The Looooong and the Short of It with a Giveaway: October 2022 Wrap-Up Post and What to Expect in November

Well, now that October is over, I guess I’ll be taking my fun Halloween banner down. But I have a Christmas one being made soon, so I will now be waiting excitedly to see how that turns out and then to share it either at the beginning of December or maybe after Thanksgiving is over.

October seemed to blast on past! I think because there are so many things going on during the month. At work it is parent conference month, and then my friend’s birthday was this month, as well as my own! I turned 50 this year. Here’s a fun picture of my cake and decorations that my family had for me.

We finally started having cooler weather, yay! And I’m happy when it is dark when I go to bed around 9 pm. We had some scares with my stepdad’s prostate cancer this past month. It seemed it has spread to his liver, but we’ve got some good news towards the end of the month that the meds he was already taking had done some good and they know it is just metastisized prostate cancer tumors and not liver cancer tumors which is somewhat better I guess.

I read 17, two more book than I did last month, so that was good! But I did also have 4 DNFs. Of the 19 books I listed as possible reads for this month, I read 11 of them. Three of the books I listed as proposed reads ended up as DNFs, a couple were ones I didn’t even get to, but am still hoping to. And then there were the audiobooks and surprise reads I got as the month went on that added to my total. I did get all the books I read this post month reviewed, as well as my past books needing reviews.

• # of pages read: 5538
• Amount of time spent listening to audiobooks (This could include some time spent last month listening as well since I only count the books when I finish them): 17 hours

October Reviews

• [4 Oct] The Secret Roommate by Sara Ney ★★★★★
• [6 Oct] Love and Agita by Grayson Avery
• [7 Oct] The Sacrifice by Rin Chupeco ★★★★½
• [8 Oct] The Second Death of Edie and Violet Bond by Amanda Glaze ★★★★★
• [10 Oct] Worth the Wait by Karla Sorensen ★★★★★
• [11 Oct] Runaway Groomsman by Meghan Quinn ★★★★★
• [13 Oct] When Life Gives You Vampires by Gloria Duke ★★★★
• [17 Oct] Stop Ghosting Me by Tara Sivec ★★★★★
• [18 Oct] Lost Track by Heidi Hutchinson ★★★★½
• [20 Oct] Scoring Chance by Teagan Hunter ★★★★★
• [22 Oct] Not Since Ewe by Susannah Nix ★★★★★
• [22 Oct] A Cosmic Kind of Love by Samantha Young ★★★★
• [26 Oct] Play Smart by Aly Stiles ★★★★★
• [28 Oct] Big Duke Energy by Emma Hart ★★★★½
• [29 Oct] Wait for Me by Sara Shepard ★★★★½
• [31 Oct] Eat Your Heart Out by Kelly deVos ★★★★
• [31 Oct] Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi ★★★★
• [31 Oct] This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron ★★★★★
• [31 Oct] Ain't Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds, Jason Griffin ★★★½
• [31 Oct] Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood ★★★★½
• [31 Oct] The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons ★★★★

Challenge Wrap-Up

The year’s almost over and I haven’t done much with most of these.

No new ones, so still 4 out of 12.

• Blogging: Still at 79% on Netgalley. And I’m trying really hard to get ready for next year and not just sign up to review a bunch of things. I’m trying to only sign up for books of authors I already know and love.
• Reading: As I mentioned last month, I bumped my goal up to 210. I’m currently on track, not ahead anymore.
• Writing: I did no prep for NaNoWriMo. But am going to try to work on getting my YA novel polished up for that so I can use the cover design I bought during another charity auction to self publish.

What to Expect in November

We get a week off for Thanksgiving, yay! The annual craft fair that my mom and stepmom usually did together won’t be something my mom does this year because my mom now has her stuff set up at a permanent location. Hoping my stepdad continues to get better or at least have positive news on his cancer. And hopefully I’ll get some writing/editing done on my YA novel. Although from the amount of books I have scheduled to review, who knows if that will actually happen.

Here is my proposed TBR for November: (The first 2 are carryovers from last month)

1. Big Bad by Lily Anderson – I got the ARC through a trade I think? Started in September, but still want to finish it!
2. Folk Around and Find Out by Penny Reid – it came out a little later than planned, and the blog tour review is for the 12th.
3. Salt and Sugar by Rebecca Carvalho – won from Bookish First or used my points there for it, hoping to get read and reviewed this first week, if I was on top of things, got it posted the same day as this post
4. Architecture and Artistry by Nora Everly – SmartyPants Romance review tour should be posted on the 2nd
5. Knockout by Jiffy Kate – SPR blog tour review on the 4th
6. The Luminaries by Susan Dennard – an ARC review, hopefull in the 6th
7. Into the Forest anthology – ARC from publisher, I need to get going on that so I can post a review for it on the 7th or 8th
8. The Princess and the Player by Ilsa Madden-Mills – e-galley review part of blog tour on the 9th
9. Just What I Needed by Kylie Scott – novella blog tour review on the 10th
10. Well Acquainted by Laney Hatcher – SPR blog tour review on the 11th
11. Better Than Fiction by Alexa Martin – ARC review on the 14th?
12. Untying the Knot by Meghan Quinn – author review team post on the 15th?
13. Christmas Chaos by Evie Alexander and Kelly Kay – review on the 18th
14. The Great Christmas Cook Off by Helen Buckley – blog tour review on the 21st
15. Hate, Rinse, Repeat by Whitney Dineen and Melanie Summers – was supposed to do a blog tour review on the 23rd, but it ended up being published earlier than planned I think, so I might not be reviewing it.
16. Single All the Way by Portia MacIntosh – e-galley review hopefully on the 25th. It’s a little past when I got it, but the tour was cancelled, so I’m going to try to get to it closer to Christmas and the holidays.
17. The Do-Over by Lynn Painter – I’m hoping to get to be on the Rockstar blog tour for this and post my review on the 28th.
18. Resting Scrooge Face by Meghan Quinn – a surprise release from Quinn, since I’m on her review team, hoping to get to review this and post it on the pub date of the 29th.
19. Of course any other audiobooks I listen to, and any of the Gateway books I can fit in too!

Final Thoughts

So, how was your October? Did you get all the reading you wanted done? What are you looking forward to in November? When do you start putting up decorations for Christmas or doing your shopping?

Giveaway

Below are ARCs I’ve finished and also a couple of finished copies, the winner will get to pick out 3 books from the list. There may even be a few more choices by the end of the month! I will make the giveaway international in that you can pick a book for under $10 if The Book Depository ships to you. Just fill out the Rafflecopter below the picture. I might even do a second winner if we can get over 100 entries into the rafflecopter by the end of the month, we had over 100 in June, August, September, and October so I did pick two winners from those Wrap-Up giveaways.

a Rafflecopter giveaway