October Wrap-Up: My Favorite Reads of the Month
- The Bossy Bookworm
- Oct 31
- 7 min read
Bossy Favorites of the Month
In October I read a number of books that I liked but didn't love. Luckily, a few of my reads during the second half of the month were standouts. Here are my six favorite reads of October.
What were some of your favorite reads this month?
01 Katabasis by R. F. Kuang
I loved the dark--and often darkly funny--journey of Cambridge postgraduate magick students Alice and Peter to hell, a quest they undertake because their advisor has died and they really need his recommendations. Also, they each fear they're the one who killed him.
In Kuang's dark academia fantasy novel Katabasis, Alice Law is a postgraduate student in a ruthlessly competitive analytic magick program at Cambridge. She is intrigued by and also deeply irritated by her academic rival, Peter Murdoch, who seems to be showing her up at every turn in their relentless slog of blood, sweat, and tears. Luckily, recommendations from their selfish, brilliant advisor, Professor Grimes, should set them up for successful careers.
But Grimes dies a grisly death while trying to enter the underworld, and Alice and Peter are separately, secretly convinced that they are each the one who killed him.
What else is there to do but journey to hell together to try to get him back--and preserve their precious recommendations?
This is a clever, strange, dark, and often darkly funny fantasy. The pacing flagged for me throughout the middle of the story, during the slog through various avenues of hell, and the worldbuilding felt slim and glossed over during some of the many courts of hell.
I was, ultimately, here for the character development and redemption, which Kuang provides in satisfying fashion.
The bendable, undefined rules of hell (which I didn't understand and which kept being sprung upon the reader) turned out to be quite convenient, and after Peter's disappearance, Alice shines as the sole problem solver, capable of sacrifice and dealmaking.
R. F. Kuang is also the author of Yellowface, The Poppy War, Babel, The Burning God, and The Dragon Republic.
Another book that involves an attempted escape from hell is Leigh Bardugo's Hell Bent.
For my full review of this book please see Katabasis.
02 Frog: The Secret Diary of a Paramedic by Sally Gould
Gould's memoir of her life as a paramedic is frank, captivating, often revolting, and disarmingly honest. She takes the reader on ride-alongs so vividly described, it's as though we're in the ambulance. She shares her pride in caring for patients, her deep frustrations, and she is open about her mental health struggles.
Sally Gould's memoir is named after a darkly humorous term of affection for paramedics in Australia (frog, because everything a paramedic touches croaks).
Gould grew up in Australia the daughter of a paramedic, and she follows in her father's footsteps, training to become a "frog" herself.
In her memoir, Gould explores her early days of uncertainty, moments of panic, scenes of complete disgust, tragic endings, and inspiring moments in which her team's arrival saves a life.
Gould takes the reader through the ups and downs of the job and is frank about her personal mental health challenges and how she coped with them as related to the difficulties of her career and lifestyle.
This is a satisfyingly deep dive into Gould's behind-the-scenes experiences, including an often breakneck pace, trying emotions, extensive practical knowledge, interpersonal skills, ability to read the room, separation from emotion, and pride in a job capably done.
This is Sally Gould's first book. I received a prepublication audiobook version of this title courtesy of Libro.fm and Simon & Schuster Australia.
You might also be interested in Bossy reviews of books involving medical or health elements, or in Bossy memoirs I've loved.
For my full review of this book please see Frog.
03 The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
The Everlasting involves jaunts through multiple versions of the same story, as our fantastic main protagonists shift and change, bravely outsmart those who would control them, dare to hope for a future together, and fight dark forces until the bitter end. This is adventure-heavy, sometimes tender, and always intriguing. I loved it.
Centuries after the death of the legendary Sir Una Everlasting, spindly, awkward, cowardly historian Owen Mallory unearths her story--and becomes inexorably intertwined with the events of Una's life as they occur in the past.
Harrow's tale involves multiple do-overs and attempts to shift events and alter reality--while the unlikely couple of Una and Owen fall in love again and again.
The Everlasting is filled with rich adventure; twisty jaunts through time; tragedy and loss; dark turns, boundless hope; messy, happy discoveries; outsmarting those in power; and noble victories. It ticked a million boxes for me as a reader.
This is the type of romantic fantasy I adore. No swooning, childish behavior, or foolishness, just hard-won connections, deep character development, bravely defying expectations, and absolutely lovely love. This broke my heart and mended it over and over, in the best ways possible.
