September 2025 Book Mail

If I send this October 1st, can I still call it September Book Mail? The jury is out.

I hit some kind of wall the past few months, words unable to formulate as I type them and only having a review deadline let me start writing last weekend. So I’m going to harness this power and get what I can done~

The Safekeep - Yael Van Der Wouden

I picked this book up because it won the Women’s Prize this year and I’m usually pretty fond of that shortlist. This book did not disappoint! Set in the Netherlands in the 1960s, it follows a woman who is forced to let her brother’s girlfriend stay with her for a month while he’s on a business trip. She just wants to be left alone in her little life in their parent’s old house and she is unimpressed by the vapid-seeming girl she’s suddenly saddled with. Things go from there, at first in expected ways and then in greatly unexpected ways. There was a plot twist about two thirds of the way in that I was not expecting and it turned the entire book on its head. Beyond that, though, this is just incredibly well written, full of strong emotions deftly captured, and I would certainly recommend this to pretty much anyone.

Julie Chan is Dead - Liann Zhang

This book is so fun. I picked it up on a whim when I saw it on the new shelf at the library and promptly devoured it. It tells the story of a girl, Julie Chan, who was separated from her identical twin as a toddler when their parents died. Julie was raised by a miserly aunt while Chloe was adopted by rich, white WASPs. Now as young adults, Julie works as a grocery clerk while Chloe is an incredibly famous influencer. When Julie gets a weird phone call from her estranged sister, she goes to check on her, only to discover her body. And, well, she has such a great life and Julie’s exact same face… I loved this book. I read it on a beach trip with friends and kept giggling and reading lines to them as I went. It satirizes influencers and our digital culture while also hooking you with the mystery of what exactly happened to Chloe. It all ends with a mysterious trip that I would never have called in a million years. I read this in two sittings (and even then, only stopped to drive back to town.) Highly recommended.

Whack Job: A History of Axe Murder - Rachel McCarthy James

Love me a very specific book. This one traces the evolution of hand axes from the stone age to modern day and the crimes people have used them to commit. It was very interesting and written with a light touch—I was frequently giggling reading it on my lunch break. It’s also a very quick read at only 270ish pages so it really flew by. If this sounds of any interest to you, definitely check it out.

Run for the Hills - Kevin Wilson

When Kevin Wilson writes a book, I pick it up, plot synopsis be damned. The set up for this one is fun: Mad Hill, a farmer in Tennessee, is surprised to find an older half brother she never knew of, Rube, on her doorstep one weekend. Their father ran out on his family when he was a child and went to Tennessee where he met Mad’s mom and had her … before running off when she was a child. Each time he leaves, he ditches every part of his old life and starts a new family, only to leave again after ten or so years. Rube’s mother has just died and he wants to gather all the half-siblings to go track down their father. This is a road trip book, it’s a book about family, it’s a mystery, it’s a million things. But most of what it is is just discovering who you are and how you connect to the people around you. Watching the siblings meet each other and bond, even in the oddest of ways, was sometimes funny, sometimes wholesome, sometimes angsty, but always great. Wilson can write. Another book that’s fairly short, I would recommend it … and basically any Kevin Wilson novel cause that man’s good.

Glitz, Glam and a Damn Good Time: How Mamie Fish, Queen of the Gilded Age, Partied Her Way to Power - Jennifer Wright

I will read anything Jennifer Wright writes, she is whip smart and hilarious with a turn of phrase, so to find out her newest book was about a society scion of the gilded age? Exactly what I wanted. I’m embarrassed to say that the little I knew about Mamie Fish going into this was what I saw on the first two seasons of The Gilded Age (I haven’t watched the latest season yet) but going off what I’ve learned about her now, I think that would actually amuse her. A young upstart who just wanted to throw fun, ridiculous parties, she was kind of awesome. I don’t think I could have been friends with her, her tongue was much too sharp for me, but the stories of her escapades and how her shaking up the system led to more changes down the way makes me incredibly fond of her. Also now I really want to visit Newport. Putting that on my travel list.

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September has been ridiculously busy for me but it’s all been fun things, so I can’t be too upset about it.

Mid-September, I tabled for the first time at an East Coast show, spending my weekend at Small Press Expo or SPX. I’d heard great things about SPX for literally over a decade so I was excited to finally go. I had a wonderful weekend tabling next to my good friend MK Reed, spending time with pals I hadn’t seen in ages, and having my local friend, Maya, come join me on Sunday. And I made a tiny bit of money, which never hurts.

The Friday after the con, I picked up my best friend Katy and her husband Jeremy who were spending 10 WHOLE DAYS visiting the area. I’m trying to convince them to move here and this was an ‘investigate the city’ trip. I think it was successful! By the end of the trip, Jeremy was beginning sentences with ‘When we live here’ which is always a good sign. We spent a lot of evenings binge watching shows together (I got them hooked on From, they got me to finally watch Severance) and going on adventures including visiting the space shuttle and petting highland cows (even if my dress was a casualty.)

Sadly, they had to return home on Monday and now I am all on my lonesome again with no plans at all for the month of October. I did give in and buy plane tickets to fly down and visit Katy in New Orleans for my birthday long weekend, though, so things are always looking up.

AND it’s spooky season! I’ve got some horror movies to catch up on! I was so busy in September that I think I only managed to make it out to one or two so check back mid-October for a Horror Digest after I’ve gotten a chance to watch some more spooks.

In the meantime, Happy Reading!