1. Moonflower Murders

By Anthony Horowitz (608 pp)

I am not an expert on the mystery genre but having just read an Agatha Christie I am going to say this is written in the Agatha Christie style with a huge cast of characters that possibly have a motive. Again, I had issues with character fatigue and had to go back and make a post-it to keep everyone straight which is why I groaned when I saw that there is an Agatha Christie style mystery within the Agatha Christie style mystery. The main book is about a former book editor living in Greece who is hired to go back to England and look into the disappearance of a woman associated with the mystery in a previous book by this author. The inner book is about the investigator Atticus Pund hired to investigate the murder of an American actress. Like most murder mysteries, I was turning the pages to get to the end but overall I'm not sure this is my favorite kind of mystery.

41. Aussie Rules

By Jill Shalvis (320 pp, ebook)

Had a pretty hairy month so I wanted something fun and easy to read and this delivered. Pretty generic romance with a little mystery attached which was the thing that kept me turning the page. Young woman pilot holds together a private airfield business while the boss is living a mysterious life out in the world. Aussie hunk arrives with proof he is the actual owner of the business. They fall for each other while unraveling the truth. The resolution was cartoonish. I've read better books by this author.

40. Murder in the Vicarage

By Agatha Christie (305 pp, ebook)

I have never read an Agatha Christie and one of my writing teachers, Connie Willis, said Christie was a good writer to study so I finally read one. I liked the character banter and a story written and set in the early 1900s but I did get a little bit of character fatigue. Especially for such a short book. Also the resolution wasn't that clever but also I'm a person who has watched a zillion hour long mystery type shows. Did love Miss Marple's debut.

39. Boyfriend Material

By Alexis Hall (432 pp)

This is a new-to-me romance writer. I loved Glitterland and this one seems to be a fan favorite so I bought it for myself while doing book xmas shopping. It's fake relationship story with a scruffy guy who hasn't quite figured himself out and a put-together barrister. Fun, easy read for a lazy weekend.

38. The Haunting of Tram Car 015

By P. Djèlí Clark (144 pp, ebook)

Another book that I don't know how I got but fired it up for October. Set in a magical Egypt where a bureaucrat has to deal with possessed public transportation. Fun story. I plan to track down more from this author.

37. The Ruins

By Scott Smith (384 pp. ebook)

I read this years ago when it first came out and grabbed when it was on sale so I could read it again. I remembered it as a horror page-turner which is 100% correct. I didn't quite remember all the body horror - yikes. Another great October creeper. The movie is on HBO but I think I'm too much of a fraidy cat and we don't have enough pillows to hide behind.

36. Forest of the Damned

By Lee Mountford (284 pp ebook)

Another one of those: how did this get on my ereader books? Was it recommended? Was it on sale or freebie and looked interesting? Your guess is as good as mine. But it's October and I wanted horror so I fired it up. It's a creepy Blair Witch in the forest sort of thing o nly with lots of gross, disturbing imagery. Delivers the chills.

35. Puffs or: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic

By Matt Cox (132 pp)

This is a play that was recommended by me because I'm trying to adapt a story I wrote into a play and I have a lot to learn. It was helpful for learning and I would probably enjoy seeing it performed.

34. Normal People

By Sally Rooney (270 pp, ebook)

Look at me reading 6 books in one month -- even though one was a play and one was a novella -- still, I feel so accomplished.

I heard about this book because of the tv series and it looked like something I would like but I wanted to read the book first. Wow. At first I was a little put off by the writing style, I'm not sure how to describe it. Dry? Spare? But once I was drawn into the story, I didn't notice it. It's about two young people in Ireland, growing into adulthood and the strong, sometimes unhealthy, bond (obsession?) between them. The characters are so good, their pain and confusion about dealing with life feels real. They are terrible at a communication, however, and at times the dynamic of getting defensive and argumentative over a simple statement was aggravating. (But not unrealistic.)

33. A Psalm for the Wild Built

By Becky Chambers (ebook, 160 pp)

If a book was a hot bowl of soup and a buttered roll on a rainy evening -- this would be it. I have read three other Becky Chambers books that I enjoyed, particularly A Closed and Common Orbit. This one is set in a earth-like world where robots became self-aware and disappeared. Humans have a technolgy free, but peaceful existence. The story is about a person who finds themself unhappy with life and decides to become a tea monk which is like a wandering therapist who visits different villages and makes tea and listens. They head into the wilderness and it is the first meeting between robot and human in ages. They are both delighted. It's super cute.

32. House in the Cerulean Sea

By TJ Klune (ebook, 393 pp)

This came highly recommended and I loved it. It's a kind-of Harry Potter world where magical children are managed by the government in terrible orphanages. The story is about an uptight bureaucrat caseworker who is sent to an island orphanage to sort-out what's going on there. It's very sweet and funny. Perfect reading for a long air flight.

31. Daisy Jones & The Six

By Taylor Jenkins Reid (400 pp, ebook)

I have been wanting to check out this author and a book about a 70s rock band on the rise sounds like a perfect match. Unfortunately, it is told in the style of an oral history which is a format I am not a fan of. Parts of it I liked but at times it dragged for me and I had a really hard time connecting to the characters.