Bookish: November 2018 TBR & October Wrap Up (and NoNaNoWriMo)

Hello my gorgeous reading buddies!

The witching month has ended and now we enter the month of bonfires and fireworks (if you’re in the UK at least)!

Let me hop to it and tell you all about what I read this past month.

Creatures: The Legacy of Frankenstein by Multiple Authors

This was an ARC that I requested on account of it suiting the vibe of October and on account of me having done a Dracula related book (it only felt right to do a Frankenstein one as well).

I liked it well enough but with anthologies there is always a bit of a mix with what you get which is why this ended up with a nice round 3. The review is here.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

This is also another ‘October’ book and boy I’m glad I read it. Not even ‘I’m glad I read it in October,’ I’m just glad I read it – full stop.

Neil Gaiman (despite being one of my favourite writers) can be hit or miss but this was most definitely a hit. I feel that no one captures childhood like Neil Gaiman does and he did so superbly here. My review with its 4 stars is here.

The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski 

I read book one in The Winner’s Trilogy in September and decided that I would read book two in October and book three in November. This is book two and I did what I said (miracle) and read this in October.

I enjoyed The Winner’s Curse and gave it 3 stars but The Winner’s Crime actually gets one more star from me with 4 because the complexities of plot and character development really started to come into play and I just really happened to enjoy this book and the main character, Kestrel.

Review is pending but please see below for more info.

The Winner’s Kiss by Marie Rutkoski

I was supposed to read this one in November (as per my self imposed schedule) but because I read The Winner Crime and enjoyed it so much I followed up with the third in the trilogy almost immediately.

Unfortunately this wasn’t a 4 star read but I still enjoyed it and so it gets a 3 from me.

The review is also pending but I’m going to be a lazy so and so and not do three separate reviews for each book in this trilogy but do an ‘all in one.’ Normally I like to review books individually but I’m combining on account of two things:-

1. Time
2. I actually feel like the books weren’t different enough to review individually but could easily to be incorporated together (I’ll explain more in my review). But this still was an enjoyable trilogy to read.

The Magick of Master Lilly by Tobsha Learner

This was an ARC that I requested but unfortunately was a DNF. I won’t go into more information here but instead will direct you to my review with reasons.

So…

My stats for October look like this:-

• 5 books attempted and only 4 read – this is 2 down on what I aimed to achieve but for me 4 is still good
• 3 of the books on the list were originally what I aimed to read and 2 were new and spontaneous decisions
• I gave 1 book a ‘DNF’
• I gave 2 books a 4 star rating
• I gave 2 books a 3 star rating

I won’t include the DNF in my overall rating but even though 4 books is not what I aimed to achieve they were all 3 and above which is pretty good. This is an overall score of 3.5 which is decent.

Will I match October? Maybe.

For those of you who aren’t bored to tears of me whittling on about it…. I am off on honeymoon for the entirety of November. I’m not too sure if I’ll do a lot of reading on actual honeymoon (we are cramming in a pretty intensive schedule) but we do have several flights (including two 23 hour long ones… yeesh) and so the opportunity to do a lot of reading may present itself in other ways. As long as I don’t start binge watching movies on the flight…

I have been approved for some of the ARCs that I have requested and so I hope to tackle those among some others on my Kindle. Here is my wish list for November.

This is a requested ARC that I desperately need to read and review before I go away. This was supposed to be read in October but instead it will roll over to November. This is due out on the 16th November.

This is an ARC that I requested which has a confusing publishing date. Netgalley tells me this is released 10th January 2019 but Goodreads tells me this was published on 27th September. I live my life in permanent confusion but the description of this as a part ghost story and part Nordic thriller is making me excited regardless!

Another ARC due to be released on 15th January 2019. This seems to be marked as ‘book one’ which means I could be playing fast and loose with my heart. I’ve heard of Roshani Chokshi but haven’t read anything of hers yet but I am looking forward to starting.

I’ve had this on my TBR for a while and as it’s on my Kindle, November is perfect for finally getting round to it!

This is another Kindle book hence why it is on this list. But also because it has ‘moon’ in the title and as I’m on honeymoon I thought I better 😉

This gives me Practical Magic vibes so I’m looking forward to reading it!

I think magic is the name of the game for November. But this excites me because magic excites me! I’ve included this one because I try and pretend that I too, am a thinking woman. Jury is out due to lack of evidence.

For the past two years I have participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) during November but on account of honeymoon I am sadly missing it this year. Hence ‘NoNaNoWriMo.’

I wish everyone who is participating all the best and if anyone wants to do Camp NaNoWriMo in April I am up for being a cabin buddy!

I like to share my fun happenings. If you could consider them a happening or even fun. To each their own. But I think they were fun. 😉

• I saw a lot of friends for lunches and dinners on account of me buggering off for a month! This included meeting my friends 3 month old baby who is just unbelievably cute. And very smiley when I spoke to him about vodka. Don’t ask.
• I went to a wedding which was one of the most beautifully designed weddings I have ever been to! I don’t have any pictures of the actual wedding but it was held here:-

• I went to Oxford for the sole purpose of visiting The Ashmolean Museum because I wanted to see one of their special exhibitions. It’s called ‘Spellbound‘ and is about magic, ritual and witchcraft. As I am obsessed with witches this was right up my alley.
• I took my best friend for a belated birthday afternoon tea (she’s a July baby) to a posh hotel in London. The theme was Alice in Wonderland and the food was delicious.

• If you can’t tell already – I adore afternoon teas and would do them all the time. I made my husband come with me (it didn’t take much persuasion) to a ‘wizard and witches’ theme afternoon tea (they couldn’t say it was based on Harry Potter for legal reasons but it obviously was ;))

What books have you got planned for November? Has anyone read any of the ones mentioned? If so, I’d love to know your thoughts!

Look forward to hearing from you!