Spell the Month in Books // October 2020 Virtual Bookstack

Good Monday morning, Readers! October is flying by for me; how is it going for you? I’m halfway through my classes for this semester. They’re going pretty well; the weekly readings and assignments are easy and usually interesting, though the larger projects are definitely challenging. It’s enjoyable to see how what I am learning in class maps onto my current job in the library, and to learn more of the pieces for how everything works together.

That said, school is taking up nearly all of my time! So while looking for a fairly quick blog post to put together for today, I realized it has been a while since I did a Spell the Month in Books post! Like most months when I do these posts, I don’t own physical copies of all the books, so I’m creating a digital bookstack. I have read all of the books I feature though, and this time I am going to remember to share my ratings! Personally, I think this is an exciting list. You’ll have to tell me once you’ve read through whether you agree.

O – Out of the Silent Planet (Space Trilogy #1) by C.S. Lewis

Genre: Science Fiction

About: The first book in C. S. Lewis’s acclaimed Space Trilogy, which continues with Perelandra and That Hideous Strength, Out of the Silent Planet begins the adventures of the remarkable Dr. Ransom. Here, that estimable man is abducted by a megalomaniacal physicist and his accomplice and taken via spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra. The two men are in need of a human sacrifice, and Dr. Ransom would seem to fit the bill. Once on the planet, however, Ransom eludes his captors, risking his life and his chances of returning to Earth, becoming a stranger in a land that is enchanting in its difference from Earth and instructive in its similarity. First published in 1943, Out of the Silent Planet remains a mysterious and suspenseful tour de force.

My Rating: 🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

C – Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2) by Suzanne Collins

Genre: Young Adult Dystopian Fiction

About: Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol – a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she’s afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she’s not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol’s cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can’t prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying. Katniss is about to be tested as never before.

My Rating: 🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

T – Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Genre: Historical/Literary Fiction

About: A simple story of a “strong man” whose life is dominated by fear and anger, Things Fall Apart is written with remarkable economy and subtle irony. Uniquely and richly African, at the same time it reveals Achebe’s keen awareness of the human qualities common to men of all times and places.

My Rating: 🍁🍁🍁🍁

O – O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

Genre: Historical/Classic Fiction

About: A classic novel of the Nebraska prairie, O Pioneers! is the story of Alexandra Bergson, the daughter of Swedish immigrant farmers, whose devotion to the land sustains her against the hardships and suffering of prairie life.

My Rating: 🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

B – The Betrothed by Kiera Cass

Genre: YA Fantasy

About: The young king of Coroa has never been the type to settle down—that is, until he meets Hollis Brite.

Hollis has grown up at Keresken Castle among the other daughters of nobility who hoped beyond hope that they’d catch the king’s eye. So when King Jameson declares his love for her, Hollis is shocked—and thrilled. But she soon realizes that along with the extravagant presents and fawning attention, this new life brings outsized expectations—expectations that make her wonder if she’s really cut out for life as a royal.

With a visit from the king of Isolte on the horizon, Hollis sees a chance to prove to Jameson—and herself—that she has what it takes to be queen. But when she meets an Isolten stranger with the mysterious power to see right into her heart, she finds that the future she wants is one she never dared to dream of.

My Rating: 🍁🍁🍁 (Read my review here)

E – Everblaze (Keeper of the Lost Cities #3) by Shannon Messenger

Genre: Middle Grade/Young Adult Fantasy

About: Sophie Foster is ready to fight back. Her talents are getting stronger, and with the elusive Black Swan group ignoring her calls for help, she’s determined to find her kidnappers – before they come after her again.

But a daring mistake leaves her world teetering on the edge of war, and causes many to fear that she has finally gone too far. And the deeper Sophie searches, the farther the conspiracy stretches, proving that her most dangerous enemy might be closer than she realizes.

In this nail-biting third book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, Sophie must fight the flames of rebellion, before they destroy everyone and everything she love.

My Rating: 🍁🍁🍁🍁

R – A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

Genre: Play, Historical Fiction?

About: Lorraine Hansberry’s award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America–and changed American theater forever. The play’s title comes from a line in Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem,” which warns that a dream deferred might “dry up/like a raisin in the sun.”

My Rating: 🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