I’ve been in a mood for the last month and a half or so, and it left me with no motivation for blogging. So, October’s wrap-up never got finished, which means this long overdue post will include stuff from October and November. I’m not sure if the gloomier weather has soured my mood or if the meh feelings are just a result of a mild depressive episode. Whatever the cause, it has made it so much harder to get things done. I’m feeling a bit better now and had a great Thanksgiving holiday with my family. Hopefully, things will continue to improve since I have a lot to do to get ready for Christmas.

The only stuff I’ve wanted to do over the last couple of months was sleep and read, and I did plenty of both of them. I managed to read some great books, which is one of the only things keeping me sane and feeling somewhat productive. I’ll stop my moody rambling now and get to the good stuff, all the things I’ve read since September…

Books I’ve Read

October 2023

There were so many great new releases in October. My library holds were popping off, and I had quite a few ARCs to read. So, that’s where most of my reading came from this month. Although, I did manage a re-read and a couple of books from my backlog, too. The seventeen books I finished in October are listed below (ratings link to my review, if available):

• The Magicians by Lev Grossman (3⭐)
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt (4⭐)
• In These Hallowed Halls by Blake et al. (4⭐)
• Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer L. Armentrout (3⭐)
• The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater (5⭐)
• The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab (5⭐)
• Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig (5⭐)
• 10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall (4⭐)
• Starling House by Alix E. Harrow (4⭐)
• Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald (5⭐)
• The Spells We Cast by Jason June (3⭐)
• The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young (4⭐)
• Traitor of Redwinter by Ed McDonald (4⭐)
• Making It So by Patrick Stewart (4⭐)
• Midnight Strikes by Zeba Shanaz (4⭐)
• Dark Moon, Shallow Sea by David R. Slayton (4⭐)
• The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid I. Khalidi (5⭐)

November 2023

I didn’t do much blogging in November, but I did manage to keep my reading pace pretty steady. It was also a pretty good mix of new releases and backlog books. I even cleared the oldest book off of my NetGalley shelf, which I downloaded back in 2021. Here are the sixteen books I read in November (the ratings link to my review, if available):

• Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle (4⭐)
• The Blighted Stars by Megan E. O’Keefe (4⭐)
• One Night in Hartswood by Emma Denny (3⭐)
• The Woman in Me by Britney Spears (4⭐)
• Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (5⭐)
• Dark Theory by Wick Welker (4⭐)
• The Temple of Fortuna by Elodie Harper (5⭐)
• Tales of Light and Life by Zoraida Cordova et al. (5⭐)
• The Navigating Fox by Christopher Rowe (4⭐)
• A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows (4⭐)
• Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher (4⭐)
• The Celestial Toymaker by Gerry Davis & Alison Bingeman (3⭐)
• Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski (5⭐)
• Shadow Baron by Davinia Evans (5⭐)
• This Winter by Alice Oseman (4⭐)
• The Fractured Dark by Megan E. O’Keefe (4⭐)

Progress On My 2023 Reading Goals

Goodreads Challenge

I’ve set my annual reading goal at 100 books for the year. I read 17 books in October and 16 books in November. This brings me to 217 books for the year so far! I met my goal for the year back in May and am aiming to just read as much as I can now. 🙂

NetGalley Progress

I want to end the year with at least 150 reviews completed for NetGalley and a feedback ratio of at least 81%. In October and November, I completed 6 reviews for NetGalley, which brings my total up to 147 reviews. My ratio increased a bit to 90%! Based on my reading plans for December, I should be able to make it to 150 reviews by the end of the year. So… yay! 🥳

Make Some Progress On My Backlog

This year I’ve set the goal of having at least 25% of my reading be from my owned TBR purchased prior to 2023. This could include books on my physical or digital shelves, excluding ARCs. In October, I read 2 books from my shelves, which was a measly 12%. In November, I read 3 books from my shelves, which was 19%. This brought books from my shelves down to 18.9% of my total reads for the year. I really don’t think I’ll be making this goal by the end of the year…

Re-Read More Books

Last year, I didn’t get to re-read much of anything. This year I’d really like to return to some of my favorites. So, I’ve set the goal of re-reading at least six books. I re-read Daughter of Redwinter in October and A Strange and Stubborn Endurance in November, which means I’m at four re-reads for the year.

Participate in Challenges

I’ve got a few different challenges going this year. Here’s a quick update on each one of them!

POPSUGAR Challenge

I’ve completed 36 out of the 40 main prompts and finished 80% of the bonus prompts, as well. This means I completed two prompts in the last couple of months. I doubt I’ll finish all the remaining ones, but we’ll see.

12 Months, 12 Books, 12 Friends Challenge

The Year-Long Scavenger Hunt

This scavenger hunt is being hosted by Jordyn @ Birdie’s Book Nook. So far, I’ve found all the prompts at least twice! I’ve stopped tracking this one now and consider it successfully completed, as of August 2023. 🙂

Magical Readathon: Adventure in Aeldia

In October, Padwin went stargazing (stars on the cover). I used Midnight Strikes to fulfill this prompt. In November, Padwin visited Old Favour Pass (winter setting), which was fulfilled by me reading This Winter.

Finish Five Series

I plan to finish or catch up on the following 5 series by the end of this year:

• A Chorus of Dragons by Jenn Lyons
• Timekeeper by Tara Sim
• The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
• The Magicians by Lev Grossman

I finished The Magicians by Lev Grossman in October but haven’t made any other progress since then, which means I probably won’t be finishing up my final two series this year.

Final Thoughts

I did manage to do a few blog posts along with my reviews in October and November. You can find those in my blog archives if you are interested in checking them out.

Overall, this has been another good couple months of reading. My average rating was 4.17 October and 4.16 in November. My favorite in October was Two Twisted Crowns, and my favorite in November was Shadow Baron. What was your favorite book from October/November? Let me know down in the comments!

Thank you to everyone who has visited the blog and engaged with comments and/or likes! I appreciate all of you and always enjoy reading your input in the comments. I hope everyone has a great December!