Hey all, Dani here.
It’s the first day of November, which means that it is also the first day of NaNoWriMo. When this post goes live, I’ll actually be settling down for a nap before I need to go in to work. Since I’m on the night shift now, my “Monday” shift technically starts Sunday night at 10 p.m., which makes weekends a bit odd and annoying.
Anyway, today also means that it is time to look back on the month of October and tally up what I read, what books I hauled, and other stuff that seems interesting depending on my mood.
As usual with my monthly wrap-up, let’s start off by checking in on my overall goals for the year.
- Reading: Okay, so 17 books read in October, which is a pretty solid month of reading. I’m pretty happy with that total. Of course for the year that brings me up to 227 books read for the year, with my overall reading goal set at 250. It is totally doable to read another 23 books in two months.
- Blogging: I did manage to participate in three blog tours in the month of October, so between those, my regular weekly wrap-up posts, and the monthly Calendar Girls post, this has actually been a fairly productive month, and I’m pretty pleased with that. Of course, I do really miss those times where I was posting 7-10 times a week. I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to return to that blogging pace at some point.
- Writing: I wrote a couple thousand more words for D&D character stuff…you know, background, past journal entries, and current in-game journal entries. It’s helped me get back into the swing of creative writing, so I’m really hoping to have a lot of progress in this area for the month of November.
- Conventions: I guess all I can say for this section of the wrap-up is that Colorworld Books has held so many online events this year, and it has allowed so many people to do 1-on-1 video hangouts with voice actors, and buy audio recordings from them and autographs, and it has helped a bit with the lack of in-person conventions in 2020. Recently they had an “Avatar: the Last Airbender” event, and I bought autographs from Greg Baldwin (Uncle Iroh), Jessie Flowers (Toph Beifong), and Dante Basco (Zuko). I’m still waiting on Dante’s to arrive, but I can’t wait to put these prints with the rest of my convention merch. If you want to learn more about upcoming events from Colorworld Books, you can find them on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or go to this site for event ticket information.
Okay, I guess that the next step is the recap of everything I read in the month of October. As always, if I have a review up–and there actually are a few reviews up–then I will include a link to those posts.
Witchy by Ariel Slamet Ries — 4 stars
My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows — 4.5 stars
Kingdom of Sea and Stone by Mara Rutherford — 4 stars
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik — 4 stars
A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe — 4.5 stars
Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker — 4 stars
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig — 5 stars
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow — 5 stars
Among the Beasts and Briars by Ashley Poston — 5 stars
The Girl and the Goddess by Nikita Gill — 5 stars
The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart — 4 stars
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas — 5 stars
The World of Critical Role by Liz Marsham and the Cast of Critical Role — 5 stars
The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo — 4 stars
Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco — 5 stars
The World of Critical Role by Liz Marsham and the Cast of Critical Role, and narrated by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn — 5 stars
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern — 5 stars
Next up is my monthly book haul and OwlCrate unboxing…or unboxings, because this month I received my usual monthly subscription box, as well as their exclusive edition of a book, and a special exclusive book box as well. It’s going to be a pretty big section.
Okay, okay, one of these photos is not books at all, but they are the Critical Role Pop Funkos that showcase the characters from the first campaign, and I really wanted to show them off. They look great with the rest of my Funko collection on top of my bookcases. I’m really hoping that they do the campaign two characters as well, but we’ll see what happens.
Now for the OwlCrate unboxings.
I don’t know what I’m most excited about with these. Honestly I can say that I’m actually mostly disappointed with the covers (aside from Legendborn because I think both the original and the OwlCrate editions are gorgeous). With the October box, I think I like the soup bowl cozy the best, though I wish it was a pair instead of just one so that way both Damian and I could have one when I make soup. And with the Addie LaRue box, I am definitely excited about having both the travel mug and the wooden calendar–which will look great on my desk.
Finally it is time to talk November TBR. Now I’m actually going to keep the TBR a bit short for November, because I really would like to focus on writing my D&D Romance novel. But, I also know that I’ll probably pick up a few books that sound interesting too, so November’s wrap-up should be pretty interesting.
Why yes, my loosely planned TBR is just a bunch of Middle Grade books…and technically one YA because Akata Warrior is shelved with the YA books. I don’t know where I would place it because the characters are like 12/13 in the first book which puts it in MG territory, and I think the characters might be 13/14 in this second book, so really it sort of straddles that divide between the two age groups.
Anyway, there’s other books I still might end up picking up in November, like some of the ones I didn’t get to in October, or books like Ready Player One since there has been such a gap between book releases, so before Ready Player Two arrives at the end of the month, I’ll probably try to squeeze in a re-read.
Also, since I am mostly a mood reader, I might just pick up a book because it sounds interesting to me at any particular moment. We’ll just have to see what happens.
How was your October? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll be back soon with more bookish content.
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