November…. I mean did the month even happen? It’s already more than halfway gone as I start this post and I cannot believe it. The month has been a bit of a whirlwind as I am getting ready for my trip to Germany with my mom and best friend (where I am now!). There’s been some reading, but as seems to befit me recently, not nearly as much as I would like. Honestly though, travel is so worth it!
This month I read:
The Bewitchment of Mr. Darcy by Valerie Lennox 3 stars
A Cleverly (Un)Contrived Compromise by Jennifer Joy 3/4 undecided stars
An Appearance of Goodness by Heather Moll 4 stars
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson 5 holyshitwhathappenedtomyemotions stars
I have still been very much in the mood for Pride & Prejudice variations as you can see. Really though, who doesn’t love Lizzy and Mr. Darcy? Really. I did finish The Well of Ascension on the train today (11.29) though and I think I may need some recovery time, or maybe more Lizzy and Mr. Darcy. Time will tell.
This month I hauled:
The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima
The Gray Wolf Throne by Cinda Williams Chima
Ithaca by Claire North
The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore
I’ve been working on acquiring the Seven Realms books so that I can blow through them when I do finally pick them up. If they are anything like the Shattered Realms books I’ll read all four books quite quickly so I don’t want to hold myself up by needing to go out and buy the next book. All I have left to buy is the fourth book which I haven’t seen in any of my local stores. The last two books are ones that I hadn’t heard of but happened across during one of my recent spur of the moment bookstore runs.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
The Bone Orchard Sara A. Mueller
I finally bought a drop caps book. They are so gorgeous and I have yearned for them for years but I never broke down and bought one of these until now… I’m a sucker for Pride & Prejudice, obviously, so it makes sense that this would be the one that finally breaks me on a drop cap. The Starless Sea I recently read about on a list of dark academia books. I was curious what all the fuss is about and the synopsis actually sounded really interesting, so I picked it up. I have one of the pre-novellas to A Master of Djinn and while I haven’t read it yet, I am very intrigued so why not pick up this one – such is my justification for the purchase. Rules of Civility I picked up as I’ve been wanting to read another book by Amor Towles. The Bone Orchard was a total cover buy. It caught my eye and I don’t think I more than skimmed the synopsis and decided I was going to go for it.
Fen, Bog, & Swamp by Annie Proulx
The Pocket: A Hidden History of Women’s Lives by Barbara Burman and Ariane Fennetaux
Fire & Blood by George R. R. Martian
Fen, Bog & Swamp I stumbled onto just a week or two after including it for my Top Ten Books with Nature on the cover post so it seemed like fate. The Pocket is a totally random book that I stumbled onto and it is literally a history of pockets, as used by women as far as I can figure and I am so intrigued. Who would have thought that we needed a book about pockets? Bring it on. Lastly, I really do want to watch House of the Dragon, and I’m undecided yet if I will read the book first or jump right into the show. Of course, I’ve got to have both options available to me immediately though!
Non-bookishness:
Not a ton going on outside of prepping for travel and finally travelling. I’m currently in Germany which is AMAZING. We started in Berlin, moved to Regensburg (where I’m finishing this post from), and are getting ready for Munich which is our final stop. Not nearly enough it seems, but then there’s always so much to do when traveling and rarely enough time to do it all!
Other than travel I’ve only been watching more Bones in an attempt to finally finish the show. I’m getting close!
Have you read or watched anything interesting this month? Do tell!
Until next time, Happy Reading!
Among Stories 
Lizzie Bennet was one of my first BIG crushes so I’m with you there! I really must get around to reading my last 2 Austen novels…. SO many plans, SO little time.
Ithaca is on my interest list. Rules of Civility *might* get read next year.
I did LOL about the Pocket book. Why, oh WHY, do so many women’s cloths NOT have pockets? The only reason I can think of is sexist, so probably true!
Oh, and Game of Thrones is *another* book series that I need to start at some point… lol.
As much as I LOVE P&P, I still haven‘t read another Austen novel which is ridiculous. And I won‘t watch any of the movies until I‘ve read them so I‘m living in mystery over something I‘d probably really enjoy. The perils of being a reader and wanting all the books in our heads, lol.
I really really enjoyed a Gentleman in Moscow, so I‘ve got high hopes for my next Towles read! I still think about it pretty regularly. I hope you enjoy it when you pick it up.
And us women LOVE to have pockets… shirt with pockets? Yes. Dress with pockets? ALL THE YES! I‘m very interested to see what the authors discuss about why so many Women’s clothes don‘t have them.
Game of Thrones is a beefy one, and it‘s heavy on the detail. Quite up my alley, but not for everyone. I‘m eagerly awaiting news of book six… as I have been for about three years now, haha. I can‘t remember if we‘ve talked about this, but did you watch the show?
I’ve been avoiding several of the Austen movies too, having not yet read the books. I’ll bag at least one next year though…. Probably….
I’ll be interested to see about the lack of pockets issue. I really couldn’t live without them.
I do have the first few GoT books so yeah, CHUNKY. I have seen the whole series. *Mostly* very good but the last series was VERY poor. I heard that the show writers didn’t want too much Fantasy in it as they neither liked nor understood the genre….. At which point I was dumbstruck….. A couple of Fantasy books at least for me next year. Not sure exactly what yet though.
Agreed on the show. Even with everything they had to condense from the books to fit the show into the time frame they had it was very good. But that last series…. I’m still holding onto my upset over that one, lol.