September Reads 2024
September Reads 2024: 8 Books I Read this Month
By: Brittany Shields
It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to read 8 books in a month! Though, a couple of these were ones I started a long time ago and just finally finished! That’s always a good feeling.
The bad feeling is that I still have over 20 books left to read for my Reading Challenge and only 3 months to do it. Plus other books I plan to read that don’t qualify for my challenge. I will need to come to grips with not reaching all my reading goals but I will achieve what I can and just carry it into 2025.
Sometimes we have to hold our goals loosely and just do our best!
One of these was a new releases and part of my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2024.
I also fulfilled 3 prompts for this year’s Shelf Reflection’s 2024 Reading Challenge.
Since we are freshly into October, my SPOTLIGHT OF THE MONTH must be Night Falls on Predicament Avenue which is the perfect spooky book for the month with a haunted house, two unsolved murders, a dual timeline, and a small Iowan town. Definitely check it out!
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1. Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up by Abigail Shrier
Genre: Non-fiction/ Parenting
[Fulfilled ‘Book without death or murder’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2024 Reading Challenge]
“We parents have become so frantic, hyper vigilant, and borderline obsessive about our kids’ mental health that we routinely allow all manner of mental health expert to evict us from the room.”
Abigail Shrier doesn’t shy away from controversial subjects. She took a lot of heat with her book Irreversible Damage and I’m sure this one has had a similar, polarized reception.
I read Irreversible Damage and thought it was a really good book and that there wasn’t a whole lot to disagree with. I think Bad Therapy differs in that the subject matter is less concrete. The situations and circumstances surrounding anxiety and depression in kids is more abstract and harder to pin down for obvious reasons.
I also think it’s going to be common for readers to forget that from the first, Shrier says that there are indeed kids with profound mental illness or disorders that need therapy. She is not trying to oust therapy from the world.
This book is framed for: “the worriers; the fearful; the lonely, lost, and sad.”
As with all controversial books, a short blurb doesn’t do it much justice. Read my full review to see my important disclaimer before reading the book, see the main points Shrier hits on including her list of ten ways to do ‘bad therapy’, read my own thoughts on therapy and the role of parents, hear what other reviewers are critiquing, and find out what I thought was the major missing piece of this book.
3. Golden Son (Red Rising #2) by Pierce Brown
Genre: Science Fiction
[Fulfilled ‘Book with an element in the title’ for Shelf Reflection’s 2024 Reading Challenge]
“For seven hundred years, my people have been enslaved without voice, without hope. Now I am their sword. And I do not forgive. I do not forget. So let him lead me onto his shuttle. Let him think he owns me. Let him welcome me into his house, so I might burn it down.”
“Home isn’t where you’re from, it’s where you find light when all grows dark. Find your home, Darrow, and you’ll never be lost again.”
The first book, Red Rising, ripped my heart out within the first 40 pages, Golden Son waited until the last two to do it.
This was a great second book in the series— I may have even liked it better than Red Rising because though there is violence, it feels slightly less depraved. I also liked the character development we see in Darrow as he struggles with the questions ‘Can people change? Can someone bad become good?’
His mission is greater than himself— to free a whole Society— and so he is constantly checking himself and evaluating if the means justify the end. His own revenge may need to take a backseat to what is best for all. And that just may mean forgiveness.
The writing and plot of this book is pretty intense. Lots of battles and war, friendship and betrayal, hard choices and bravery.
I can’t share too many plot details without spoiling the first book, so don’t read my full review unless you’ve read the first one or are prepared for spoilers. But if you do click to read more, you’ll find out more plot details, something I thought was cool, my content advisory, and my discussion on ‘people changing.’
4. Better: A Study of Hebrews by Jen Wilkin
Genre: Devotional
Jen Wilkin’s studies are always so good! She does a great job of walking you through the text and parsing out the meaning as intended for the first audience and then how it applies to us as readers far removed.
This study is a 10-week video-based Bible Study on the book of Hebrews.
This devotional is titled ‘Better’ because that is a common theme of Hebrews. It connects Old Testament passages regarding the old covenant and sacrificial system and how Jesus has come to make a better covenant, be a better priest. He is better than the angels, Abraham, and Moses. He is a better sacrifice and a better tabernacle.
Read my full review to see more of what’s in the study and my one regret in doing it.
5. The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave
Genre: Mystery
“If you are looking for answers you can’t find, you need to change the question.”
I really liked Laura Dave’s book, The Last Thing He Told Me! This book didn’t quite measure up to that one, though I think I liked this book’s ending better than The Last Thing He Told Me.
This one was marketed as an ‘epic love story wrapped in a mystery.’ The question posed in this book is similar to Dave’s first book: ‘how well can you know the people you love?’ The Last Thing He Told Me was about a husband/wife situation. The Night We Lost Him revolves around the relationship between a father and his children.
