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Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.
July 2025 Wrap Up
July went by in a whirlwind. I feel like I got a lot of things done, but I also feel like there’s still so much to do! And of course, my coping mechanism is reading for escapism, so the good news is that I got a lot of reading done this month. The bad news is that now I’ve got even more book reviews to catch up on, in addition to the ones I’m already behind on! 😅
My July 2025 TBR Intentions
I made my July TBR list based off a friendly team reading competition in my online bookclub for thick books, plus also books that had July deadlines. My team didn’t win unfortunately, but we had lots of fun! I also actually did pick up The Brothers Karamazov but in the last minute realized that my copy was the abridged version and it was too late to put a hold for the unabridged one. I wouldn’t have gotten it in time so I just let it go.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Revival by Stephen King
Notable Books This Month
Purple Hibiscus, and Atmosphere were the standouts for me this month. They both packed an emotional punch and made me feel all the feelings! I love books that make me feel, and these two did that the most for me. However, I cannot exclude The Count of Monte Cristo because it is one of my all-time favorite books that make me feel but it’s a reread and I’ve talked about it a lot already so I thought I’d let other books have a chance.
Also, I cannot not mention Sunrise on the Reaping, but I thought it’s a series and people who loved The Hunger Games don’t need convincing, and people who don’t love THG probably wouldn’t care for another book in the series. But I have to mention it because I need the world to know I personally loved it too!
August 2025 TBR Intentions
Every book on this list are books I have to read for August BOTMs or buddy reads with August deadlines. The Hunger Games series are rereads but I’m in the mood because I want to revisit after reading Sunrise on the Reaping. I’m probably going to end up reading other books based off my mood as well, but these are the priorities.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
The Keeper of Hidden Books by Madeline Martin
Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa
How was your month in July? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful August with lots of great books!
Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.
May and June 2025 Wrap Up
Hello my friends, I have been so very absent on the blog to the point that this month’s wrap up is actually a combination of May and June. I have posted some book reviews but only because I have a compulsive need to keep track of the books I read and record my thoughts about them. Even so, I’m far behind on keeping up to date on writing the reviews, and I haven’t replied to any comments in the last couple of months. I am so sorry!
A lot of things have happened that have kept me busy, but only two worth mentioning right now;
First, we lost one of our beloved cats, Loki, very unexpectedly earlier this month. One day, he was fine and perfectly happy as usual, the next day he started having seizures and vomiting. We took him to the vet in the afternoon, but he wasn’t getting better, and we ended up having to go back later that night to put him to sleep.
It was a horrible day.
He was the most vocal and active of our cats, and it’s very noticeable that he’s gone now. We miss him every day, and it still hurts to think of him. The worst thing was how sudden it was. He was only nine years old and had no signs of any health problems. I don’t know why this happened. We’ve been cuddling our other two cats, Button and Pepper, a lot more than usual lately, and they’ve been more receptive to it as well. They notice he’s gone too and have been more affectionate with us.
The second thing is a happier thing, although it has me nervous. I’m going back to school for an Accounting certificate this fall. I had been busy with paperwork and applications, and recently just got my acceptance letter! I am very excited and nervous at the same time. It’s been a long while since I’ve been in school but I also love learning new things and once upon a time, my biggest aspiration was to be a “professional student”.
I still have a lot of things to organize and prepare for going back to school but there’s a couple of months to go. Being so absent from the blog these last couple of months, I do worry that I might not be able to keep up with the blog once school starts, but I like fixed schedules and routines and I’m expecting things to settle down once I adjust to the student lifestyle once again.
Now on to the book updates;
My May 2025 TBR Intentions
I did manage to finish all the books on my TBR intentions in May. Yay! The ones on the list were the priorities and I wanted to leave space for mood reads, and I got some in.
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (The Wayfarers #4) by Becky Chambers
Children of Ruin (Children of Time #2) by Adrian Tchaikovsky
My June TBR intentions were chosen because my online bookclub was having a friendly competitive read-off event, where the team that got the most points for books read would win. There were exponentially higher points for books over 1000 pages and 1500 pages, so I made my list with that in mind, although some books were chosen because they were BOTMs, and/or had end-of-June deadlines. I also did end up reading a lot more than expected because I was trying to distract myself from Loki’s passing.
For May, the notable books were Perdido Street Station, Rose Madder, and The Ghost Bride. For June, the notable books were Les Misérables, Gone with the Wind, Scarlett, and Oz: The Complete Collection. I won’t go too much into detail about the books here because these are two months’ worth of books and I’m somewhat rushing this post as well.
