I’m not too sure why, but October was a great month for reading. I read a total of 8 books and below are the reviews of the books I read in October!
I guess I started the month finishing my meditation retreat in Cambodia, and then had a lovely six hour bus ride back to Bangkok.
Add in two full travel days going to and from Koh Tao in Thailand, then I suppose that gives you some good reading time.
Between all of that though, I was in Bangkok working from my laptop mostly and didn’t make much time for reading. Here’s hoping I can finish the year out strong!
If you want to keep up with my reading in realtime, you can follow my Goodreads profile here.
Reviews of the 8 Books I Read in October 2024
1. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
One night in the reform club, Phileas Fogg bets his companions that he can travel across the globe in just eighty days. Breaking the well-established routine of his daily life, he immediately sets off for Dover with his astonished valet Passepartout. Passing through exotic lands and dangerous locations, they seize whatever transportation is at hand—whether train or elephant—overcoming set-backs and always racing against the clock.
My Rating: ★★★★
The final book I read during the retreat in Cambodia, and a classic that I’ve always wanted to read. Written back in the 1800’s, it was so interesting to see the layout of the world back in that time and how it’s changed since then. Especially how much of the world was under British Rule. I enjoyed the escapism that it offered and found it funny and enjoyable. I’ll need to watch the movie soon!
2. The Inmate by Freida McFadden
There are three rules Brooke Sullivan must follow as a new nurse practitioner at a men’s maximum-security:
1. Treat all prisoners with respect. 2. Never reveal any personal information. 3. Never EVER become too friendly with the inmates.
But none of the staff at the prison knows Brooke has already broken the rules. Nobody knows about her intimate connection to Shane Nelson, one of the penitentiary’s most notorious and dangerous inmates.
My Rating: ★★★★
It’s spooky season! So of course that means I’m reading some Freida McFadden books this month. This was another gripping thriller that didn’t disappoint. The ‘whodunnit’ element was a little too obvious in this book, since there only seemed to be two possibilities. It did twist a little at the end, but it was missing the shocking twists that I’m used to. However, the last chapter did a little bit of chill, so I was happy with how it ended.
3. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer’s, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.
My Rating: ★★★
I feel like that has been so over-hyped. I’d been dying to read this for a year or more, but would never part with £11.99 for such a small book. And I’m glad I didn’t. It’s a book of short stories set in a coffee shop in Tokyo, Japan. The characters were very confusing, but I did like the idea of going to the past and present and the hidden messages in each. But not worth £11.99.
4. The Only One Left by Riley Sager
The Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.
As home-health aide Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.
My Rating: ★★★★
Another spooky book for October! I enjoyed The House Across the Lake by Riley Sagar that I read earlier in the year, and this was his most recent release. It was highly enjoyable once again, but towards the end I found myself getting confused between who was who. Plus, I felt like a few things were left open-ended and not answered. With name changes and identities being swapped, I’m still wondering who Ricardo Mayhew was and where his name came from?
5. Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul lives Kim Jiyoung. A thirtysomething-year-old “millennial everywoman,” she has recently left her white-collar desk job—in order to care for her newborn daughter full-time—as so many Korean women are expected to do. But she quickly begins to exhibit strange symptoms that alarm her husband, parents, and in-laws: Jiyoung impersonates the voices of other women—alive and even dead, both known and unknown to her.
My Rating: ★★★
This was another book I’d had on my list of books to read for a long time. Since I’d been to South Korea so recently, the book struck more of a chord than it would have if I hadn’t visited and learnt about South Korea’s history. It was educational without being too non-fiction-like.
6. Not A Happy Family by Shari Lapena
In this family, everyone is keeping secrets–especially the dead. Brecken Hill in upstate New York is an expensive place to live. You have to be rich to have a house there. And they don’t come much richer than Fred and Sheila Merton. But even all their money can’t protect them when a killer comes to call. The Mertons are brutally murdered the night after an Easter Dinner with their three adult kids. Who, of course, are devastated.
Or are they?
My Rating: ★★★★
I’d read a book by Shari Lapena in the past and remembered it being a great thriller/mystery novel, which is exactly what I’m looking to read in the month of October. This was enjoyable as it was hard to figure out the culprit. It reminded me of Big Little Lies and did the rich-family trope very well. However, I’ll say that I didn’t love the ending and expected a bit more of a twist.
7. The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose
Molly Gray is not like anyone else. With her flair for cleaning and proper etiquette, she has risen through the ranks of the glorious five-star Regency Grand Hotel to become the esteemed Head Maid. But just as her life reaches a pinnacle state of perfection, her world is turned upside down when J.D. Grimthorpe, the world-renowned mystery author, drops dead—very dead—on the hotel’s tea room floor.
My Rating: ★★★
I’d previously read the first book in this series, The Maid last year and enjoyed it. The second book is almost like an Agatha Christie novel. Full of unique and wholesome characters with some twists and turns along the way. If you’re looking for a cosy detective novel, then look no further.
8. Bride by Ali Hazelwood
Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again…
My Rating: ★★★
Bride felt like a retelling of Twilight in a way. It involved vampires and werewolves, but I guess it would be if this was a story about Bella and Jacob, not Edward. Quite raunchy in parts too, but I found the storyline an enjoyable read.
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