The Terror of Knowing

Welcome one, welcome all, to my October Wrap Up. As we’re nearing the end of the year my reading pace seems to be slowing down slightly but that’s ok and I partly blame being on holiday for that. My holidays have been stacked towards the end of the year which means I haven’t read quite as much as I otherwise might have. Very excitingly, I write this post from my hotel room in the Caribbean Beach resort at Disney World in Orlando, tired after a long day wandering around Magic Kingdom and watching their fireworks show Happily Ever After. It’s my first time at Disney and it’s been amazing so far… but all this merriment hasn’t left the most time for reading and I’m kind of ok with that. However, the rest of the month was pretty good for reading I think.

As always seems to be the case, I took part in a couple of readathons: the Charms Extra Credit readathon and Victober. I did better than my cynical self thought I would do with both of them so I’m reasonably pleased with that. Both the readathons were wonderfully hosted so I’d recommend checking them (and their hosts) out and joining in in the future if either of them seem like your jam. As I was taking part in Victober – a readathon in which you read Victorian novels throughout the month of October – a large portion of my reading was (understandably) focused around that. However, I got organised, made a schedule and everything, so that I could finish my Victober efforts just before I went off on holiday, so that my holiday reading could be less… demanding of me, shall we say? I think it worked out quite well even if, as it stands at the time of writing, I’ve only started one book so far on this holiday – and that was on the plane journey here. Still, we’ll see what November brings… but first, let’s wrap up October properly.

In October, I read a total of 5 books – 5 fiction and 0 non-fiction – and 0 were re-reads (go me!). This amounted to 1242 pages in total.

In terms of format: 3 were paperback and 2 were ebooks.

As for genre, 4 were comic books/graphic novels and 1 was a classic. (I know, I’m as surprised as you are by these stats for October.)

Onto the books themselves…

Shades of Magic #1: The Steel Prince by V.E. Schwab, Andrea Olimpieri, and Enrica Angiolni

Rating: 5/5
Genre: comic book; fantasy
Format: paperback
Pages: 32
Read: 13th October
Review: A great setup issue to tell what is sure to be an amazing story to flesh out the character of Maxim Maresh and understand what led him to be the person he is in A Darker Shade of Magic. The art style is brilliant and fits well with the tone of the world V has already created in the Shades of Magic novels. I can’t wait to see where this one goes.

Captain Marvel Vol. 1: Higher, Further, Faster, More by Kelly Sue DeConnick and David Lopez

Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: graphic novel; sci-fi
Format: ebook
Pages: 136
Read: 9th – 13th October
Review: I’m trying to get better about reading Marvel Comics as I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I will say that I adore the character of Captain Marvel but going into this volume basically blind as to any of the lore surrounding her made this one a little bit hard to follow. However, her interactions with Iron Patriot and the Guardians of the Galaxy were very funny and made up for the confusion of some of the action sequences. I would be curious to try out subsequent volumes of this one in the future.

Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Brooke A. Allen, and Shannon Watters

Rating: 4/5
Genre: graphic novel; fantasy
Format: ebook
Pages: 128
Read: 13th October
Review: This first volume was wacky and weird and I loved it. Set around the idea of five young girls enjoying adventures at summer camp, Lumberjanes is all about bad-ass girls being bad-ass and showing that great friendship is all you need to make a comic book series interesting. Never fear though, there’s also fantastical and bizarre things afoot at camp with secret caves, puzzles, and weird three-eyed foxes. The art style is cutesy and delightful and very colourful, the perfect accompaniment to the story it tells.

Saga, Volume 9 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Rating: 5/5
Genre: graphic novel; sci-fi
Format: paperback
Pages: 152
Read: 14th October
Review: I would do a full review of this volume but my heart is still too broken by that ending. May I just say, Brian and Fiona, who hurt you to write/illustrate that ending? I’m not sure I could ever forgive you. (But I love it.)

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

Rating: 5/5
Genre: classics
Format: paperback (and occasional moments on audio, as read by Prunella Scales)
Pages: 794
Read: 1st – 17th October
Review: Being a fan of Gaskell’s North and South, I suspected I would enjoy this longer novel which focuses on (as the title suggests) familial relationships and the problems that can sometimes arise from these. It’s a much more domestic novel at its heart but social and political issues do still affect the actions of the characters, and the consequences of these actions are very real and rooted in the society of its time. I found myself slowly falling head over heels for this book and its heroine, Molly Gibson, and I know this story is one I will come back to again in the not too distant future. (Full Review)

I started (but didn’t finish) a few more books this month so on my ‘currently reading’ shelf are Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, and Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. Yes, I know, one of those is not like the others. Back at the end of September I also started reading Deborah Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches because I wanted to read it before I watched the TV show (which, to be honest, I only really wanted to watch because Matthew Goode is in it) but, surprise surprise, I’ve watched along further in the TV show than I’ve reached in the book so this month I felt even less motivation to continue to consume the story in its book form. I know, I know, I’m a bad reader! Similarly, I’m a bad V.E. Schwab fan because I started listening to the audiobook for City of Ghosts at the end of September and I didn’t ever finish it – I need to get on that asap once I’m back from Disney. Anyway, I’m really hoping to have some of these books finished up quickly in November but you (and I) will have to wait until the end of November for my Wrap Up to see if I followed through on that vague plan.

How did your October reading go?
What was your favourite book you read this month?
Please do share in the comments below and let’s chat books!

Goodreads| Twitter| Instagram