Last Monday I blogged (Some Great September Reads) about five of the nine books I read in September. Today I’ll tell you about the other four books I read.

The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel. I chose it to fulfill an item on my 2017 Reading Challenge – a book set in Australia in the 1920s. It was published in 2012, so I’m a little slow getting around to it.

The Light Between Oceans is a story about good people making bad decisions for all the right reasons. Tom and Isabel Sherbourne live alone on a remote Australian island where Tom is the lighthouse keeper. Their world is turned upside down the day a boat washes up on the shore. In the boat are a man’s body and a wee baby.

Isabel has been unable to carry a baby to full-term, and her multiple miscarriages have taken an emotional toll on her and on tom. Do they keep the baby and claim it is their own, or do they report the incident and risk having to return the baby girl to her biological mother?

The Gifts of Imperfection, by Dr. Brené Brown

My niece recently introduced me to the writings of Dr. Brené Brown. In September I read her book, The Gifts of Imperfection. Dr. Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston. She has studied courage, vulnerability, empathy, and shame for 16 years.

I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Brown speak in Charlotte on September 14, thanks to my niece. It was a wonderful evening. Dr. Brown “tells it like it is,” as the saying goes.

Here’s a quote from the book I read:

“The greatest challenge for most of us is believing that we are worthy now, right this minute. Worthiness doesn’t have prerequisites.” – Dr. Brené Brown in The Gifts of Imperfection

I look forward to reading other books by Dr. Brown.

The Saboteur, by Andrew Gross

I rarely listen to a book on CD but, as I mentioned in my blog last week, I listened to The Saboteur, by Andrew Gross. It is a thriller based on a true story about a mission by The Allies in 1943 to destroy a “heavy water” laboratory the Germans had built in Norway. “Heavy water” is another name for a hydrogen isotope called deuterium oxide. Germany needed to produce just a small additional amount of heavy water in order to have enough to make an atomic bomb.

The Allies and the Germans were both trying to create an atomic bomb. If this German plant in Norway was not destroyed, the Germans could have developed the atomic bomb first and won World War II. To say that would have changed the course of history would be a vast understatement.

The descriptions of the training and experiences this team of Allies had – which included traversing on skis and surviving in dangerously cold conditions – reminded me of a 91-year-old friend of mine. He served in the United States Army, 10^th Mountain Division in Europe in World War II.

The Saboteur is the second of Andrew Gross’s historical thrillers I’ve read. Having read The One Man, I expected to enjoy The Saboteur. I was not disappointed.

Gone Without a Trace, by Mary Torjussen

Gone Without a Trace is Mary Torjusussen’s debut novel. From the blurb on the back of the book, I thought I knew what I was getting into by checking it out from the public library; however, this book was full of surprises.

This is a psychological thriller that turned out to be about domestic abuse, but it takes an unexpected slant on the subject. Is one of the main characters suffering from mental illness or is someone trying to make her think she or he is? I’ll just leave it at that. If you like psychological thrillers, I think you’ll like this one.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read. I’m still reading Love and Other Consolation Prizes, by Jamie Ford and listening to A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles on CD.­­­­­­­

If you’re a writer, I hope you have productive writing time.

Janet