Saturday, November 6, 2021

October Reading Update!

 So I will try to keep this short today, since I need to get in my words for NaNoWriMo, but here's what I read in October.


My favorite book of the month was Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire. If you're a fan of the fantasies where kids from our world end up in a fantastical realm, this is a book based on that premise. Eleanore West runs a school for children who have come back home after being in a fantastical world, and wish they were still there. There are a bunch of books about the different worlds, but this one is about the after affects of being in those worlds. If you like Narnia, or Alice, or any of those similar stories, I highly recommend this one.

The runners up for my favorite books of the month:

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, a retelling of Rumplestiltskin...sort of. Novik has a great grasp of fairy tales and their origins, and she weaves them deftly into a story about a Jewish Lender's daughter, and what she does to regain her family's fortune from the people her father has loaned the money to to such a point where their own family barely has enough to subsist on. I can probably count on one hand the amount of fictional tales I have read with central Jewish characters, and this does the idea such justice. I highly recommend it for someone who wants to read fairy tale retellings.

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill is the second book I have read by him, and I highly recommend it. And no matter what else, I will definitely be checking out more by him, because he's definitely inherited his father's talent (Stephen King, for those who don't know). This one is about a girl who stumbles across an ability to travel anywhere she wants...and it leads her to a serial killer who can do the same. And what she does to defeat him.

And my last runner up is my second favorite in the Undue Arrogance series, and the last of the series, His Cocky Prince, about an Asian American actor who is starting to age out of the roles he is best known for, and the young man who has taken his place, with more innocence in Hollywood, where that innocence is so easily taken advantage of. Gay romance, but so deftly done, and I know I will enjoy anything this author writes, so I will definitely be looking into his other work. Warning for those who have trouble with it, this is a twist on the Weinsten case, so if that might bother you, this won't be the book for you, even though it is well written.

All great books, and incredibly varied in story type, so something for everyone there! I am surprised that I only have one Supernatural story in the whole pack, given how many I read this past month, but I'm not shocked, either, really.

Once again, the oldest book I read this month was a reread: Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice, which was published October 31st, 1988. I've been having fun working my way through the series, but it looks as though I'll have to read from now on. I do own the next book, which is the first I have not read, The Vampire Armand, but I am not yet sure when I will get to it, so we shall see.

The newest book I read this year was the Last Graduate by Naomi Novik, which came out September 28 of this year. It's the second book in this series, and while I enjoyed the first more, this one is still a wonderful read, especially if you read and enjoyed the first book. I can't wait to see where the third book takes things.

Read a lot of great books, many of which were spooky this year, but more on that in a minute. I finished a total of 26 books, and am well on my way to finishing where I hope to finish, at 350 books. We shall see if I make it. It will definitely be close, but either way, I've read a ton of books this year. at this moment for the year, I have finished 313 books. hopefully I will manage at least another 20 this month, and 25 more next, and then I will be well over my goal. It's so wild, given I was struggling to get to 50 books for the year before last year... So wish me luck! 

I finished three series and DNF'd one book in October. The types of book I read: three were ebooks, one was physical, and the other twenty two were all audiobooks. Of the books I read, twelve were written by men, and fourteen by women. Seventeen had male main characters, and fourteen had female main characters. Fourteen had strong LGBTQ content, but only five had central non-white characters. The audience for the books I read: one was Middle Grade, eight were YA, one was New Adult, and ninteen were Adult.

For my Genres, my top two were there as usual, Romance and Fantasy. And because it was spooky season, that meant number three was Supernatural. I do enjoy supernatural in the form of mystery and romance, particularly vampires and werewolves, but I tend to shy away from the darker stuff, particularly zombies and bloodthirsty demons, so I tend to lean more supernatural and less horror.

My current and future reading:

    Currently I am reading:

    My Current Libby list to read:
    Dregs of the spooky books here, but then I will move on to the few winter reads I have on my list, so we shall see what I end up with. 

    My Library Hold list next 5:
    And it looks like I need to add a bunch more to my wishlist on my library hold list, as that's all I have on my hold list at the time. And some of those won't be coming for quite a while. 

    Hope everyone had a great spooky season if you celebrate, and hope you have a fabulous Thanksgiving if you celebrate that (and haven't yet *waves at my Canadian peeps*), and see you all in December!
    Posted by Elf Flame at 1:28 PM
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