In brief, Perdido Street Station is a little wordy but the world-building is incredible, and the story is haunting and heartbreaking and lives in my head rent-free. Rose Madder is a Stephen King book and everyone knows I’m a fan. It’s not gory horror, but it’s psychological horror and that really gets me. The Ghost Bride is a reread and written by a Malaysian author about the early 1900s’ in Malaya. It’s so reminiscent about my life, family, and culture in Malaysia, and I love that it incorporates our folklore into such a vivid fantasy story.
I listened to Les Misérables on audio and absolutely loved the experience of it. It is a little long-winded but I enjoyed it still! The whole story infuriates me but it’s told so well that I can’t help but love it, and I feel like this is one of those books where I’ll come back to and get more out of every time I reread.
Gone with the Wind, and Scarlett, are two of my favorite books that I’ve read over and over again. My experience and thoughts about them have changed over the years, but this last read was very nostalgic and I appreciate them for the works that they are.
Oz: The Complete Collection is the collection of books 1 through 14 of the Oz books. I have never read them, not even the first book, and I had no idea there was so much to the stories! Reading them as an adult, I’ve fallen in love with the stories and the characters, and it makes me wish I had read them as a child. They are just so magical and imaginative, they were so fun to read!
July 2025 TBR Intentions
My online bookclub is continuing the competitive read-off event in July, so I’m planning to continue with the big books, plus also July’s BOTMs and other buddy reads with July deadlines.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino
How was the last couple of months for you? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful July with lots of great books!
Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.
April 2025 Wrap Up
I’m posting April’s wrap up a little late, it turned into quite a hectic month for me and I have so much to catch up on with the blog! I didn’t finish as many books as I wanted either; I overcommitted to too many buddy reads in the last few months and I have learned my lesson! I’m making good progress in finishing the ones I’ve committed to though, and I’m a lot more careful about signing up for more. I’m also missing a lot of books I want to read that aren’t buddy reads, so I’m excited to make space for them as well. Still, I love buddy reads and I can’t give them up completely. If only everyone else wanted to read the books I want to read at the same time I want to read them! 😂
My April 2025 TBR Intentions
Five out of six of my TBR intentions aren’t bad. And the only reason I didn’t get to Stoner is because the library hold is still 3 weeks out at the time of this writing. I’m probably going to defer it to later since I already missed the deadline for the buddy read, but I’m still very much interested in reading it eventually.
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
The Terror was weird and a little trippy, but I was surprised by how invested I got into the characters and what happens to them. It’s a fictionalized account of real events, but I’m not very familiar with the history of the expedition so it was interesting trying to figure out what was real and what was made up.
I watched the adaptation of Little Fires Everywhere with Keri Washington and Reese Witherspoon and loved it, and it was nice to read the book and see that the show stayed quite true to the story. I got a lot out of the book, some of the nuances of the rich and privileged’s thinking processes were quite jarring to see on the page, but so incredibly well-written.
Sunshine was a reread. This is the third time I’m reading it and I’m still loving it! There were definitely some things I didn’t notice the first couple of times that I noticed now. The relationship stuff were… questionable, in that I’m curious as to the kind of relationship Rae actually has with the people in her life, but the story was amazing nevertheless.
May 2025 TBR Intentions
These are some of the books I’m planning to read in May. I read fewer books in April than usual and I’m definitely hoping to read more than five in May, but these are the priorities and after that, I’ll see where my mood takes me!
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (The Wayfarers #4) by Becky Chambers
Children of Ruin (Children of Time #2) by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Every Tool’s a Hammer by Adam Savage
The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
Rose Madder by Stephen King
How was your month in April? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful May with lots of great books!
Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.
March 2025 Wrap Up
The first couple of weeks in March was quite slow for me in terms of reading. I was in a bit of a slump and only finished two books in those two weeks. The good news is that the other six books happened in the second half of the month, so at least I got my reading mojo back!
My March 2025 TBR Intentions
I managed to read three books from my TBR, and cross one off as a dnf. I’m sorry, I loved Fourth Wing and I wanted to see the series through but I just didn’t feel excited about Onyx Storm as I was reading, and 25% in I just… didn’t want to pick it back up. Maybe I will finish it, one day, but it’s not a priority.
Vengeful by V.E. Schwab
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros (dnf)
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
The Making of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman I stumbled upon The Main Dish by the author while browsing on Audible. It was only an hour or so long, so I listened to it out of curiosity, and I ended up wanting more so I borrowed this book from Libby. I didn’t expect to get so engrossed in it. The whole time I was reading it I was completely immersed in his world of food and cooking, it was such an experience! I enjoy cooking but I’ve always known I’d never be a professional chef because I don’t care enough for precision and finesse; this book made me consider enrolling in the Culinary Institute of America! I eventually came to my senses and realized that while I love reading about the life of a chef, I don’t think I’d do well as one. Still, it made me want to!
