November 2023 Wrap Up

I had some reading struggles in November, but I ended up reading 7 books. It wasn't as much as I hoped, but it could have been much worse.

Dirty Thirty by Janet Evanovich - I nabbed this from the library when the brand new copy came through. I read it in one day and took it back. These books are so easy to read. It definitely delivered on expectations. Stephanie runs around Trenton, NJ chasing bad guys who have skipped their court date. Sometimes they are doofuses, and sometimes they are scary. She also bounces back and forth between her boyfriend and the guy who bails her out whenever she gets in over her head with the bad guys. Neither one is offering long-term commitment. The characters are just what I expected. It was fun!

Jane and the Final Mystery by Stephanie Barron - It took me a really long time to read this one. I am honestly terrible at finishing series. People make fun of me for this foible. I have so many series in my history which I've read all but the last installment. I don't know why. But I did finally finish this final book in this series. It was hard to read because Jane was in her final illness and she was quite sick. Nevertheless, the book maintained the replication of Austen's wit and turns of phrase that I came to expect from the series. Sigh.

Cat + Gamer, Vol. 3 by Wataru Nadatani - I read the first two books in this series earlier this year. This one came out in October. I had to wait a bit to get it, but I finally did and I read it in an evening. It's a manga about a woman who is focused on her online video games. On a whim, she adopts a kitten and uses her gaming skills to take care of the cat. The cat is so cute, it keeps me turning the pages.

The Woman In the Library by Sulari Gentill - I listened to this one in between podcasts, so it took a long time to get through. The set up is unique to me. It's like a story within a story. The woman in the library story is being written by a woman in Australia who is sending chapters to a man in Boston. The book includes the man, Leo's, emails to her giving her notes on the chapters. As the book proceeds, the letters from Leo get increasingly icky. He gets smarmy and suggestive and just gross. The endings of both stories are hair-raising. It was a good time.

Tulsa Burning by Anna Myers - I read this on a whim when it came through my library. The story was ok, but I was disappointed by the editing and grammar issues. It is about a boy in a town outside of Tulsa that is affected by the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921. The story itself is good and it is about his decisions about what he believes about race.

The First-Time Manager by Loren B. Belker, Jim McCormick, and Gary S. Topchik - This book was very helpful. It outlined in words things that I had intuitively felt about managing people. I took notes and tabbed important parts. This is the second book I read for my challenge to read 3 books on leadership and work.

Appalachian Elegy by bell hooks - This is the first book in my effort to read the last 9 books I needed to get to my 50 books from my shelves challenge. It's a very small poetry book about the experience of being a black person in the mountains of Appalachia.

That is my seven books for November. What did you finish in November?