September Reads

It was all about the literary equivalent of a warm blanket and a mug of hot chocolate in September: comforting, soothing, unchallenging books to get me through the first month back at school. For me, that means either crime or YA fiction. The problem with reading lots of similar books, though, is that I now feel a bit under-nourished. I think I'll need to turn to some classic fiction or a political tome to improve my literary diet in October.

1. A Level student Isabel is queen bee of her school and leader of a coterie of equally bitchy girls. Of course, Isabel has hidden depths and it takes meeting enigmatic student, Smith, to uncover them. I didn't find Let's Get Lost wholly believable, mainly because both Isabel and Smith constantly act in utterly contrary and nonsensical ways. But there's always something to enjoy in Sarra Manning's YA novels and Let's Get Lost was no exception. Despite not being one of her best, it's still a book I'll keep hold of for rainy afternoon re-reads.

2. Ezra is the golden boy of his high school: prom king, tennis captain and boyfriend of the prettiest girl in school. When everything is knee - and therefore his sporting prowess - is shattered in a car accident, he starts to reexamine his life and his priorities: maybe he'd have more fun joining the debate team and hanging out with mysterious new girl Cassidy? I found Severed Heads, Broken Hearts slow going to begin with, but the second half picked up the pace and I found myself really falling for Ezra, his best friend Toby and their little gang of misfits. There are some cracking one-liners, too. It was just a shame that Cassidy is nothing more than the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope writ large, sent to give Ezra a shove in the right direction and then break his heart. The book would have been much more interesting if Schneider had gone for a dual narrative, giving Cassidy a voice of her own.

3. Perhaps because I read this hot on the heels of Let's Get Lost, which covers similar themes of 'Mean Girls' and family bereavement, but I didn't totally fall for Paper Aeroplanes. Despite being set in the mid-90s, there were some jarring moments that didn't ring true of that setting (I realise in retrospect that I really should have made a note of what they were, shouldn't I?! Trust me, they were there!). Nevertheless, I liked the way in which O'Porter precisely evoked the passion and excitement of teen female friendships, and I will keep a look out for the follow-up, Goose.

4. The Silkworm is the second outing for J.K. Rowling's private detective, Cormoran Strike. I liked the literary London setting of the murder mystery, but in common with the later Potter books it's over-long. There was so much here that was incidental to the narrative and it could have done with a good pruning by an editor. And why on earth does every literary detective have to be burdened with loneliness, alcoholism and a tragic past?

5. Sophie Hannah's crime novels become increasingly ludicrous and intricately plotted as time goes on, but they're still incredibly readable and The Telling Error was no exception. If you can suspend your disbelief and cope with the generally horrible characters, it moves at a cracking pace and keeps the tension going until the very last pages.

6. After a stressful few days during the Scottish Referendum (The Boy is Glasgwegian and spent the two weeks surrounding the Indyref up there campaiging), I turned to literature to salve my spirit. Unfortunately, I failed to choose wisely: Saints Of The Shadow Bible, the most recent Rebus novel, turned out to be set in the run-up to the referendum, with frequent references being made to Scottish politics. It's a classic Rebus mystery: gloomy Edinburgh setting, late-night drinking for our leading man, a mysterious car crash to investigate.

7. Harbour Street wasn't one of Ann Cleeve's best. When a body is discovered on a packed tram just before Christmas, police inspector Vera Stanhope and her sidekick Joe turn to Harbour Street, in a small fishing village on the coast near Newcastle, to answer the question of why anyone would want to kill the widely liked but secretive elderly woman. The book didn't always hold my attention, and I'm starting to find the character of Vera - who is, oh what a surprise, alcoholic, overweight and lonely - a bit repetitive.

8. The man behind legendary Twitter account My Sad Cat has written a number of books about his pets, with Under The Paw being the first. It's a very quick read, entirely unchallenging, and very funny in parts. If you like cats, it's pretty much guaranteed that you'll enjoy his writing. Still, when the only non-fiction I've managed all month is a book about cats, I need to have a word with myself and pull my reading socks up.

Re-reads

9. & 10. If teen and crime fiction are soothing reads, re-reads are even more comforting and easy. I enjoyed Let It Snow just as much the second time around, although it wasn't all that seasonally appropriate. And Attachments was also just as much fun as a re-read as it was the first time I read it.