All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell This book blew my mind! It was the BOTM for my in-person bookclub that another member chose because it was one of their favorite books. I’ve had Stiff by Mary Roach on my TBR for ages and a morbid fascination about death and dying, so I thought this book would be really interesting. I expected something clinical and analytical, facts about the business of death, but it turned out to be much more emotional than that. It talked about what people in the death business did, but more importantly, it also talked about the people themselves; why they do it, how they got into it, the emotional toll it takes on them, ways they cope. There is a lot more to this book that I could go into; we had such an incredible discussion during our bookclub meeting for the book, but just suffice to say that I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about death and grieving.
April 2025 TBR Intentions
I wasn’t able to get to all the books I wanted to read last month but I’m hoping I’ll get them this month! Plus some others. I’m really looking forward to all of these!
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
The Terror by Dan Simmons
The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Stoner by John Williams
How was your month in March? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful April with lots of great books!
Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.
February 2025 Wrap Up
February was a little better. I’m still disorganized but doing better with getting things done and cleaning up the disorganization bit by bit. The first part of February was bad, but things improved later and I’m trying to keep things going on an upward trajectory.
The weather has started to get nicer, and I started running outdoors again! That makes me so happy and gives me a little bit of grounding that I needed. My body is sore because it’s gotten used to being lazy this past winter, but I’ll just do what I can when I can. At the very least, it’s nice to just be outside in the comfortably cool weather.
My February 2025 TBR Intentions
I ended up reading different books because of mood and library loan deadlines! I’ll come back to the ones I haven’t read soon though!
Children of Time and All Systems Red are rereads, but they were necessary because Children of Time is quite complex and I needed to refresh my memory before moving on to the next books. All Systems Red was the chosen BOTM for my in-person bookclub and I had to reread to refresh my memory for discussion as well. I enjoyed them both very much the second time around!
Vicious was a stand out; I had no expectations going in but was very pleasantly surprised. It had me at the edge of my seat and I had to keep reading because I needed to know what happened next.
The Frozen River was another surprise! I had not expected to be excited while reading about events that happened such a long time ago or that it would keep me so worked up that I wouldn’t be able to go to sleep. It’s based on true events and real people, and unfortunately it’s not completely accurate to what really happened, but this version of events was very well-written and satisfying and I loved reading it.
March 2025 TBR Intentions
Most of these are BOTMs and/or buddy reads that have a March deadline. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to finish all of them, but I’d like to try!
Vengeful by V.E. Schwab
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
The Terror by Dan Simmons
All The Living and The Dead by Hayley Campbell
How was your month in February What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful March with lots of great books!
Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.
January 2025 Wrap Up
Hello, my friends! What even is this new year! A month has gone by and I feel like I haven’t found my feet yet. I’m still so frazzled and disorganized it’s not even funny! 😭
I’m doing the bare minimum, but of course, “bad habits” like reading are hard to get rid of, so I’m always reading even as I’m drowning in my disorganization. You could say that it’s partly because of my reading that everything is disorganized, I’m sticking my head in books to avoid handling stuff I need to do. 😅 Ah well, they’ll get done eventually.
My January 2025 TBR Intentions
I didn’t do very well with my TBR intentions even though the list isn’t very long, but 50% isn’t too bad.
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
Notable Books This Month
Two Stephen King books this month! One was a reread (‘Salem’s Lot) and the other (Joyland) is a new read. I loved them both, as if there could be any doubt!
Killers of the Flower Moon was really good; infuriating and emotional, but also educational, and we ended up watching the movie too.
I also finally read Shark Heart. It’s been on my TBR since last year but not prioritized because I thought it was a light-hearted magical realism story. It ended up being so much more emotional and heartfelt than I expected and I had a lot of great discussions come out of it.
Guillotine and Maus were also really good, but I haven’t written my reviews yet. They’ll be coming soon!
Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.
December 2024 Wrap Up
Happy New Year 2025, everyone!!
I’ve been so frazzled and disorganized these last couple of months that I haven’t been very present on the blog at all, or in other areas of my life. Things haven’t settled down yet and I’m still catching up but I’m trying to be a little more organized. I’m also cutting down on reading challenges this year because I got so overwhelmed last year with more than ten of them!
