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randomsofmine · 7 years ago

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October Wrap Up

Really good month. And yet again I signed up for a ridiculous number of readathons. I’ve participated in Victober, Zoes 24-hour Readathon and Deweys 24 Hour Readathon (*). I’m still participating the House Cup Reading Challenge (+), which is a month-long readathon that started part way through October.Some of my books have overlapped with other readathons so I’ve added a little symbol to note which is which.I’m also thinking of taking part in Tome Topple Round 5 in November. I managed to read 15 books for a total of 5207 pages.

Strange Magic (Essex Witches, book 1) by Syd Moore

This was pretty interesting in terms of the history info it gave. I was unaware that certain parts of England had a higher concentration of witch trials than others. It was an ok mystery. The main female character had some moments that made me not like her. She tended to be pretty judgmental. I could see myself picking up the sequel at some point but I probably won’t be breaking doors down to get to it. 3.5/5

How To Be A Heroine: Or, what I’ve learned from reading too much by Samantha Ellis

This is sort of a memoir as well as a discussion on popular female characters. The author is re-reading certain books while looking back at her life and seeing how those books shaped her as a person. There were some interesting thoughts and I liked how the authors' original opinion on some characters had changed after re-reading their book years later. 3/5

Victober 2017

Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

This was a re-read for me. I first read it for an English Lit course and loved it. And I still love it. It's so odd and dark and full of weird impossible events. Victor is the worst. 4/5

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Another re-read. But I feel like that I never actually finished it the first time around as I have no memory of the ending. My only real criticism of this is is that Mina Harker is put into the secretarial role. This horrible creature is coming after her and they have her typing up notes. 4/5

Classic Ghost Stories by Various +

This is a mish-mash of several short stories by Charles Dickens and M. R. James. There were some good ones and some less so.My favorite was the Signalman and Rats. 3/5

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

My love for Elizabeth Gaskell grows with every book. This explores the life of a small town doctors daughter when her father re-marries and her friendship with the local rich family. It is an unfinished novel as Gaskell died before finishing it.Even without the ending, it's still fairly clear on the outcome and that doesn’t spoil it at all. It's an excellent story full of wonderful and somewhat absurd characters.I enjoyed it so much. 5/5

House Cup Reading Challenge

Assassins Quest (Farseer Trilogy, book 3) by Robin Hobb

The final book in the Farseer trilogy. Such a good ending to the 3 books. If you wanted you could leave it here and be satisfied but I will be continuing on to her other works that link to this.It does get pretty dark and a bit weird but it is so good. 5/5

The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur *

I read Milk and Honey at the beginning of the year and fell in love. I’m not a poetry lover normally but it blew me away. My copy is now earmarked with my fave ones.I really enjoyed her second book. Possibly slightly less than Milk and Honey but only a smidge. Emotional and full of lines that just speak to me. 4/5

Death at the Fountain Abbey (Tom Hawkins, book 3) by Antonia Hodgson

Somehow I accidentally bought the 3rd book in this series.To be fair the summery on the back didn’t indicate that it was a part of a series.Checking reviews, I was told that I could read it as a stand alone. I’m not entirely sure that’s 100% true but they did give you the background of the characters and some of the events in the other two books. I really enjoyed this. The main character wasn’t an overly clever detective. He was surrounded by characters of dubious quality. The mystery was interesting and a bit weird. I’m definitely planning on picking up the other books. 4/5

The Moomins (The Invisible Child and The Fir Tree) by Tove Jansson *

Two cute short stories from the Moomin world. I adore the Moomins and had never read the actual books. It was very cute and enjoyable. 4/5

The Witches by Roald Dahl *

I think The Witches is one of the few Roald Dahl books that I haven’t read before. It was so good. Twisty and funny and bonkers as all his books are.Much darker than I thought it would be.Perfect for the 24 hour readathon. 3.5/5

The Wicked and The Divine, vol. 6 by Kieron Gillian *

This gets stronger and stronger with every volume. The mystery surrounding the characters deepens even further and we get to see a couple of the characters backgrounds. We also get to see them deal (rather badly) with the fallout of the last volume. 4/5

The Grendel Affair (SPI Files series, book 1) by Lisa Shearin*

I’m a massive fan of Lisa Shearin’s Raine Benares series. I’ve re-read it at least twice.And I have read this book before, I just failed to continue on with the rest of the books. So I decided I needed to re-read the first book again before I could continue on. It was such a joy to re-read. Its a fun, smart urban paranormal fantasy with some interesting characters and creatures. I like the mesh of supernatural creatures working in SPI. Now I need to pick up the second book. 4/5

The Duchess Deal (Girl Meets Duke series, book 1) by Tessa Dare

Historical romances are my comfort food. They are just always so easy and fun to read and perfect for palate cleansing in between heavy fantasy books or for when I’m feeling slumpy or unhappy with the world. Tessa Dare is one of my fave romance authors. Her books are always a good read and this was no less. I couldn’t put it down.It was just so good.The romance was really good and believable. Can’t wait to pick up her next book. 5/5

You (You series, book 1) by Caroline Kepnes

Good lord, creepy.So very creepy.I’m not usually a fan of creepy books especially ones about stalkers but this was surprisingly good. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the whole book. I think one of my favorite aspects is that all the characters are terrible, terrible people, not just the main character Joe, which is very unusual.Seeing things from Joe’s POV is an odd sensation, there were points where I found myself siding with him. His actions seemed reasonable for a second before my brain snapped back to reality, which really speaks to the author's skill.I read this via audiobook which really helped me get into Joes’ mind frame which is really really scary.I’m not sure if I will pick up the sequel as it seemed a good stopping point and I don’t see how the second book can top this but you never know. 4/5

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