September 2026 Books
I only read three books in September, but they were all great!
Writings from the "New Yorker", 1920s-70s by E.B. White (1989) 
My goal of reading everything E.B. White has written continued with this collection of his writings from The New Yorker. For most of his time with the magazine, he wrote "Notes and Comment," the opening piece that guided readers into the pages to come. He used it as an opportunity to make astute comments on the world around him. Sometimes they were serious if current events called for seriousness, but most of the time they were humorous and tongue-in-cheek.
White once wrote, "All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world." And that's the reason I love his writing so much, because you can tell in it that he did indeed love the world. He relished nature, which is apparent in his "interview with a sparrow" or his admiration of a tree that miraculously grew out of concrete.
He also loved people, even when he was jabbing at them a bit, poking fun. It always seems brotherly in his writing, like he's rolling his eyes but smiling affectionately at the same time, and never mean-spirited. In "Holiday Greetings," he wishes a merry Christmas to "the defeated, the forgotten, the inept; growers of gourds, shearers of sheep, and to makers of change in the lonely underground booths; old men asleep in libraries; young lovers who got nothing in the mail; people who plant trees in city streets; to people waiting for trains that will take them in the wrong direction, to people doing up a bundle and the string is too short, to children with sleds and no snow!"
That was E.B. White. With him, along with other writers like Joseph Mitchell and James Thurber, The New Yorker was a magazine that cared about the downtrodden and the painfully ordinary, never letting us forget that every New Yorker mattered.
The Matchmaker by Aisha Saeed (2025) 
This is an easy, light read, probably best suited for the beach, but I had a lot of fun reading it! I saw the killer coming from a mile away, so if that kind of thing bothers you, then you might not enjoy it so much. I really don't mind, though. I don't need a big twist to enjoy a story, and the details captured my attention enough without worrying about the fact that I already pretty much knew how it was going to end.
The book follows Nura Khan, a professional matchmaker with her own company in Atlanta. She's garnered a reputation as the go-to matchmaker, but lately someone has been trying to sabotage her business, and it escalates to the point where it's clear they want her gone. Alongside this is a bit of a romance with her friend Azar, who's playing the role of her plus-one at her clients' weddings, since she always sees the relationships through and attends their nuptials.
Kind of a weird premise, and I'm not sure the romance subplot worked for me overall, but it was a lot of fun. Definitely a popcorn read that I pretty much flew through, and I felt happy after putting it down, kind of like I feel after watching a comfort movie. I need books like this sometimes, and it was refreshing to get one with a different perspective.
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson (2023)
I loved this book. Another murder mystery, but I managed to solve nothing and was blown away by the big reveal scene at the end. It doesn't matter, though, because I enjoyed every single word of the entire book. Stevenson is a hilarious and adept writer, and I can't wait to read the next in this series.
This book takes place at a winter resort in Australia, where the Cunningham family has gathered for a reunion of sorts. Ernest Cunningham narrates, and his brother Michael has just been released from prison for a crime that Ernest helped convict him of. See, the Cunningham family is complicated, and they're known more for the crimes they've committed than anything they've managed to do right.
Because they can't go anywhere without something bad happening, there's a murder at the resort in the middle of a debilitating snowstorm. And what ensues is a witty whodunit as Ernest tries to piece together what's going on and what exactly happened in his family's past. It becomes a surprisingly heartwarming story with a colorful cast of characters and a lot of unexpected turns.
One thing that makes this book great is how it's framed. Ernest writes books about how to write mystery novels, so he does a kind of meta-commentary alongside the events of the book, trying to stick to the "rules" of a good mystery even though he's in the middle of one. It's clever and funny, and it gave the story an interesting extra layer. Just good fun all around.