October was a fun month of reading—full of variety and great books. Each book was such a different reading experience: domestic mystery/thriller, literary fiction in translation, contemporary fiction, and a memoir. I even added a new country to my literary travels around the world which was truly satisfying as the year is soon coming to an end and I still have a few regions to visit (current progress).

What have you been reading lately?

Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham (2025)
Narrated by Helen Laser & Karissa Vacker

This was a quiet, slow-burn mystery/thriller about a woman who took a summer job at a vineyard in coastal South Carolina to escape staying with her estranged mother and to try to finally move on from her traumatic past. Soon after arriving, however, she finds an old diary written by one of the vineyard’s owners and becomes obsessed with it as she begins to realize it’s linked to her sister’s disappearance over 20 years ago. I really enjoyed the simmering tension with its twists and turns. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Read My Own Shelf: BOTM

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (2009)
Translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (2019)

This was an unusual murder mystery that sparked very mixed feelings in my book club. The story centers around Janina, an eccentric older woman in a remote Polish village near the Czech border. She’s into astrology, translates William Blake poetry, and cares deeply about animals. When a neighbor is found dead—and more bodies turn up under mysterious circumstances—Janina throws herself into the investigation convinced that the animals, in particular the deer, are taking revenge on the humans who harm them. I liked Janina’s quirkiness, though her astrology was a foreign language for me, and appreciated the setting which was a new experience for me.  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Read Around the World: Eastern Europe & Russia (Poland)

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood (2018)

This was a heartwarming story about the unlikely friendships between Harriet, a retired English teacher who leads a book club for incarcerated women; Violet, a member of the book club recently released after serving time for killing a woman in a drunk-driving accident; and Frank, the grieving husband struggling to come to terms with his wife’s death. I loved the story of second chances and forgiveness—and the parrots were an unexpected delight. ⭐️⭐⭐️⭐

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro (2019)
Narrated by Dani Shapiro

When I first read that this memoir was about a DNA test that would reveal that the author’s beloved father was actually not her biological father, I assumed the story would focus on her search for her biological father. And partly it was, but that wasn’t actually the heart of the story – and that’s what I liked about it. It became an investigation and mystery about how much her Jewish parents, now both gone, knew and understood about the fertility treatments they pursued in the 1960s. And then it was a thoughtful reflection about what truly makes us who we are. It definitely exceeded my expectations. ⭐️⭐⭐️⭐

What have you been reading lately?

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