A bumper crop of BOTM fall reads

 October is certainly starting to feel more like fall, with cooling temperatures, apple cider goodies everywhere and fresh new books to add on to those ever growing TBR piles.

I decided to get a Book of the Month Club this time around due to one of their main selections being a must-have for me. Min Jin Lee’s new novel, American Hagwon, is another multi generational epic story of hers that is sure to be one of the best books I’ve read this year.

We met the Koh family in 1992, having moved back to Seoul after living in Sydney, Australia for husband John’s work at a trading company. While wife Helen discovers that their finances are vastly different now, oldest son Bo finds himself struggling in school much to his surprise.

His siblings DH and Mido also have  similar challenges, leading Helen to enroll them in the title institute (a specialized after school program) and for awhile, improving their educational progress in more ways than one.

However, a scandal arising at John’s workplace causes another move for the family, which leads to a chain of events that upends all of their expectations. Some of those events are simply beyond their control (the Great Recession, for one) yet it’s what life still has to teach them all that truly counts.

Min Jin Lee is an amazing writer with subtle insights into emotions and the realities of the world at large in influencing her characters. I was fortunate enough to meet her in person once(for her first book, Free Food for Millionaires) and with every new novel, it’s like saying hi to an old friend over and over again:

While I do have some suitably scary stories for Halloween on hand, I did want to add a little something seasonal and went with a debut romcom called You’re The One That I Haunt by Katie Jung.

Libby is trying to be happy for her best friend Carter who’s getting married but she can’t shake the unrequited romantic feelings between them off. 

Not only are she and Carter long term pals, Libby knows about the curse of dark magic that has plagued his family for generations so when the ghost of Carter’s recently departed cousin Trip appears to her to enlist her help in breaking the curse, she’s not too surprised.

Said help includes making sure Carter gets married, a goal that she doesn’t really want to accomplish.

 However, as they get closer to the wedding, Libby finds herself questioning her relationship with Carter and becoming very attracted to Trip, despite the rather obvious obstacle in that romantic direction! Can she save both men in time or does she only have a ghost of a chance with one of them?

This just sounds charming (the title alone is adorable) and despite the sinister vibes of the season, a sweet and sassy supernaturally themed romance such as this would be a nice cup of apple cinnamon tea to sip and savor mentally:

To round my order out, I chose another debut novel; a historical fiction by Sharon Kurtzman entitled The Lost Baker of Vienna.

Zoe is a food writer, whose interest in the culinary arts came from her grandfather Aron, who spoke little about his past in Europe during WWII.

Upon his death in 2018, Zoe looks into Aron’s bygone years and discovers quite a bit about his sister Chana. In 1946, Chana and what remained of their family took refuge in Vienna, where she managed to get a job working in the kitchen of a hotel as a dishwasher.

Late at night, however, she sneaks back into the hotel to use their equipment to recreate her late father’s recipes. Chana is aided in this by an apprentice baker that shares her passion for cooking. While she does want to make a new life with her new companion, a black market dealer with a dangerously attractive flair offers her so much more but at what cost?

This fictional journey into the past that reflects upon the present is based on real life events within the author’s own family, a special ingredient that is sure to enrich the full emotional flavor of this literary cake indeed:

Well, I am glad to reap such a crop of great reads from BOTM once again, although I will have to take a break from them next month-between a fall sale at Better World Books and a hefty stack of library loans(more on all of that next time), I do have some serious buckling down to do on my in-house reading.

Not to mention tackling my dual reading for FrightFall, which is going very well(Carrie and The Weight of Blood go along well together like the ideal autumn lunch of soup and a sandwich). With all that’s going on these days, it feels like such a necessary respite from the world at large to have a good book to spend time with.

Of course, one does need a book break and that’s where early season rewatching of shows like Gilmore Girls comes in handy.

 Yes, we all debate over Rory’s boyfriends but Jess, despite his messiness, is still my favorite. He was the truly bookish one of them all and that  does count highly in his favor, if you ask me: