TL;DR November Review

Hello Bookworms!

I am currently sat watching the remnants of Storm Diana thrashing the branches of the tree outside and listening to the sound of my neighbours wheelie bin tumbling down the entry behind out house. November is decidedly with us!

I really hope at least one of you will understand where this picture of Slash is from.

November now seems to be the month that Christmas starts – the shops (and some of my neighbours) have their decorations up, my Mum is constantly pestering me for a Christmas list and Coventry City Centre has erected what the locals are calling “The Festive Cone” instead of a Christmas tree. Merry austerity everyone!

Apart from the obligatory fireworks display, I’ve been out for quite a few meals this month – a group curry, dinner and drinks with the bestie and a family lunch out in Birmingham. I even wore a skirt and proper eyeliner!

We’ve done quite a lot of boring jobs in the house this month like fitting plug sockets, grouting tiles, sealing in bits of trim…all quite dull, massively time consuming and you don’t get a lot to show for it. 😢

I’ve almost completed the Read Harder Challenge (just 31 chapters of Les Mis left) which will also see me complete the Les Mis read-along challenge. Hurrah! I’m quite proud of myself because I usually get to this time of year and have to panic read/review the five or so books I’ve usually got left. I also got sent my first hard copy ARC (for The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden, no less) which was incredibly exciting! I’m literally winning at life 😆😆😆.

For some reason I’ve focused more on discussions this month, with three separate posts: Overused Phrases in Book Blogging, Rating Systems for Books and I Don’t Like YA, Please Don’t Hurt Me. I also took part in the Calendar Girls meme where I chose The Girl in the Tower as my favourite middle book in a series. 

I had another meh reading month this month, although I did have one five star review. I think it’s because I subconsciously push all the books I don’t want to read for Read Harder to the end of the year (even though I think December will be decidedly better). The books I read were:

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson: Amazing! Absolutely loved everything about this book 🌟 Five out of five 🌟

Not That Bad ed. Roxane Gay: Such a moving, important book. Hard going but well worth a read. Four and a half out of five.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan: A bit of a weird one, some lovely vignettes in here but the whole thing felt utterly disjointed. Two and a half out of five.

The Secret Loves of Geek Girls by Hope Nicholson: Another weird one, I felt like this book was written for a very small section of geek society. I’m sure that if you got it you’d absolutely love it. A classic example of “great for you, but not for me”. Two and a half stars.

The Cows by Dawn O’Porter: I hated almost everything about this book. Urgh. Two stars.

So that’s November wrapped up! How was it for you? Have you read any of the books I read last month? Are you a Calendar Girl? Follow the links or let me know in the comments!