September was here and gone with more stealth than the LEGO bricks that appear under my feet as I run across the room in an attempt to shoo the retching cat so that he eructs his hairball onto the bare floor. Thankfully, the past month was less unpleasant than cleaning up cat sick from the rug and much less painful than stepping on educational building toys made exclusively of corners (although come to think of it, I did a little of each in the past thirty days). We picked apples, got our first colds of autumn, bought a new toilet, put up two birdbaths, and found a new logic curriculum.
The logic curriculum is a big hit, by the way. My only complaint is that I can no longer talk to anyone without silently noting to myself which logical fallacies my conversational companion is employing. My friend shares an anecdote and “tu quoque” whispers through my mind. As I mentally attempt to bat that one away, “ad hominem” alights on my shoulder. All the while I pray that my face is still fixed in an expression of active interest rather than in a vacant smile.
If I were still of an age and temperament to be interested in excessive alcohol consumption, I would put this new-found superpower to good use and turn the next presidential debate into a logical fallacy drinking game. Since I don’t feel much like having my stomach pumped, I’ll just have to content myself with being a surreptitious ass (albeit kind of a classy ass because I’m judging in Latin and Latin’s classy).
When I wasn’t silently judging the unsound arguments and false premises of my unsuspecting friends and acquaintances this September, I was reading. Here’s some of what I read:
Grown-ups’ Books:
Six of One by Rita Mae Brown (SBC September selection)
Searching for Meaning by James T. Webb
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (audiobook)
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (audiobook)
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante (Book 2 of the Neapolitan Novels)
Leaving Church by Barbara Brown Taylor
Kids’ Books:
Nim’s Island by Wendy Orr (audiobook)
Currently Reading:
- Coraline by Neil Gaiman (read-aloud re-read)
- A Failure of Nerve by Edwin H. Friedman
- Mr. g by Alan Lightman (audiobook)
- White Fang—The Call of the Wild and Other Stories by Jack London (audiobook)
- The Histories by Herodotus (for my Cavalcade of Classics, as a never-ending read-aloud with my daughter)
- The Last Days of Socrates by Plato (read-aloud with my daughter)
My To-Read List for October:
On the 22nd I’m participating in Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon! I plan to alter the fabric of space-time so that I can complete most of these during that 24-hour period. I’m not sure how I’ll do this, but I think it might involve nuclear fusion. Wish me luck!
- A Trumpet in the Wadi by Sami Michael (the October SBC selection—Read along with us at our Goodreads Group!)
- Winter Cottage by Carol Ryrie Brink
- Interfaith Leadership by Eboo Patel
- The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (for the public library book club I’m trying to start attending again)
- An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor
- In the Woods by Tana French
- The Likeness by Tana French
- Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
- The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
- We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
- She’s Not There by Jennifer Finney Boylan
- Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp
- Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
What have you enjoyed reading in the past month? What’s on your to-read list for October? In what ways do you silently judge the words of people with whom you’re speaking?
Imperfect Happiness 
3 Replies to “Bookends: September 2016”