November Discussion Post

[monkiainen]

It's time for our monthly discussion post! This post will remain open for you to contribute at any time, so no pressure. Even if you didn't get around to reading any of your selected books or opted out of participating for the month, you're still more than welcome to take part in the discussion.

Please copy and paste this in the comments!
<b>Who was your buddy this month?</b><br /><b>What books were chosen for you?</b><br /><b>Did you manage to read your books? Which ones?</b><br /><b>If you read more than one, did you enjoy them? What was your favorite?</b><br /><b>Would you recommend your chosen book(s)?</b><br /><b>Did you read anything else this month, outside of your chosen books?</b>

Comments

[fred_mouse]

Lots to report from me! Over at the readingtogether November readalong I set a goal of finishing 8 books, and I've focused on some of the books that have been picked for me over the last year and a bit that I’ve been participating here. So many of these books that I’d started, and then not allowed the time to finish -- it's been a year for having my reading disrupted.

• Yellowface (RF Kuang) - this was picked for me in May (by royalblue31), September (by einhornmaedchen) and in October (by colls). Sadly, I got about 25% of the way through, and decided that this was not for me. It is incredibly well written, but I did not like being in the viewpoint character's head, and I wasn’t finding that the plot/story was holding my attention well enough to keep going. This was the third of my books from September, so one month finished with :)
• Also from May, I finished Ink Girls (Marieke Nijkamp) which was the last of the books picked for me that month. I'm yet to review this one; still thinking about how I feel about it. It was a difficult book to read, because while it is a middle grade graphic novel, some of the topics covered hit pretty hard, and I could often only read one chapter in a week.
• From my november list, I’ve started The Between (Tananarive Due) which is hard going. Very well written, but I’m still in the set up section of the horror, and I’m finding the dysfunctional relationship between the viewpoint character and their partner difficult to read. I haven't started either of the other two, but I have found one of them and put them on the bedside shelf.
• From October, I’ve made progress on both of the remaining books: Sorcerer’s Son (Phyllis Eisenstein), and The Reformatory (Tananarive Due). Having two horror novels by Tananarive Due picked back to back has been difficult. I'm about half way through Sorcerer's Son, but only a couple of chapters into The Reformatory.
• And a very late finish, from September 2023: I finished All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages - Saundra Mitchell. 3.5 stars (review)

[monkiainen]

Who was your buddy this month? lynnlee722
What books were chosen for you? Watchers by Dean Koontz, Dress Code for Small Towns by Courtney C. Stevens, Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moira Fowley-Doyle
Did you manage to read your books? Which ones? I read Watchers
If you read more than one, did you enjoy them? What was your favorite? n/a
Would you recommend your chosen book(s)? I would very much recommend Watchers if you enjoy works of Stephen King and alike. Very captivating book!
Did you read anything else this month, outside of your chosen books? I read Depraved Heart and Chaos by Patricia Cornwell

[yourivy]

Who was your buddy this month?fred_mouse
What books were chosen for you?
-> "The Atlas Six" by Olivie Blake
-> "Race to the Sun" by Rebecca Roanhorse
-> "Wenn ich wiederkomme" by Marco Balzano

Did you manage to read your books? Which ones?Sadly, I did not :( This past month happened to be so turbulent that I just did not get around to going to the library. I apologize for that since I know my buddy took the time and energy out of their day just to pick these books for me...I am just going to read them in December now!
If you read more than one, did you enjoy them? What was your favorite?n/a
Would you recommend your chosen book(s)?n/a
Did you read anything else this month, outside of your chosen books?
I did, but only two D: this has been my worst reading month this year! In my defense, one of them had over 800 pages, and the one I am currently on has almost 900.

The ones I did finish were
-> "Insonmnia" by Stephen King &
-> "Gebt mir etwas Zeit" (Give me some time) by Hape Kerkeling, a German comedian. The book is about his endeavours into genealogy, told alternatingly in fictionalized accounts about his ancestors in the 17th century and his growing up and developing into the person & comedian he is today, from the 1970s to the present. A very good and captivating read for sure.
I am currently sludging my way through "To Paradise" by Hanya Yanagihara and might finish it by the end of the month, not sure though.