It is all mostly over, for now, but this is what many people's neighborhoods all over California looked like last week as well as earlier in the month. I was blessed to have no fires within view of my home but after three years in a row, we are coming to awareness that life has changed.
Today it looks more like this:
Despite all my drama I managed to meet my books read goal for the month. A mix of difficult and/or long reads, shorter smooth reads, and another 5 picture books to complete my 1990s Caldecott award winners study and I sailed into November feeling accomplished, smarter and entertained.
Stats: 14 books read. 13 fiction. 10 written by women. 2 mystery/thriller. 2 speculative/fantasy. 3 historical fiction. 2 myth-based. 2 for my Big Fat Reading Project. 1 biographical. 5 picture books.
Countries where I went: United States, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Scotland, France.
Authors new to me: Alix E Harrow, E M Forster, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, Dorothy Dunnett
Favorites: The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Golem, The Nickel Boys
Least favorite: Black and White
How was your reading in October? Have you read any of these? What were your favorites?
The fires are terrible. I am glad to hear that they were not near you.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on meeting your book goal. Happy reading in November.
Thanks, Brian. Same to you.
DeleteWhat an eclectic mix! I'm glad that, despite all that nature and literature threw at you, you managed to accomplish your reading goals and feel the better for it. It's good too that today looks like a partly cloudy day with some azure peeking through.
ReplyDeleteJust like many of my favorite books, it all had a happy ending!
DeleteIn October I read The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (4*), The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman (4*), and half of Things in Jars by Jess Kidd. You got me interested in The 1000s Doors... but I won't be able to get to it this year since, if I don't hit a slump, I intend to read the Spanish version of Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende (to be released in January in English).
ReplyDeleteOh Carmen, I am so happy to hear about your reading. A friend is going to lend me The Dutch House as soon as she is done reading it. I wish for you no slumps. How incredibly wonderful it would be to read Allende in Spanish! I am so looking forward to Long Petal of the Sea. What a title!
DeleteThat looks like another good month of reading. I have a copy of The Ten Thousand Doors of January which I'm hoping to start in the next few days, so I'm glad you liked it!
ReplyDeleteI liked it immensely! It will be the next book I review when I get back to reviewing the novels I read last month. I wonder how you will find it.
Delete'Nickel Boys' is on my interest list. LOVE the cover to 'Mirette on the High Wire'.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised how much I did like The Nickel Boys. Mirette on the High Wire is just as beautiful on every page. It was one of my favorites of the picture books.
DeleteGood job in October! I want to read The Nickel Boys. Those constant fires out in CA are just devastating.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Diane. The Nickel Boys is just amazing. I had read and been mightily impressed with The Underground Railroad, but he went and outdid his own self.
Deletei really wonder what Calif is going to plan for these seemingly disastrous seasonal fires... and i am curious about Snowflake Bentley, for one... 14 books in a month is... amazing!
ReplyDeleteYes, it will be interesting to see what develops. It seems that the power lines need to be underground for one thing. I set a goal for reading a certain amount of books this year and so far I am making it, but the picture books average at 32 pages each, so I dodged a bullet with those. It has been really inspiring to study all the illustrators of those books.
DeleteThe fires are big news over here in The Netherlands every time. The kids in my classroom are always shocked to see it...
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a great reading month, though! I hope November brings you only good stuff :)
Good to know you are keeping the kids in your classroom up on the news. I hope your November reading is good too!
DeleteI met my (much more modest) goal of seven books in October, of which a remarkable five were five-star reads for me. It was a very good month.
ReplyDeleteGood for you! Glad to hear your picks were so rewarding.
DeleteThe fires are terrifying... sad to think of it as a new reality. Good job meeting your October reading goals! The Nickel Boys was my first book of November and it's hard for me to imagine anything else topping it this month. My favorite October book was Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb.
ReplyDeleteThe Nickel Boys is just amazing. Thanks for letting us know your favorites!
DeleteSounds like we both had a great month of reading! I haven't read any of these, but I want to read A Passage to India, The Girl in the Tower and The Game of Kings. Happy November reading. :-)
ReplyDeleteWe did! The three you mention were probably the most meaningful books of the month for me.
Delete14 books is great! Also looks like you read some awesome ones! I read 40 but not all of them were the best...
ReplyDeleteYou read 40?!? OMG. That is more than one per day. Alright, the gauntlet is thrown-:)
DeleteWell done! And the Harrow's book does indeed sound really good
ReplyDeleteThanks, Emma. The Ten Thousand Doors of January is amazing, I think. I guess it is not for everyone (what novel is?) because the other members of a reading group I read it for did not like it at all. I was the lucky recipient of their choice!
DeleteDespite the fires, you had another terrific reading month, Congrats Judy. The Nickel Boys was excellent, I agree. I'm quite curious about A Kind of Freedom .... and might read the author's latest one. & I'll look for Blood Lure at the library. ps. I'm flying to Palm Springs in mid-November ... so try to keep the fires out of the desert & inland empire if you can .... any time that wind whips up it's scary
ReplyDeleteYou know, it's like when I used to smoke, I could always smoke no matter how sick I was. Now I can always read no matter what is going on! But I don't have any super powers when it comes to these fires. I'll try.
DeleteAnother interesting selection. I've read A Passage to India and Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead but not "The Nickel Boys. Something to look forward to, I guess.
ReplyDelete"Snowflake Bentley" sounds really fascinating, as you know, hubby is a keen photographer. "The Ten Thousand Doors of January" also sounds intriguing.
Glad you found some books to interest you!
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