Where to even begin? First, this post is really late. My October was super busy. Not just because of work being stressful, which I’ve talked about in other posts, but also because of fun things. Two of my friends got married (not to one another, so two separate ceremonies on two different weekends) and I spent a long weekend at Disney World with another bestie and her family. Those memories I made were incredible. But it also meant that when I was at home, I was pretty much locked in on trying not to completely just quit my job and also being upset that I hadn’t been home to see my family in two months and wasn’t sure when I’d be able to because of Helene. (Great news, I26 is now open both directions at the NC/TN line!! So I have now seen my family.) And then November hit and work got even worse (yay!) and then the existential dread of election season ramped up and then… Well, y’all know what happened then. So… I would really like to dissociate for the rest of the next four years, but I suppose that’s not really feasible. Anyways, I’m just going to go ahead and do this post because I feel like I need to for my own organizational stuff so here goes nothing.

A Visual Representation of the Books I Read by Rating

5 Stars

I re-read Magic Strikes and Magic Bleeds via the graphic audios and y’all, I am obsessed. I need to continue this re-read because I’m having a great time. Bloom and, actually, maybe also If It Makes You Happy were recommended by Sil and I absolutely adored them both. Bloom made me cry so much. Literally, on the plane to San Diego with tears just streaming down my face. It both is and isn’t that sad. The parts I was crying at were just because of how well EJ Blaise pulled the emotions out of me, not a particularly sad part. If It Makes You Happy is set in the 90s and that was a trip and a half, but I loved it. This was my first time reading both of these authors, but after these books, I don’t think it will be my last.

4.5 Stars

All three of these books continued a series that I was already really enjoying, so it’s no surprise that I rated each of these as highly as I did. Well Traveled though definitely got a rating boost simply because I would love to throw my phone in a tub of water and quit my job in a rage. (Okay, not really, but it’s a nice daydream!!!)

4 Stars

You’ll be seeing an ARC review of Catch and Keep later this week. Always Mine was my first Pavlov book and it’s a friends to lovers book that I enjoyed a lot. I’ll likely continue in this series.

3.5 Stars

I think in a different month, in a different mood, I might have given these three books four stars because I do look back on all three fondly, but 3.5 stars feels most right. That said, Go Hex Yourself is probably my favorite of the contemporary/paranormal witchy rom-coms that has come out in recent years. It’s right up there with Hot Hex Boyfriend. Also, reading With Love, from Cold War on the plane to and from Orlando was a great time to read this book. I had a lot of fun with it. And Played is a book I had as an ARC, so fingers crossed that review will be out later this week or early next.

3 Stars

In the same review post that you’ll see my review of Played, you’ll also see my review for Holding the Reins and Love and Sportsball. Otherwise, I don’t have much to say about these four books, so we’ll just move on to statistics!

Statistics

• Books Read: 18
• Audiobooks: 5
• Ebooks: 6
• Physical Books: 2
• Mixed Format: 5

November TBR

I have a couple of plans for my reading in November. For one thing, I’d like to catch up on my nonfiction goal for the year… If I’m counting right, I still have six left to read. So is that likely to go well? Probably not. But I’ll give it a shot, anyway.

Secondly, I would really like to finish reading all of my physical 2024 books by the end of the year. My bookshelves are way too packed and I really need to clean out my TBR and figure out what I actually want to keep, versus what is definitely able to leave the house. So I have 28 physical 2024 releases to read by the end of the month. Here are the 10 I’m hoping to read in November. (I need to read 14, but I don’t know what the other four will be yet.) (Also, I’m counting my pre-orders!)

Third, we have the ARCs that I have for November that I really need to read because I’m still so behind from the rest of the year that I will truly never catch up if I don’t make a concentrated effort to stay on top of the rest of the year at least.

And how do I plan to read this many books during a month where I am insanely busy at work? Y’all. I don’t know. Escapism as a coping strategy, I guess. Although lately, investing too much energy in the Chiefs has been working too. We’ll see where we wind up.

Closing Thoughts

I hope y’all are doing well. I know everything is kind of awful, so it seems like a hard thing to hope for, but I really do hope you’re managing somehow to stay above water. And I want you to know that somehow, someway, that arc of the future will bend towards justice. Eventually. Anyway, let me know how you’re doing and what you’re escaping into. Also, if you’ve moved on to organizing, please share what steps you’re taking because I’ll get there eventually too.

xx