November 2022 Book List

This month started off dire. Lots of bad books. It mostly turned around by the end of the month, but things were dire for a hot minute.

11/1: Sunshine by Robin McKinley (library audiobook, 2003) - Such good worldbuilding for a one and done novel. If only that worldbuilding didn't threaten to put you to sleep all the time. 3/5 stars

11/3: Writers & Lovers by Lily King (library, 2020) - Book club book that made me want to initiate physical violence against someone. 2.5/5 stars

11/5: Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (library, 2022) - A miss for me. Too much tennis, too little empathy from the main character. 2.5/5 stars

11/6: The Trespasser (Dublin Murder Squad #6) by Tana French (library ebook, 2016) - I did not care for this book. 2/5 stars

11/7: Storm Echo (Psy-Changeling Trinity #6) by Nalini Singh (library ebook, 2022) - Oh, a book that broke my bad book streak. A glorious return to form for this series, which is more than 20 books deep at this point. Sweet romance, great mystery in-world. 4/5 stars

11/7: A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1) by V.E. Schwab (library audiobook read by Steven Crossley, 2015) - Lackluster.  I will not be reading more of this. 2.5/5 stars

11/10: Bombshell (Hell's Belles #1) by Sarah MacLean (library ebook, 2021)  - This is purportedly the first in a series, but it's clearly in the middle of other series and I was absolutely confused and befuddled. I can see why folks like this take on historical fiction with its independent female lead and dreamy male hero, but it fell very flat for me. 2/5 stars

11/10: The Last Graduate (The Scholomance #2) by Naomi Novik (library, 2021) - I'm over reading. I'll never read again. Just seemed like a repeat of the first book. 2.5/5 stars

11/12: A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk and Robot #2) by Becky Chambers (library ebook, 2022) - I think I hate reading. I hate books. 2.5/5 stars

11/15: Beneath the Sugar Sky (Wayward Children #3) by Seanan McGuire (library ebook, 2019) - Not the best entry in the Wayward Children series. 3/5 stars

11/16: The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow (library, 2019) - Pretty good book. I liked the dog character a lot. 4/5 stars

11/19: Life Below Stairs: True Lives of Edwardian Servants by Alison Maloney (library ebook, 2011) - I wanted this to be like How To Be Victorian, but instead it was superficial and might have been better as a magazine article. 3/5 stars

11/21: The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater (library ebook, 2017) - Heartbreaking, but somehow hopeful. 4.5/5 stars

11/23: The Ink Black Heart (Cormoran Strike #6) by Robert Galbraith (library, 2022)  - You know what, I really enjoyed this book.  4.5/5 stars

11/27: The Golden Enclaves (The Scholomance #3) by Naomi Novik (library 2022) - This was not good at all. I read it because it was the third book in a trilogy, but I did not enjoy it at all. 2/5 stars

11/28: Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (library, 2017) - An interesting meditation on immigration and assimilation in the modern world. Not an easy read, though. 4/5 stars

11/30: The Royal We (Royal We #1) by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan (library, 2015) - Such a good book about a couple that's never going to make it. 4.5/5 stars

Total: 17 books

Average star rating: 3.12/5 stars

Did not finish:

Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney - Drugs, violence, gratuitous teenage sex, and murder. And it was only page 82 when I stopped. Not the book for me. DNF at 21.3%.

Charmed Life (Chrestomanci #1) by Diana Wynee Jones - Beloved YA fantasy series that I couldn't connect with because of adults who don't tell children important things and children being brats. DNF at 21%.