Thursday, November 5, 2015

October Wrap-Up


October Overview


October was a really good month. I finished my second semester of graduate school, went hiking through Death Valley, and got a ton of reading done. The blog hit 300 Bloglovin’ followers and 15,000 pageviews. Thank you to everybody who takes the time to read my braindead ramblings.

I got home from Death Valley very late on Tuesday night, so I haven't had time to go through my pictures, but the trip was a lot of fun. There was a sandstorm on the last day. I had never been in a sandstorm before. Getting sandblasted was an interesting experience. I might be able to do some travelogue posts if you guys want to see more of my trip.



Post-sandstorm selfie. Who knew that hair could hold so much sand?



Books I Read


I read 14 books in October! See how productive I can be when I have slightly less schoolwork? Unfortunately, November is going to be a horrible reading month. I will be traveling a lot and starting school again. I’m actually going to have to take a blogging hiatus from November 12-22 because I won’t be home.

Here are the books I read last month. Reviews for most of them are up or will be up in the next few weeks.

Jersey Angel – Beth Ann Bauman
Looking for Alaska – John Green
American Born Chinese – Gene Luen Yang
The White Darkness – Geraldine McCaughrean
Tilt – Ellen Hopkins


Best Books of October


Since I read so much, it was really hard to pick favorites, but here are my top three:


3. Looking for Alaska – John Green






Most Popular Reviews


Here are the most-viewed reviews I posted in October:



Most Popular Posts


These are October’s most-loved non-reviews:



Tentative November TBR


November is going to be a bad reading month. I know I’m going to read The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson. Other than that, I have no idea. I would like to continue reading the Printz Award winners because I’m enjoying them so far.


All The Things!


All The Things (AKA the number of unread books on my TBR shelf) = 33 books.

I’m currently reading The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer.







8 comments:

  1. Whoa 14 books! I applaud to you because I can barely read 3-4 each month (Uni work comes first) so hurray for you!

    I have a question... I was an exchange student in US and Faulkner is familiar to me but I can't quite place him... is he a classic? (mandatory to read in 10th-11th grades?)
    I'm pretty sure I've heard of him but I can't remember ugh

    Laura @ psilovethatbook

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    1. Yes, Faulkner is a classic and mandatory reading in a lot of high schools. I didn’t start reading his books until college, though. They’re challenging to read.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  2. Congrats on the followers and pageview milestone :D Wow! 14 books is amazing, I wish that I could read that many books in a month! Death valley looks AMAZING and yeah, being blasted by sand is...interesting to say the least haha! Here's to a wonderful November and happy reading! xx

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  3. Sounds like a good month! That sandstorm looks crazy!!! Glad you liked Looking for Alaska. Have a great November!!

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    1. At least the sandstorm was more interesting than a regular storm.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  4. You had a really great month from the looks of it! Lots of great books read and congrats on the blogging milestone <3 lets hope November will also be good

    Enchanted by YA: http://enchantedbyya.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/ya-shot-wrap-up-haul.html

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  5. Woah, those are some top-notch books you got to! I love House of the Scorpion. I just tried reading it to one of my 8th grade classes, but it was going to slowly for most of them. When we decided to pick a different book, I had a handful of kids clamoring to get my copy so they could finish reading on their own though.

    I've never enjoyed Faulkner, which makes me feel bad, since people always try to spell my maiden name that way. Of course, i probably haven't attempted to read any of his work in 25 years; maybe I'd feel differently now. I know that Steinbeck was a revelation for me at age 35, after thinking I hated him ever since reading The Red Pony in 4th grade.

    Not to be creepy, but what are you in grad school for?

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