At this point, I’m still just trying to catch up, so I don’t have a complete picture of my goals and plans yet, but I’ll get there eventually! Thank you for being patient with me!
My December 2024 TBR Intentions
Well, the good news is that I read 5 out of 7 of the books on my TBR in December! Yayy!
The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
The Outsider by Stephen King
The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Books Read in December 2024
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Bloody Acquisitions (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 3) by Drew Hayes
The Fangs of Freelance (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 4) by Drew Hayes
Undeading Bells (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 6) by Drew Hayes
In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren
Out of House and Home (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 7) by Drew Hayes
Posthumous Education (Fred, the Vampire Accountant Book 8) by Drew Hayes
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
Notable Books This Month
I ended up spending most of the month reading Drew Hayes’ Fred, the Vampire Accountant series! They were so fun and enjoyable, and I really loved reading about Fred and his friends. I’m a huge fan of found family stories, and Hayes really has a talent for writing interesting characters. I was so sad when I finished the last one, but I found out there’s going to be a Book 9, so I’m eagerly waiting for its release!
I also really loved The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson, and I’m completely invested in the story and intend to read the rest of the series.
The Outsider and A Closed and Common Orbit are both rereads, but worth mentioning because they’re both still so good the second time around.
And finally, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was such an eye-opening read. I’m glad I finally got around to reading it, I learned so much and it made me feel so many things. I’m also very curious about the movie and I’ll probably want to watch it sometime soon.
Reading Challenges
I’m going easy on the reading challenges in 2025 because I got a little overzealous last year. These are the ones I’m committing to this year:
The Stephen King Constant Reader Challenge – My own personal challenge because I’m a fan of SK but have plenty of his books I haven’t read yet. No time limit, and everyone is welcome to join me if you’d like.
Reading From My TBR Challenge – Also a personal challenge because I figure I should be at least trying to read from my TBR, but I haven’t figured out the parameters yet so I’ll come back to this later.
January 2025 TBR Intentions
I’m just taking it one month at a time. I hope to read these books in January! What about you?
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
The Terror by Dan Simmons
Vicious by V.E. Schwab
How was your month in December? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful 2025 with lots of great books!
Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.
November 2024 Wrap Up
November was a hectic month for me and I missed several weekly posts and didn’t write a single book review. I also haven’t replied comments here or visited other book blogs. I have so much to catch up on! I’m also feeling a little pressured because there is one more month in 2024 left, and I haven’t read so many of the books I listed on my 2024 tbr, and I don’t think I can.
December is probably going to be another hectic month, and I’m already thinking of all the ways I want to slow down for 2025. Unfortunately, I already committed to some things that will go on into 2025, but I’ll do my best to lock it down!
My November 2024 TBR Intentions
I did relatively well on my November TBR intentions, but The Glass Chateau has been on my TBR the longest out of all the others listed, and it’s the one I don’t think I’ll be able to get to until next year! But let’s just focus on the wins, okay? 😅
Super Powereds: Year 3 by Drew Hayes
Super Powereds: Year 4 by Drew Hayes
Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
The Glass Chateau by Stephen P. Kiernan
Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Books Read in November 2024
Super Powereds: Year 3 by Drew Hayes
Super Powereds: Year 4 by Drew Hayes
Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes
Undeath and Taxes by Drew Hayes
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Notable Books This Month
I was super surprised with Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan! I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did, but it was just fun and so enjoyable to read. It’s isekai, apparently (I just learned the term isekai recently!), and I love it!
There were a couple of heavy books this month but because of stuff happening in my personal life, I ended up reading a lot of light and fun books this month because they were all I could do. Specifically I loved:
The Super Powered series by Drew Hayes
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan
Fred, the Vampire Accountant series by Drew Hayes
Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman
There are many more books to go in the latter two series and I am so hyped up about them! I had to pause on them because there were other books with deadlines I had to finish, but I’m totally going back to them whenever I can!
Reading Challenges
All done with challenges this year. Time to think of new challenges for next year! I’m going to slow it down and go a little easier on myself next year, hopefully.
December 2024 TBR Intentions
Most of the books listed below are December BOTMs or buddy reads with a December deadline. I also fully intend to continue with the other series I’m reading now; Fred, the Vampire Accountant, and Dungeon Crawler Carl.
The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
The Outsider by Stephen King
The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
At this point, there are several books I listed on my TBR since the beginning of the year that I still haven’t gotten to and don’t think I’ll be able to get to before next year. Oh well. There have also been so many books I didn’t intend to read this year, but did and loved, so it totally balances out!
December is the last month of the year; I hope you all reach your reading goals this year, receive all the bookish gifts and wishes you make, and have the most wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!
