What I read in November

penny on December 6, 2018

November was another good month for reading. I finished both the Obsidian Mountain and Enduring Flame series. I read some of this. I read some of that. I have more that I’m working on. As always I am behind on book reviews, but what else is new?

November Reading List

  1. To Light a Candle (Obsidian Mountain, #2) by Mercedes Lackey, James Mallory
  2. When Darkness Falls (Obsidian Mountain #3) by Mercedes Lackey, James Mallory
  3. The Phoenix Unchained (Enduring Flame #1) by Mercedes Lackey, James Mallory
  4. The Lost Plot (The Invisible Library #4) by Genevieve Cogman
  5. The Phoenix Endangered (Enduring Flame #2) by Mercedes Lackey, James Mallory
  6. The Phoenix Transformed (Enduring Flame #3) by Mercedes Lackey, James Mallory
  7. The Library Book by Susan Orlean
  8. Bad Girls: Sirens, Jezebels, Murderesses, Thieves, & Other Female Villains by Jane Yolen
  9. Wander: A Rucksack Universe Novel by Anthony St. Clair
  10. Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf
  11. The Martini of Destiny (Rucksack Universe) by Anthony St. Clair
  12. The Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Cirillo
  13. Magic Triumphs by Ilona Andrews
  14. Becoming by Michelle Obama
  15. Night of Camp David by Fletcher Knebel

List of Book Covers for titles read in November 2018

Recommendations

Fiction
  • Wander by Anthony St Clair

    Are you a wanderer? Do you yearn to see where the road leads? This newest tale set in St Clair’s Rucksack Universe shares the journey of three unlikely travelers. They set out upon the Black Road to explore and understand a world both different and familiar to the one they knew. With each step they face the choices of their pasts and future. In this tale, Wander, Rucksack, and Awen discover how their intertwined decisions and destiny shape their path.

    We first meet Wander in a familiar world on a day that often arrives with expectations. After meeting the emptiness, Wander’s path takes an unexpected twist into the world of Rucksack and Awen, one both familiar and strange. As the trio journeys along the Black Road, each choice they make and step they take shapes their world.

    The Rucksack Universe is a nonlinear series currently comprised of five published titles. Some readers may prefer to begin here, as it is set at 100 AB and is currently the earliest published storied at that point in the universe timeline. Others may the published order, which begins with the novella, Martini of Destiny. To learn more, please visit the author’s webpages for the series at www.anthonystclair.com/rucksack-universe.

  • Night of Camp David by Fletcher Knebel
    While it is a little dated, this 1965 novel has been reissued. With this zinger: “What would happen if the president of the U.S.A. went stark-raving mad?” how could you resist? You can learn a little more at this NY Times article and here’s their original review from 1965.
Non Fiction
  • Becoming by Michelle Obama
    I listened to Michelle reading her memoir and it was worth every moment. As I have said many times before we read the right books when we need to. This was exactly what I needed, when I needed it.

  • The Library Book by Susan Orlean
    Very interesting, a little more memoir than I expected but still enjoyable. This was initially a NetGalley read, but took me so long to get into I borrowed it from the library. Review forthcoming.

  • The Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Cirillo
    I wrote up some thoughts about this technique at my pen at work notebook.

Next reads

I’m finishing my reread of St Clair’s Rucksack Universe, after reading them as ebooks several times it’s very nice to curl up with the paper. I’m still making my way through Julian May’s novels, Maxwell King’s biography of Fred Rogers (yesterday my library e-hold of LeVar Burton reading it came in), and more. I also have a handful of books from a publisher friend that I’ve been very remiss in reviewing. In my most-happiest of NetGalley titles, I’m reading The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden (see my reviews of her first two books), Virtue Signaling and Other Heresies : Selected Writings from Whatever 2013-2018 by John Scalzi, and New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color edited by Nisi Shawl.