September was an interesting month, book wise. The coming of autumn, coupled with the writing projects I'm working on, inspired a not-so-brief spurt of interest in Urban and Contemporary Fantasy, plus I continued chipping away at my humongously large pile of non-fiction.

I didn't read any short fiction in September, which is a first, though I do keep up with several blogs. One of those blogs lead me to "The Coddling of the American Mind" by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, published in The Atlantic. It's well worth a read for anyone concerned about how fragile our young people have become. The authors went on to expand the idea into a book of the same title, which I'm looking forward to reading.

My non-fiction reading may seem sparse, as I only completed two books. Considering how dense they were, that shouldn't come as a surprise. Both were carryovers from August.

Emotional Agility by Susan David covers exactly what it sounds like: the ability or non-ability to remain emotionally agile to situations. I started reading this book for two reasons, first because the cover contains a quote by Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking, which is one of my favorite non-fiction books. I figured if Cain recommended it, then it must be pretty darn good.

Secondly, in the process of dealing with some emotional trauma, I discovered that I've become emotionally rigid and, in David's words, "hooked" on some negative emotions. Those emotions had me in a negative feedback loop that had spiraled me into a constant state of anxiety, fear, and depression. I can't live like that; no one can. Emotional Agility helped me recognize where I was going wrong and how I could reshape my emotional and mental habits to keep it from happening again. Of course, it's not an easy journey and not everyone will benefit from a simple reading (some people may need to seek professional help), but I found it interesting on a number of levels.

Plot Gardening by Chris Fox, the second non-fiction book I finished, is a deceptively simple read. On the surface, it reads like a how-to for beginning writers, but in reality, it's a useful little book for writers of all levels. Anyone who's interested in finishing their novel should read Plot Gardening.

Yes, I finally finished reading 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. It's really not a difficult read, though it is an odd one. If you're at all familiar with the movies, then the millennial edition is the one to go with as it contains a couple of interesting forewords explaining the development of the book and movie from Clarke's point of view.

I picked up 2001 as part of my efforts to read more classic Science Fiction, but also because I often have a difficult time with more modern writing styles, which depend entirely too much on shallow character and plot development and poor grammar. (Yes, I went there.) Clarke's style is relatively straight-forward, which made it a pleasure to read; I could turn off my internal editor long enough to actually enjoy the story. That's not always possible with more recently published books, so I appreciate the ease of reading when I find it.

Last year when I attended the RT Book Lover's Convention in Atlanta, I picked up a few books from authors I met or whose panels I attended. Some Girls Bite (Chicagoland Vampires, Book 1) by Chloe Neill was among that group. In it, Merit, a student working on a degree in Literature, is bitten by a vampire and taken into the fold of one of the more powerful vampire houses in Chicago. The vampires have just come out, and someone is trying to frame the various houses in an attempt to take control.

Some reviewers use the TSTL (too stupid to live) brand on Merit, but it wasn't an intolerable aspect for me. Neill is a good writer. The story flowed well and was fun to read, and that's exactly what I was looking for when I picked up Some Girls Bite.

Spider's Bite (Elemental Assassin, Book 1) by Jennifer Estep is another book I picked up during last year's convention. Estep is a native Southerner and, like Chloe Neill, a really nice person. She's also a good writer. Elemental Assassin is just one of the series she writes, so if you like it, be sure to check out the others.

I didn't like every aspect of Spider's Bite. It suffers from some of the same problems other Urban Fantasies have, such as the protagonist's innate arrogance, the improbability of every single characters' goals and motivations aligning perfectly with the story's narrative thrust, and the monologues. However, the story world is interesting, or I found it to be so anyway, and I particularly liked the way the magic was set up and handled.

I'm watching Bitten right now on Netflix (no binge watching; I'm in the middle of a writing challenge, which is eating up a great deal of my time), so when I went to the library the other day, I decided to pick up one of my favorites in the Otherworld Series by Kelley Armstrong, Dime Store Magic.

Paige Winterbourne is a young witch struggling to lead the American coven while holding down a full-time job and rearing the daughter of a witch gone bad. Armstrong is a fantastic writer and does a wonderful job developing each character along the journey. It's a fun read, if a bit depressing (these guys and gals just can't catch a break), and well worth the time investment, especially for fans of the TV series.

I started and put down a couple of other books during the month. Some I'll pick back up again; others are forever in the DNF pile, sadly enough. I've added a couple of author-oriented non-fiction books to my currently-reading pile and hope to start reading Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman soon.

Here are a few other books from my TBR pile that I'm looking forward to reading.