October Monthly Recap

It is finally time for our October Monthly recap! Find out which books were favorites and which were duds. We’ll end our wrap up with a a list of books due out this month and a glimpse of our upcoming content. We also want to hear from you so let us know what you read this month and what you look forward to reading in November.

Jen: This year we’ve been doing an informal challenge to “read different.” You can read about that challenge here. Hopefully  you are also joining us! I only read 6 books in this month in part because October was a really busy work month for me. Unfortunately I also read very little that would work towards my goal of diverse reading. Here are my read different stats for the month:
books by women: 0 and I should get negative points for the fact that one of my books was the supremely misogynistic Rabbit Run.
translated works: 1 (The Warning Voice by Cao Xueqin
POC author: 1 (The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead)
featured LGBTQ characters: 0

So in sum, I did terribly with my read different goals. I plan to rectify that this month.

Favorite book read in October: Shockingly, my favorite book of the month was a YA book: The Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. I’ll be reviewing it later this month. Honorable mentions go to A Constellation of Vital Phenomena and the Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.

Least favorite book read in October: This was an easy one: Rabbit Run by Updike. The writing was brilliant but it was the sole reason it didn’t get 1-2 stars from me. I strongly disliked everything else about the book.

Future Goals: I’ve come to the realization that I’ll never have my TBR under control but I hope to get through my primary stack by end of year. I crossed off a few last month thanks to the Readathon. Some books I hope to read include: The Nix, Everybody’s Fool, Night Film, Purity, The Turner House, The Sympathizer, and a few Margaret Atwood books.

Book Worm: I also had a poor October in terms of books read, I managed a whole 7 although in my favour I did manage to clear 2 books from my TBR pile. In terms of quality of books read I had a good month as all the books were a minimum 3 stars and there were no books I hated, I read Rabbit Run a few years ago so I was spared that ordeal.

Favorite book read in October: One book really stood out for me in October and that was Swing Time by Zadie Smith (review to appear here soon) I absolutely loved this book and it is one of my favourites of the year so far and the winner of a rare 5 star rating.

Least favorite book read in October: I really don’t have a least favourite book this month and to choose one from my selection of good books would just be mean so I refuse 🙂

Future Goals: We are fast approaching the end of the year and I am behind on some of my 1001 challenges so my must reads are Anna Karenina, The Brothers Karamazov and The Dreamer Wakes. After I have achieved that I can then once again face my TBR pile.

What can you look forward to on our blog in November? Well, we keep saying that we’re back to our normal schedule but then things come up (Man Booker reviews). However, this month we mean it. We will be back to our usual blogging schedule which will include Read Around the World, Featured author, Terrible Reviews of Great Books, Love it or Hate it, and our regular 1001 list and non-list books. We’ll also be announcing our next reading challenge in the next few weeks.

November 2016 book releases. Quite a few books are coming out this month and several that I definitely want to read. Here are some of the ones that interest us the most:
Faithful by Alice Hoffman. Release date: November 1
Thus Bad Begins by Javier Maria. Release date: November 1
Judas by Amos Oz. Release date: November 8
Absolutely on Music by Haruki Murakami. Release date: November 15
Swing Time by Zadie Smith. Release date: November 15. Book Worm will be posting her review in the next few days.
The Spy by Paulo Coelho. Release date: November 15
Moonglow by Michael Chabon. Release date: November 22. Friends please note that this (along with the Amos Oz book) would make an excellent Christmas gift for yours truly!

We want to hear from you. So what are your plans for November? Which books were your favorites and least favorites in October? Those participating in the Read Different Challenge – What books did you read this month and how did they represent your read different goals?