{"id":3865,"date":"2026-10-23T10:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T17:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mynerdyfriend.com\/?p=3865"},"modified":"2026-10-23T10:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T17:36:12","slug":"sept-is-a-strange-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mynerdyfriend.com\/?p=3865","title":{"rendered":"Sept is a Strange Month"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Some weird books this month. It may be time to reset with some basic murder mysteries! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demon Copperhead<\/strong>, by Barbara Kingsolver. Inspired by (you guessed it) David Copperfield, this book gives a pretty bleak look into the life of a young boy raised in a poor family with no father and a mother with an addiction problem. Circumstances lead him to be shuffled through foster families, most of whom take in children for the monthly stipend or the child labour. He manages to stay away from the drug scene until he meets and falls in love with a girl, leading to a series of unfortunate events that reminded me of those involving Jesse’s girlfriend in Breaking Bad. The good news is that the book finds a way to end on a hopeful note. For that, 8\/10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ending Writes Itself<\/strong>, by Evelyn Clarke. A famous serial-writing author dies before he finishes the ending to both his latest book and his popular series. So what’s a poor publisher to do but invite six struggling authors to a secluded island for a weekend to compete for the best conclusion, with a lucrative reward for the winner. Several questions come to mind immediately: 1) if you want to finish a hugely popular series and book, why invite mediocre authors to write it (answer: they are less likely to spill the beans); 2) these mediocre authors are going to read the current half finished book AND write an ending in a weekend? (answer: there is no answer); 3) why did none of these authors think that a weekend was an insanely short time to accomplish this task? (answer: they are mediocre authors). However, none of it really matters because a murderous serial killer turns out to be amongst them and their new job becomes finding out who it is before they are next to be murdered. It’s a fun, if slightly absurd, book. 7\/10. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting<\/strong>, by Clare Pooley. A feel-good read about a community that forms between an likely group of people who’s only thing in common is the commuter train they all share. Iona is the force that brings them together as she helps them solve their dating\/relationship\/employment\/self-confidence problems. And don’t worry, Iona’s new friends will find a way to help her as well. This book is like a big warm hug. 8\/10. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bunny<\/strong>, by Mona Awad. Weird. So weird. I was about 30% done when I sent a text to my friend that ready “I still can’t tell you what it’s about”. I could have written the same message at 80% done. I can’t really tell you what I eventually figured out without ruining some excellent surprises, but I can tell you that I was surprised to find that I liked it! If you are thinking about reading this book because you’ve heard it’s weird and you want to know more, then I recommend it. If you are thinking about reading it because it’s buzzy and you assume therefore that it’s something you should read, I would perhaps rethink your choice. 8\/10 if you’re in group 1, no rating if you’re in group 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time<\/strong>, by Mark Haddon. An autistic boy decides he wants to solve the murder of his neighbour’s pet dog. It starts out pretty good, with some interesting insights into the mind of someone with autism written by someone with autism. Overall I found it very engaging. Until the ending, which I found kind of ridiculous. And unsatisfying. And disappointing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from reading, September is a month of birds for me, so I’ll just leave you with these to enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some weird books this month. It may be time to reset with some basic murder mysteries! Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver. Inspired by (you guessed it) David Copperfield, this book gives a pretty bleak look into the life of a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8xTNS-10l","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mynerdyfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mynerdyfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mynerdyfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynerdyfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynerdyfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3865"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynerdyfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3882,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynerdyfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865\/revisions\/3882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mynerdyfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynerdyfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynerdyfriend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}