- The Overstory by Richard Powers ★★★☆☆ | review
- The Line That Held Us by David Joy ★★☆☆☆ | review
- Washington Black by Esi Edugyan ★★☆☆☆ | review
- The Whole Story and Other Stories by Ali Smith ★★★★☆ | mini review
- The Long Take by Robin Robertson ★★★☆☆ | review
- Dopesick by Beth Macy ★★★★★ | review
- The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater ★★★★☆ | review
- Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh ★★★★☆ | review
- You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann ★★★★☆ | mini review
- The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin ★★☆☆☆ | review
- Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata ★★★★☆ | mini review
- Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy ★★★★☆ | review
- Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut ★★★★☆ | review
Favorite: Dopesick by Beth Macy
Honorable Mentions: Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh, Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Least favorite: The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin
OCTOBER TOTAL: 13
YEARLY TOTAL: 110
After the spectacularly poor reading month that was September, I read over twice as many books in October. Quality-wise it was a bit all over the place, but one huge milestone that I completed was reading the entire Man Booker longlist before the winner announcement – you can read my thoughts on the longlist here, and my reaction to Milkman winning here, in case you missed it.
Currently reading: The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (re-read), and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
What was the best book you read in October? Comment and let me know!
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That is such an excellent month of reading, Rachel. 13 books is seriously impressive! Have a good November!
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Thanks Stephen! Hope you have an excellent November as well! I’m going on vacation in the Bahamas in a couple of weeks so I think mine shall be a good month indeed!
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That’s great, well have a wonderful time away! Thank you 🙂
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VERY excited to see how you get on with Shirley Jackson! Also, that edition of Frankenstein is gorgeous.
I meant to read You Should Have Left around Halloween last year, and again this year… I don’t think I can wait another year 😂
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I’m like, 2 pages into the Jackson, so the jury’s out so far, but I’m very excited about it! And I bought that Frankenstein new for $10, it was an exciting purchase.
DO IT I read it in under an hour! It is so tiny and wonderfully creepy.
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That is a good purchase 👏🏼
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Congrats on the great reading month! I’ve never read your favourite book of the month, though I might check it out since I need more nonfiction in my life.
My favourite book of October was The Black Prism by Brent Weeks.
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I’d highly recommend it!! It’s an absolutely harrowing read, but so informative and necessary. I hadn’t heard of The Black Prism but that sounds super compelling!
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Forgot to tell you that I bought a copy of Dopesick after all, you convinced me! I’m hoping to get to it this month.
I hope you like Haunting of Hill House, I read it years ago but thought it was so eerie.
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Oooh yay I can’t wait to hear your thoughts! Especially as you’ve read other books on the same subject; I’ll be very interested to hear your assessment from that angle.
I’m approximately 2 pages into Hill House but I’ve heard nothing but good things, so I’m very excited! Plus, Jackson used to live in Vermont, so it’s a shame I haven’t read anything by her (other than The Lottery).
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I think I’ve liked most everything I’ve read by her. Some of the short stories were hit or miss but I find most short story collections like that anyway. She’s just a great writer!
I’ll keep you updated, I hope I can get to it soon!
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Agreed about short story collections; I’m getting more into the form recently, but I’m still waiting to find a collection that wows me from start to finish.
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I hear you. The best one for me so far is White Walls, that I mentioned before, it was consistently fantastic in my eyes. Otherwise theyre always kind of hit or miss in my opinion!
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13 is a great amount of reading – I am jealous! Shirley Jackson is great – enjoy!
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6 books one month and 13 the next, I’m all over the place. This is my first Jackson aside from The Lottery and I am very excited about it!
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That’s a lot of books. Did you enjoy “Eileen?” I did.
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Yes, very much!
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I am so glad you had a better reading month this time around. I really need to get to Ottessa Moshfegh; I really do think I would love her books.
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I think you would too! I am very interested in hearing your thoughts.
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Loved your Booker summary and well done on the prediction! I’m reading Milkman now, it does seem a worthy and appropriate winner.
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Thanks so much Claire! I’m glad you’re enjoying Milkman, I’ll be very interested to hear your thoughts when you finish 🙂
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I’m midway through and wondering how one can review and incredible voice like this, I think it needs to settle a while, and I get why it benefits from the three reads the judges gave it, how many books still stand out after three readings I wonder?
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The fact that they have to read the shortlist three times is interesting to me; obviously you end up with a deeper understanding of each novel, but it does put you on a slightly different playing field than your average reader who’s following along with the shortlist. But I am glad that it means the award ends up being given to a novel which withstands that test; of the entire shortlist I absolutely think Milkman is the only one which would continue to reward the reader the third time through.
This was my attempt at a review, and it was indeed very tricky to explain the magic of this book https://paceamorelibri.wordpress.com/2018/08/27/book-review-milkman-by-anna-burns/
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You had such a good reading month, yay! I hope you have an awesome November as well, Rachel!
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