September was a busy month, but I still found time to read. I read nine books including one re-read. My favorite of the month was Penance by Kanae Minato. Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall was a close second.

Here’s the complete list of what finished this month with my 1-sentence summary of each.

1. Penance by Kanae Minato—Revenge is toxic and lasts a lifetime. 
2. She Was the Quiet One by Michele Campbell—Fancy boarding school kids are awful; toxic masculinity is part of fancy boarding schools. (Timely read? Yup.) 
3. The Humans by Matt Haig—If aliens send one of their own to impersonate a human, it’ll totally stress out the alien because humans are confusing and complicated and almost always illogical, but it’ll sure be funny. 
4. Choose Your Own Disaster by Dana Schwartz—Memoirs about 20-somethings are hard to read if you are not a 20-something; being 40-something is way better (and also a choose-your-own-adventure format doesn’t work well in electronic books). 
5. Stand Firm: Resisting the Self-Improvement Crazy by Svend Brinkmann—You don’t have to be better; just be. 
6. Educated by Tara Westover—If you thought your childhood was rough… 
7. Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher—It’s funny because it’s true: People in academia are all bonkers (self included). 
8. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis—Time traveling to the Middle Ages is very interesting until you get the plague. 
9. Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall—A man who wants to believe he deserves the affections of a woman will continue to believe in spite of all evidence to the contrary. 

Happy reading in October!