Wrap Up: October 2018 or that was a pretty bad reading month.

This was not my best reading month, especially during the last half. I really hope November will be better.

Books I read in October

1. The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker: 4 out of 5 stars
2. Young Skins: Stories by Colin Barrett: 3 out of 5 stars
3. Ongoingness: The End of a Diary by Sarah Manguso: 4,5 out of 5 stars
4. Iron and Magic (The Iron Covenant #1) by Ilona Andrews: 3 out of 5 stars
5. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson: 4 out of 5 stars
6. A Guide To Being Born by Ramona Ausubel: 5 out of 5 stars

Favourite of the Month:

I loved A Guide to Being Born – definitely the best short story collection I have read this year.

I also adored Ongoingness; it’s one of those books that make me want to read every single thing the author has ever written.

Stats(ish):

I finished six books with 1530 pages (the worst month I had this year). Of these six books, four were written by women, one by a man, and the last one was written by a couple. I read two short story collections, one memoir, one creative non-fiction book, one speculative fiction novel and one Urban Fantasy book.

Currently Reading:

To many, obviously.

Books I should get to soon:

Oh god, all of them. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the books I want to be reading because my last few weeks have been so bad. I definitely want to read City of Broken Magic before its release on the 20th and I am not sure I can wait much longer to read The Winter of the Witch – Katherine Arden is one of my favourites.

(Some of the) blog posts I loved:

Chelsea articulates all the ragey feelings I had about that stupid tor.com best finished SFF series list and offers a number of diverse books that were snubbed.

Cathy reviews one of my all time favourite novels, Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. She also gives a wonderful list of recommendations of Northern Irish literature that you should definitely check out.

Lisa’s review for The City of Brass is one of the reasons why I haven’t thrown the towel yet – her review promises a firework of an ending for a book I have been struggling with.

Michael reviews two of Maggie Nelson’s books, both of which I adore.

Cat talked about her Man Booker predictions and obviously I love it.

Rachel’s coverage of the Man Booker Prize was exceptional and her recap was super satisfying to read. She read the whole longlist!