November pretty much equals my fantastic reading month of October. I don’t know how I managed to read another staggering amount of 9 books. This means that even though I started a new job, I still managed to read a lot. I read mostly mystery/thrillers this month, which is my favourite genre for this time of year. I also managed to keep the balance between my “Advanced Reader Copies” which I receive through Netgalley and my physical books. In this post you’ll read all about the books I have read this month.

Stats

Books: 9 books
Format: 3 physical books, 4 e-books and 2 audiobooks
Total Amount of Pages: 3.238
Authors: 6 new to me and 3 known (Ruth Ware, V.E. Schwab and Jane Harper)
Language: 9 English

Matthew McConaughey – Greenlights (2020)

Nonfiction

It took me a while to write a short review for this novel. The reason for this is that I did enjoy it, but mostly because Matthew McConaughey is the one who narrates his memoir.

I enjoyed some of the stories, others not so much. I don’t think I learned anything from this book really apart from the fact that it’s important to make choices in your life based on your priorities which is what McConaughey is very good at.

Some of the stories made me chuckle, some of the anecdotes made me cringe. I don’t like aggressiveness, and he sometimes exhibits it which I didn’t enjoy.

All-in-all, if you would read it, I would recommend you to listen to it. It helps to hear everything read by McConaughey soothing voice.

My rating is 3.5 stars.

Ruth Ware – One By One (2020)

Mystery/Thriller

I’ve read one book by Ruth Ware and even though I liked it I wasn’t a fan. I read The Turn of the Key this year, and I found the story to be a bit boring. Some of the storylines were introduced and then abandoned straightaway and I didn’t love the reveal. I actually wanted to give the ending of the book 1 star. Imagine, gothic horrors are my favourite genre….

Anyways, you’re reading a review for One By One so let me tell you that I actually (surprisingly) liked it much more. I see some reviewers who prefer her gothic books, I think I’m not one of them. Instead I thought this book was deliciously thrilling. It kept me on the edge of my seat, and most importantly it kept me reading and fully enthralled with the story.

It’s about an off-site company retreat in the snowy mountains of the Alps. Snoop is company owned by millenials and the owners and co-workers try to make big decisions during this retreat. There are two hosts present as well, Erin and Danny. And then the chalet is buried by an avalanche. What is worse, the co-workers disappear one by one.

The story is told through the eyes of Erin, the aforementioned host, and Liz, one of the shareholders. I thought this was clever because it didn’t muddle or slow down the narrative too much. I think two characters’ perspective out of the ten people present was plenty.

I expected a whodunit, but really this a story about survival. It reminded me a bit of some of the scenes of No Exit by Taylor Adams. I liked the atmosphere, and I think it’s a great read if you’re wondering what to read now that most of the world is going into a second lockdown due to Covid-19.

I’m now considering reading Ruth Ware’s earlier works, if they’re anything like this one I think I will enjoy them.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy!

V.E. Schwab – The Invisible Life of Addie Larue (2020)

Fantasy

This was one of my most anticipated novels of the year. I’ve read and loved V.E. Schwab’s Vicious and I quite liked her A Darker Shade of Magic trilogy. I don’t read a lot of Historical Fiction, but when I do, most of the time I love it.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is V.E. Schwab’s first steps into Historical Fiction, but it’s still grounded into her most written genre: Fantasy. The book is about Addie’s pact with the devil. She will life forever in full freedom, but it means everyone around her will forget her. This has disastrous consequences for Addie. Ones she didn’t think about before making the pact.

That alas is the way of the devil. We hear the full story of Addie’s 300 years on earth. They’re grim, lonely, yet they have taught her a lot about what she can do. Then one day she meets a man who remembers her name.

I’ve seen mostly positive reviews for this book. I liked it, but I can also find myself in the few negative (or more neutral ones). The writing is long-winded.

“It’s Addie’s idea to bring the cat home.
Perhaps she has always longed for a pet.
Perhaps she simply things he must be lonely.
Perhaps she thinks it will do Henry good.
She does not know. It does not matter.”

