November Month in Review

December 1, 2016

month in review

Newsworthy

Wow! November seemed to fly past. There were so many great things which happened this month. Most noteworthy:

I spent Thanksgiving participating in the #ThanksgivingReadathon with Ottavia at Novels & Nonfiction, and that helped me catch up quite a bit! It was a ton of fun participating in a tiny readathon, and it was totally worth it. I definitely pushed myself and I didn’t make my all goals, but that’s okay. It was a great motivator to work on completing my reading challenges (Soooooo behind).

Lastly, in case you didn’t see in my previous post: I GOT ENGAGED! I am super excited. Because duh.

engagement-ring

…It’s so pretty. And shiny. I love shiny things. Just like the raccoons in Where the Red Fern Grows. Only, I like to think of myself as smarter. Smarter than those super smart raccoons. …Well, perhaps.

 

List of Reads

My book reviewing slump has not improved, sadly. I read 17 books in November but I only wrote three reviews. Oops! Now you know the secret as to why there aren’t more reviews posted. I keep trying to take a day and catch back up, but suddenly it became the holidays and now I’m a whopping 20 book reviews behind. Oops. We’ll see if I ever get to these. Perhaps this is what I’ll do when I need a people break around Christmas? <shrugs>

November Books:

Read 17 total books

november-4 november-3 november-1 november-2

3 star

3 star

 

Currently Reading – 7 books

  • Creating a Lean Culture: Tools to Sustain Lean Conversations by David Mann
  • Influencer: The Power to Change Anything by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Greeny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Swizler
  • Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof
  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  • The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

(Yikes. Most of these books have still been here for multiple months…I bet at this point they are coming with me into 2017.)

 

You MUST READ this month:
The shocker for me this month was certainly What’s A Soulmate? I do not like romances, particularly not YA romance novels. And yet… this novel completely took me by surprise. I spent many long moments contemplating if this was a 4- or 5-star novel– but in the end, I went for 5 stars. Believable characters, a fascinating premise, and unique round-about ways of dealing with tropes. I loved every moment. The review for this book will be posted shortly!

Update: 12/2: You can find my review of What’s A Soulmate? here!

DANGER! Avoid this month:
I have to say that Naruto is being given up on, unfortunately. The manga is really challenging to follow– there are complicated frames with a lot of motion, and I can’t figure out who is fighting who and why. It is requiring just far too much mental energy. I do not plan on continuing reading the series. I know that many of you love Naruto– what am I missing? Convince me otherwise!

 

Challenge Update

It’s CRUNCH TIME PEOPLE! The Yearly challenges end in only 31 days. I definitely bit off more than I could chew this year. It looks like I’ll need to examine my involvement in challenges for 2017. The PopSugar 2017 Reading Challenge has been released, and it looks like a great one. Once Book Riot comes out with their own I might need to stop looking or end up in the same place at this time next year! There is something about reading challenges which are so appealing to me…

Check out my 2016 challenge statuses as they update here.

 

Tsundoku Life

It wouldn’t be tsundoku if I didn’t have a gigantic pile of books waiting for me! So many of the books listed below are to help me achieve the final stretch of my reading challenges. We’ll see how that goes…

TBR: Library Books

  • The Kingdom of Gods  by N. K. Jemisin
  • Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
  • A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
  • Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary

TBR: Lent from Friends

  • Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
  • When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
  • Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

NetGalley ARCs

  • A Perfect Score by Craig and Katheryn Hall
  • From Panel to Screen by Drew Morton
  • Year of No Clutter by Eve Schaub
  • The Meaning of Michelle by Veronica Chambers
  • The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
  • The Sky Between You and Me by Catherine Alene
  • Gilded Cage by Vic James
  • The Fallen Kingdom by Elizabeth May

Book Club Reading

  • Our Shared Shelf- Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou
  • Kids Lit – The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
  • West Side Stories – Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
  • Brunch Books – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

 

This is it. The end of the 2016 Reading Challenges. And 2016 as a whole! I can’t believe it! We shall see what happens with my reading challenge involvement going forward. I love them, but they can be a drain sometimes when I get to the end– after all, I’ve hit the point of the challenges I’m mostly reading books which are outside my comfort zone. It means I don’t read them that quickly, and I’m often not inspired to review them. Oops. Not that I haven’t read great books! I have… but… Lazy?

Good luck wrapping up all your challenges, friends!

Happy Reading,

Jackie B.

Jackie B Forman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


What do you think?

  • If you participate in reading challenges, are you on target to end your year as you planned it?
  • Will you be participating in any 2017 reading challenges? If so, do you know what ones?
  • What books did you ask for as holiday gifts? New recommendations are the best!

6 Comments

  • LizScanlon December 1, 2016 at 9:28 am

    You’re reading Brave New world/ that’s awesome.. i just received it in post from book depository today and I cannot wait to start it as well! defo look forward to your review on that one 🙂
    I read Catch 22 a few years ago… it was fun! One of my friends hated it but I got quite a few chuckles out of it… interesting to see what you think of it once you get around to reading this one 🙂
    And Gilded Gace- I so want to read this one. Have heard so many good things about it…

  • Diana December 1, 2016 at 10:58 am

    I missed your previous post but I’m heading there now.Congratulations on your engagement and that ring is gorgeous!

    17 books is impressive,all the best with the reviews.I only participated in the good reads reading challenge this year and I reached and actually doubled my target to read 50books this year.

    Have a wonderful December 🙂

  • Books, Vertigo and Tea December 1, 2016 at 11:49 am

    Well you rocked it this month <3 By the way, Brave New World is one of my faves! I hope you enjoy 🙂

  • wordsandotherbeasts December 1, 2016 at 3:09 pm

    Congrats on your engagement! That’s so exciting! And I can’t wait to see what you think of Brave New World. I studied it at university and loved it.

  • Amanda @Cover2CoverMom December 6, 2016 at 5:22 pm

    Congrats again on your engagement! Have you decided a date yet? 2017?

    Where the Red Fern Grows! Ugh that book made me ugly cry when I was in the 8th grade. I’m still not over it lol

    Looking forward to your thoughts on A Monster Calls! I thought it was a beautiful book.

    I only participate in the Goodreads Reading Challenge, which I set to 60 books in 2016. I have read 75 book thus far in 2016, so I did meet my goal 🙂

  • Read Diverse Books December 8, 2016 at 7:55 pm

    Congratulations about your engagement!!! I’m so happy for you. 🙂 <3 I haven't said anything yet because I keep most of my personal life private, but I also got engaged. hehehe. November has been a lovely month. 🙂

    I am also terribly behind on book reviews and I don't think I'll ever catch up, so I'll just try to write whatever I can and just move on. I don't want to stress myself out too much.

    You're..reading 7 books at a time? Good luck finishing them all haha!
    I'm not doing any reading challenges in 2017 other than the Goodreads one. I'll probably aim for 100, up from 75 in 2016 which I easily surpassed. So 100 is totally manageable!

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