This writer did something pretty smart and curated 28 "best books of the fall" lists and broke them down into which books were named on the most lists.
There were 466 books, with 95 books included on three or more. The most-often named book appeared on 15 of the lists and can be found here.
Many things I enjoy as an adult, I didn't pay attention to as a kid, like: sunsets, landscapes, good food and string bikinis. But one thing I remember always intriguing me from youth to now was butterflies.
We chased them with little nets, put them in jars or coffee cans. Watched caterpillars turn into butterflies. Studied them in grade school classrooms. I still have an affinity for them. I'm not an expert by any means, but as a gardener I know they are good. So I've done what I can to attract them to my little plot in the West River countryside - particularly monarchs.From the maps I've seen we are on the outer western edge of their migration pattern. Much like our airport, we're not O'Hare, we're Rapid City Regional. Occasionally see one, but I haven't for several years.
I try to plant native flowers and have even gone so far as to actually plant milkweeds, the bane of my existence as a youth when myself and friends would walk soybean field after soybean field chopping down those dastardly weeds. Now Roundup does that work. It's done the job too well and milkweeds, which monarchs love, are not as plentiful.
But lo and behold, last week my granddaughter and I spotted a monarch butterfly flitting around my garden. I was a little embarrassed at how excited I was to see one. Then I started checking out my milkweeds a little closer and there were the striped little caterpillars I'd been trying to cultivate for years.
They've arrived, finally, and I hope they know they have a place to call home and will return. I've chopped my last milkweed and will keep the birdbath full of fresh water.
A joyful moment for sure that is much appreciated these days.
TIME magazine has an article detailing 24 books you'll want to add to your fall reading list. It might better be called "24 books you don't want to add to your fall reading list", but that's just me judging a book by its cover. It's mostly chick-lit and some niche stuff.
The yawn-inducing list includes Patti Smith's FOURTH autobiography. Maybe she's just living a lot longer than she thought, but I'm thinking by the fourth autobiography you're starting to get into "and for lunch I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich" territory. You need to really be somebody, or apparently really think you are, to write four books about your life.
She's a 78-year-old former punk rocker from the seventies whose biggest hit, I use the term loosely, reached number 13. If she can do four autobiographies, then Carl Douglas is certainly worth five. Who is Carl, you ask? Only the Jamaican writer and performer of one of the best-selling songs of all time - Kung Fu Fighting in 1974.
The only book on the list that really caught my eye was by Salmon Rushdie, a collection of five stories - three novellas and two shorter tales. But I probably wouldn't get to it until the fall of 2065, good Lord willing.
The Gemini book looks interesting if you're into space travel and such. I'm not.
TIME snobs snub their noses at mystery and crime writers with books coming out this Fall, like: Dan Brown, John Grisham, Walter Mosley, David Baldacci, Janet Evanovich, James Patterson, C.J. Box, Don Winslow and my latest obsession, Ian Rankin.
With all those possibilities I think I'll just wait for Patti Smith's fifth autobiography. I hear hip replacements are exciting reads.
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