November Challenges Wrap-Up & December Reading Plans

 

I only intended to take part in #SciFiMonth in November, but by accident, I’ve ended up reading a few things for #MARM (Margaret Atwood Reading Month) and #NovellasinNovember as well. Most of these books cross over so these summaries make it look like I read loads more in November than I actually did!

For #MARM, I re-read The Handmaid’s Tale and first read The Testaments, with very mixed results.

For #SciFiMonth, I read eight of the sixteen books I had on my TBR list, AND a bonus read, so I’m counting that as a win! These books were the two Atwoods, plus Stillicide, Wilder Girls and Sealed, plus The Test, Nemesis Games, The Race and Ammonite. However, it’s pretty bad that I didn’t get to any of the SF by writers of colour that I had on my list. This will be prioritised either in December or early next year.

For #NovellasinNovember, I managed to read four novellas, which is four more than I normally read, and I actually liked half of them (though one of those was from my favourite novella writer, Cynan Jones). These were Stillicide, Sealed and The Test (reviews linked above) plus A Christmas Carol.

Reading Plans for December

My priority is to get through the following six books before the end of the year, roughly in this order:

• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison – book club read, meeting on 8th December!
• Heaven My Home by Attica Locke – due back at library
• The Echo Maker – Richard Powers – penultimate book on my TBR list for this year AND the final book on my 4.5 star challenge list
• The Unpassing – Chia-Chia Lin – final book on my TBR list for this year
• We, The Survivors – Tash Aw – highlighted in my mid-year round-up
• A Door in the Stone – Amy Waldman – also highlighted in my mid-year round-up

I recently changed my Goodreads Reading Challenge back to its original total of 175 books. As of today, I’ve read 161 books and am partway through a re-read of Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend, taking my total to 162. 13 more books in December *might* be doable, as I always read a lot at the end of December and I’m still on strike until December 4th – but we’ll see!