November was a good month overall, though work kept me busy. We’ve had snow and rain and beautiful days, and Mina continues to be completely adorable. It’s weird to think that both a year and a decade are coming to an end. In my mind, the 90s were still last week, but we’re staring 2020 in the face.

But there’s still a month to go, so let’s make the most of it!

 

 

What I Finished Reading in November:

I finished twelve books in November, which is more than I thought I would get through mid-month. I participated in Tome Topple, hosted by Sam at Thoughts on Tomes. It’s an easy enough readathon, given that you have about two weeks to read a single book– but that book has to be more than 500 pages. I chose Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman, which had been on my TBR shelf for about a year. It was a little slow to start out with, but once Tess got on the road, I started enjoying it a lot more. It’s a lovely story about a young woman who learns to break free of her society’s strict and narrow roles for women.

There were two ARCs: Snow, A Scientific and Cultural Exploration by Giles Whittell– which is an investigation of the science behind snow, and our cultural responses to it– and Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition by Buddy Levy, which is about the Greely polar expedition, which headed to extreme northern Canada to study polar conditions, but eventually faced the possibility of starvation and death after supply ships could not reach them. Both of these were excellent books about wintry things, which suited me perfectly.

• Snow: A Scientific and Cultural Exploration  by Giles Whittell
• The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark
• Ninth House (Alex Stern #1) by Leigh Bardugo
• Silas Marner by George Eliot 
• Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman
• The Sleeper and The Spindle by Neil Gaiman, audiobook narrated by a full cast
• Miranda in Milan by Katharine Duckett
• Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition by Buddy Levy, ARC provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press
• Greenwitch (The Dark is Rising #3) by Susan Cooper
• The Crystal Cave (Arthurian Saga #1) by Mary Stewart, audiobook narrated by Derek Perkins
• Throne of Jade (Temeraire #2) by Naomi Novik, audiobook narrated by Simon Vance
• The Grey King (The Dark is Rising #4) by Susan Cooper

Statistically speaking:

• 72.7% of the books were by women, 27.3% were by men
• 54.5% were by American authors, 45.5% were by British authors
• 63.6% were physical books, 27.3% were audiobooks, and 9.1% were ebooks
• 54.5% were Adult Fantasy, 18.2% were Middle-Grade Fantasy, and YA Fantasy, Nonfiction, and Fiction were each 9.1%
• 54.5% of the books were from my own shelves, 36.4% were from the library, and 9.1% were from NetGalley
• Publication years ran from 1861 to 2019

I’d say that my favorite book of the month was The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart, but that was a reread, so I already knew I would enjoy it. As far as new-to-me reads go, Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo is my favorite. I liked all the books I read, and the lowest rating I gave any of them on Goodreads was three stars.

 

What I Plan to Read in December:

• The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings #1) by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings #2) by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings #2) by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull
• Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin
• Silver on the Tree(The Dark is Rising #5) by Susan Cooper
• Within the Frame by David duChemin

 

 

That’s a lot of pages when you stack them up like that…

I’m reading The Lord of the Rings again because December is busy, and The Lord of the Rings is my favorite of all time, so I’m falling back on something comfortable that I know I will love. The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion is a book I bought earlier this Fall, and I am going to keep it alongside the books to reference as I read them. It will give me all sorts of new insights.

I’ve had Winter’s Tale on my shelves for years. Since 2015, maybe? I started it once, shortly after I bought it. I liked what I read, but for some reason, I put it down and never picked it back up again. It’s time to change that.

Silver on the Tree is the final book in Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising sequence. I’ve read it before, but it’s one of those books where the imagery is so strange and unique that it feels like a different story every time I go back to it.

Within the Frame is a book about photography, but not about settings or gear. David duChemin promotes a philosophy of creativity and vision, rather than being obsessed with camera models and lenses. I am planning a Photo365 (or, rather, a Photo366 since 2020 is a Leap Year) for next year, so anything that will inspire me to create different and better work will be helpful.

I’m sure I will read more and/or different books than are listed here, but this is the plan so far. I have no ARCs due in December, and while I have looked through the options in my favorite genres, I haven’t seen anything coming out in the next couple of months that has sparked my interest.

What I Plan to Watch:

• The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (Netflix)
• Mindhunters, season 2 (Netflix)
• Peaky Blinders, season 2 (Netflix)
• The Dragon Prince, season 1 (Netflix)
• The Crown, season 2 (Netflix)
• Ripper Street, season 5 (Netflix)
• Star Trek: Discovery, season 2 (DVD)
• The Living and the Dead (DVD)

I may or may not have the time to watch very much television this month, as there is a lot I want to read, and I also need to get back to my German studies. And I’ll be working some overtime between now and Christmas, so that doesn’t help with my free time. But if I get a chance to finish a season of any of these shows, you can bet I’ll have something to say.