What I’ve Been Reading: September 2025

Hello and happy Monday!

It’s hard to believe that there are only two days left of September, so I’m sharing the two books I read listened to in September. I guess the busyness of back to school really caught up with me in September, and most of our weekends had a lot going on too. Also, honestly, when I’m tired, I just want to watch mindless TV rather than read, I guess.

I enjoyed both audio books this month, and thank goodness I’ve gotten the hang of listening to books here and there.

This month I read:

{As always, book summaries are from Goodreads…}

Big Dumb Eyes

Summary:

Nate Bargatze used to be a genius. That is, until the summer after seventh grade when he slipped, fell off a cliff, hit his head on a rock, and “my brain got, like, dented or something.” Before this accident, he dreamed of being “an electric engineer, or a brain doctor, or maybe a math person who does like, math things for a living.” Afterwards, a voice in his head told him, “It’s okay. You’re dumb now. All you got is standup.”* But the “math things’ industry’s loss is our gain because Nate went on to become one of today’s top-grossing comedians who breaks both attendance and streaming records.

In his highly-anticipated first book, Nate talks about life as a non-genius. From stories about his first car (named Old Blue, a clunky Mazda with a tennis ball for a stick shift), life as a Southerner (Northerners constantly ask him things like, do you believe in dinosaurs?), and his first apartment where a rat chewed a hole right through the wall to how his wife keeps him in line and so much more. He also reflects on such topics as Vandy football and the origins of sushi (how can a Philadelphia roll be from old-time Japan?).

Quick Thoughts:

Nate Bargatze is so funny. To me, he’s the male version of Leanne Morgan who I also find hilarious. His stories of growing up in Old Hickory, Tennessee, his love for Vandy, his journey of making his way in comedy from Chicago to New York were also so endearing and funny.

I appreciated listening to this one since he’s the narrator. If you are familiar with him, or even if you aren’t, I think you’d like this one.

Rating:

The Stranger in the Lifeboat

Summary:

Adrift in a raft after a deadly ship explosion, ten people struggle for survival at sea. Three days pass. Short on water, food and hope, they spot a man floating in the waves. They pull him in. “Thank the Lord we found you,” a passenger says. “I am the Lord,” the man whispers. So begins Mitch Albom’s most beguiling novel yet.

Albom has written of heaven in the celebrated number one bestsellers “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” and “The First Phone Call from Heaven”. Now, for the first time in his fiction, he ponders what we would do if, after crying out for divine help, God actually appeared before us? A fast-paced, compelling novel that makes you ponder your deepest beliefs, “The Stranger in the Lifeboat suggests that answers to our prayers may be found where we least expect them.”

Quick Thoughts:

This book was really interesting. It actually wasn’t on my radar, but I was scrolling available options for audio books on the Libby app and this popped up. I appreciated the back and forth between what was going on with the characters in the lifeboat and the others who found the lifeboat and were investigating the situation. This made the plot move quickly. Mitch Albom was the narrator, and one of the first books I ever read and a young adult was his Tuesdays with Morrie that my dad gave me. The spiritual component of the stranger and how the plot unfolds was interesting as well.

Rating:

I’m hoping to get more reading in this month. I rarely buy books, but I picked up Elin Hilderbrand’s newest book that she wrote with her daughter. I’m liking it so far!

Have a great Monday.