November was a rough month on the reading front, as I was devoting a lot of my time to NaNoWriMo. If you’re not familiar, that stands for National Novel Writing Month, which is an event that encourages you to writing a 50,000-word short novel in the month of November. There’s online interaction and in-person write-ins that give you encouragement, in addition to famous writers posting inspirational essays throughout the month. This was my second time participating, and I was able to write about 30,000 words (which definitely isn’t 50k, but is still a ton for me!).

I was working on the first draft of the fantasy novel that I started writing last year, and I’m finally, finally nearing the end! In addition to getting done a bunch in terms of actual word counts, I was able to really map out the plot for the remainder of the book. I’m really hoping to finish the draft by the end of the year so that I can start editing in 2019, but I’m anticipating December being a super busy month, so I’m not sure if that’s realistic. We’ll see!

In terms of reading, I was only able to finish 4 books this month, which is the lowest so far this year. But! I definitely wasn’t anticipating a big reading month due to NaNoWriMo, so my expectations were low, and I ended up loving 3 out of the 4 books that I did get to read this month. And I’m not mad about a low book count if I’m getting quality over quantity. So here’s how my reading went:

Stats:

Total books read: 4

#readmyowndamnbooks: 3

Audiobooks: 0

ebooks: 1

Get in Trouble by Kelly Link (5 stars) – Get in Trouble by Kelly Link is an amazingly creative short story collection that blends genres and concepts into unsettling, profound, thought-provoking tales. In the hands of another writer, one aspect of one of Link’s stories could fill an entire novel, but in Link’s hands disparate ideas and worlds are explored in 40 pages to a perfect level of depth while still leaving the reader room for interpretation.

A few of my favorites were:
– “The Summer People,” which at first seems like it’s about a sick girl abandoned by her alcoholic father, except then you learn about the neighboring house where the fairies live
– “Two Houses,” about a group of astronauts telling each other ghost stories while in the backs of their minds they can’t forget their own ship’s twin, which mysteriously disappeared decades ago
– “Secret Identity,” about a girl lying about her identity to a man online in a world where superheroes and supervilains are a common sight

No two stories are anything alike, and I was perpetually stunned by Link’s bottomless reserves of unique ideas. If you like weird, genre-blending fiction, I highly, highly recommend picking this one up.

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente (4.5 stars) – I really wasn’t expecting this book to be as wonderful and impactful for me as it was. It’s about an intergalactic singing competition designed as a way for newly discovered species to prove their sentience, and Earth is up next. It’s quirky and hilarious, with every sentence packed full of metaphor after metaphor, and although humor in books is tricky because not everything works for everyone, this style was perfect for me. The book goes from hilarity to a profound degree of emotional depth near the end, and I was crying as I finished the book. I think it’s great for fans of Becky Chambers’s Wayfarers series, because both are more positive science fiction works that deal a lot with interpersonal relationships, and also for fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which I actually didn’t like very much but I can see how you could easily jump from that book to this one. This is the third book I’ve picked up from Valente and I want to read her entire catalog of work.

Diamond Fire by Ilona Andrews (4 stars) – Ilona Andrews is one of my favorite authors in general, and my favorite UF/PNR author in particular, so every time she starts a new series I am very excited. This was a novella bridging the gap between the Hidden Legacy trilogy, narrated by private investigator Nevada Baylor, and a new trilogy narrated by her younger sister Catalina, who has also grown up working in the family’s P.I. firm and has a very unique kind of magic. It was a lot of fun and really got me on board with Catalina as a main character; I’m really looking forward to the first full book in her trilogy, Sapphire Flames, which comes out in 2019.

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri (3 stars) – I received an ARC of Emprie of Sand from the publisher at BookCon. While a great premise, this book ended up being a bit of a disappointment for me. You can check out my full review here.

 

How did your reading/writing go in November? Let me know in the comments!