What did you read in October?

[Vespasia]

It's that time again! What did you read last month? Anything you would recommend?

If you have a reading goal, how are you doing?

[travella]

Mediocre month for books, no stand outs. I have a goal of 45 books. I have read 80 so far. I have already read more books and more pages than I have any other year.

3*
Running Grave by Robert Galbraith (3.5*) (good, but didn't grab me like prior books)
The Lost Letter by Jillian Cantor (too simple and fluffy for my preference)

2*
Starter Villain by John Scalzi (I went in figuring this book wasn't for me, but wanted something fun for Halloween)
I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls by Ben Farthing (I went in figuring this book wasn't for me, but wanted something fun for Halloween)
Postcard by Anne Berest (the organization of this book did not work for me)
M*A*S*H by Richard Hooker (the tv show is much better than the book)

DNF
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (This appears to be beautifully written, but every time I tried to read it it put me to sleep. I may try to pick it up in the future)

[dove]

I read 2. I’ve been struggling with books lately
Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins - took me way too long to read. I felt the story lines were dragged out too long. It was a good storyline but excessively long
2* - The Woman in Me by Britney (don’t judge me). It was Britney. I didn’t expect a literary masterpiece. It’s sad what she had to endure.

ETA reading challenge goal was 20 for the year. I’m at 25

[estrellita]

Oof. I was in a major slump and only finished one book, Pageboy. I was also on a work trip last week so that didn't help!

I'm currently still ahead on my goal for the year at 33/36. Hopefully the new Fourth Wing book coming soon will help with that! But I also need to start on Crescent City because I already preordered the 3rd book coming in Jan 🤣 I liked her other two series so I'm sure I'll like this one, and there are some connections and mentions between the different series. So I should hopefully be just fine getting those last 3 books!

[CrazyLucky]

I read four books in October.

Leslie F*cking Jones - 1* awful. She is not a writer, and i didn't think it was that funny either.
Fractures 3* I get it, Will Trent has dyslexia. Too much of the plot depends on it.
Pastrix 3* The author is a former drug addict, heavily tattooed Lutheran Pastor. I like her take on things, but find her sometimes to be controversial just for the sake of being controversial.
Apples Never Fall 4* Liked this one a lot.

That makes 36 books for me so far this year.

Right now I'm reading a couple of ADHD books. DS and I went through a really good time, and now I feel like we're butting heads again a lot, so I'm trying to do some more reading to help get us back to that good place.

[tacokick]

I read an obscene amount of books this month. This year is going to be way above my usual. I’m already pretty close to my all-time high since I started tracking in 2017.

Standouts:

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

One of the Girls by Lucy Clarke



Okay but could have been better:

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy by Charles Busch

Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste

[Vespasia]

I read more than normal this month! I'm at 69/52 for the year. I read 80 books last year so I'd really like to meet that number again but we'll see. 

Starling House by Alix E. Harow - 5*
The Weaver and the Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec - 4*
A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand - 3.5*
Mister Magic by Kiersten White - 3.5*
The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen - 4*


Audio
Third Eye by Felicia Day - 4.5*


Kindle Shorts
Creature Feature Collection:
The Pram by Joe Hill
Ankle Snatcher by Grady Hendrix (best of the 6)
It Waits in the Woods by Josh Malerman
In Bloom by Peter Tremblay
Best of Luck by Jason Mott
Big Bad by Chandler Baker

The Lover by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Hazel and Gray by Nic Stone 

[charlatti]

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano was my only standout — the focus on grief and family hit me in all the right places right now.
The Heart of It All by Christian Kiefer and Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig came in at 4 stars. Both good and memorable in very different ways.

3 stars:
The Golden Gate by Amy Chua (good characters, kind of slow mystery)
Dead Man’s Wake by Paul Doiron

2 very unimpressed stars to Under the Influence by Noelle Crooks. This was a very silly book.

[dearprudence]

5*
Masters of Death

4*
Reluctant Immortals
Strange Practice
Dracul

3*
Suburban Hell
My Roommate is a Vampire
Cruel Illusions

Reading goals were more nonfiction and more owned books. I've read 10 nonfiction this year and 16 owned books - both an increase over last year's overall total.

[waverly]

1*
Fatal Crossing- DNF unable to handle overly dense writing style.

2*
The Summer Job
A Thousand Ships- DNF

3*
Better Living Through Birding- skimmed this
Happy Life of Isadora Bentley
Never Enough
Pines

4*
Carrie Sotto is back
Other Birds
Good Neighbors- Usually I would hate a book like this, but I guess I was in the right mood for it.

[mrspez07]

A slow month for me and I’m not likely to meet my goal.

Audio:
Go as A River 4*

Visual:
Searching for Sylvie Lee 4*
A Peculiar Combination 3*