October Wrap Up -- My October Books

OCTOBER WRAP UP

Better late than never! Here’s my October wrap up. October is a particularly fun reading month ever since I discovered Victober on Instagram a few years back. Victober is when people read Victorian literature in October. Victorian novels seem well-suited to chilly, blustery October days.

I read a couple of other chunksters in addition to the two Victorian doorstops I read for Victober, so only got through eight books last month. They are listed below in the order I read them, not as they are stacked up in the picture.

MY OCTOBER BOOKS

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins was one of my Victober reads. I loved this Victorian adventure story! 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates has been on my TBR shelf for a long time. I loved it all the more for reading while in upstate New York last month. Those granite hills and small towns with their mix of rural Yankee charm and diminished rust belt prosperity could be right from the pages of Oates’s 1996 novel. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

May We be Forgiven by A. M. Holmes knocked it out of the park for me. This was definitely my October standout. I read it because it won the Women's Prize and had no idea what to expect – certainly not the wild, hilarious, audacious gallop it took me on. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Theban Mysteries is a “Silver Age” (1960-1989) vintage mystery featuring English literature professor Kate Fansler. I’m a fan of the series. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Sherry Turkle was excellent. I highly recommend it. It will make you put down your phone and start talking to everyone, including yourself, especially the children in your life, and even the grocery clerk.  🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot was my other Victober read. I loved it when I wasn’t rolling my eyes. The main plot of Maggie and her love triangle (quadrangle?) was tedious, but the "filler" was thoroughly entertaining. Then the ending all but ruined it for me. It's like Eliot got as got tired as the rest of us with all the hand wringing but had no idea what to do with Maggie so took the Victorian way out. Good grief!  🌹🌹🌹🌹

BUtterfield 8 by John O’Hara, which I read with my ears so isn't in the picture. The U is capitalized because it is an old phone number. BUtterfield 8 was a bestseller when first published in 1935. I can see why! It's all sex, scandal, and day drinking. Again with the melodramatic ending!  🌹🌹🌹🌹

Building Beauty: The Alchemy of Design by Michael S. Smith is a gorgeous coffee table book from Rizzoli Books. I got when I heard Smith talk a couple of years back.  🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Now it’s on to Nonfiction November! Do you plan to read nonfiction books this month? I made it a goal to clear some space on my nonfiction TBR shelves this year, so have been reading more nonfiction than I usually do in 2021. I'll continue to read nonfiction in November, but no more than I have been.

MY FAVORITE COVER OF THE MONTH