I know it’s still hot outside, but September is always when something noticeably changes in the air (even if it’s not the temperature). School is already underway, and students are settling into their schedules. We are starting to make hopeful plans that may involve the outdoors as soon as the weather gets itself together. This is the beginning of peak cozy season.
This is also the season when the reading plans I made at the start of the year begin to derail a little/even more than they have already.
At this point, I have usually finished at least one reading challenge already, and I’m feeling smug about that. So the rest of them? Good luck to them. I will still try (ish) and probably finish at least one or two more, especially if I experience a hyperfocus period or two, but I stop making real promises to any of them in the fall. This month, I’ll probably read books planned for some of the prompts listed on previous TBRs. And the books I have listed below are likely to fit into at least one unfinished prompt, so that counts. But the intense drive I had months ago to pick the very best books that will fit each of the prompts? That’s pretty much gone at this point.
For fall, I tend to focus on themes.
In addition to my cozy and book club selections, this month’s theme is mystery. I’ve got a few series I’m working through or re-reading, so I’ll probably continue those, and I’ve listed a couple extra down below.
[Disclaimer – I am a Bookshop.org affiliate – I get a cut of the sales from most of the links below.]
Book Clubs
- Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
- The Tennis Partner by Abraham Verghese
- Song of the Hummingbird by Graciela Limón
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – or another YA?
- Heretical Fishing by Haylock Jobson
- Stitched by Eli McCann
Cozy/Library Returns
Part of my cozy curriculum this month is reducing the number of books I have checked out of the library. I will not tell you how many I have checked out. Suffice it to say that you would not be wrong to judge me for it, so go ahead. By the end of the month, I want to return at least half of them, which will result in a respectable number of checkouts
- Lights Out by Navessa Allen (ok, not cozy in the traditional sense, but a series I’ve been meaning to read for a while, so here it goes.)
- Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory
- Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit
- Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton – fulfills Reading Your Bookshelf’s September prompt, “animal on the cover”
- Three Bags Full by Leonie Swan – also fills the prompt listed above, just in case I don’t get to both of them
- Well Met by Jen DeLuca
- Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman
- The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
- Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Mystery Month
I’m planning to read the next book in the Three Pines, Thursday Murder Club, and some other series on my list. I’m also looking at tackling these in the upcoming weeks:
- The Singing Stones by Phyllis A. Whitney
- Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood
- Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin
- The Alphabet Sleuths by Laura Jensen Walker
This plan may seem ambitious, but there’s method to the madness. I did the math on my overall reading goal (i.e., 200 books total) for this year last night. To meet the goal by December 31, I need to finish a book a day, minus 26 days.
So…23-24 a month?
That’s fine. Everything’s fine. Totally doable.
I mean, if I don’t meet it, I don’t meet it. That is, in fact, fine. I also get more relaxed (some might call it “reasonable,” but that feels like negative energy to me) about my overall goal as the year progresses.
What are you reading these days?
M. Suzanne Terry 
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