So, this month hasn't exactly been the most productive reading month. I read a grand total of two books (one of them was for school), but I do have a reason. If you take a look to the sidebar, I actually participated in NaNoWriMo this month and WON! I wrote 50,000 words (which took up my reading and blogging time) which still amazes me. A million late nights and baggy eyes were totally worth it in the end for this huge accomplishment.
Anyways, here are the books that I read in the month of November:
- Never Always Sometimes: So, I picked this book up at Barnes and Noble and have absolutely no idea why, especially because I NEVER buy books at full price, but I needed Carry On and this managed to sneak over to the counter with it. So I gave this three stars on Goodreads, just because it felt like such a forgettable book. If you don't know what Never Always Sometimes is about, it is about these two best friends named Dave and Julia who make a list about cliches that they'll never do in high school, but come senior year, they decide to do all of them. Some of them are completely true, like dyeing your hair an obscure color (which has pretty much become the norm at my school) but others don't really apply to school anymore, like hooking up with a teacher. Coming from a high schooler, that DOES NOT HAPPEN. Just as a side note about the whole hair dyeing thing, that is so common at my school: I know one person with legitimately red hair, two people who have dyed their hair orange, a bunch who have bleached their hair, one kid with mustard yellow hair, one person who used to have green hair, someone with blue hair and the entire girls' swim team dyed their hair purple. Rubik's Cubes are also a huge trend, so a good chunk of the school all knows how to solve them and goes to competitions, so I am no longer impressed by people who can solve a Rubik's Cube (sorry, not sorry). Back to the book, when they do all these different 'cliches,' they find that they actually enjoy a lot of the things that they are doing. I felt like Never Always Sometimes was really forgettable, even though the whole book was about defeating cliches. It was meant to be entirely different but, honestly, another book about the flat indie characters that are too good for everyone else just blends in with so many other contemporaries. There was nothing spectacular about the storyline or the writing, but nothing terrible either. It felt like a contemporary you read just to get a break, but not one that you find yourself picking up for a sheer desire to read something amazing.
- A Parcel of Patterns: I actually read this book for school, so I have to write a full review of it for school, but I'm not a hundred percent sure that I will get to post it here too. Our teacher is having us publish our reviews on Goodreads, so keep checking up on my Goodreads for that. A Parcel of Patterns is about a girl named Mall who lives in Eyam, England during the 1500s. Her life is pretty good, she has parents and a secret boyfriend, who she's hoping to marry soon. One day, a parcel is shipped to Eyam from London, containing fabric that has fleas that have the bubonic plague. Since that part of England was previously unaffected by the plague, they decide to completely isolate the entire village until it's gone. No one in and no one out. The whole book is written in old English, so I took it a bit slowly at first, just to try and get used to the rhythm of the style. Once I adjusted, I flew through it. I love learning about the bubonic plague, it's one of my favorite things to study, so the book was really interesting for me. The main character, Mall, was a great narrator, but she skipped around time in the beginning. I took one star off for that, just because the order was a bit confusing at first. Despite that, I had a great time reading this book and discussing it with the other people reading it. Highly recommend if you're looking for something different or a bit more challenging.
So those are the books that I've read in November.
This is what I'm planning to read for December:
- Carry On by the fabulous Rainbow Rowell. I'm already about halfway through this, but I hope to finish it before winter break. If you don't already know that it's about, in Rainbow's other book, Fangirl, Cath is obsessed with this equivalent to Harry Potter called Simon Snow. She writes a fanfiction about the series, called Carry On Simon, but that's not the book. The book isn't canon either, meaning it's not what Rainbow referred to as the actual Simon Snow series. It is basically Rainbow's fanfiction about the series. I know that it's kind of hard to explain and I was confused about it for a while, but this is what I've taken from the author's note at the end. You don't need to read Fangirl to read this, but I do love Fangirl, so I still do recommend reading that, even if it's after you read Carry On.
- David by Mary Hoffman. Since I finished A Parcel of Patterns early, I chose to read another one of the selections for a 16th century novel. This was my second choice, which is about Italian art and politics during that time. It follows the model for a statue of David and all the problems that follow him. I'm really enjoying it so far and hopefully will have it done within another one or two weeks.
- Mystical by Michael Weekly. I was actually lucky enough to recieve an ARC of this book from the author, so I will be posting a review of it on Goodreads and Amazon. It's basically about this girl named Eliza, who is a witch but not the kind that casts spells. She has a broomstick, but it definitely doesn't fly, instead it's a deadly weapon. The book follows her on her journey discovering what it means to be a witch and learning more about the mystical world that has elves and mermaids. You can read the first ten chapters on Wattpad and the whole book comes out on December 8, so make sure to go pick it up when you have a chance.
- Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. This is another book that I'm reading for class, so I'm hoping to have it finished some time in January, but I'm going to try and keep reading it. Sarah's Key is a parallel plotline following a nine year old girl during the Vel d'Hiv Roundup in France and an American journalist who is writing about that time and stumbles upon Sarah's story. It's a rather dark story, but very well written.
- Secrets in Phoenix by Gabriella Lepore. I don't know too much about this book, but I recieved a review copy from the publisher, Of Tomes publishing. I hope to have a full review of this book, but my review will be done by the end of the month. I've heard really good things about this book, so I'm definitely excited to read it.
Those are all the books that I want to read for sure in December. I hope to get to more, but I really want to have those done first.
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Caramel