Best read of September-October 2023

I notice that we haven't had a best (or favourite) read thread since August 2023. As someone said in another thread, it's very quiet here in October!

I started re-reading some of the old (and cheap) paperback versions of classic books which I have on my bookshelf. In September I enjoyed The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, a book I hadn't read since I was a teenager fifty years ago. Rather prescient in many ways.

In October I enjoyed Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. Can't remember when I last read that, and I certainly couldn't remember the ending.

I've now started on The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad, and again I'm finding I only have the vaguest memories of it from whenever I read it before in the dim and distant past.

I was sure that the best book I read in Sept.-Oct. would be Haven. But I'm almost done with Demon Copperhead, and it will probably surpass it. A worthy winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Totally agree on Demon Copperhead. My best of year so far.

I have also been really enjoying these Greek mythology retellings. I have read The Song of Achilles, Circe and A Thousand Ships over the last few months. They were all very good, in that order.

>1 John5918:

Gosh, I haven't thought of Wyndham's books for decades either. Today I'd read those plants as stand-ins for zoonotic diseases like COVID or, more generally, as the environment fighting back.

I finally got around to reading Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles. It pairs well with Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls. I'm pleased that Homer can still be part of our culture.

I enjoyed Still Life by Sarah Winman and apologies as touchstones has picked up the wrong book of the same title.
A soldier meets an Art Historian in Italy during WW2 and is then involved in an incident which eventually results in his return to Italy and a very different life than the one he had expected. It is a sun kissed book full of loving relationships, beauty both natural and man made and my book group members and I loved it.

>5 Maura49: if the first title is not correct, you have the option to search for it by clicking (others)

Still Life is 6th on the list.

>6 2wonderY: Good tip. Thank You.

My best read for September was Lonesome Dove and for October it will probably be The Making of Marchioness and the re-read of The Fall of The House of Usher.

>1 John5918: Have read several Wyndham's, and while not my favorite genre, I did enjoy them, especially the triffids! Just read 20,000 Leagues for the First Time Last year and meh......glad I read it, though. Read several Conrad's (Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim), but don't believe I will attempt anymore.

>2 vwinsloe:
>3 shearon:

Demon Copperhead is in my TBR pile. I hope to get to it this year!!

>4 librorumamans: I loved The Song of Achilles as well as her Circe. Next up on deck in that genre is The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus by Atwood. Hope it is as good as the first two. Ditto re Homer.

>11 Tess_W:

A few years ago I saw a staged version of Atwood's book. It was a strong reading of the last part of the Odyssey.

>12 librorumamans: So cool!

For part of my local library challenge. I read the series of the Honeybee Sisters by Jennifer Beckstrand. Sweet as Honey, A Bee in Her Bonnet, and Like a Bee to Honey.

Ah, several. New for me was Leave the World Behind, The Nix and one re-read, Boy's Life. All quite good.