Wrapping Up {October 2019}

Hello, Readers! My months and days are going quickly these days, flying by in a wonderful blur of work, planning, and everyday life. I’m pleased with how October went, even if it wasn’t exactly how I expected. How dare I even have expectations these days. Here’s what it looked like as far as reading and blogging.

Books Read: 7

📚 Three Days Til Dawn (Antiquity’s Gate #1) by R.F. Hurteau; Post-apocalyptic Science fiction;⭐⭐⭐ My Review

📚 American Gypsy Romance Short Story Anthology by Alyssa Martel; Contemporary YA short story collection; ⭐⭐⭐ My Review

📚 Borrowing Amor (Borrowing Amor #1) by Kat Bellemore; Contemporary Clean Romance; ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review coming in December

📚 Wonderful Peace by Rebekah A. Morris; Historical Fiction short story; ⭐⭐⭐⭐

📚 The Night is Far Gone by Tim Jorgenson; Historical Fiction; ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review coming soon

📚 The Bakeshop at Pumpkin and Spice by Donna Kaufman, Kate Angell, & Allyson Charles; Contemporary Romance/Magical Realism; ⭐⭐ Brief review on Goodreads here

📚 Emma vol. 1 by Kaoru Mori; Historical Fiction Manga; ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Average Book Rating: 3.42⭐s

Total Posts in October: 17

Most Liked Post: October 2019 TBR

Most Commented Post: Mailbox Monday {10.28.2019}

Book Reviews Posted in October:

Spotlights in October:

October’s TBR Goals (posted here):

Finish The Firefly Dance novella collection ❌
- After renewing this library check out three (I think) times, I gave up and returned it. I read the first two stories, and they are so incredibly sad. The book is not long, but I couldn’t make myself read more than a few pages at a time because of the emotional weight of the content.
One or two contemporary middle grade novels ❌
- I thought about this a few times, but did not actually read any. This is getting pushed to November’s TBR goals.
Two books set in states I have yet to check off my list this year ❌
- I only marked off one more state. Most of the books I read this month did not specify where they took place.
A Christmas Book ✔
- This one actually surprised me! I didn’t realize Borrowing Amor was a Christmas book before I started it, but picking it up when I did turned out nicely.
A nonfiction book or two (especially Augustine’s Confessions)
- I consistently read a few pages of Confessions every morning, but the book is huge and I am not finished with it yet! And I did not read any other nonfiction books in October.
Three ARCs/new releases ✔
- Technically none were ARCs but American Gypsy Romance Short Story Collection, The Night is Far Gone, and The Bakeshop at Pumpkin and Spice are all new releases.
A manga called Emma ✔

Other things I did in October include: celebrated a couple of birthdays, got elected as Staff Association Chair (president, basically), worked on the sweater I’m knitting for my nephew, and made stuffed peppers that looked like jack o’lanterns. The podcast I listened to most this month is Deck the Hallmark, but I also listened to a few episodes of The Permanent Things, a podcast created by one of my former professors discussing literature and civics. It’s very insightful, if a bit pretentious, and I like hearing about some of the things I studied in undergrad again, but in a more casual atmosphere.

I think that’s enough for one post. I’ll post my November goals/TBR later this week, and, if time allows, a book review and possibly one other post as well. This week is another one that is very busy for me, with work projects, Staff Association projects, and life stuff, so we’ll see.

What have you been up to recently? Feel free to drop the link of your October wrap-up or November TBR post in the comments, and I’ll try to stop by!

Until the next chapter,

Jana