October Reading: The Second Half (Classics, Wise Older Women, Spooky Stories)

 Somehow October has zipped by and here we are in a new month. Not much of this year left, but still plenty of reading to come! I posted my thoughts on the books I read in the first half of October here and now I have some thoughts on the books I've read since.

I read several collections of spooky short stories, all of which I enjoyed. 

Uncanny Stories by May Sinclair (read on the Serial Reader app)

Ghostly Tales: Volumes 1-5 by J. Sheridan le Fanu (e-books I own--these can be found on Project Gutenberg)

I'd read some of le Fanu before and liked his work. I want to read more of his novels as most of what I've read has been short stories or novellas. Most of these stories are set in Ireland. Sinclair is another author I'd like to read more of. I think this is the only work of hers I've read. These are all excellent collections of short stories with a supernatural element.

R.U.R. by Karel Capik (read on the Serial Reader app)

This play was mentioned in the book Goliath's Curse, which I read earlier in the month. I remembered it was on Serial Reader, so I read it in 6 installments there. RUR stands for Rossum's Universal Robots--a company that manufactures robots--this is the first use of the word, apparently. It's an excellent play and it's still so, so relevant as we start to live with the effects of AI--this play, written in 1920, was grappling with similar issues. Quite chilling. I recommend it.

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky (read on the Serial Reader app)

This is a strange book which took me a while to get into--reading it in installments helped, I think. It's narrated by a guy who clearly has mental health issues as he recounts some episodes in his life. He doesn't have friends or family, lives in squalor, and is an outcast in many ways. He's a very bitter person. This was a critique of various philosophical ideas popular at the time. I'm sure there are many layers that I simply didn't see. As a story, it's OK. I would have gotten more out of it if I had a background in some of the ideas the author was critiquing.

Trying to Consciously Swim in the Sea of Affirmation by Seosamh Mac Suibhne (owned book)

Last week, a friend of the person whose home we're currently inhabiting and who has since become our friend as well, messaged me and asked if he could come for a visit with a friend who wanted to meet us. They came and we had a nice conversation. When they were leaving, his friend gave us two books. One was a collaborative effort that he was a part of and includes various wisdom teachings from a variety of cultures in both English and Irish Gaelic. The other was this collection of his poetry.

The art on the front and back covers is his. They're mosaics he created. He explained the meaning behind them both. On the front cover, the mosaic shows the ship between the north star and the sun. No one on the ship thinks they will ever reach either of these, but they use them to navigate the waters of life. The ship stays afloat. On the back cover, the ship has nothing to navigate by and is sinking. The poems within the book are presented in English or an Irish English dialect on one page and in Irish Gaelic on the opposite page. They revolve around relationships, being a grandparent, nature, life. I have not yet read the other book he gave us.

I read a couple of soon-to-be-published books, both about older women and both great fun.

Golden Girls on the Run by Judy Leigh (read via NetGalley--to be published on December 6, 2025 by Boldwood Books)

The Hole in the Wall, a pub in Ballycotton, Co Clare, Ireland, is hosting a bake-off at Christmastime. Things go off the rails fairly quickly and sisters-in-law Sadie and Bronagh, both in their 80s, take off in a grandson's Ferrari--just like Thelma and Louise, says Bronagh. They head first for Dublin but soon decide to go to Devon to stay with a relative-by-marriage. Plot ensues from there. Along the way they meet interesting people, learn that, even at 80+, there's still room for self-discovery, new friends, and adventure.

This is a delightful, fun, feel-good read. It's an amusing book as well. Small details like a cat named Isaac Mewton or the description of a perfume smelling like a combination of rose petals, tarmac and chips gave me a chuckle, as did the sharp commentary from Sadie and Bronagh at times. The book is filled with quirky characters who were enjoyable to spend time with. A few times the dialogue felt a bit preachy and/or kind of stilted and slightly unnatural, but this really didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. It was simply a fun Christmas romp, complete with wonderful older women not playing into stereotypes, lovable oddballs, animals of various kinds, the warmth of the holiday season, and the festive cold of winter. If that's your kind of book, then this may just be a great read for you, too.

The Alphabet Sleuths by Laura Jensen-Walker (read via NetGalley--to be published on February 3, 2026 by Severn House)

The action starts early in this book with the following first sentence: "Claire Reynolds hadn't planned to kill a man that day, but stuff happens." Stuff does indeed continue to happen after that as the self-described Alphabet Girls, Atsuko, Barbara, Claire, and Daphne, become the Alphabet Sleuths. The women are residents of a retirement community in California and became close friends during the COVID pandemic. They're very different in temperament, life histories, and attitudes to aging and life, but they're a close and supportive group of friends. As the book opens, Claire is gardening and looks up to see Daphne, who is recovering from surgery on her arm, being strangled by a strange man. Claire rushes up to help her friend and inadvertently kills the guy. Plot ensues from there. I want to avoid spoilers so won't say much more about the plot here.

I really enjoyed this book a lot. The characters are fun to be with and their relationships with each other are lovely. They can each be exasperating in their own ways and are often funny. Some of the other characters in the book are quirky in the ways you'd expect in a cozy mystery and some were more sinister. The story kept me interested from that opening sentence through to the end. There are a couple of other mysteries that occur as the book goes on and it's unclear at first whether they're all related or not. All loose ends are tied up by the end of the book in a satisfying ending. If I had one quibble with the book it's a very minor one and that was what seemed like an overuse of the phrase "afternoon delight." This is a fun read that touches on some serious topics along the way, but with a light touch. Some of these involve the backstories of the characters, which are seamlessly inserted into the narrative. If you like cozy mysteries with older women protagonists and some humor, this may well be a book for you. It's a great read.

As always, publication dates and publishers may be different in your part of the world. I thank NetGalley, the publishers, and the authors for digital review copies of these fun books.

I didn't have any DNFs in the second half of the month. Yay! I do have books that I am reading more slowly than I'd like to because I have a small dog on my lap much of the time. The books I'm reading are chunky classics and even though they're paperbacks, they get heavy when holding them up for long periods of time. Fortunately, I can hold my phone and my e-reader in one hand so I can read e-books even with the dog on my lap. I am eager to get back to those chunky classics, though. I will try to be patient.

Here's to another month of great reading!

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