I am a *HUGE* fan of Noah Hawley's brilliantly written FX series "Fargo," so my expectations for "Before the Fall" were admittedly sky high. Three-quarters of the novel is a smart, wry literary thriller with a hell of a hook. Except Hawley cheats a bit and doesn't give you enough pieces to solve the puzzle until the end (and it's irrelevant), and the denouement comes fast and sudden and unsatisfying. I think I'll stick with "Fargo."

Settling into an afternoon on the porch with an old friend to welcome fall with a creepy classic.

I saw the movie last week to review for work - it's gorgeous, creepy, and a visual return to form for Tim Burton, though the narrative is weighed down with exposition and Jacob is flat and uninteresting. The whole time I thought, "Wow, I bet this made for a good book." I hope I'm right! *begins reading furiously*

It's unfortunate for this book that it came out in the same breath as Underground Railroad and Homegoing - it suffers all the more for the comparisons. Ben Winters imagines a present-day America in an alternate history, where slavery was allowed to persist. This should lead to big philosophical and political questions about our country, but instead Winters writes this as a thriller. Not bad, but too big for its britches, methinks.

A portrait of my literary pup Brontë shines down on my rainbow. #bookrainbow #rainbowbooks #somethingforsept

I'm not typically big on #historicalfiction, but I couldn't turn the pages fast enough in this rip-roaring account of the race for the first woman to cross the Atlantic by plane in the 1920s. Bravery, daring, fame, glory - and also terror, dedication and sacrifice, woven into a page-turner of a death-defying race. If never heard of these women before reading this book, but now I'm unlikely to ever forget them.

#weirdbooks? Well I'm a weird weirdo, so I've got that on lock. #somethingforsept

That's totally a drawing of a woman having an orgasm on the cover of a romance about boning an angel, right? (I am embarrassed by how much I liked this book.) #uglybookcovers #uglycovers #somethingforsept

I know I'm far from alone in this. I don't think I've ever ugly-sobbed harder at an ending. That one box of tissues might not be enough. #mademecry #somethingforsept

What a gorgeous, thrilling, and mysterious adventure! This epistolic stunner set in the 19th century pits an explorer against the uncharted wilds of Alaska while his wife, left behind at the barracks, goes on an internal journey of her own. Such bright writing!

"We were made, once. My twin, Pearl and me."

"We were made, once. My twin, Pearl and me."

#septphotochallenge #favereadsofaugust What a great month! Now, how to top it?

A new month, a new book. September's first read.

Not many things make me see God. George Saunders' prose did. What an achingly beautiful story about life, death, the spaces in between, and our unshakeable interconnectedness. I have rarely been so moved than by spending an evening in the graveyard with Abraham Lincoln, his dead son, and the lost spirits who just can't say goodbye to all this beauty and pain.

"Lincoln in the Bardo," wrecking my shit with mad truths.

St. Jude presiding over #whitespines #augustphotochallenge

Such a woozy, word-drunk and sun-bleached summer read about two girls in the orbit of a Charles Manson-like cult figure. One of THE books of the summer, and a haunting one.

Such a woozy, word-drunk and sun-bleached summer read about two girls in the orbit of a Charles Manson-like cult figure. One of THE books of the summer, and a haunting one.

Did you love the Netflix series "Stranger Things"? Did it leave you needing more clever genre storytelling and an 80s pop culture fix? Then you need to read "My Best Friend's Exorcism" immediately, the story of one girl's terror and heroism in the face of her longtime best friend's sudden demonic possession. It's all an obvious metaphor for the ravages of adolescence, but also an effective horror novel. Big fun!

*Hyperventilates*

"But she remembers when the word "friend" could draw blood."

When you're supposed to go to a Guns N Roses concert but the new Michael Chabon shows up on your doorstep three months early. #decisions

When you're supposed to go to a Guns N Roses concert but the new Michael Chabon shows up on your doorstep three months early. #decisions

"Thanks for everything, Pennsylvania, but fuck you eternally."

A brilliantly constructed and emotionally devastating story that traces two branches of a family tree to tell the story of the African slave trade, from the perspective of those who did the selling and of those who were sold. Believe the hype. Yaa Gyasi is a terrifying talent.

A bone-chilling Alaskan adventure, read poolside.

Guffawing with Lindy West over wine, like old friends who say "fuck" a lot.