November’s update is late and December’s is early, that should even it out, don’t you think?
It’s been quite a year, to say the least. But in good news, I hit my Goodreads goal of reading 90 books a few days ago – I’m actually going to see if I can get to 100 in these last couple of days. Helping this is the fact that I did read a couple of novellas for November and a couple of YA novels in December as well (assuming I get the second one finished before the month is up). I’m already looking ahead to 2021’s themes as well, which should be up in a couple of days, along with some revisions about my expectations for how many books I read for each theme.
The first novella I read in November was This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. I pre-ordered this title back in 2019 and then, as is my way, didn’t actually read it. But I did hear a lot of buzz about it, since it did win a whole lot of awards. And so when I had to pick the first novella for the month, it was a pretty easy choice. That said, I did find it took awhile to get into the reading rhythm of this one, so I didn’t end up finishing it as quickly as I thought I might. But even though it wasn’t the fastest of reads, it was still very satisfying and I’m glad I finally got to it.
My second novella for the month, Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh, was a fast read – in fact, if I hadn’t had to stop for work, I probably would have read it in a single sitting. As it was, I read the first half one morning and the second half the next morning. This one was just beautiful and creepy and the perfect mix of horror and faerie tale. There’s a second book in this series that I’m sure I’ll be reading sooner rather than later.
This brings us to December and the first YA novel, Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson. I’m still not entirely sure what I think about this book. It was written beautifully and was very engaging … but it has one of those endings that throws everything else into disarray and I still find myself thinking about it several weeks after I finished the book. Jackson has been on my radar for awhile and I look forward to reading more of her work.
My last book, which I’m currently in the middle of, is E. K. Johnston’s Queen’s Peril. This is Johnston’s second book exploring the most amazing Star Wars prequel character, Padmé Amidala. This one is set at the beginning of Queen Amidala’s reign and focuses primarily on the growing bond between Amidala and her handmaidens. It also does tie in with the events of The Phantom Menace, which I am curious about to say the least. This is another pre-order that languished on my shelves for awhile, though at least this one came out in 2020, so I’m not as negligent in getting around to it.
And with that, the 2020 monthly themes are complete. I hope everyone is safe and wish you all a happy new year.
