October was not my best reading month, but it was a great month otherwise. I went on a vacation with my mom, and we visited Europe. It was my first time there, and we went on a river cruise on the Danube, starting in Germany and going through Austria and Slovakia before ending in Hungary. With so much to see and do, I obviously didn’t get as much reading done as I normally do, but I came back and reality slapped me in the face with a few new ARCs, an incredibly divisive social situation in response to the Israel-Hamas war, rising antisemitism around the world, and a whole lot of reading to do with not nearly enough time to do it in. But I’m going to have to get focused in the last two months of the year. 

Here are my October updates:

• I seem to have lost a few followers, because I’m just under 850 again, so hopefully I’ll get to that milestone again.
• I’m still working through my July physical ARCs, and my September NG ARCs.
• Of the 16 books I read in October, only 1 was nonfiction and it was a Holocaust biography.
• I didn’t read any of my owned books this month.
• As far as diverse voices, I read 1 book by a Black author, 4 books by Jewish authors, 1 by a LGBTQIA+ author, 1 by an Asian/Pacific Islander author, 1 by a SWANA author, and 1 by a Latine author.
• I was aiming to read outside of my comfort zone, but I was focused exclusively on ARCs, and stuck to what was already approved.
• I haven’t made any more progress in my 12 in 12 challenge or the 2023 PopSugar Challenge.

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

October Totals:

• Books read: 16
• Books DNF’d: 1
• Pages read: 2,593
• Hours listened: 4 days, 15 hour, 23 minutes
• Average pages: 432.2
• Average hours listened: 11 hours, 8 minutes

Cumulative Averages:

• Days per book: 3.73
• Pages read per day: 142.87
• Books read per month: 29.10
• DNF’d books per month: 1.7

Genres Read in October:

• Biography/Memoir: 1
• Fantasy: 8
• Historical Fiction: 4
• Mystery/Suspense: 2
• Romance/Erotica: 1

Backlist vs. New Releases:

• Backlist books: 4
• 2023 releases: 12

Fiction Vs. Nonfiction:

• Fiction: 15
• Nonfiction: 1

Format Read:

• Print: 3
• Digital: 3
• Audio: 10

Age Range:

• Adult: 10
• YA: 6

My favorite book of the month was Foxglove by Adalyn Grace.

Here’s what I read in October:

• American Wolf: From Nazi Refugee to American Spy by Audrey Birnbaum (Holocaust Survivor True Stories) (Publisher ARC)
• Wildwood Magic by Willa Reece (Publisher ARC/ALC)
• The Hunting Moon by Susan Dennard (The Luminaries #2) (NG ALC)
• Foxglove by Adalyn Grace (Belladonna #2) (YABC ARC)

• Marry Me by Midnight by Felicia Grossman (Once Upon the East End #1) (Publisher ARC)

• The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas (Throne of Glass #0.1-0.5)
• Only the Dead Know Peace by Alberto Mansur (ALC)
• The Followers by Bradeigh Godfrey (ALC)
• The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White (NG ARC)
• The Midnight Kingdom by Tara Sim (The Dark Gods #2) (Publisher ARC)
• That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming (Mead Mishaps #1) (Publisher ALC)

• Cities of Women by Kathleen B. Jones (ALC)

• A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid (NG ARC)

• A Box of Magick: A Guided Journey to Crafting a Magickal Life Through Witchcraft, Ritual Herbalism, and Spellcrafting by Jamie Della (NG ARC)

• The Luminaries by Susan Dennard (The Luminaries #1) — reread
• The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper (Wolf Den Trilogy #1) — reread
• The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper (Wolf Den Trilogy #2) — reread

How was your October? Did your reading go well? Anything interesting happen?