There is no argument: November is the best month of all (it’s my birthday month). I’m a fan of “in between” times. Fall. Spring. And November – the weeks between Halloween but before Christmas. Where you eat a ton of food (if you’re American), pull out your layers (or your “Winter Wardrobe”, depending where you live), and start getting cozy for the end of the year.
This month felt appropriately packed. I took the weekend of my birthday to go down to Hearst Castle (which was really like, 2/5 star experience. Overpriced for what it is and it’s in the middle of literal nowhere so maybe if you’re driving up/down the coast and will continue on, skip this). However, as I’ve gotten older, I have realized that it’s not where I am, but who I am with (sappy, I know). Even in the most boring of places, Jacob and I always have a good time. Which is why I married him.
We decorated our house already… as you can see in the photo – that was done the weekend of Thanksgiving (which is the only acceptable time). I love putting up the tree with the ornaments we’ve slowly collected over the years together. Last year, I started wrapping wall art around the house to make them look like presents – which is absolutely the best thing ever. Each time I see them, I can’t help but smile. I can’t wait to spend the next few weeks looking at everyone’s Christmas lights 🙂
I know, I know. I’m a marshmallow.
The Bullet That Missed (The Thursday Murder Club #3) by Richard Osman
My Rating: 5/5 Stars
What’s it about: Someone wants to kill Joyce unless Elizabeth will kill another person. Joyce has her dog and he’s the best. There’s a few not so secret, secret relationships and a pool in the sky.
Quote: Everyone wants to feel special, but nobody wants to feel different. – Bogdan
2nd Quote: I can hear that you are bright and kind. As the years go by, you will find that people need someone who is bright and kind more than they need someone who knows how to dance and has got the right haircut. – Viktor
My Review: This was the best one yet! We’re back with the whole gang and everyone really gets to use their specific set of skills here. There’s murder, espionage, KGB members, a Viking, a cold case, and lots of British human. I’m very into it and I can’t wait to read the 4th.
I love the Joyce, the only person without a ~serious~ career background, is the secret genius of the group (don’t tell Elizabeth I said that). There is part of the plot (that I can’t reveal without it being a huge spoiler alert) that really bugged me. Elizabeth shoots someone (not a spoiler) but leaves behind the bullet in the bullet hole? She’s not dumb enough to do that.
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
What’s it about: It’s Britney, bitch.
Quote: At what point did I promise to stay 17 for the rest of my life? – Britney Spears
My Review: Britney Spears’ debut album was the first CD I bought (in junction with Blink 182’s “Enema of the State”). I vividly remember how obsessed people (i.e. Grown Men) were with her body (i.e. Her Boobs). I developed pretty early on. It’s weird to be 11 years old and having to deal with grown men staring at your boobs and making comments – as if it’s my fault that I had boobs. And that was just me, in a town, not being a celebrity. Britney had it on a global scale. I watched her meltdown. I remember feeling for her. I understood she was going through something. Then I watched as the entire world made fun of her (i.e. Grown Men). At a time when she needed help and understanding, the world just sat by and literally laughed at her.
This is what we showed girls. This is how we showed we react to girls. This is the world I grew up in and what I learned. Your body doesn’t belong to you and once you lose your virginity, you’re a whore.
Britney’s book is not well written. It’s clear she didn’t have a ghost writer and her editor just wanted to get a book out before Britney changed her mind. It is a stream of consciousness from her brain just thrown on a piece of paper and I adore her for that. It was so painful to read and see what she was going through. What people put her through. I saw myself in a lot of her words and remembered how I was treated (a non-celebrity) by grown men and guys who treated me like I was just a walking pair of tits and a vagina.
I’ll jump on the “I never liked JT” train – because I never did. He’s always seemed like trash to me. But Justin Timberlake playing a guitar to her while she’s crying and in pain because of her abortion is the most JT thing I’ve ever heard. I like to imagine he was playing Wonderwall but I’m sure he was playing one of his own songs.
Spirit Babies: How to Communicate with the Child You’re Meant to Have by Walter Makichen
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
What’s it about: If you’re questioning about having a baby, struggling to get pregnant, or just curious about babies before they come to this life – this book has it all. Here’s a link to GoodReads so you can see if it’s right for you.
My Review: I wasn’t 100% certain if I was going to include this book in my monthly round-up. Choosing to have a child (or not) is a very private choice… Except after you get married, everyone and their grandmother will ask about you having a child (aka: ask you about your sex life). I gave a link to GoodReads because this is a book that you need to decide if it’s right for you or not.
I will say that as someone who has struggled – it was a wonderful book for me to read right now.
Your Body Believes Every Word You Say: The Language of the Bodymind Connection by Barbara Hoberman Levine
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
What’s it about: If you continually tell yourself that doing laundry gives you a backache… doing laundry will give you a backache. Stop being an asshole to yourself.
My Review: This book was recommended to me by my breath work coach. After I finished reading this, I realized this is what my mom has taught me my entire life – I just lost sight of it. My mom has always been the “Stop and smell the roses” type. She would put basil in our sandwiches because it was the “happy” herb. She would lead by example by literally never being sick and when she was, it was incredibly short lived. I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t get cavities until into her 50s simply because she told herself that she doesn’t get cavities. That is what this book is about. It gets very redundant, I won’t lie. But simply reading that you need to just, stay positive, really does help.
Listen. I’ve lost someone to cancer and reading some of these chapters where the author would basically say that cancer will go away if you just want it to… Was rough. Who can say that? I haven’t decided what I agree or disagree with in some of these chapters. This is one that I might have to mull over.
