Hey Bookish people!
So I’ve been in a reading bubble the past few days! This month’s reading challenge made me realize that there is a book releasing Tuesday and I needed to catch back up on the 1st one before the 2nd comes in! For those who are curious, it is the crazy new booktok read at the moment, Fourth Wing (more on the book below since it is making it on the list for this month’s reading. ALSO, Christopher Paolini, the author of Eragon series is releasing his next book this month too. Which was another series I’ve been catching back up on so I know what is going on! Do any of you re-read stories before the next one is out? Most of the time I scan through to my favorite parts. But there are a few where it has been years since I’ve read anything on them and I have to do a bit more extensive reading sessions to remember everything.
The next month is starting the busy season for a lot of us. The holidays are always full of family time and I do love a chance to cook some yummy food for people! I always still need to buy gifts for nearly everyone one on my Christmas list still. Why do we always wait till the end lol! But hey, it’s nearly everyone this year instead of needing to get something for everyone at this point. So progress is happening in my struggle to adult throughout the year! Woot!
On another high note, I’ve reach 95 books finished out of my 115 book Goodreads Reading Challenge goal for 2023! Not going to lie, I was getting a little worried last month with I was 9 books behind at one point. I was able to find a stretch of both time and enthralling books that I was flying through within 2 weeks. That really helped to jump me closer to being caught up. A few of my family members are either at or beating their goals for the year. My sister had a goal of 24 and has flown by it hitting 37 books so far. My husband has reached 9 out of 10 for his reading goal this year. I love seeing how many books my friends and family have read. Most of the time I find a really good one to read mixed in their piles. What book count are you guys at for the year?
Hope your November goes amazing! Eat some extra yummy food with family and friends on Thanksgiving. Enjoy the fantastic Macy’s Day Parade! And good luck on gift shopping.
Talk with you all next month!
Reading Theme: Notable November
#Booktok anyone? This month we are going all in with the latest and the most buzzed about books for 2023. I always love hearing about the books that are causing a stir in the book community. Sometimes they are stories that are brand new and have landed on a huge popularity wave. They do great and I commend the authors for hitting it strong straight out of the gate. Then there are the books that have been around for a minute, but then the public’s eye finally shines on them and people find the hidden gems. There are a mix of both types in the list below. There are some that I can barely walk around without hearing people talking about them. The others are ones that people are bringing back from the shelves and almost challenging people to read them and see if they can make it without crying/laughing/quitting you get the picture. Alright, here’s our November reads!
Wha’cha got for me BookTok? I’m ready!
Happy Reading Everyone!
My Reading List for November 2023:
Fourth Wing By Rebecca Yarros
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
The Serpent & The Wings of Night By Carissa Broadbent
The adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, Oraya carved her place in a world designed to kill her. Her only chance to become something more than prey is entering the Kejari: a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death herself.
But winning won’t be easy amongst the most vicious warriors from all three vampire houses. To survive, Oraya is forced to make an alliance with a mysterious rival.
Everything about Raihn is dangerous. He is a ruthless vampire, an efficient killer, an enemy to her father’s crown… and her greatest competition. Yet, what terrifies Oraya most of all is that she finds herself oddly drawn to him.
But there’s no room for compassion in the Kejari. War for the House of Night brews, shattering everything that Oraya thought she knew about her home. And Raihn may understand her more than anyone – but their blossoming attraction could be her downfall, in a kingdom where nothing is more deadly than love.
It Ends With Us By Colleen Hoover
Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up — she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.
Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.
As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.
A Little Life By Hanya Yanagihara
When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they’re broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity.
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.
Assistant to the Villain By Hannah Nicole Maehrer
ASSISTANT WANTED: Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, levelheaded assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem, terror, and other Dark Things In General. Discretion a must. Excellent benefits.
With ailing family to support, Evie Sage’s employment status isn’t just important, it’s vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn’s most infamous Villain results in a job offer—naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don’t find evil so attractive, Evie.
But just when she’s getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat…and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain—and his entire nefarious empire—out.
Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work…and ensure he makes them pay.
After all, a good job is hard to find.
