October has officially come to an end, which means it’s time for a recap.

In my September reading recap, I wished for October to bring some balance to my reading. September was a feast of amazing new-release fiction, and every spare reading hour went into novels. So this month, I finally brought nonfiction back into the mix and found a healthier balance between the two.

That wish came true and more than I expected! Picking up nonfiction again balanced out the genres on my shelf. The month also balanced out my reading experience, though not quite in the way I’d pictured. Alongside the books that thrilled me, October handed me a DNF and a novel that didn’t suit my taste and earned one of my rare low ratings (personal taste, of course!). Plenty of readers clearly feel differently about that one. As I write this, it holds an impressive rating on Goodreads and sits on the shortlist for the 2026 Booker Prize.

Finding Balance Between Fiction and Nonfiction

After a long wait, one of my favorite nonfiction authors finally has a new book out. Adam Grant is the author of Think Again, the book I keep rereading whenever I need a reminder of how I want to live my life. This October, he released Vibe: The Secrets of Strong Connections in a Lonely World, and it talks about a struggle with myself that I believe a lot of people also could relate: how hard it can be to connect with people.

Plenty of authors have written about human connection before, yet Grant approaches the topic in his own way. His take is insightful and grounded in scientific research, which is exactly what I’ve come to expect from him. He also challenges a belief most of us accept without a second thought, the old saying that birds of a feather flock together. In Grant’s view, we don’t need to be alike to build a strong bond. As someone who finds connecting with people hard, I found that idea genuinely reassuring.

On the fiction side, two of today’s most celebrated novelists also returned with new books. Min Jin Lee, the author of Pachinko, came back with American Hagwon nearly a decade after her last novel. Barbara Kingsolver, whose Demon Copperhead won the Pulitzer Prize, followed with Partita, her first novel since then. Both lived up to the high expectations I brought to them. Even so, neither made it onto my list of top reads for the year, which says a lot about how high the bar has been set.

Balancing the Highs with a DNF and a Rare Low Rating

I honestly can’t remember the last time I DNF’d a book. I like to think of myself as a persistent reader. When a story confuses me, I do my best to work through it. Sometimes I read a few online reviews for clues, then return to the pages and keep going until the story clicks and I can see it from my own perspective.

Ply by Hernan Diaz broke that streak. It may well be the first book I’ve ever DNF’d even after turning to reviews for help. Set centuries in the future, the novel builds a speculative world I simply couldn’t find my footing in, no matter how many explanations I read. It stings a little to admit that, because I love its themes and truly want to understand them. Maybe the timing just wasn’t right. Ply is going back on my TBR, and future me will have to give it another try someday.

Then came John of John by Douglas Stuart, who already won the Booker Prize in 2020 with Shuggie Bain. This new novel is on the 2026 Booker Prize shortlist and holds a 4.24 average from 54,624 ratings on Goodreads. Impressive, right? Still, sadly, it didn’t suit my reading preferences.

It’s rare for me to rate a book below two stars, so let me explain why this one landed there. The idea behind the story is great, but the book keeps wandering into side threads and smaller storylines, and each detour pulls attention away from the part I cared about most. I also missed a sense of momentum. With no strong central conflict driving it forward, the chapters drift along without much direction. It felt like such a shame, because the premise had so much promise.

Judging by those numbers in Goodreads, I’m clearly in the minority here. The same book can land so differently from one reader to the next, and if you loved John of John, I’d honestly love to hear what clicked for you. The Booker winner will be announced on November 9, so we’ll soon find out whether the judges side with the majority.

Book Discussion with the Author (and the Helsinki Book Fair!)

If September earned its sparkle through amazing new releases, October earned its own through bookish events. I kicked off the month by attending a discussion of Mieko Kawakami’s Sisters in Yellow, and I couldn’t have asked for a lovelier way to open a new month of reading. It was my first time ever joining a book discussion with the author herself in the room, and I even came home with a signed copy!

The event took place at Akateeminen Kirjakauppa, which hosts book discussions with authors regularly. This one felt different, though. Kawakami had traveled all the way from Japan, and the bookstore was unusually crowded, far busier than I’d ever seen it for any other author.

As if that weren’t enough, October is one of the months I look forward to all year, because it’s Helsinki Book Fair time! This year brought a wonderful surprise. Édouard Louis, the French author of The End of Eddy and a writer whose books have given me so many lines I treasure, came to the fair alongside hundreds of other authors to talk about his work. Having him there made this year’s fair even more special.

---

Looking back, October gave me exactly the balance I wished for, plus a few surprises I never saw coming. There was nonfiction that hit close to home, two long-awaited novels from authors I admire, a DNF, a rare low rating, and two bookish events I’ll remember for a long time.

How was your October reading? Did you pick up any of these books, or did a novel everyone else adored fall flat for you too? Let me know in the comments!