It's been a month that started quietly and with plenty of time for reading but then came the school holidays and a grandson visiting. Then this last week we have been away visiting our daughter and her family so little reading and no blogging , a break which is always beneficial and renews my enthusiasm. I always enjoy our visit to the secondhand book shop near her home although with the recent book fair I only had a few to pass on and kept my purchases to the minimum.
Coming home means that overflowing google reader problem - I've simply had to mark all as read so hope I haven't missed anything too important and apologies if there are posts which I normally would comment on but haven't.
Books read in October = 13
* = Top picks for the month
Italics are from my bookshelf
Sticks & Stones by Ilsa Evans
*The Circus of Ghosts by Barbara Ewing
Blue Monday by Nicci French
The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
Elizabeth Street by Laura Fabiano
Fugitive Blue by Claire Thomas
The Man in the Picture by Susan Hill
The Raising by Laura Kasischke
*Bereft by Chris Womersley
*The Somnambulist by Essie Fox
The Nightmare Thief by Meg Gardiner
The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
*The Time in Between by Maria Duenas
DNF - The Guardian Angel's Journal
Fiction - 13
Non-fiction - 0
Library books - 8
From my bookshelf - 3
E-books - 2
Global reading - US - 5, UK - 4, Australia -3, Spain/Morocco - 1
Challenges - I completed three challenges in October:
Femme Fatale Challenge
Historical Fiction Challenge
RIP VI Challenge
Aussie Author Challenge 10/12
What's In A Name Challenge 5/6..................I hope to finish both of these in November.
New Challenges:
Royal Reviews Regency & Victorian Challenge -Oct 2011 - March 2012
Read Your Own Library Challenge - a perpetual challenge
My Bookshelf
Read - 4
Sold - 5
Added - 6
The Literary Giveaway Blog Hop hosted by Judith @ Leeswanne's Blog was the first giveaway hop I'd participated in and I really enjoyed those few days particularly discovering lots of new blogs and adding numerous titles to the ever growing TBR.
Looking Ahead to November
- My good intentions to make a start on the Best of 2011 lists came to nothing so that is a 'must do'.
- Finish 2011 challenges
- Try to restrain myself from joining too many 2012 challenges!!
I hope everyone has a great November!
Great month. I'm sure you'll wrap those two remaining challenges quickly!
ReplyDeleteWOW, great month!
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me, I need to finish Outlander today (just one CD left) so I can count this for October. HA!
Good luck with your challenges.
It is hard to believe that it almost time to write the end of the year best of lists!! Where did the time go!
ReplyDeleteI took some time off from blogging recently too ... it is so important to do that every so often to keep from burning out.
I think I'm going to skip challenges next year except for really small focused ones. I've found myself getting burnt out on them. But it is fun to see all the different ones out there.