October/November Wrap up

It’s time for a reading wrap-up. As I was on hiatus in November I didn’t do my October wrap up so I have combined it with November’s as both months were fairly light on reading compared to other months. As it’s a double month wrap up I don’t have the graphs for you (sorry stats fans) but I do have the numbers.

WRAP-UP STATS

BOOKS:
October – 12
November – 5

PAGES:
October – 2686
November – 1666

(Page count includes Audiobook page numbers)

Actually looking at the two side by side like that I had a better reading month in October than I thought. October was when I reached my Goodreads goal of 100 books in a year! in 2018 I read a total of 101 books and I have already beaten that by a good amount so I am very pleased.

GENRES:

There was a mix of genres over the two months. Fantasy only made up 5 out of the 17 reads, Sci-fi made a comeback with 6 reads, there were two mysteries and four graphic novels (three from the same contemporary series and one fantasy)

AUDIENCE:

My Audience to a move towards the Adult over YA too. With the split being 11 books marketed to general audiences and 6 towards YA. It’s mostly the Sci-fi that bumped that up as all of them were general audience.

FORMAT:

Paperbacks and digital ruled. I think it was because I was carrying all my planning notebooks for Nanowrimo that I just didn’t want to lug hardbacks around too-

EARCs – 3 (including a graphic novel)
Paperbacks – 10
Ebooks -3
Audiobook only – 1

RATINGS:

5 STARS: 3

4.5 STARS: 1

4 STARS: 6

3.5 STARS: 4

3 STARS: 3

WHAT I READ –

OCTOBER:

White Cat
Holly Black
3 stars

This was actually my first Holly Black and I enjoyed it. It wasn’t amazing but it was a fun little heist like story.

The Black Hawks
David Wragg
5 stars

This was a great read! It’s filled with great characters, detailed worldbuilding and twists and turns galore. I have a full spoiler free review written closer to the time of reading that goes into more detail.

Black Mage
Daniel Barnes, DJ Kirkland
4 stars

This graphic novel was fun to read with a great plot and amazing graphics. Again I have a full review here.

A Murder is announced
Agatha Christie
3 stars

You cant go wrong with a bit of Christie. I tend to use her to break out of reading slumps. While not one of my favourites it is still an interesting enough mystery. Though this one does have a line that refers to Marple as a “4 star Pussy”, which I ashamedly giggled out loud about.

Just one Damn thing After Another
Jodi Taylor
4.5 Stars

This triggered my Sci-Fi kick and my Jodi Taylor kick at that. I just devoured this book. Again I have a review for it.

I then went on to read Two short stories:
The Very First Damned Thing and When A Child is Born which I gave 5 Stars and 4 Stars respectively

I also read the 2nd book in the series A Symphony Of Echoes which I gave 4 stars. I will be reviewing these shortly.

Appointment with Death
Agatha Christie
4 Stars

Yes another cheeky Christie slipped on to the list, this time a Poirot. I just seem to enjoy the Poirot miysteries more. I love a good evidence list, and a good parlour scene.

Fence Vol#1-3
3.5 Stars

I gave all three in this series 3.5 stars. They are lovely contemporary graphic novels based around a fencing school. I weirdly spent a large amount of my undergrad with people from the fencing team so I enjoyed reading about the competitions. The overall storyline was a little slow, as volumes 2 and 3 take place over a single day.

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NOVEMBER:

Deeplight
Frances Hardinge
4 Stars

I was very fortunate to be granted an ARC of this beautiful book. It was a truly enchanting read Hardinge is a master and worldbuilding creating such atmospheric and interesting worlds. I will have a full review up very soon.

Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers.
Grant Naylor
3 Stars

If you are a Red dwarf fan you will most likely be very familiar with 80% of the plot in this book which is what it only achieved a 3 star rating. It does add little expansions to the familiar story and Chris Barrie is excellent at impersonating his fellow cast members in the audio narration. But on the whole the TV show is just as good a time.

This is How you Loose the Time War
Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
5 Stars

This was just a Gorgeous piece of Sci-if. An epistolary love story told through time and space between members of vastly different Alien races. The language is gorgeous the universe building is phenomenal and it just broke my heart. i will have a full review very soon but it is definitely in the running for one of my favourites of the year.

The Mortal Word and The Secret chapter
Genevieve Cogman
Both 4 Stars

I received the eARC of The Secret Chapter and realised I couldn’t remember anything about where the story left off so i re-read and rated The Mortal Word via the ESCAPE system. I really enjoy this series its just a fun romp. We have political intrigue and murder mystery in The Mortal Word and a heist/caper in The Secret chapter so they are never boring. I will be reviewing both very shortly.

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So that is my reading for the past two months. I read some great books and will have a good number of reviews heading your way.

What did you read last month? Have you read any of the above? What did you think?