Worlds Unlike Our Own

November has been my busiest month so far this year, between catching up on the last couple of pending 2020 titles and preparing for Blogmas. The major news this month is that I’ve completed my Goodreads reading goal! I won’t be raising it any further, but I’m hoping to get to around 225 by the end of December. And of course, Christmas is only weeks away and even though it’s going to be very quiet this year, I’m still very excited!

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Books I Read in November 2020
(links lead to reviews)

New Releases
Skyhunter (Skyhunter #1) – Marie Lu (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
Hench – Natalie Zina Walschots (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
Lightbringer (Empirium #3) – Claire Legrand (🌟🌟🌟🌟 1/2)
Fable (Fable #1) – Adrienne Young (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
The Cousins – Karen McManus – ARC – The WriteReads Ultimate Blog Tour (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
And They Called It Camelot – Stephanie Marie Thornton (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
The Devil and the Dark Water – Stuart Turton (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
The Wolf and the Water (Deluge #1)  – Josie Jaffrey – ARC (🌟🌟🌟 1/2)
The Shadow Mission (The Athena Protocol #2) – Shamim Sarif (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games #0) – Suzanne Collins (🌟🌟🌟 1/2)

Backlist
Code Name Verity (Code Name Verity #1) – Elizabeth Wein (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
Renegades (Renegades #1) – Marissa Meyer (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
Uncle Scrooge: The Hunt for the Old Number One – Hedman (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor #1) – Mark Lawrence (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
Heartstopper: Volume Two – Alice Oseman (🌟🌟🌟🌟)
Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge: The Mines of King Solomon (🌟🌟🌟🌟)

Other posts & reviews this month

Monthly Wrap Up | October 2020
The Other Side of the Sky (The Other Side of the Sky #1) – Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner (🌟🌟🌟 1/2)
WWW Wednesday | November 04, 2020
WWW Wednesday | November 11, 2020
WWW Wednesday | November 18, 2020
How I Read Book Tag
WWW Wednesday | November 25, 2020
Blogmas Announcement

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Reading Challenge Updates

October’s reading challenges are nearly always Halloween themed, and are the toughest for me, because as a rule, I don’t do horror novels or even mystery novels tending towards the spooky. It took a lot of searching to find two books that would fit the theme that I would be willing to read, but here they are!

1. Epic Reads Reading Challenge: POETRY IN MOTION
Chosen Book: The Poet X – Elizabeth Acevedo

A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world. Debut novel of renowned slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself.

So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

I decided to go with the recommended book this month and brave reading my first novel-in-verse. This is still in process, so my review will be up later this month.

2. Fictional Hangover Book Club Challenge
REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER: Read a book with a conspiracy to overthrow a government, or an assassination attempt of a monarch
Chosen book: Lightbringer (Empirium #3) – Claire Legrand

Queen Rielle, pushed away from everything she loves, turns to Corien and his promises of glory. Meanwhile, whispers from the empirium slowly drive her mad, urging her to open the Gate. Separated from Audric and Ludivine, she embraces the role of Blood Queen and her place by Corien’s side, determined to become the monster the world believes her to be.

In the future, Eliana arrives in the Empire’s capital as a broken shell of herself. Betrayed and abandoned, she fights to keep her power at bay—and away from Corien, who will stop at nothing to travel back in time to Rielle, even if that means destroying her daughter.

But when the mysterious Prophet reveals themselves at last, everything changes, giving Rielle and Eliana a second chance for salvation—or the destruction their world has been dreading.

Lightbringer was undoubtedly one of my most anticipated books this year, and while there were some areas where it didn’t live up to expectations, it was certainly an epic finale, and one that perfectly fits this month’s challenge.
Check out my review here!

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Stats for the Month

Number of Books: 16
Number of Pages: 6,181
Goodreads Challenge Progress: 202/200

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Did you read any of these books or do you plan to? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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