I’m sharing a roundup of my October book picks – two novels by BIPOC women, one a YA novel and the other the second book in a series, and one personal development book that might just spark your interest too (pun intended).

#1 Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

McMillain press describes the book as “Gossip Girl meets Get Out in Ace of Spades, a YA contemporary thriller”

Devon & Chiamaka are two Black students attending a private school with an interesting legacy.

Chiamaka is ambitious and has plotted her way to success in senior year with hopes of getting into Yale. Devon is a loner whose love for music and the possibility of applying to Julliard is keeping him at the school. Both have dreams that someone is trying to crush.

Their final year is interrupted when they encounter anonymous bully who seems relentless about ruining their lives. Will they find out who and will they survive to make those dreams come true?

#2 The Secret Keeper Of Jaipur – Alka Joshi

I enjoyed The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi so much that I bought her second book, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur.

First, the book cover, though! Love it! The story picks up 12 years later, Lakshmi and Dr. Jay Kumar are happily running the community clinic in Shimla. Malik, now 20 with private school education lots of potential to do great things. But, he soon falls in love Nimmi, a young tribal woman who is a widow with two young children.

Lakshmi sends Malik to Jaipur to apprentice in accounting and construction at the Jaipur Palace just as the palace is about to open a grand, state-of-the-art movie theatre to rival the ones in America. At the open, something goes terribly wrong, and people die. Malik senses something doesn’t add up with the explanation for the disaster and must try to get to the truth, with the help of Lakshmi, to save their good friend’s reputation, job, and his family from ruin.

#3 Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive – Jonathan Fields

“Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive” – Jonathan Fields is a book designed to provide you with some insight into what makes you come alive in work and life.

There’s a quick online assessment tool you take to identify what your Sparketypes are. You can also buy the book for more deep dive into the research and case studies.

I was curious about what my Sparketype was so I did both. Turns out my primary Sparketype is the “Essentialist” and it says in a nutshell “I create order from chaos”. Which, I feel is spot on in describing my impulses to make sense of things and organize chaos. It’s how my brain works and I’ve often said I can’t function in chaos, I need to stop and make sense of it.

The Scientist is my “shadow Sparketype”; it’s really close to the primary one. The Scientist likes to figure it out. That’s so me.

I’ve only done a cursory read and will sit down with the book to see what other insights I can glean about my career. It was definitely interesting and for me, quite accurate.

This might be of interest if you’re thinking about your career and trying to hike in on what activities motivate you in how you work and that you enjoy doing.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

And there you have it! What I’m getting into this month. Hope you enjoyed this post. Following me on Instagram for more!

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