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October Summary and Plans for November

October was a slow reading month for me. I completed nine books, but they were almost all short, light reads. A lot of the books were quite disappointing, which might be another reason for my slower progress.

Book of the Month

Books reviewed in October

The Cuckoo Boy – Grant Gillespie 

Solo by Rana Dasgupta 

Paprika – Yasutaka Tsutsui 

The School of Essential Ingredients – Erica Bauermeister (Audio Book) 

How Late It Was, How Late – James Kelman 

Stone in a Landslide – Maria Barbal 

Operation Mincemeat – Ben Macintyre 

Tinkers – Paul Harding 

Stonehenge – Bernard Cornwell 

The Crying Tree – Naseem Rakha 

Pretties – Scott Westerfeld  

Plans for November

I’m still working my way through The Dark Side of Love. I’m really enjoying it, but level of detail means that it is slow going. I’m going to make a big effort to finish it this week so that I can start on My Friend Amy’s Lonesome Dove readalong. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up with them and finish in time to compare notes at the beginning of December.

I’m also going to try to read a few of these books:

Wolf Totem – Jiang Rong

Star Gazing – Linda Gillard

Fordlandia – Greg Grandin

The Road – Cormac McCarthy

The Harmony Silk Factory – Tash Aw

Hand Me Down World – Lloyd Jones

The Wilding – Maria McCann

The Well and the Mine – Gin Phillips

The Snowman – Jo Nesbo

The Lotus Eaters – Tatjana Soli

Let’s hope we read some fantastic books in November!

44 replies on “October Summary and Plans for November”

Wow, nine books in a month is a lot by my standard! If I find time to read two a week I’m doing well. You have some great books on your list for this month though, I’m looking forward to reading your reviews.

book caterpillar, Nine books would be OK for me – if they weren’t almost all novellas or YA. I’m quite disappointed that I only read two books (Solo and How Late it Was) that required proper concentration.

I hesitate to mention how much I love Lonesome Dove! We’ve been on opposite sides lately. 🙂 I’m hoping to listen to School of Essential Ingredients one of these days.

As one who absolutely adored Lonesome Dove, The Well and the Mine and Stargazing, although they are all very different, I do hope that you enjoy at least some of them!

I’ve read Lonesome Dove so many times that I decided to try the unabridged audio, just for something different this time. The narrator, however, is driving me nuts because he refuses to take a breath in between sentences, LOL. I keep using the “slower” speed option on my ipod, but it’s not helping much. *sigh* …. the trials and tribulations of audiobooks.

I hope you do get to The Road in November because I’m curious as to your response. (And I’m not even going to influence your read with my opinion, ha ha). And I, too, want to get to some Jo Nesbo books later in the month.

Good luck….

Michele, Some audio books just don’t work 🙁 It sounds as though you should stick to the wonderful text version instead of letting a narrator drive you nuts.

I have really high hopes for The Road, but I know that it divides opinion. I look forward to actually being able to talk about it as I’m feeling left out at the moment 🙁

Nine sounds like a lot to me. My reading has been utterly abysmal lately. I’ve just been working too much and coming home to tired to even read! I’m hoping my vacation later this month will jump start my reading again!

Jackie, how the hell do you class all those books as a “slow reading month”? 😉

Yay for November! You are going to read 3 of my favourite books! Wolf Totem (after your Corag review, I’m curious to see how you will get on with this book), The Road (fab, fab, fab) and The Snowman (one of my fave books of 2010). Have a great month! 🙂

The Book Whisperer, If you compare the page count (or word count if it were possible!) then you’d see it was at least 50% down on my normal months. They are all short reads 🙁

I really hope I enjoy these three favourites much more than Corrag. I’ve got my fingers crossed 🙂

Wolf Totem is on one of my TBR lists, I’m curious to hear how you like it when you read it!

And I do agree with Book, I have no clue how so many books make a slow reading month 🙂

Lonesome Dove is becoming one of my favorite books ever and Im glad Im doing the read-along as otherwise I would have rushed through it already, its actually very funny in places.

Ive read some excellent reviews of the lotus eaters lately as well.

I enjoyed The Well and the Mine and yes it is quite slow moving but I do have a penchant for coming of age tales set in rural America. I’ve only read one of Linda Gillard’s books, Emotional Geology and it was quite a good read although romantic fiction isn’t usually my thing! I have The Wilding on TBR pile (far too long now) and am dithering over Hand Me Down World at the moment. Have a fabulous reading month!

Teresa, I haven’t read any romantic fiction in years, but I loved the sound of this one. I have seen such wonderful things said about Star Gazing that I have high hopes I’ll enjoy it. Fingers crossed 🙂

I always enjoy your monthly summaries, Jackie. Most of your November titles are unfamiliar to me, and I can’t wait to learn more (and add to my tbr of course). I also will be most interested in your take on The Road.

caite, I don’t know which order I’ll read them and am quite liable to change my mind at any moment, but I do like to have a vague plan – at least for my reading 🙂

Well, The Road isn’t a light read so that will counteract your October reads!

And I bet you’ll LOVE Lonesome Dove. It is one of my all-time favorite books, and, despite its length, a fast read!

From a personal point of view, I’m really looking forward to reading what you have to say about The Road, but I’m also intrigued about Wolf Totem. I work as an administrator for a university Chinese Studies department, and a lot of the academics get very snobbish about Jiang Rong for being populist, but I have a feeling it’s a lot lot better than they make out!

Dan, It is interesting to know others thoughts on Jiang Rong. I don’t mind if authors are populist – it is all down to whether or not the book entertains me. I’ll let you know my thoughts soon 🙂

I’ve The Wolf Totem (thanks to Boof’s recommendation) and The Road but haven’t managed to read them yet. The Lotus Eaters looks great (I just love the title!) Good luck with your planned reading!

Good luck this month!

I’m not sure if you heard but “Room” picked up the Rogers Writers’ Trust Award today. Not as big as the Giller but definitely one of our top three literary awards.

Shannon, I spotted that on Twitter, but had not heard of Rogers Writers’ Trust Award before. It is good to know it is a major literary award. Thanks for letting me know.

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