Confession.  I don’t look forward to fall.

I don’t count down the arrival of the Pumpkin Spice Latte, I don’t walk into my closet and look longingly at my Ugg boots, I don’t wear leggings as pants, and I don’t love scarf shopping.

If it weren’t for football and pretty leaves, I’d really just prefer to have an eternal summer.

However.  If fall has to be a real thing, then I will make the best of it with SEC football, marching bands, and books.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of things I do like about fall- the sound of football announcers on the television, crisper air, the long shadows and golden light of the afternoons, the fall cocktail menu at Gray’s, open windows, and reading.  It’s hard to beat a good story on a crisp afternoon.

Well, unless you’re at Neyland Stadium.  You really can’t beat that.

One of the perks of being married to a football coach is that Saturday mornings are usually slow.  We sleep late, cook a big breakfast, and Coach settles in with football film while I settle in with a book.  It’s not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning.

And while I agree with Anne of Green Gables about being thankful for a world with Octobers, I really dream of a world with an eternal June.

It’s not fall that I hate as much as the impending doom of winter.  I’m a big fan of  cool temperatures, autumnal leaves,  football, pretty sweaters, and anything that has to do with a tailgate.

I just have a hard time finding any redeeming qualities of winter now that I’ve sworn off cheese.

Mostly.

I’ve sworn off cheese mostly.

Anyway, I won’t lie.  I do enjoy being able to stay in pajamas or fleece and spend the better part of a Saturday reading a book.  In a month it will be dark at 5:00.  That means we’ll eat dinner at 4:30 and have almost 5 hours to kill before bedtime, and 5 hours is just long enough for a good book.

Especially one that takes place in June.  On a beach.

Lately I’ve had publicists send me books to review, so I have a fun stack of books I know very little about.  I’ll tackle those today.

I’m working on a static page with an extensive list of books I’ve loved recently and books I have on my list.  There are almost 100, so I’ll probably just give you the link to Amazon and let you have a heyday with the stars and reviews.

Until then, enjoy these five reads.

The 2014 Momsense Fall Reading List

(Click on the titles to go to the Amazon page)

1.The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain

 I just started this one earlier today.  Everyone who has read it has gone on and on about how they couldn’t put it down.  That’s my kind of book.  Riley Macpherson has believed her sister committed suicide since she was five years old.  It isn’t until her father drops dead decades later that she finds out that may not be the case.  There are lies, suspenseful turns, and family drama.  It sounds like the perfect way to spend a Saturday when there is a nip in the air.  I’ll be doing a full review in a couple of weeks, but I’ll tell you that so far I’m loving it.

2.The House We Grew Up In: A Novel by Lisa Jewell

Jojo Moyes gives the first blurb for this book.  That right there is enough to get me to read it.  She says this book is “clever, intelligent, and believable on a subject few of us really understand.  Lorelei is one of the most vivid and complex characters I’ve read in years.”

Y’all it’s about a woman who used to be the perfect mom until something goes wrong and then she becomes a hoarder.  Coach will have convulsions as soon as he hears about this one.  If there is anything that scares him, it’s hoarding.  I can’t wait.

It’s a story of Lorelei Bird and her children.  She is a free-spirit and her children are beautiful.  One Easter afternoon tragedy befalls the family and their lives are never the same.  Years pass and the children become adults.  Lorelei has never moved on and has started hoarding in order to preserve memories, but she alienates her entire family in the process.  Another event calls the Birds back together again and they are all forced to face the past.

I KNOW.  I can’t wait.

3. Five Days Left by Julie Lawson Timmer

“Sometimes loving someone means holding on, and sometimes it means letting go…”

That’s the tagline of the book jacket.  Jodi Picoult says it’s a “beautifully drawn study of what is at risk when you lose control of your own life.  Unique, gripping, and viscerally moving–this impressive debut novel heralds the arrival of an extremely talented writer.”

So, as one who loses control of her own life on a fairly regular basis, I’m all for an extremely talented new writer to tell gripping stories.

There are two people with wildly different circumstances who are asked to go to the very end of themselves.  Each has a window of five days in which their lives will change forever.

I’m intrigued.

4. The Secrets of Midwives by Sally Hepworth

This one was on my doorstep today.  The stack is growing and I cannot wait.  Again, this is a novel that deals with family secrets.  It’s also generational, and I’m finding that I love to read how generations of women interact and change one another.  Liane Moriarty says this is “women’s fiction at its finest.”  I love Liane Moriarty.  If you haven’t read anything of hers, go do that.  Now is a good time because The Secrets of Midwives doesn’t come out until February. So, really this is a winter read.  I guess what I’m saying is that you need to put it on your list and grab it in February.

5. The Distance: A Thriller by Helen Giltrow

Again, I’m not usually a thriller fan, but lately I’ve enjoyed a few.  This is a SheReads Fall Fiction pick, so I’m sure it will be fantastic.  I’m not kidding.  I haven’t had a SheReads book yet that I’ve disliked.

The Distance: A Thriller is a “dark, ultra contemporary, and relentlessly paced thriller about a London society woman trying to put her secret criminal past behind her, and the hit man who comes to her with the impossible job she can’t refuse.”

I’m a sucker for a good hit man, and who doesn’t love a London socialite?  I’ve gotten so caught up in Blacklist, House of Cards, and Homeland that I don’t even know myself anymore.  I’ve also become a paranoid conspiracy theorist.  It happens.  So, I feel like this book will either be a guilty indulgence or a homecoming.

We’ll see.

So, I haven’t read any of these to date.  I’m just starting.  I have a list of well over 40 books that I want to read before Christmas.  If I’m lucky I’ll read ten.  I’ll keep you updated, but these will at least get you through the weekend.

Sometimes the best way to change your own story is to read someone else’s.

It’s a start!