Monthly Wrap-Up: October 2019

Good morning!! I hope you had a great weekend. It is already the second week of November, and I’m just posting my wrap-up for October, but I guess it’s better late than never!

October was a pretty good month, especially reading wise. I was lacking in the blogging department, but I managed to read a lot more, and I did write some posts, so I guess it was still somewhat a success.

Let’s take a deeper look!

Books:

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Covers are from Goodreads

Guys. I read THIRTEEN books. In ONE month. *goes off to squeal proudly and excitedly* I feel like I deserve a medal for this accomplishment. This was the first month that I had a TBR, and I’ve actually read most of the books on it, except for a few. I’m definitely going to have another TBR for November. I’m now only 6 books behind on my GR challenge, and I have 20 books to read to reach my goal of 100 by the end of December, so wish me luck guys!

The titles lead to my unofficial reviews on Goodreads (a few include a good deal of crying and excitement and there is also a rant…)

Books	Author	Rating	Book Type
Palace of Spies	Sarah Zettel	★★★☆☆	E-book
Dangerous Deceptions	Sarah Zettel	★★★☆☆	E-book
Three Days Missing	Kimberly Belle	★★★★☆	E-book
Girls Like Us	Gail Giles	★★★★★	E-book
The Victim of the System	Steve Hadden	★★☆☆☆	E-book (for review)
Before We Were Strangers	Brenda Novak	★★★☆☆	E-book
The Wrath and the Dawn	Renée Ahdieh	★★★★☆	E-book
The Rose and the Dagger	Renée Ahdieh	★★★★★	E-book
Escaping From Houdini	Kerri Maniscalco	1.5 stars	E-book
Throne of Glass	Sarah J. Maas	★★★☆☆	E-book
Vengeful	V. E. Schwab	★★★★★	Hardcover
The Lovely and the Lost	Jennifer Lynn Barnes	★★★☆☆	Hardcover
Assassin’s Masque	Sarah Zettel	★★★☆☆	Hardcover

I also wrote a few official reviews (linked below), but I’m still behind on so many.

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee // Rating: ★★★★★ One sentence summary: An interesting historical fiction novel with amazing characters and diverse topics.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman // Rating: ★★★★★ One sentence summary: A heartbreaking, yet funny book with beautiful characters.

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim // Rating: ★★★★☆ One sentence summary: A great fantasy with awesome characters, and a few flaws.

The Victim of the System by Steve Hadden // Rating: ★★☆☆☆ One sentence summary: This was a meh thriller with disappointing characters, and some unbelievable twists.

Total Number of Books Read This Month: 13

Total reviews: 4

Tags:

I took part in Bookending Autumn 2019, and wrote three posts. Technically, I only did one tag, but who cares about technicalities?

Garden of Evil (Prompt by Jamsu @ Jamsu Dreams)

Study Group (Prompt by Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads)

Spicy Pumpkin Latte Book Tag (Prompt by Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads)

Let’s Talk Bookish:

October 4: Star Ratings – Are they fair or necessary?

October 11: Sexual Content in YA – Is there too much sexual content in YA books? (suggested by Ruqs @ Many Things Bookish)

October 18: What are some tropes/characters that you think are poorly or under represented in books?

October 25: Are TBR’s necessary to be considered a book blogger, or reader? (suggested by Heran @ Be Frisky)

Great Posts From Around the Blog-O-Sphere:

Caitlin discusses Why Reading Is So Unpopular and honestly, all her points are pretty accurate, but I still love reading anyways.

Christina is back and I’m so excited!! Check out her amazing review of The Toll!

Line wrote an amazing post about Underrepresented Tropes and Characters in Books.

Marie talks about what How to Make it as a Book Blogger.

Anything Else?

I hit 200 followers!! I’m planning on doing a Q&A soon, so if you’d like to ask me a question, head over here to ask! I also had over 1,000 views which is another accomplishment that I’m really proud of, especially since my posting was pretty irregular. So thank you guys so much for that!!

IRL, it’s so cold. Like really really ice-on-the-grass-and-roofs kind of cold. Which is something because this is Georgia that we are talking about. I’m semi-loving it, semi-hating it because now it’s not burning hot, but it’s also a little too cold for comfort.

