I can’t believe that the last month of the year is here. Now is crunch time for me on catching up about everything, so I haven’t been posting as regularly as I would like, but I’m planning to work my way back. I just have to figure out how to keep my mother occupied for a few hours, otherwise she needs a lot of help. It wasn’t like I thought this would be easy, but I’m surprised at how difficult things have gotten so quickly. 

As always, I am following up on my physical health, trying to find some improvement in my symptoms, but it isn’t easy to manage because they’re vague and could be due to any number of factors, so they’re also hard to diagnose. I’m actually having a 3.5 hour test at the nearest university hospital, so I took advantage of that time to catch up on blogging without interruption other than the nice lady who comes in every 15 minutes to have me blow into a bag. Yeah, gastro problems and the tests are kind of weird.

November wasn’t a big television month for me, although my mother and I finished the series Shtisel, and started the prequel series, Kugel. I also finished watching The Following and I can’t say enough good things about it. Instead, I worked on blogging when I could, and organizing when I couldn’t. There might be a huge change approaching in my life, and I’m really praying hard that it works out. I’ll be sure to share once I know it’ll happen.

November was another good reading month, and it fits perfectly with the colder, rainy weather we’ve been getting, so those were what I like to call ‘potato days,’ where I don’t actually do any work but just relax. I also received an early holiday gift from my friend, and it was a beautiful self-care box, which I will DEFINITELY making use of. 

I did manage to sneak in some non-ARCs just for education or enjoyment, and I was pretty happy with that, and got to travel to some really cool locations. My ARCs for NetGalley are more managed, although my physical ARCs now need some love. 

Here’s some of my November highlights:

• My reading took me to New York City; Kolkata, India; Alexandria, Egypt; Chicago; North Carolina; Norway; Copenhagen, Denmark; Greenland; Paris; Boston; Sarajevo; Stockholm, Sweden; rural Virginia; western Ireland; and the woods of New Hampshire.
• More traffic has been heading to my blog, which is great news for me.
• Thanksgiving was really nice this year—my brother and his wife hosted, and she knocked it out of the park.
• My rescue pup that has a strong tendency towards anxiety and skittishness is becoming so much braver. All things happen in time is what I keep telling myself, and it’s nice to see the progress.

Here’s my breakdown of monthly totals for November: 

November Totals:

• Books read: 19
• Books DNF’d: 1

Genres Read in November:

• Contemporary: 1
• Cozy Mystery: 1
• Fantasy: 3
• Historical Fiction: 1
• Horror: 2
• Literary Fiction: 2
• Memoir: 2
• Mystery: 5
• Religion: 1
• Romance: 1

Backlist vs. New Releases:

• Backlist books: 8
• 2025 releases: 11
• 2026 releases: 

Fiction Vs. Nonfiction:

• Fiction: 16
• Nonfiction: 3

Format Read:

• Print: 2
• Digital: 5
• Audio: 12

Age Range:

• Adult: 17
• YA: 1
• MG: 1

My favorite book of the month was Don’t Feed the Lion by Bianna Golodryga and Yonit Levi.

Here’s what I read in November:

1. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson | Goodreads | Amazon
2. The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah by Jean Meltzer (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon
3. The Magnificent Ruins by Nayantara Roy (Publisher ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon
4. Out of Egypt: A Memoir by André Aciman | Goodreads | Amazon
5. Don’t Feed the Lion by Bianna Golodryga and Yonit Levi (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon
6. Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Wartime Sarajevo by Zlata Filipović | Goodreads | Amazon
7. All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Crosby | Goodreads | Amazon
8. On Being Jewish Now: Essays and Reflections from Authors and Advocates edited by Zibby Owens | Goodreads | Amazon

1. The Tattered Cover by Ellery Adams (Secret, Book, and Scone Society #8) (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon
2. The Hunter by Tana French (Cal Hooper #2) | Goodreads | Amazon

1. The Library of Fates by Margot Harrison (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon
2. Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg | Goodreads | Amazon
3. Bitter Honey by Lolá Akinmádé Åkerström | Goodreads | Amazon
4. The Last Vampire by Romina Garber (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon

1. The Bookshop Below by Georgia Summers (NG/Publisher ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon

1. The Ferryman and His Wife by Frode Grytten (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon
2. A Different Type of Poison by Liz Alterman | Goodreads | Amazon
3. The Girls in the Cabin by Caleb Stephens (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon

1. The Searcher by Tana French (Cal Hooper #1) — reread

1. A Dangerous Friendship by Robin Merle (NG ARC) | Goodreads | Amazon

How was November for you? Did we have any books in common?