Monthly Musings – November, 2016

This is a where I look back at what I read (or tried to read) during the past month. I also plan on highlighting my experiences in any book club reads I from the month as well. I will always start with any books I would label as a surprise find/under-read books so if anyone missed my reviews for them, and don’t make it to the end of this post, they’ll be easy to find.

OK, so I don’t have much to muse over this month in the way of books seeing as I had what is my least productive reading month in probably at least 4 years. I found myself online less, reading less, and just generally somehow getting more behind on everything. That said, this is just a one off month, and I expect to get back on track. Also, I still have reviews for books I finished reading in October to post, plus I still need to review one of my 2 November reads.

Highlighted Read

Review Summary 

• [1 Nov] The Facefaker's Game by Chandler J. Birch ★★★★
• [3 Nov] Conspiracy of Ravens by Lila Bowen ★★½
• [7 Nov] An Import of Intrigue by Marshall Ryan Maresca ★★★½
• [28 Nov] The Dispatcher by John Scalzi ★★★★

What I Read

Level Grind by Annie Bellet – This was a fun urban fantasy (set of 4 novellas) featuring a gamer geek female lead who is secretly a powerful sorceress. This was the type of book I needed this past month, sort of an escapist comfort read. I enjoyed the protagonist and the geeky references. That said, I prefer novel length stories, some of the resolutions in this came kinda quick, but I think some of that is just due to the format. I think the second one was the weakest of the four, the last two were longer, and I think the stories benefited from the extra page space. I do plan to continue the series. My review of this will run on Monday.

The Librarians and the Lost Lamp by Greg Cox- This one was good, but didn’t blow me away (my review is to come). I am not at all familiar with the show its based on, not sure if that may have helped. Some of it is I think its just a bit over the top for my taste. And I don’t mean it was bad, I am just not sure I enjoyed it enough to continue reading if there’s another book.

And since I’ve finished so few books, I’m including my I Havent Quite Finished pile from this month: I am like 70% through Wall of Storms, which is a monster of a book. It’s good, but I’ve just really needed some lighter reads this month, so keep setting it aside. I’m also about halfway through Burning Isle which I’m really enjoying. Shameless plug, it’s next month’s r/fantasy Goodreads Book of the Month selection, hoping some people join in. You can see some details about it in the reddit announcement post, and the discussions will take place in the r/fantasy Goodreads group. And I just started Den of Wolves by Juliet Marillier, which I can already tell I will love like the previous books.

What I Watched

Well, maybe I didn’t get much reading done, but I did watch both seasons of Daredevil and really enjoyed it. My biggest issue is that I have evidently am going to have to wait a while for season 3, which doesn’t have a planned air date yet.

Backlist Burndown

For the first time since starting Backlist Burndown, I didn’t manage to get a Backlist Burndown book. A bit sad about that, but then, I just need to work on what I do next month, I can’t stress about what I did not get done this month.

I normally list the books I’m looking forward to reading next month, but honestly, I feel so far behind I’m just going to take it as it comes instead of trying to plan. I have tons of great options though 🙂