November Wrap-Up | Lots of Reading and Time With Family and Friends

Hey, everyone! I hope you’re all doing well. We are on to the last month of the year, can you believe it? 2022 is right around the corner, which is really shocking. I say this a lot, I know–you probably get tired of listening to me talk about it, but whatever. We’ll still talk about it. But for now, I’ll spare you that and instead of talking about the future, I’ll talk about the past: my wrap-up for November!

BOOKS READ

I managed to read 5 books this month, which I’m really happy about! I did not think that I would get to this many, but two of them I listened to on audiobook and that increased the amount of books I finished. I had a few long car rides over Thanksgiving break so I had an opportunity to listen to them. Also, I’ve added a new thing to the reading section. The emojis represent if I read a physical copy (📖), an ebook (📱), or listened to the audiobook (🎧).

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Up All Night by Laura Silverman (editor)|📖|★★★★
This was my first anthology read and I really enjoyed it. There were some stories that I liked better than others but overall, I found something to like about all of them. I’m always amazed at how much meaning an author can put into so few words. I can’t pick a favorite, but I liked the ones that focused on friendships, learning how to mend broken relationships and finding out that some aren’t able to be fixed.

The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris|📖|★★★★
This was such a cool book! Seeing the future of everything you touch was a great concept . Alex was a great protagonist and a well-crafted character. I loved watching his and Isaiah’s relationship build and how they grew together from their similar struggles. The different topics were handled really well, specifically racism and the difficulties of being a Black man in America.

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi|🎧|★★★★
I have some conflicted feelings on this one. I liked most of the characters, but Séverin really annoyed me at times. His intentions were good but his way of getting them weren’t. Some of his actions were unnecessary and harsh. Also, all the overly descriptive details about Séverin and Laila’s love life; it was too much information. On the other hand, I did like the found family and the other characters. I loved how Enrique, Zofia, Tristan, and Hypnos were able to create their own family, along with Laila and Séverin.

The Princess Will Save You by Sarah Henning|📖|★★★★
This was a fun book! While it was only loosely based on The Princess Bride, I could see the aspects of it that were added into this story. Aramande was a strong lead, with enough bravery for everyone. And Luca! He was so sweet and I didn’t want anything happening to him. He seemed a bit too “perfect” though; I couldn’t find anything inherently negative about him.

The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi|🎧|★★★.5
Even with the aspects that annoyed me in The Gilded Wolves, I couldn’t just stop there, so I continued on to the next book. The plot was really interesting, albeit a little slow, and the worldbuilding was awesome. The characters were great as well, though Séverin changed so much. The one thing that really bugged me with The Silvered Serpents was their blatant lack of communication. I won’t say anything because of spoilers, but there are some moments when the characters don’t share necessary information or disregard something.

STARTED THIS MONTH BUT STILL CR

TBR FOR DECEMBER

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I hope to keep up the good reading so I can finish off 2021 with some good books. Here are some I’m looking forward to in December:

• The Queen Will Betray You by Sarah Henning – I’m looking forward to reading the sequel to The Princess Will Save You. The characters in the first book were great and I’m eager to learn more about them and what happens next on their journey.
• The Bronzed Beasts by Roshani Chokshi – I’m hoping that the conclusion to The Gilded Wolves series will be a good one. Also, I haven’t mentioned this yet, but the covers for all three books in this trilogy are so pretty. I love the gilding done to them.
• When All the Girls Are Sleeping by Emily Arsenault – I have not read a mystery book in a long time so I figured to get back into them. This also dips a bit into the horror genre, but I’m looking forward to it all the same. I’ve never read a horror novel or many murder mysteries, so this will be a first.

MY POSTS

This was my first month back at blogging since my hiatus and I think I did pretty well! The Tuesday and Friday schedule worked for the most part so I’m going to keep doing that. Here are my posts for the month:

• September & October Wrap-Up|Back From Hiatus, Blog Redesign, and New Blogging Schedule (maybe?)
• A (Very Late) Birthday Book Haul|I Got 6 New Books!
• Series Review: Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi|An Imaginative, Nigerian-Influenced Fantasy
• Let’s Talk Bookish: What Truly Makes a Blog Hiatus?
• Let’s Talk Bookish: Do You Keep Up With New Releases?

AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE

I tried to bloghop as much as I could this month but, like normal, I forgot to note down the posts I wanted to add in this wrap-up. So this list will be a bit shorter than normal. I feel like I say this in all my wrap-ups, but it’s true.

• Rania @ Rania’s Rambling Reads did an interview with Elisa A. Bonnin, author of Dauntless.
• Phoenix @ Books With Wings did the Bookish Blog Tag.
• Ritz @ Living, Loving, and Reading recommended 5 contemporary novels releasing in 2022.
• Dini @ Dinipandareads wrote a review for You’ll Be the Death of Me.
• Belle @ This Belle Reads Too did the Aesthete Blogger Award.
• Anoushka @ Dipped in Ink did the Get to Know to Fantasy Reader Tag.
• Annemieke @ A Dance With Books shared eight 2022 sci-fi releases she’s looking forward to.
• Sofii @ A Book. A Thought shared new releases for December 2021.

I always feel like I ramble on about my WIP in this section, not sure if you enjoy reading it, but it’s what I got on a writing update. I didn’t write much in November, but I looked back over my writing and thought about what I want to do with it. I didn’t feel in the writing mood a lot, which was unfortunate, but I looked over what I’ve written so far in my third draft and planned out what I want to do next. I know my whole plot line, but I need to work on really solidifying and improving it. I feel like I’ve been procrastinating on it, but I just haven’t been feeling like working on it lately. I have three weeks of winter break, so I’m hoping that towards the end of the month, when that happens, I’ll actually make some progress on it.

I had a pretty good month! There weren’t a whole lot of events that occurred but here are a few things that happened:

• I did some community service near my house with some friends, at a hiking place and it was a lot of fun! I had to clear overgrowth from the trail and we did a lot of work. Many of the branches were dead so they were easy to pull out by hand. There was a lot of satisfaction with seeing all of our work we did.
• I went to Disneyland! My family went during Thanksgiving break and it was really fun. It was way more crowded than I thought it would be, because of COVID and limited capacity, but apparently, they weren’t keeping track of the amount of people in the park. My family was very careful and everything but a lot of people weren’t wearing masks. I wasn’t exactly surprised at that, but I wish they would’ve been more considerate. All in all, I had a really great time there. We went to my aunt and uncle’s afterwards for Thanksgiving and I had a great time with them and my cousins.

November Goals:

• Read at least 4 books ✅
• Post at least 5 times ✅
• Referee courses (at least start them) ❌
• Work on WIP – Ehh, kind of?

December Goals:

• Read at least 4 books
• Post at least 5 times
• Referee courses
• Work on WIP

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How was your November? Did you read any good books?
Do you have any fun plans for December?