November 2020 WRAP-UP

Phew, that was actually a busy month, reading-wise and otherwise, for instance with 3 new French students. In a way, I’m glad we are back in confinement, so less opportunity for distractions! And obviously, less chances to catch the virus.

I have FINALLY restarted a Newsletter. It has a small fee, but each month 11 subscribers will receive a book based on their favorite genres!
10 will receive an ecopy and 1 a print copy (as long as Bookdepositery ships to their country). If you haven’t signed up yet, here is the November Newsletter as a sample, with the form to subscribe near the end.

November is the month about Nonfiction, and I had a great time with this event.

I also finished my 2nd list of 50 classics, and launched into my 3rd list, with 137 titles this time.

📚 Here is what I read in November.
Actually more audiobooks (with record time this month!) than printed books, I guess this has become a trend for me in 2020, maybe due to Covid-19?

11 books:
4 in print 
=  with 1,288 pages, a daily average of 42 pages/day
7 in audio
= 33H54, a daily average of 1H07

4 in mystery:

1. Black Coffee, A Mystery Play in Three Acts, #7 by Agatha Christie – for The Classics Club
2. Lord Edgware Dies, #9 by Agatha Christie – audio, for The Classics Club
3. Écouter le noir, by various authors – French audio
4. Murder on the Orient Express, #10 by Agatha Christie – audio, for The Classics Club

4 in nonfiction:

1. The Book of Tobit – audio, for The Classics Club
2. The Book of Judith – audio, for The Classics Club
3. The Book of Esther – audio, for The Classics Club
4. Ichi-F: A Worker’s Graphic Memoir of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, by Kazuto Tatsuta – graphic “novel”

1 in historical fiction:

1. The Education of Delhomme: Chopin, Sand, & la France, by Nancy Burkhalter – for France Book Tours 

1 in science fiction:

1. To Hold Up the Sky, by Liu Cixin – ebook for review, received through Netgalley  

1 in YA:

1. La Chute du soleil de fer, by Michel Bussi – French audio

MY FAVORITE BOOKS THIS PAST MONTH

Actually this month both my favorites are French, and not yet translated.
Écouter le noir is a fascinating collection of thriller short stories, some actually almost horror, mostly based on the theme of deafness. A neat twist to these stories, by some authors I had never heard of. Very enjoyable collection!
As for La Chute du soleil de fer, this was really neat surprise: a YA fantasy (both genres I rarely read), by one of my favorite French authors. There was no way I was going to pass his latest novel, even if it was not in his usual mystery genre. And I am sure glad I took the plunge.
It’s set in Paris in a post-apocalyptic world, with two groups of teenagers and younger children. The adults are all gone. I loved these kids, and the settings, and how they try to make sense of what as survived form our world.
I can’t wait for next volume in the series!

READING CHALLENGES & RECAP

Classics Club: 2/137 (from November 2020-until November 2025)
Japanese Literature Challenge: 9 books read during the challenge + 7 since.
Total of books read in 2020 = 106/110
Number of books added to my TBR this past month = 20

OTHER BOOK I REVIEWED THIS PAST MONTH

GIVEAWAYS

The open giveaways are on my homepage

And we offer a Book Box!
And monthly raffle with a Newsletter
(see sample with link to sign up)

MOST POPULAR BOOK REVIEW THIS PAST MONTH

click on the cover to access my review

MOST POPULAR POST THIS PAST MONTH
– NON BOOK REVIEW –

Born a Crime readalong

BOOK BLOG THAT BROUGHT ME MOST TRAFFIC THIS PAST MONTH

Shelf Aware
please go visit, there are a lot of good things there!

TOP COMMENTERS 

Judy at Keep the Wisdom
Deb at Readerbuzz
Karen at Booker Talk

please go and visit them,
they have great book blogs

BLOG MILESTONES 

2,253 posts
over 5,380 followers
over 208,400 hits

📚

Come back tomorrow
to see the books I plan to read in December,
and some major milestone!!

How was YOUR month of November?

Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction
has created a Month In Review meme
where you can link your monthly recap posts
Thanks Nicole!