It was a great month, November! Thanks to a road trip with lots of audio books and a few days true vacation where all I did was sit and read. So perfect!
The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop: A memoir from the actress that played Emily Gilmore, Rory's grandma and Lorelei's mom. She's had a very interesting life and it was fun to learn about it, especially the part about her involvement in the famous Broadway show, A Chorus Line. So interesting! Anyway, if you have any connection or feeling for Gilmore Girls, you will want to read/listen to this one!
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel: A science fiction time travel story following the different reports of people who have experienced some sort of hole in the time/space continuum. It's very intriguing and fun to see how all the stories come together in the end. There is a small tie-in to Station Eleven, and I am also curious about a third book called The Glass Hotel with yet more of a connection to these three books.
Sunny Side Up, and Swing It Sunny by Jennifer Holm and Matthew Holm: A brother and sister author/illustration team wrote this fun middle grade graphic novel series that was published a few years ago based on their experiences growing up in the 70s. My 9 year old granddaughter is loving them and so I had to read them while I was visiting to see what the intrigue was. And she was right, they are very fun and so nostalgic for me.
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor: The first book in a fantasy duology about a regular orphan dude who ends up as part of an adventure to help a mythical city that just so happens to be the one he has learned and studied about his whole life. When they get there, things end up being very much as he expected in some ways, but so very unexpected in other ways. So it's his story, but also the story of the girl who lives in this city and what's happened there and how she has been affected. It's SO GOOD! And now I can't wait to get to the next one!
The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 4: I continued with this series, there's 8 out right now and my hope was to get through before the end of the year. Not sure I'm going to make it. This one was a bit more serious than the previous ones and I quite enjoyed the depth and getting to see a different side of Emma. Her friendship with THREE intriguing guys is getting more and more attention too and yes, the series is just so much fun.
Go As a River by Shelley Read: This was the audio book of choice for the drive home. A sad tale about a girl who is living in a small Colorado town and one by one everything she loves or is important to her is taken away. It's a story of survival and resilience, beautifully written. I really enjoyed it.
Every Spiral of Fate by Tahereh Mafi: The fourth book in the This Woven Kingdom series. In this one all the characters have come together to try and help Alizeh find her magic in the mountains. Cyrus is leading the charge, though everyone still thinks he's the bad guy. We get much more about his story and learn that in fact, he is one of the best of the best guys. The chemistry building up between Alizeh and Cyrus is pretty much unbearable at this point. NEXT BOOK PLEASE!
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore: This was the book club pick for the month, a mystery going back and forth between two different time periods telling the two different stories about the disappearances of siblings... the boy in the 60s when he was 8, and the girl in the 70s when she was 13. Is there a connection? Who did it? Are they dead? I was worried at first, but ended up totally enjoying it in the end!
Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson: A classic written and published in the late 1800s about Southern California and the plight of the Indians there. We follow the story of Ramona when she marries an Indian, finds out she is part Indian herself, and joins his struggle to survive among the changes taking place in that area. It's sad and maddening and frustrating. It was a bit hard to get into the old story telling style, but I got the groove of it after awhile and ended up very much invested in this story.
And that's the books from November! What a great and diverse pile, don't you think!? If you are interested in the YouTube version of this wrap up you can click here.
Also, if you you'd like to see the "cozy reading vlog" I filmed during my time on the Oregon Coast in November, check it out here!
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