Best of the Bunch (October 2026)

Today I'm sharing the best book I read in October.

Of the 8 books I read this month, I didn't have any 5-star reads. I had one 4.5-star read, so that's my Best of the Bunch!

A Place for Us is a lovely family drama tinged with sadness. We know when the book opens that the bride's brother, Amar, has been estranged from the family, but not why. Mirza then attempts to answer that question by taking us back in time through the family's history, through the perspectives of Amar, his mother, and one of his sisters. Rather than giving us a straightforward chronology of events, though, we bounce back and forth to different points of time, and each incident becomes more nuanced as we look back to what came before and then see the same timeline from another character's point of view. The dynamics between the family members are so subtly real. What one character intends as extra care for Amar, who struggles with things his sisters never struggled with, appears to another character as unjust favoritism. What is intended to protect or correct or hold Amar to a high standard lands as a lack of love and understanding. The Muslim faith acts as a backdrop to the whole saga, affecting each character differently at different times, sometimes as an anchor, sometimes as a prison. While the book is maybe a little longer than it needs to be, I'm glad to have read it.

What is the best book you read this month? Let me know in comments, or write your own post and link up below!

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Akata Witch, Who Deserves Your Love, Dracula, and Code Name Kingfisher
Five years ago I was reading: Muse of Nightmares, Set Boundaries, Find Peace, Solutions and Other Problems, and Monsters and Mold
Ten years ago I was reading: Brideshead Revisited, Writing My Wrongs, and Adoption Parenting

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What I've Been Reading Lately (Quick Lit)

Today I'm linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy's Quick Lit to bring you some short and sweet reviews of what I've read in the past month. For longer reviews, you can always find me on Goodreads.

The past month has included purple (September) and brown (October) books. My reading time so far in October has mostly been spent on the 14-hour audiobook of Jayber Crow, and I'm now partway through the 16-hour A Place for Us, so not much brown yet!

Geekerella by Ashley Poston: Poston has created a fresh retelling of Cinderella that doesn't feel contrived, and I really appreciated that; I just wish there weren't so many details that didn't make sense or weren't explained.

The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock: This was sweet if not especially memorable. We rotate through the POVs of four teenagers who are (or become) connected to one another's lives over the course of a few months in 1970s Alaska. The number of coincidences stretched belief a bit far for me and I didn't find myself totally emotionally connected to the characters, but I enjoyed the story.

Multiamory: Essential Tools for Modern Relationships by Dedeker Winston, Jase Lindgren, and Emily Sotelo Matlack: This reread held up! I really like all of the Multiamory team's tools and think they do a great job providing a variety of practical examples to illustrate each one.

Disoriental by Négar Djavadi: The disordered plot of this book kept me engaged, and I appreciated all that it was doing, though ultimately I didn't find the central questions that drove the story to be worth the payoff.

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry: This book has quite a few things to recommend it, from beautiful writing to small-town characters who feel real. Unfortunately I got stuck on one of the central pieces of the book, which added a sour note to what was otherwise a lovely, quiet tale of a man's life. But I'd definitely be open to reading more of Berry's work.

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Stepping Off the Relationship Escalator, Who Deserves Your Love, Dracula, It Had to Be Him, and The Power of Moments
Five years ago I was reading: Girl Sex 101, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, Honey Girl, and Dragons and Marshmallows
Ten years ago I was reading: On the Road, A Little Life, La traduction est une histoire d'amour, and Adoption Parenting