From the Archives: A Blogging Retrospective - September 2006

[Post idea stolen borrowed inspired by Kay of Kay's Reading Life's Bookish Nostalgia and Stacy of Stacy's Books' A Look Back features. Thank you, Ladies!]

September has long been my favorite month. With it comes my favorite season, the beginning signs of cooler weather, and my birthday. Ten years ago, if you would have told me  I would be shuttling my daughter to Girl Scouts, soccer and swim lessons, and helping with homework and making bead bracelets with five and six year old girls--heck, just being a mom--all the while juggling it with work, I would not have believed you. My life was much different back then. My ideas of what I wanted out of my life, not quite the same.

In September of 2006, I wrote a post about why I read.That is something that has not changed much, but rather expanded. Thanks to blogging and the books I have read. Thanks to life experiences. And most especially thanks to all of you. Reading is more than just a hobby for me. It truly is a passion. Experiencing, learning, growing, feeling, being inspired and entertained, experiencing beauty, and knowing truth, to feel hope again even in spite of the darkness, and yes, to escape . . . All of these are a part in my love for the written word. 

Looking back ten years ago in my reading, I was on a Keith Ablow binge. The series came recommended by a friend, and I had enjoyed the first book, Denial, which I had read in my pre-blogging days (2004). Forensic Psychiatrist Frank Clevenger is a bit of a mess, but he is very good at his job. I read and reviewed four of his books that September, including Projection, Compulsion, Pyschopath, and Murder Suicide, with mixed results. The series started out strong for me, and I especially liked Psychopath, which was written in third person, a switch for the author who had written the previous books in first person. It was both an extremely thrilling and disturbing book. The book that followed would be my last of Ablow's. It left me sorely disappointed.

Another book that left me feeling disappointed was Scenes From a Blanket by Ted Torres, which offers a glimpse into the nightlife of New Orleans, the magic, glamour, and temptation of drugs and sex. I had hoped for more. It certainly was original, just not to my tastes.

Unconfessed by Yvette Christiansë did not disappoint, however. It is a sad and thoughtful novel, that will not appeal to those who try to avoid books that bring out the heavier emotions. It is the story of a young black mother sent to a brutal island prison in South Africa during the time of apartheid. I still think on that book now and then, remembering Sila, and all she and her fellow prisoners had to endure. While fiction, their story was all too real for many.

Earlier in the month, I had read and enjoyed the fourth in the Monkeewrench mystery series by mother/daughter writing team P.J. Tracy, Snow Blind. After a slow start, it took off for me--and as always, I enjoyed spending time with Detectives Leo and Gino.

My favorite book of the month, however, was The Devil's Feather by Minette Walters. featuring a journalist trying to hide and heal in England after her captivity and investigation into the murder and rapes of several women in Sierra Leone. Walters captured the fear and anguish of her main character quite well. 

I found books I both loved and then those I didn't that September in 2006. In other news that month, my husband and I saw the movie Hollywoodland and I was adjusting to a new work schedule, switching from working a late shift to working the day shift. It was a relatively uneventful month otherwise.

• Has your reason for reading changed over the years?
• Have you read any of these books? What did you think?

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© 2016, Wendy Runyon of Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.