Welcome one, welcome all to my Wrap Up post for November. After a rather dismal month in October, I was determined to pick up my reading pace in November, if nothing else to make sure that I was hitting my reading goals and challenges. Happily, as the days get colder and the nights get darker, people seem to understand more the desire to just head home after work and do nothing but read, preferably whilst curled up near a fire under a blanket with a mug of hot chocolate to hand. I fully intend to continue this happy arrangement into December but, for now, let’s see how November went, shall we?
In November, I read a total of 9 books – 8 fiction and 1 non-fiction – and 3 were re-reads (marked by *).
In terms of format: 5 were paperback, 3 were ebooks, and 1 was a hardback.
And as for genre, very broadly speaking, 4 books were sci-fi, 3 were YA fantasy, 1 was memoir, and 1 was poetry.
Onto the books themselves…
Saga, Vol. 4 – Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan
Rating: 4.25/5
Genre: graphic-novel; sci-fi
Pages: 152
Read: 10th November
Challenges fulfilled: Smash That Series, Around the Year in 52 Books (Week 20)
Saga, Vol. 5 – Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: graphic-novel; sci-fi
Pages: 152
Read: 10th November
Challenges fulfilled: Smash That Series
Saga, Vol. 6 – Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: graphic-novel; sci-fi
Pages: 152
Read: 10th November
Challenges fulfilled: Smash That Series
Saga, Vol. 7 – Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan
Rating: 4.5/5
Genre: graphic-novel; sci-fi
Pages: 152
Read: 11th November
Challenges fulfilled: Smash That Series
milk and honey – rupi kaur
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: poetry
Pages: 204
Read: 11th – 12th November
Challenges fulfilled: Around the Year in 52 Books (Week 51)
This Is Going To Hurt – Adam Kay
Rating: 5/5
Genre: non-fiction; memoir
Pages: 268
Read: 5th – 12th November
* Shadow and Bone – Leigh Bardugo
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: fantasy; young-adult
Pages: 369
Read: 12th – 16th November
* Siege and Storm – Leigh Bardugo
Rating: 4/5
Genre: fantasy; young-adult
Pages: 401
Read: 16th – 19th November
* Ruin and Rising – Leigh Bardugo
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: fantasy; young-adult
Pages: 432
Read: 20th – 29th November
November went pretty well, even though (for the first time ever) I neglected to take part in Tome Topple. And, yes, that is still killing me inside. However, after feeling some pretty heavy readathon fatigue, I knew forcing myself to read 500+ page books for the sake of a readathon would not end well so I bowed out, for the sake of my overall reading progress. That was a good decision, I think, and one I stand by, even though I’ve been feeling severe FOMO whilst watching everyone else tackle (and topple) those tomes. Still, I read 9 books this month so that’s nothing to be sniffed at, even if 4 of them were graphic novels. I’m hoping to do a review for anything I really enjoyed in November, namely This Is Going To Hurt which was wonderful and horrifying in equal measure, so stay tuned for that hopefully in the near future. (Haha, I have so many reviews to catch up on, it’s faintly ridiculous by now but I’m just rolling with it.) In the meantime, I’m currently reading The Good Immigrant as I didn’t manage to finish that off in November, and I’m sure to pick up another fiction today since I’m incapable of reading just one book at a time… so it goes…
How did your November reading go?
What was your favourite book you read this month?
Please do share in the comments below and let’s chat books!
The Terror of Knowing 
8 responses to “November 2017 | Wrap Up”
I love the Grisha Trilogy! I re-read that a couple of months ago and it was nice to go back to it. I did so in order to pick up The Language of Thorns but that ultimately failed!
Milk and Honey is the only other book I’ve read too, and I think I gave it 3 stars as well. Whilst I applaud Rupi Kaur for writing poetry that obviously meant a lot to her, it wasn’t my kind of poetry.
I only managed to read three books in November and all of them were audiobooks – Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (a re-read), and Just One Damned Thing After Another and A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor (also re-reads). I loved all of them, and they’ve got me hooked on listening to more audiobooks at the minute which makes a change.
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I think audiobooks are a great way to mix things up! I go through phases of listening to them a lot and then not at all. The last great thing I listened to on audio was probably The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue because the narrator was excellent – that really makes or breaks any audiobook.
After a re-read I’m glad to find I enjoyed The Grisha trilogy even more than I first did. Yeah I still haven’t got round to reading The Language of Thorns, I feel like I need to be in the right mood for fairytales before I try it out – maybe in 2018 though!
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Oh yeah, I can only say an audiobook is great if the narrator is up to scratch. I’m usually really picky when it comes to narrators but I’ve luckily been able to find some good ones recently.
In terms of Language of Thorns, I think you are better reading it when you are in the mood for fairytales. I have finally read it and whilst I enjoyed a couple of the stories, I didn’t love it as much as I expected. I thought I was in the right mood to read it but I wasn’t and I think that affected my full enjoyment of it.
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I had a pretty rubbish start to the month (didn’t finish a book until after half way) but it picked up thankfully. My favourite book was called Carry the Ocean.
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Hey, if you finished a book, you finished a book – that’s definitely worth celebrating! I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to read, read, read (especially in the book blogging community) but sometimes just enjoying a story is more than enough to consider a month a successful one. :)
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Ohh I love the Shadow and Bone trilogy! And I think of reading Saga eventually; I keep hearing about it.
I didn’t get to read that many books in November because I was travelling, but I read Moxie and I really loved it! But now I have a lot of catching up to do. I’m aiming for 10 books in December, fingers crossed I’ll reach my goal!
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Me too – I loved it even more on re-read! Also I would highly recommend Saga, it’s SO much fun, and I don’t read many graphic novels at all but I found it to be so compelling and the artwork is just stunning. :)
Definitely fingers crossed to you for your reading in December – I hope you make it and get to read some brilliant books!
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Thanks! And I’ll definitely check out Saga! :)
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