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October Reading / Life
- October was a MUCH better reading month than September! And, thank God, because September was dismal. I read seven books this month and almost all were above September’s high rating of 3.5 stars!
- I found a book that will definitely make my Best Books of 2017 list, if not top it: The Heart’s Invisible Furies
- The perfect book to recover from The Heart’s Invisible Furies: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
- Two solid 4 star reads: Fear
(my review) and Ranger Games
- Two great audiobooks: Daring to Drive
and Reading People
- A critical darling that didn’t land for me: Sing, Unburied, Sing (my review)
- DNF’s: My Life with Bob, Artemis
, Seven Days of Us
, Manhattan Beach
, Lie to Me
- Finally, Nonfiction November started on Monday, but it’s not too late to join in this week’s theme! We also have an Instagram Challenge going on all month. Get the details for the weekly themes here and for the Instagram Challenge here! And, follow me on Instagram @sarahsbookshelves to see lots of my nonfiction favorites.
- Monday is the deadline to get your November Book of the Month Club selections in! Check out my commentary on the November selections AND my new tool to help you find the Book of the Month Club judge that best matches your reading taste (includes a free template)! And, I’ve updated the template to make it even better since last month!
Choose the best Book of the Month Club selection for you every time!
…by using this easy template to find your personal, go-to Book of the Month Club judge!
My Favorite Book(s) of the Month
Best Book of the Month
No contest…
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Fiction, 582 Pages
Affiliate Link: Buy from Amazon
PS – last year’s Best Books of October were Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (my review) and The Mothers by Brit Bennett (my review), both of which were among my Top 3 Books of 2016!
Best Selling Book(s) of the Month (via my affiliate links)
It’s a three-way tie between…
Emma in the Night
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott (my review)
Little Fires Everywhere
November Release I’m Excited About
The Senator’s Children
Most Popular Posts
Posts Actually Published in October
Book of the Month Club October 2017 Selections: What Book Should You Choose?
6 Book Titles I Love…and 5 I Hate
Backlist Beauties: The Best Backlist Books I’ve Read in 2017 So Far
Overall Posts
Book Club Recommendations
Best Books of 2017 So Far
Behind Her Eyes and THAT Ending: Spoiler Discussion (#WTFthatending)
October Instagram Post (follow me @sarahsbookshelves)
Favorite Posts by Fellow Bloggers
- Rikki and Michaela at The Ardent Biblio put together two super helpful posts for book bloggers trying to figure out Instagram (me!) this month: Taking Pictures of Books and Welcome to #Bookstagram / Decoding the Community. I’ll tell you that I already feel more confident with my book photography (although I have a long way to go), which you’ll see more of this month.
- I added a bunch of books from Anne at Modern Mrs. Darcy‘s list of Fall Nonfiction to my TBR (The Power of Moments, How to Think, The Last Castle, and Dear Fahrenheit 451).
- Susie at Novel Visits perfectly summed up my Fall reading with her post called The Booklover’s Curse.
- In non-bookish news, I loved Carrie Gillespie‘s post about skipping wedding traditions. My husband and I skipped a number of them (most of the ones in Carrie’s post) and I wish I’d skipped even more (cutting the cake…awkward)!
- Well, it wasn’t even Halloween before I saw my first Best Books of 2017 List. Thanks for jumping the gun, Publisher’s Weekly! Also, can’t say I loved this list.
How was your reading month?
Thanks for the mention and I so agree with you about that Best of list from Publisher’s Weekly. It seemed totally out there!
Glad your October was an improvement. Mine was, too. Let’s hope the trend continues with nonfiction this month.
I hadn’t even heard of most of them! And, the ones I have read, I didn’t like.
Yay for a good reading month!
I’m glad you had a good reading month. I hope you have a fabulous November and get lots of reading done.
We are so glad our post about bookstagram was helpful!
OK, you all convinced me to add The Hearts Invisible Furies to my BOTM box! I also really enjoyed Evelyn Hugo and am slogging a bit through Artemis.
YES to Heart’s Invisible Furies!! It’s a must read in my book. And secretly glad to hear you’re slogging through Artemis…I was second guessing my very quick DNF a little bit.
So glad things are looking up on your reading front, and mine too! Finally I feel like my reading slump is ending, it’s just the worst when mediocre books take over. I just finished listening to The Stranger in the Woods after seeing it on your nonfiction reads list and it was fascinating and such an odd story, I really enjoyed it! I need to discuss the ending with you though!
Thrilled you’re over the slump! They can be such downers. And switching to engaging nonfiction can sometimes help me out of a slump.
I don’t know why Manhattan Beach has gotten so much hype. I haven’t heard one good thing about it. Glad you had a better reading month!
I know one other blogger who liked it, but that’s kind of it. One of those publisher-hyped and critical darlings that doesn’t connect with regular readers…
I’m so glad that you had a redeeming month, Sarah; Heart’s Furies is definitely on my list, for post-Nonfiction November. I am looking forward to it. I agree with the “best of” lists…why does everything seem to begin earlier and earlier? I’m getting so old…hahaha!
Make sure you fit in HIF before your Best Books of the Year list. I’m pretty confident it’ll end up on yours 🙂
You inspired me to grab The Heart’s invisible Furies as an extra in my BOTM this month! My big immersive book of the year so far has been The Nix, which I definitely recommend if you haven’t read it. I’ve heard nothing but great things about Evelyn Hugo, too — sounds like you had a great month!
I officially HATE Instagram now. I never saw this post with the red books so I’m glad I was once again browsing your blog because I was going to buy you a copy of Swans for your collection. Now I’m more cranky than usual.
I will agree- October finally felt like a book lover’s month. Read more great than so-so books than I have all year. I mean, The Heart’s Invisible Furies AND This is How it Always Is in one month?! They’re probably going to be my top2 favorites for 2017 and in my top 5 ever (bold claim I know, but I am so in love with both).
Oh yay! I’m glad to hear you had such a great reading month. And it looks like your bookshelves are coming along nicely too!