October felt like it was a super long month for some reason, and it was a busy one for me. I got a ton of reading done, and made time to watch Hocus Pocus (as I do every year). In addition, I finally decided to see what You was all about, and got sucked in. It’s kind of addictive, you know?

This year I vowed to focus on my goals for the year. So here we go:

• I gained some more followers, going from 426 to 440. Only 10 more to go before I reach my goal of 450 before the end of the year!
• I have been scheduling posts for quite some time, and I don’t ever want to go back to doing it any other way.
• I’ve decided to do NaNo, and finished plotting out a new novel. I’m really excited about this one!
• I am super close to getting through the never-ending pile of books I have checked out of the library, and now that my ARCs are close to single digits, I’m hoping to start working through some of the books that I own and haven’t read yet.

Here’s my breakdown of monthly/cumulative totals for October:

October Totals:

• Books read: 29
• Books DNF’d: 2
• Pages read: 6,086
• Hours listened: 148 hours, 16 minutes, 2 seconds
• Average pages: 405.7
• Average hours listened: 10 hours, 35 minutes, 26 seconds

Cumulative Averages:

• Days per book: 2.98
• Pages read per day: 188.06
• Books read per month: 25.56
• DNF’d books per month: 0.8

Genres Read in October:

• Fantasy: 10
• Historical Fiction: 3
• Mystery/Suspense: 7
• Romance/Erotica: 5
• Science-Fiction: 2
• Science/Nature: 2

Backlist vs. New Releases:

• Backlist books: 18
• 2021 releases: 11

Fiction Vs. Non-Fiction:

• Fiction: 27
• Nonfiction: 2

Format Read:

• Print: 9
• Digital: 6
• Audio: 14

Age Range:

• Adult: 15
• YA: 12
• MG: 2

My favorite books of the month were The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros, The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend, and Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee. (Yeah, it was a great month for books).

Here’s what I read in October:

• Tristan Strong Keeps Punching by Kwame Mbalia (Tristan Strong #3) (ARC)
• Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson (Vespertine #1) (ARC)
• Escaping From Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco (Stalking Jack the Ripper #3)
• False Witness by Karin Slaughter
• Patient Zero by Lydia Kang and Nate Pederson (ARC)
• The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros 
• The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum 
• The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (Nevermoor #1)
• Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee (The Green Bone Saga #3) (ARC) 
• Capturing the Devil by Kerri Maniscalco (Stalking Jack the Ripper #4)

• Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich (Stephanie Plum #8) 
• The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu (ALC)
• The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni
• The Reader by Traci Chee (Sea of Ink and Gold #1)
• The Selection by Kiera Cass (The Selection #1)
• Roxy by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman (ARC)
• A Worthy Opponent by Katee Robert (Wicked Villains #3)
• Déjà Dead by Kathy Reichs (Temperance Brennan #1)

• The Corpse Flower by Anne Mette Hancock (Kaldan og Schäfer #1) (ALC)
• The One by Kiera Cass (The Selection #3)

• Medicine in the Middle Ages: Surviving the Times by Juliana Cummings (ARC)
• Pumpkins in Paradise by Kathi Daley (Tj Jensen Mystery #1)
• Snowmen in Paradise by Kathi Daley (Tj Jensen Mystery #2)
• The Elite by Kiera Cass (The Selection #2)
• Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch by Rivka Galchen

• A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey 
• The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser

• Jade City by Fonda Lee (The Green Bone Saga #1)
• Jade War by Fonda Lee (The Green Bone Saga #2)
• The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi (The Gilded Wolves #1)
• The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi (The Gilded Wolves #2)