November has been a very busy month on the blog! I have really been working harder at staying on top of reviews, and have inspired myself by beginning a weekly post (usually Sunday) about the condition of the TBR. Since I don’t eliminate books from the TBR until they get reviewed, it’s helping to keep me on track. (Well, sort of. There are actually five books in the to-be-reviewed pile at this very moment…)
Favorite November Read:
This is actually really tough this month. I had MULTIPLE five-star reads!
I think I’m going with Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. This book was absolutely hilarious and a delight to read from beginning to end. I can’t believe I haven’t read it before, and look forward to reading it again.
However, I feel that I must include Unspoken as a tie for the favorite read slot. It’s the first YA book I’ve read in a long time that made me genuinely laugh. Kami is an absolutely amazing protagonist, and I could barely put this book down while I was reading it.
Honestly, there were at least two other books that were contenders for the top read this month – it’s been a really good month of reading!
Most Disappointing November Read:
I think I’m going with Signs Point to Yes by Sandy Hall. I thoroughly enjoyed her first book, A Little Something Different, by Yes was confusing and weird with completely stagnant, flat characters whom I found myself frequently wanting to shake (or slap).
Other November Reads:
- First Lord’s Fury by Jim Butcher – 5/5 – and a strong contender for the favorite book of the month – the conclusion to the Codex Alera was everything I wanted it to be: PERFECTION.
- Fugitive by Phillip Margolin – 3/5 – not as strong as the others in the series, but still engaging.
- Fury and the Mustangs by Albert G. Miller – 3/5 – sequel to the other Fury book below – interesting and well-paced.
- Fury: Stallion of Broken Wheel Ranch by Albert G. Miller – 3/5 – a fun children’s book for horse lovers.
- The Ghost Rock Mystery by Mary C. Jane – 3/5 – an old Scholastic Book Club mystery that wasn’t too exciting but was a perfectly fine read.
- The Gold Bat by P.G. Wodehouse – 3/5 – a more cohesive story although still quite full of cricket.
- In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware – 3/5 – good enough to make me want to read Ware’s other book; meh enough for me to not really want to read this one ever again.
- Proof Positive by Phillip Margolin – 4/5 – my favorite of the Amanda Jaffe books so far and in the hunt for favorite read of the month.
- Rose & Thorn by Sarah Prineas – 2/5 – the sequel to Ash & Bramble was just as aggravating.
- The Storyteller and Her Sisters by Cheryl Mahoney – 4/5 – another fun Beyond the Tales book, a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses.
- Tales of St. Austin’s by P.G. Wodehouse – 3/5 – a collection of short stories that all take place at a boys’ school. Entertaining but ultimately forgettable.
- Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome – 4/5 – while lacking the sort of spontaneous joy of the first book, still a great deal of fun.
- Ties That Bind by Phillip Margolin – 4/5 – gritty and intense – I had trouble putting this one down!
- Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan – 4/5 – a little bit of second-book lag, but overall good progression to the series.
- Wait for What Will Come by Barbara Michaels – 3/5 – decent read but the ending was quite rushed. And really, it was hard to believe that there were so many handsome, single men just hanging about.
Other November Posts:
Like I said, I’ve been working on updating the status of the TBR every week. This month saw Episodes I, II, III, and IV.
I also reread Austenland by Shannon Hale, watched the movie, and then compared them… and I’m still not sure which I like better!
TBR Update:
Just the bare bones here since you’ve already probably heard more on this topic than you really want to…
For those of you who don’t know, I’m weirdly obsessive with organizing the TBR, and have it on a spreadsheet divided into five different tabs:
- Stand-Alones: 848 (down one!)
- Nonfiction: 51 (up five)
- Personal (which includes all books I own, but lists any series I own as only one entry…): 561 (up… *gulp*… TWENTY!)
- Series (each series counted separately, not each book within a series): 139 (up three)
- Mystery Series (each series counted separately, not each book within a series): 64 (up three)
Awaiting Review:
I’ve had several short reads in a row, plus polished off a couple that I’ve been stumbling through at a very slow pace, so there are now five in the pile:
- Love’s Haven by Catherine Palmer
- William Tell Told Again by P.G. Wodehouse
- Fury and the White Mare by Albert G. Miller
- Sunsets by Deborah Howard
- To Refine Like Silver by Jeanna Ellsworth
Current Reads:
(links to GoodReads)
- A Life in Letters by P.G. Wodehouse/edited by Sophie Ratcliffe – still! – Only one chapter left.
- The New Way Things Work by David MacCauley – another of my nonfiction reads that is really interesting and fun and full of pictures and I’ll probably never finish it.
- Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan – gah! I want to see how everything ends! I never want it to end!
- The Head of Kay’s by P.G. Wodehouse – just started this one.
- The People the Fairies Forget by Cheryl Mahoney – the third Beyond the Tales; I’ve been reading this one before bed.
Approaching the Top of the Pile:
The probable next five reads…
(links to GoodReads)
- Violent Crimes by Phillip Margolin – the final book in the series (so far)
- Love Among the Chickens by P.G. Wodehouse – so excited about breaking out of the school stories!!!
- Terms & Conditions by Robert Glancy – this sounds like a fun premise, but I’m not sure if I will enjoy the formatting or if it will drive me batty.
- The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey – probably the most likely of these to be a DNF.
- Lad of Sunnybank by Albert Payson Terhune – another collection of (mostly true) dog stories.
The Aroma of Books 