Monthly Wrap Up | October 2024

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.

1. Pet Sematary by Stephen King
2. The Shining by Stephen King
3. Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
4. Never Whistle at Night by various authors – DNF
5. The Glass Chateau by Stephen P. Kiernan
6. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
7. I Fell in Love With Hope by Lancali – DNF

Books Read in October 2024

1. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
2. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
3. The Mother-In-Law by Sally Hepworth
4. Exhalation by Ted Chiang
5. The Shining by Stephen King
6. The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 9 by Nagabe
7. The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 10 by Nagabe
8. The Girl from the Other Side Vol. 11 by Nagabe
9. Super Powereds: Year 1 by Drew Hayes
10. Super Powereds: Year 2 by Drew Hayes
11. Pet Sematary by Stephen King
12. The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

Notable Books This Month

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 also had three very good rereads:

1. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
2. The Shining by Stephen King
3. Pet Sematary by Stephen King

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:

• 2024 Series Ender Reading Challenge – 2/5
• 2024 Finishing the Series Challenge – 3/4

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.

1. Super Powereds: Year 3 by Drew Hayes
2. Super Powereds: Year 4 by Drew Hayes
3. Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
4. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
5. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
6. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
7. The Glass Chateau by Stephen P. Kiernan
8. Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
9. 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!