I will say that my husband got a cold over the Thanksgiving holidays. I was terrified. I always get his colds. Except that this time, when I thought that thought, I simply said to myself, “No, that’s not true. I never get his colds”. I visualized getting rid of any cold germs that entered my body every single night before I went to sleep.
I didn’t get his cold. But who knows why. Visualizing and being positive doesn’t cost me anything so I’ll keep it up.
The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont [Audiobook]
My Rating: 1/5 Stars
What’s it about: Supposedly it’s about Agatha Christie’s disappearance but it’s really about why you never want to get to know your husband’s mistress.
My Review: This book has been on my reading list for a long while. Ever since I heard about Agatha Christie’s mysterious disappearance, I became kind of obsessed. I’ve recently discovered that I don’t love historical fiction. The liberties that some authors take is incredibly frustrating. Are there any historical fiction authors you like? If so, please let me know down in the comments. Maybe I’m just choosing the bad ones.
Alright. Let’s get into it. The POV of this book is from the perspective of Christie’s husbands’ mistress – Nan O’Dea. I should have stopped there. The author works so hard to make the mistress the victim while painting Agatha as a horribly petty, frail, weak, and bitchy woman. Nice. I love woman on woman hate. The writing is all over the place. There’s several timelines (which is tough even in the best of audiobooks – but doable [see The Green Mile]) going on and you have to really struggle to keep up. There were so many unbelievable coincidences. I am a huge supporter of suspending your belief with books because sometimes it’s so necessary. With this one, I was suspending it so high, Pluto ran right into it.
In the end, the author wanted to write a mystery book but wanted to ensure people read it. So she threw Agatha’s name on it for free advertisement. I was bored from the start.
Murder in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt [Audiobook]
My Rating: 2/5 Stars
What’s it about: Honestly, I don’t even think the authors knows what it’s about. I think it’s about a guy who was murdered in 1981. Or like, maybe a really rich piano player? Idk.
My Review: When I was a young girl, I was fascinated by the cover of this book. This was one of the books that my parents owned. I don’t know why I never picked it up sooner. Maybe it was my internal alarm system going: “You won’t actually like this book.” As with the Christie Affair… I just really don’t like historical fiction. I might have to give up, officially. I had to make sure, several times, that this was actually a non-fiction book because I kept second guessing that there were actually two books called “Murder in the Garden of Good and Evil” and I mistakenly snagged the fiction one.
This book is really two different books, smashed together. The first half of the book was beautifully written. The author introduced incredibly interesting characters to help paint the setting of 1980s Savannah. The problem was that these characters were kind of random and not super developed. Don’t get me wrong, you really get to know these characters… On a surface level. But you start having this feeling of, “Why do I care about you?” that never actually goes away. There wasn’t really a plot – just a smattering of characters’ everyday lives. The second half of the book actually did have a plot. This was the more obviously non-fiction part, and it almost bored me to sleep (which is really dangerous when you’re driving). In the second part, you hear about the murder, trial, etc.
In the end, I loved the characters! I wish this was a fiction book about those characters and a mystery happening in the town. Otherwise, I struggled to finish this one.
Fourth Wing (The Empyrean #1) by Rebecca Yarros [Audiobook]
My Rating: 5/5 Stars
What’s it about: At Basgiath War College, you fight for your life. Literally. Then you bond with a dragon that gives you magical powers. But only if you can actually get to Threshing. Violet was destined to be a Scribe, but when her mom forces her into the Riders Quadrant, she has to survive. (BUT ALSO SHE FALLS IN LOVE WITH HER ENEMY – this should be your reason to read thanks)
My Review: The audiobooks I’ve been getting have been such a disappointment. So, I decided to try a fantasy series (I’m coming for your Brandon Sanderson… well, someday, when your books are available and I’m not on a 10+ week hold list at my library). Lo and behold, TikTok’s #1 book is available. I was completely shocked. Due to the lackluster BookTok series, A Court of Thorns and Roses, I avoided this book like the plague. Part of me wanted to read it, just to be able to say it sucks. Then I had a co-worker tell me about it. One that isn’t into fairy porn and has never really recommended anything to me. Then a co-worker told me her husband listened to the audiobook and was OBSESSED. Okay FINE. Fine. I’ll listen. But I was 100% prepared to absolutely hate this book.
I didn’t.
I get it.
This book was so good. I cleaned the house so many times and found any little excuse to drive somewhere, just to listen to this for 21 hours (I didn’t speed it up – though I sometimes do – because I wanted to ENJOY IT). Our main character, Violet, wasn’t a withering flower but she wasn’t like “I’m so tough and badass”. She is realistic. She was trained to be a scribe (so she’s super smart) and going into being a rider, she knew she wasn’t physically ready so she figured out ways to stay alive that didn’t require physical strength (if you’ve seen Buffy, Season 3, Episode 12 – “Helpless”… It’s like that). I enjoyed being in her head because she reminded me a lot of myself. When Daine showed up, I was like “great, childhood friends to lovers? Lame” And then Xaden showed up and I was like “ENEMIES TO LOVERS?! LET’S GO” because you know I am a sucker for it. I’m (almost) always going to choose the man who let’s his love make her own decisions (biggest examples are Damon Salvatore and Jacob Black) because he knows she is fully capable of making those decisions. The men who try to “protect” her (which really just insults her capabilities) always tend to piss me off (biggest examples are Stefan Salvatore and Edward Cullen). Don’t. Tell. Me. What. To. Do. Anyway, I’ve written enough. The pacing is great, the world building is well done, there’s no fluff, the characters are diverse and well developed. I immediately bought book 2.
Have you read any of these books? Have I convinced you (or not) to read any of these? What was your favorite book to read in November?
Writes with Wolves 