Squeaking in at the end of the month with an update on September’s reading!  Let’s jump right in…

Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister was a very good time-twisty mystery.  Jen watches her teenage son commit murder – and then starts living her life backward, each morning waking up on an earlier day.  I really liked seeing her try to put the pieces together to unravel what had happened, and how to prevent the murder.  A couple twists I saw coming, but others surprised me.

My book club selected How to Take Over the World by Ryan North as our non-fiction read of the month.  It’s basically a pop-science book about the current edges of technology, loosely centered around the idea of pursuing a career as a super villain.  It’s a career strong on secret bases and low-to-nonexistent on actual villainy.  The final section on how to preserve a message for the future (on the order of thousands or millions of years) was probably the most intriguing.

I followed up last month’s read of The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg with the sequel, The Glass Magician. I think I actually liked it better, as it got more into the characters with a more conventional structure that I think worked better.  The slow-burn romance is SLOW but fun – and maybe will finally get somewhere in the final book of the trilogy!

For a change of pace but still a favorite author, I picked up Star Wars: Razor’s Edge by Martha Wells.  Set in between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, it deals with Alderaanian pirates.  There’s a lot of really good Leia stuff in here, and I enjoyed seeing her relationship with Han before they’re together romantically.  Almost no Luke though, which was a little disappointing!

In another slightly mystery book, I read The Messy Lives of Book People by Phaedra Patrick.  It reminded me  of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, as the heroine Liv tries to unravel the mysterious past of novelist Essie Starling.  I liked Liv’s journey, and it also took some surprising turns.

And just this morning I finished up one more book for the month, the very odd but engrossing The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks.  Yes, that Tom Hanks!  I enjoyed his short story collection a few years ago, and heard him on a podcast discussing this new novel.  It focuses on the making of a superhero movie (totally not Marvel but, yeah, Marvel) and delves deep into the lives of everyone involved.  It starts with a child who goes on to write the comic book that inspires the movie, explores the writer/director, his assistant, the lead actors, supporting actors, crew members…  It’s fascinating because I really got the sense that everyone is a full person with their own stories, lives and goals, even if some get more time on the page than others.  The book wanders a little at first, but picks up speed once they get to the shooting and we follow that day by day.  Quite an interesting one!

That wraps my reading for the month.  I hope your book adventures are going well too!