Anyways, school is kind of stressful, but it’s not as bad as testing season, so I’m pretty happy about that. I’m feeling really good about the number of books that I read, and I really hope to do just as good this month, and also get back to properly blogging and maybe get rid of my backlogged reviews.

That’s A Wrap!

That’s it! In the end, I read 13 books, did 4 reviews, 3 “tags”, and 4 discussion posts. 5 of the 13 books were either 4 or 5 stars, which I’m pretty happy about, especially since most of the others were 3 stars, and only 2 of them were below that.

I met most of my goals for October, so hopefully for November, I’ll read at least 10 books, do 4 reviews, 3 or 4 tags, and 3 more discussions.

And that’s it for this wrap-up! How was October for you? Did you get as much reading as you wanted done? Have you read any of the books that I did? Did you take part in BE Autumn? Is it freezing where you are? What’s you #1 most anticipated release for this month? Let’s chat in the comments below!

Study Group | Bookending Autumn 2019

Good morning and welcome back! I am very excited to be taking part in BE Autumn this year, and I think today’s topic is awesome!! But first, if you want to take part and learn more, head right over to Sam @ Fictionally Sam to see the rules and the rest of October’s topics!!

You can also follow them @bookend_events for more updates!

Today’s prompt, brought to us by Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads, is:

Study Group: Fall is back to school and you need to organize a study group. Pick eight characters and discuss which subjects they bring their expertise to.

I’m currently still in school, so I’m excited to use my courses for this year, though I’m going to change a few, and find characters who were born to study whatever course. And maybe they can come do my class work for me??

American Literature

Audrey Rose Wadsworth

In Hunting Prince Dracula, Audrey Rose’s love of books is super evident, and I feel like she would be thrilled to read and analyze all sorts of texts.

Also, considering the fact that we’re reading books from around her time period in class, I’m sure it’d be much easier for her to relate or understand these books, compared to my 21st century born self.

Algebra

Jack Cole

In reality, I’m actually taking Geometry, which I’m liking, but I struggled a bit with Algebra, so I’m swapping them. Quadratic functions, parabolas, all of that stuff was not really that much fun for me, but I liked solving for x or drawing normal graphs. Geometry, so far, seems kind of easier.

Jack is a child genius, and I’m sure he would love studying Algebra, or any math course in general. There were a series of equations in the book that he instantly solved and I think that that is proof enough that he will be an awesome Algebra student.

Science

Victor Vale

My actual course is Physical Science. I don’t like science much, and I’m pretty surprised to find that I’m liking the atoms/periodic table aspect, which is more Chemistry than Physical Science, but that’s what we’re learning 🤷‍♀️

Victor Vale is a genius when it comes to Science and biology (in a way). I loved reading about EO’s and how their powers worked and the experiments were fun and terrifying at the same time. Since he’s still alive to tell the tale, I think it is safe to assume that Victor would be perfect for my science class.

Spanish

Margaret (Peggy) Fitzroy

Yo estudio español en la escuela y es muy divertido aprender un nuevo idioma. Translation: “I study Spanish in school and it is very fun to learn a new language.” I won’t lie, I used Google Translate for the last part of the sentence. What can I say? I’m still learning.

As a spy in the royal court, Peggy speaks Latin, German, French, and English, so she obviously would be the perfect pupil for my Spanish class. And maybe she’d be so kind to teach me German and French…

Culinary Arts

Emoni Santiago

I actually don’t have a culinary arts class, but if my school offered it, I sure would take it! Also, I don’t think I have a character who would be awesome at Business and Technology, which is my usual class.

Emoni loves to cook. She has a gift when it comes to being in the kitchen and all the cooking and food that happens in this book is mouth-watering. She also takes Culinary Arts in her high school anyway so she’s obviously very perfectly suitable for this class.

Intro to Crimes and Heists

Kaz Brekker

Okay. Yes. I know. There is no way that my school is teaching about crime and heists, but a girl can wish. I usually have World History, but I can’t think of any character who’s good at history. And so, I chose a course I’d love to take!!

Of course Kaz is the master of heists and crime and I couldn’t pick a more perfect student. However, he’d probably end up teaching the class since he knows a whole lot more than the teacher…

These are only 6 characters, and I actually only have 6 courses in real life, so I’m not sure what other courses/who else to put to make it 8.

That’s it for this post! Which characters would you want to do your classes for you? What’s a course that you wish you could take? Do/did you like your classes in school? Chat with me in the comments below!