October and November 2018 Reading Wrap-Up

 

Hi.  This is a bit late. October was an absolutely crazy month, then NaNoWriMo took over my life in November. During these two months, I took a little bit of a step back from reading, blogging, videoing, Instagramming, everything. On the bright side, I did rediscover my burning love of Star Trek and started actually watching TV. Oh, and I actually wrote something for the first time in my life.  Who would have thought?

Buckle up, y’all. This is a long one — I’ll be covering all things bookish in October and November!

 

Books I read in October

The Lake House by Kate Morton

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee (review)

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand (review)

The Royal Runaway by Lindsay Emory (review)

Sadie by Courtney Summers (review)

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

The Whispering Skull by Jonathan Stroud

A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi

I managed to read eight books in October, which is pretty great considering I only read two in the last two weeks of the month. I had been teetering on the edge of a reading slump for most of the month, and it really showed! There’s a wide range of books here, but I think my favourites were The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy and A Very Large Expanse of Sea.

 

Books I read in November

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson (review)

Mirage by Somaiya Daud

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

Not much reading was done this past month, which is totally understandable. In between NaNo-ing, I did manage to get five books read. Skyward was probably the (totally predictable) favourite, but The Hunting Party really took me by surprise! I’m now in the mood to read lots and lots of thrillers, which makes for a nice change of pace.

 

Books I am currently reading

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri

Empress of all Seasons by Emiko Jean

The Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan

Hey, look at me! I’m only reading three books at once, this feels like quite an accomplishment. My main read was Empire of Sand, but I’m going to be buddy reading it with my marvelous blogging pal Nandini!  I can’t wait for us to share our thoughts — I love what I’ve read so far.

To hold me over until our buddy read begins, I’ve started Empress of all Seasons.  I haven’t been sucked into a book this quickly in a long time! I’ve been wanting to read this for ages and now that I have my chance, I know I’m going to be impressed.

Finally, my audiobook pick is The Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan. I absolutely adored the audiobook of Cosmos, which I listened to earlier this year, and wanted to read more from him. Much to my suprise, large portions of The Pale Blue Dot are actually recovered from an audio version Sagan recorded before his death. It’s a pretty astonishing experience — I’d highly recommend the audiobook if you’re interested!

 

Books I acquired in October

 

Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Spellslinger by Sebastian de Castell

A Blade so Black by L.L. McKinney

Tangleweed and Brine by Deirdre Sullivan

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Normal People by Sally Rooney

Swing Time by Zadie Smith

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling

Before She Ignites by Jodi Meadows

Traitor’s Blade by Sebastian de Castell

Consider Phlebas by Ian M. Banks

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor

Crow’s Trap by Ann Cleaves

I tripped and fell and bought a bunch of books. So sue me. These books are a combination of charity shop finds, preorders, bookshop trips, and trades with friends. I’ve already read a few of these, which is great, but I certainly added a lot of books to my TBR.  Ouch.

 

Books I acquired November

Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Two Towers by J. R. R.  Tolkien

The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

S. T. A. G. S. by M. A. Bennett

Cold Magic by Kate Elliott

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Legend by Marie Lu

Prodigy by Marie Lu

Champion by Marie Lu

The Young Elites by Marie Lu

The Rose Society by Marie Lu

The Midnight Star by Marie Lu

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri

The Dark Vault by V. E. Schwab

Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy

A Big Ship at the End of the Universe by Alex White

Fire and Blood by George R. R. Martin

The Seven Deaths of  Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (review)

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell (review)

Again. Tripped. Fell. Bought books.  Oops. But to be fair, so many of these are either from my favourite charity book shop or are unhauls from my marvelous blogging pal Judith. It’s not as bad as it looks, I swear.

I swear.

The last two are actually books I read and reviewed ages back! I was lucky enough to chair an event with Stuart and Laura this past week and I bought myself copies of their books.  The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Silent Companions are brilliant books and Stuart and Laura are marvelous people!

 

Book post

Girl Squads by Sam Maggs

The Silver Queen by Josie Jaffrey

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Empress of all Seasons by Emiko Jean

The Mortal Word by Genevive Cogman

Whiteout by Gabriel Dylan

Check out the smashing book post I’ve received over the past couple of months! I’ve been waiting on The Silver Queen and Skyward for awhile now, and I’m so thrilled to have copies of these books! The biggest surprise was Empress of all Seasons, which I absolutely cannot wait to read.  Many thanks to the authors and publicists for sending all of these through!

 

NetGalley approvals

 

 

 

The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklas Natt och Dag

Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa

Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce

Wolf-Speaker by Tamora Pierce

Emperor Mage by Tamora Pierce

Boneless Mercies by  April Genevieve Tucholke

The Favourite : Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough by Ophelia Field

Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (extract)

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson

The Wych Elm by Tana French

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Enchantee by Gita Trelease

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri

The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

Descent of Shadows by Ryanne Glenn

Hey Justine, why is your NetGalley rating 32%? No idea, guys. Not a clue.

I’m not even going to try listing all of these covers.

 

Other projects to brag about

Podcast launch: The very first season of the podcast I launched with my sister has launched and finished! We’re planning season 2 now and are plotting some specials to drop through the rest of the year, so subscribe. Why wouldn’t you?

Off the Grid readathon: I teamed up with my marvelous book twin Shanah to host the Off the Grid readathon! We set our phones aside, logged off of social media, and read to our hearts content! I finished Sadie and read a good chunk of Laura Purcell’s The Corset during the readathon. Our next round starts on 11 January, so come join us!

NaNoWriMo: I didn’t end up winning NaNoWriMo, but I wrote 22,725 words this month!  How crazy is that? For someone who has never written a word of fiction, that’s not bad. I’m planning to pick up this project again in the new year!

You all still here?  Great! This has been a crazy period of time, but I’m so happy to get back into the swing of blogging and posting videos to my YouTube channel.

What have I missed this month?  What have you guys been up to? Let me know!