The word ‘epic’ can mean spectacular or it can refer to a long narrative centered around a ‘hero.’ This love story would more properly be categorized along the latter definition, though ‘hero’ would be quite a stretch.
This isn’t a must-read for me. If it weren’t for one saving grace, it would be a must-not read. But because of the one thing and that it wasn’t too bad reading it, I would say this fits more in the ‘maybe’ category of recommendations.
If you want to know the one saving grace and get more details on the must-not part, take a look at my full review!
6. Impossible Christianity: Why Following Jesus Does Not Mean You Have to Change the World, Be an Expert in Everything, Accept Spiritual Failure, and Feel Miserable Pretty Much All the Time by Kevin DeYoung
Genre: Christian Living
“This book is about how the line ‘how God loves us even though we are spiritual failures’, however well-intentioned is unbiblical, inaccurate, and unhelpful.”
“God does not mean for Christianity to be impossible.”
This little book is a great read!
Especially for those who feel like the subtitle suggests: guilty about how little they’re changing the world, how little they know, how much they mess up, how much money they have, and think they’re doing a terrible job at being a Christian.
It reminded me a lot of Jared Wilson’s book The Imperfect Disciple which is also very good.
I love Kevin DeYoung’s books because they are always easy to read, easy to understand, and really seem to ‘get’ where the average Christian is at in their walk with the Lord. There is nothing radical about this book that pushes you into further guilt; it’s about showing how Christianity is possible. We can get to heaven and hear the words ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’
He says about this book: “This book isn’t about getting to heaven. This book is about whether on our way to heaven we are doomed to a life of guilt, impossible standards, and failure.”
The Christian life is not a life meant to be spent in guilt. Jesus died for that.
Christianity is not impossible. Let Kevin DeYoung tell ya about it!
Read my full review to hear more of what DeYoung tackles in the book and see some of the parts that really resonated with me.
7. The Midnight Garden by Elaine Roth
Genre: Romance
“Tessa’s casual use of the word ‘we’ makes me wince. Her life is full of ‘we’… I didn’t realize the joy of ‘we’ until I became just me.”
The Midnight Garden is similar to The Lonely Hearts Book Club in that it’s about finding how to live life when grief has kept you still and isolated. But instead of a book club, this story is set in a small town like Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls with a Hallmark movie-esque plot and characters.
It’s: man returns from California to his small town to help with his family’s inn, falls in love with town’s young widow who hasn’t figured out how to deal with survivor’s guilt. Plus an old lady who has a magical garden and ‘commune with the dead.’
The ‘magic’ part of this book is what I didn’t care for. It was hard for me to pin down what message the author was actually trying to send as she herself is a young widow writing from her own experiences.
It’s not going to knock your socks off, but it’s a quick and enjoyable read. Read my full review to hear more about the magic aspect and see what parts I DID think were good.
8. Night Falls on Predicament Avenue by Jaime Jo Wright
Genre: Mystery/Christian Fiction
[Fulfilled ‘Book with a house with secrets’ for Shelf Reflection’s 2024 Reading Challenge]
[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2024]
“Norah was more certain than ever that this house was a tomb that sucked hope from the hearts of anyone who occupied it. It was as if the sun had gone down at 322 Predicament Avenue the night Naomi’s murdered body had been found, and it had never risen again.”
“The house at 322 Predicament Avenue held secrets, and they were screaming out to be revealed.”
Wow! This was a great read! It’s a spooky dual-timeline book about a haunted house— the place of the only two murders in the small Iowa town of Shepherd, one recent, one from 1901.
I admit, the cover of this one didn’t really draw me in, but this is definitely a book I would recommend.
I don’t love ‘supernatural’ books that can blame ‘spirits’ for weird happenings. Sometimes it works, but most of the time it doesn’t. Without giving too much away on this one, I will say I really liked how it all came to be revealed.
If you’re looking for a spooky read this fall, add this to your list!
Read my full review to get more plot details, read all the things I loved about it, see how the author likened haunting and grief, see what other books I’ve read recently that tie into this one, and see my two criticisms for it.
9. Enjoying Jesus by Tim Chester
Genre: Christian Living
“Take steps towards him in love and obedience, and he’ll make his home with you and transform your heart.”
When I saw the title for this book I was really excited to read it. Jesus has always been part of my life, which is a blessing, but it also comes with certain stagnant feelings at times. I wanted to rejuvenate my relationship with Christ in a way that influenced my day-to-day life.
In that way, I’m not entirely sure if this book accomplished that.
I still recommend it— I have no issue with anything he wrote in the book. I think many readers will find it really helpful.
There are 14 chapters each detailing a different attribute of God or gift he has given us and how we can enjoy it. His presence, his compassion, his shelter, his touch, his vitality, his glory, his voice, his connection, his anger, his intercession, his reign, and his wealth.
This book is essentially a reminder of all we have in Christ and that is a good thing to be reminded of.
But if you want to hear more about my experience in reading it and what I struggled with, but also some other things that still resonated with me, check out my full review.
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