How was your month in November? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful December with lots of great books!
Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.
October 2024 Wrap Up
October wasn’t a very good reading month for me; I had two DNFs and a few books I wasn’t quite satisfied with. I was in a general funk and sulking about the DNFs and sub-par books, and I spent a little too much time on the DNFs trying to decide if I should finish them or not. You’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now but it’s really not easy to let go! 😭
I did have a few great books though! And I’m choosing to focus on them. I read two Stephen Kings, which are always great! And I’m currently obsessed with the Super Powered series by Drew Hayes.
My October 2024 TBR Intentions
I think I’ve learned my lesson with setting my tbr intentions. The DNFs were kind of demotivating, but I need to learn to move on and focus on the books I loved.
Super Powereds by Drew Hayes This series was the highlight for me this month. Almost every other book I’ve read this month is either horror and/or have heavy themes, and I think this series was just so fun and enjoyable to read. The books are huge, and so many hours on audiobook, but they’re so entertaining and easy to get through. Once again, I have to comment on the amateurish writing because I don’t want to hype it up without giving this heads up, but it’s come to a point that I almost feel the writing is deliberate and becomes part of the fun of reading the books – you can have drinking games out of pointing out how many times the author uses a few particular phrases!
I loved the Becky Chambers books the first time I read it and I feel like I got more out of it the second time around, especially reading it as a buddy read and seeing what other people thought about it and what stood out to them. I’m also planning to read the next books in the series again some time soon.
I had also read both Stephen King books some time ago and enjoyed them but it has been decades since I read them and they both hit differently this time. I’m paying more attention to some of the details this time even though I’m sure there’s still a lot I’m missing. I’m definitely noticing Stephen King’s genius a lot more this time.
Reading Challenges
I have finished every challenge I signed up for this year except two:
They are both related to finishing series and even though I don’t have very many to go, I have decided to let go of both these challenges because they no longer resonate. I have been reading many series this year, actually, and even finishing them(!), but they don’t count based on the parameters of these challenges and I realized that these challenges don’t work for what I originally wanted them for and it’s okay to let them go. I’ll be more mindful of the challenges I sign up for next year!
November 2024 TBR Intentions
Definitely wanting to continue with the rest of the Super Powered series, and I’m also looking forward to Dungeon Crawler Carl. It’s good knowing that these two fun series are in there among the other heavier books.
Super Powereds: Year 3 by Drew Hayes
Super Powereds: Year 4 by Drew Hayes
Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
The Glass Chateau by Stephen P. Kiernan
Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Even though many of these are heavy, I’m still excited to read them. Some of them have been on my TBR for ages!
How was your month in October? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful November with lots of great books!
Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.
September 2024 Wrap Up
It was a pretty good reading month! I read from my September TBR, and I finished all my reading challenges except two! I’m not sure that I’ll finish the other two though; they’re both about finishing series, but series that we started before this year, and I’m currently embroiled in new series and I’m not sure what to do! 😅 I can’t resist the shiny new books!
My September 2024 TBR Intentions
I read all the books in my September TBR Intentions! Woot! I was kind of conservative with it with only five books on the list, and I do have more motivation when they are buddy reads and BOTMs, but still!
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Cujo by Stephen King
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
I’m just realizing that all of them are darker-themed and there were several other dark books I read in September too. Setting up my intentions for next month, I’m going to try to get in more balance for the light and the dark. I know ahead of time there are some horror stuff coming because October is Halloween season, but I can definitely add more fun stuff to my book diet too!
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky I’m very proud of having finished this chonker! I’m not sure that I liked it, but at least I finished it!
Born A Crime by Trevor Noah This was amazing and might be my favorite book this month! I love listening to Trevor Noah’s stories and I love his humor and wisdom.
Cujo by Stephen King This is a reread, and I think I got a lot more out of it this time around than I did the first time. I love the buildup of the story, and I love the insight we get into such different characters in the book. Stephen King is truly a master at his craft.
It’s October and that means Halloween, and guess what? My irl bookclub’s BOTM is Pet Sematary by Stephen King. And my online bookclub’s BOTM is The Shining by Stephen King! I’m not complaining, because I love Stephen King!
Pet Sematary by Stephen King
The Shining by Stephen King
Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
Never Whistle at Night by various authors
The Glass Chateau by Stephen P. Kiernan
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
I Fell in Love With Hope by Lancali
I’ve got so many books I hope to read this October, some have been on my TBR for ages. Let’s hope I can get to them all!
How was your month in September? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful October with lots of great books!
