyed and found helpful:
– How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis. She gives by far the best guidance I’ve found for managing household tasks as a neurodivergent person.
– ADHD Explained by Dr. Edward Hallowell. A pretty good overview, especially for folks who are just starting to learn about ADHD.
– The Mini ADHD Coach by Alice Gendron. This just came out and I’m currently reading it! Her illustrations are adorable and so accurate to life with ADHD.
I read the Personal Librarian and loved it! I had no idea this woman was so instrumental to Morgan’s library. I have recommended this book to everyone.
I look forward to Belle Green
I visited the Morgan Library in New York City earlier this year simply because I had read The Personal Librarian. The library is astonishing and I now recommend it to anyone I know who is going to NYC.
October reading wrap up 📚
https://readingladies.com/2023/10/31/october-2023-reading-wrap-up-octoberreadingwrapup-booktwitter-bookworm-amreading-bookblogger/
I just finished reading Charis in the World of Wonders by Marly Youmans (2020, Ignatius Press.) This is a book selection from a book group called The Well-Read Mom (wellreadmom.com.) The history of WRM is fascinating. In 2012 Marcie Stockman sent out twenty-two book club invitations to friends in her area and at the first gathering, twenty-two women showed up! That kind of response continued, and Well-Read Mom went from 0 to 900 members in the first couple of years, all by word-of-mouth alone. WRM now has book clubs in all fifty states as well as several countries, with over 5000 readers. A member of a Well-Read Mom group recommended Charis in the World of Wonders to me.
The protagonist of the book, Charis, is a very young woman from a Puritan family near Falmouth, Massachusetts. It is 1690 and there is talk among the Puritans of witch trials. Among the many challenges that faced the settlers of the unfamiliar and primitive forests of Massachusetts, being a devout Puritan added as many complications as it did benefits to daily life.
This is a fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat, almost gothic tale, written in prose that reflects the language and culture of the time of the early settlers.
Author Marly Youman’s writing is beautiful and powerful and although there are many sad moments in the book, the ending holds great promise.
n.b. Another very important character in the book is the family’s faithful and noble horse. Just sayin’.