For my full review, please check out The Everlasting.
04 Care and Feeding: A Memoir by Laurie Woolever
Woolever's experiences working for Mario Batali and Tony Bourdain are fascinating--and, in the case of Batali, often disturbing. The food-focused writing and restaurant workings are the highlights; the author also recounts the implosion of her personal life, addiction, and extramarital affairs as well as shaping a new normal for herself.
Laurie Woolever is fresh from culinary school and realizing that she doesn't want to be a chef when she stumbles into a position as an assistant to Mario Batali at his revered restaurant Babbo.
His personality is overbearing, and he is frequently sexist, verbally abusive, groping, petty, and prone to childish power plays. Yet his connections and opportunities allow "Wooly," as he immediately decides to calls her, to coauthor a cookbook with him and to meet various players in the food community, eat ridiculously wonderful food, and learn the workings of a busy kitchen.
Woolever also recounts her time as assistant to the kind, passionate Tony Bourdain until the time of his death, and in between accounts of her wild work duties and schedule, she takes the reader through her unrelenting alcohol- and drug-induced hazes, hangovers, regrettable decision-making, extramarital affairs, and doubts about her mothering abilities.
I was most interested in the travel, food-focused writing, eating accounts, and breakneck-speed, often outrageous assistant duties than I was in Woolever's snowballing personal missteps, lies, self-destruction, and, for most of the book, her inability to recognize how dangerous her lifestyle is.
I listened to this memoir as an audiobook. You might also be interested in the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Foodie Memoirs to Whet Your Appetite.
For my full review, please check out Care and Feeding.
05 The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
This quiet, epistolary novel witnesses the creaky, sometimes difficult shifts and realizations that a septuagenarian achieves around her health, children, past secrets, friendship, romantic relationships, and previously unknown blood relatives near the end of her life.
I feel like this book and I have been circling each other since early May, and I was so delighted as I finally dove into this charming novel.
Sybil Van Antwerp has written letters her whole life--letters to dear friends and family, letters of complaint, letters of praise and wonder to authors of books she's loved, and more. She reflects, sorts out her thoughts and makes sense of the events of the world.
Now Sybil is in her late 70s, she's set in her ways, she's sometimes out of step and old-fashioned, often grumpy--and she's facing immense changes. We find out early on that she faces the impending loss of her sight, that she is somewhat estranged from her daughter, that deep tragedy has shaped her life and closed off her heart, and that she may be stumbling into information about her biological parents.
It's lovely to witness Sybil's slowly allowing herself to face the past, addressing difficult issues in the present, and allowing for surprising adventures in her life. The Correspondent offers messy, imperfect characters in often difficult situations, and they find their way through having changed and grown.
This was charming and I loved both reading this novel and listening to the audio version of this title. The Correspondent was the right book at the right time for me.
I received a prepublication version of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Crown Publishing.
I do love a novel in letters. To find Bossy reviews of other books I've read, please check out the titles at this link.
Click here for my full review.
06 A Far Better Thing by H. G. Parry
This faerie-centric reimagining of Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities offered a compelling story of redemption and self-sacrifice with a significant fantasy undercurrent that is key to the plot. I felt bogged down by the explanations of the workings of the faerie system, its punishments, and its policies.
H. G. Parry's novel A Far Better Thing is a twist on Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, and Parry introduces a rebellion against faerie powers that takes place against the mayhem of the French Revolution (which is also the backdrop of the Dickens story).
In this historical fiction-fantasy, characters from Dickens's tale are plunged into a dark, powerful magical world. Sydney Carton's eventual self-sacrifice, which emerges as unlikely from the boozy, smart but lazy, bitter character, remains in place within this fan-fiction version of the tale. But in Parry's novel he must also reckon with his fantastical origin story. Here, Sydney Carton was abducted by faeries when he was a small child, and his doppelgänger Charles Darnay is a changeling.
I don't recall reading A Tale of Two Cities, so the value of the allegories is lost on me. The story largely stands on its own, but I did get bogged down by the extensive explanations of the workings of the faerie world and what felt to me to be tedious sidebars about rules, punishments, power structures, and policies. This took me out of the story and killed the momentum for me as a reader.
The ending is dramatic, noble, and heartwarming.
For my full review, please check out this link.
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