Wrap-Up: November 2019

November Snapshots

1. So . . . it’s been a while. I haven’t written a monthly wrap-up post since March because it would be very boring to say, “I worked 10 billion hours and read no books.” That’s pretty much what happened all summer, but I’m back! I think. Let’s restart this wrap-up thing.

The view from my "office" window.

2. Who’s excited about TV? I’ve been watching His Dark Materials. I loved the books when I was a teen. I didn’t have high hopes for the TV show because the movie was . . . unwatchable. It was awful. But, I’m surprised by the show. The actors are talented, and it looks pretty. I’m enjoying it so far.

3. That thing you all said would happen actually happened, and I’m the only one who was shocked. I’ve said on this blog that I don’t have a treadmill anymore, so I run outside in the snow during winter. You guys were like, “Aj, you can’t run in snow. You’ll fall.” I was like, “Nah, I’m good.” Well, guess what? I was running in the snow, minding my own business, when I slipped on black ice and ate pavement. You’re shocked, right? My knee was purple and puffy for half of November. It’s healed now. I’m back to running in the snow. I’m just slightly more cautious on the wet patches.

4. Let me give you things! I’m giving away a book shopping spree. It’s open internationally, so please enter if you want the chance to pick out a bunch of brand new books. Seriously, you can pick whatever books you want. I’ll buy them for you.

Wayward Googlers

Here are a few amusing Google searches that led people to Read All The Things! last month. I’m sorry to the unfortunate souls who ended up here instead of finding what they were Googling for.

“city of ghostees critiques.” Ghostees? I don’t think that’s the vibe VE Schwab was going for with that novel, but I actually do have a critique for you. 

“My favirite book i read 2019 book haul.” Nooo! I refuse to think about “favirite” books until the end of the year. There’s still a month left in 2019. I have a ton of stuff to read. I can’t pick favirites yet. 

 

“Diverse books matter.” Agreed.

“narrative nonfiction bad storm.” Oh, I can actually be helpful with this one! Try A Pearl in the Storm: How I Found My Heart in the Middle of the Ocean by Tori Murden McClure. There’s hurricanes in that one.

  

“Top 10 Tuesday books about paying attention.” Was this a TTT topic? Should we suggest it as a topic? Probably not. I can’t imagine it’d be popular.

Books I Read

It was Nonfiction November! That’s why there’s a plethora of stupidly long nonfiction titles in this post. Also, the Sadie audiobook. That one’s fiction, but I listened to the last few minutes of it on November 1, so it counts as a November book. In November, I finished 7 books and gave up on 1.

Sadie by Courtney Summers

Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Heiligman

A Time To Dance A Time To Die: The Extraordinary Story of the Dancing Plague of 1518 by John Waller

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Shermer (DNF)

Honor Girl: A Graphic Memoir by Maggie Thrash

Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang & Nate Pedersen

Best Books Of November

1. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

2. Sadie by Courtney Summers

3. Honor Girl: A Graphic Memoir by Maggie Thrash

Most-Viewed November Posts

 

1. Giveaway: Win A $100 Book Shopping Spree

2. Top Ten Tuesday: Fall Book Recommendations

3. Top Ten Tuesday: How Blogging Changed My Reading Habits

All The Things

Number of unread books on my TBR shelf = 47 books.

I’m currently reading = Best-Loved Folktales of the World by Joanna Cole.

What did you do in November?