September 2026 Reading

September is over, already?  (Somebody wake up Billy Joe Armstrong…)  I read nine books over the month.

Six of those books were Agatha Christie audiobooks.  To be specific, I listened to Nemesis, By the Pricking of my Thumbs, And Then There Were None, Towards Zero, Ordeal by Innocence, and The ABC Murders.  Of those, a surprising proportion had sleuths other than Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, although the latter does turn up in the mind of the investigator in one of them.  I have to say that I really like the non-standard investigators, possibly because Christie was not compelled to do the usual schtick with her detectives.  For most of them, because they are re-reads, I remembered who the perp was, but I love seeing how she constructs her plots.  Another shout out to Hugh Fraser, my favorite reader of her work.  And, of course, one for Libby and the public library.

 

I also listened to Terry Pratchett’s Sourcery.  I love Terry Pratchett.  His satire bites even as he continues to look with sympathy on the world at large.  This particular one involves characters stealing horses from the horsemen of the apocalypse, so what’s not to like?

 

Fall means that my various book-involving activities resume.  As a result, I read White Awake by Daniel Hill.  If all goes well, I’ll be reading it again next year with a group.  The subtitle of the book is “An honest look at what it means to be white.”  We white folks don’t understand that we have a culture because we’re good little fishes swimming in it.  We need to learn to recognize it, with all its peculiarities.  This particular book guides us through what it means to be white in the context of Christian faith and talks about how we might come to grips with the wrongs our culture has perpetrated so as to bring us into better relationship with God and each other.  It’s a useful book.

 

My book group is reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.  It begins with a suicide attempt, so that might have folks tune out right away.  That said, it’s ultimately a life-affirming book that asks some deep questions about the choices we make.  And it’s beautifully written.

 

September total:  9

Fall total to date:  9

2026 to date:  91