It’s sentences and paragraphs like these you have to be able to bear to enjoy the book. There were times I skimmed passages and flipped pages, but all in all I think it’s a beautiful story (including a Byronic hero which is a big plus point for me).

I still have Vengeful waiting on my shelf and I can’t wait to dive into it soon. V.E. Schwab’s writing and ideas are beautiful and she proves that once again in this book.

Daniel H. Pink – Drive (2009)

Nonfiction

I read this book for work because we would cover a topic about external vs. intrinsic motivation. This book is not much more than that. If you’re fully immersed in the world of Management 2.0 or a world where top-down management still rules, this book might be helpful.

If you are aware of the top of instrinsic motivation, you’ll find a lot of repetition in this book of the same points. Management 3.0 takes autonomy, purpose and mastery. People work better when these criteria are fulfilled. That’s it. I didn’t learn anything new from this book unfortunately. If you’d like to learn more about habits & changing the way you think I would recommend Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear.

Zaina Arafat – You Exist Too Much (2020)

Contemporary

I didn’t know what to expect from this novel, but the storytelling is incredibly compelling. I had no defence, it pulled me right in.

We follow a young Palestinian-American woman who is exploring her sexual and cultural identity while struggling with the demons from her past. We are propelled from love story to love story, but all of them hurt and none of them stick.

This novel explores so many complicated subject without scruples and with a lot of thought. It might seem like we’re propelled into a “Sex and the City” kind of tale with a bit more hurt and rehab than you would expect from the TV series, but it’s actually so much more than that. All the while our narrator is likeable and easy to relate to and understand, even if you have almost nothing in common with her. That I feel is the strength of good writing. Zaina Arafat has done her main character justice.

An added bonus is that this novel doesn’t only take place in the US, it also takes place in Palestine which brought back memories to my trip there in 2019.

My review might seem a bit more disjointed than it normally would be, but I loved the novel. The storytelling. The setting. The hard-hitting elements. I hope you will too.

Many thanks to the publisher Little, Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy!

Wendy Webb – The Haunting of Brynn Wilder (2020)

Paranormal

Oops, this is what you get when you read a book based on the cover and title. My expectations and what the book served were completely out of sync!

This novel is about Brynn Wilder who makes her way to Wharton to stay in a B&B for the summer. She has recently lost her mum due to the cancer and she needs to escape her normal life for a while. In Wharton she meets a lot of different people, including Dominic and Alice. He is her broody and handsome next door neighbour and she is the ex-wife of another resident who suffers from early-onset Alzheimers. However, she also seems to know more about Brynn than Brynn would have expected.

I started reading this book believing it would pan out to be a suspenseful gothic horror novel. I actually really liked the characters. Their banter is so genuine I found myself laughing out loud a few times. A suspenseful horror novel it is not though. At the last 80% of the book I started wondering what it was the novel was actually working towards. The finale brings a bang, but one I had expected.

This novel reminds me of something Nicholas Sparks could have written. The setting at Wharton and Lake Superior sounds magnificent. The characters are all incredibly likeable and well-developed. The plot is a slow burn and everything gears towards a tragic and romantic ending.

I’m giving this book 2.5 stars not because I didn’t enjoy it. It’s because I feel it’s out of sync with what it’s advertised to be. If you can go into it wanting a paranormal romance, you’ll enjoy your experience much more than I did.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy!

Kate Elizabeth Russell – My Dark Vanessa (2020)

Contemporary

I wanted to give this book more stars, but I can’t justify it to myself. It felt it was a bit overdrawn, and could’ve done with much less.

First things first, the novel is about Vanessa who (at 15) falls in love with her school teacher. Lolita is woven within the fabric of this novel which will give you a bit of an idea what we’re talking about here. The relationship between Vanessa and Strane are dark and hard to read. Kate Elizabeth Russell has done a great job at explaining the different emotions running through Vanessa from being the young girl that she was to an adult woman at 33.

Her writing is on point. She sometimes phrases things in such a way that I had to read it over and over again because her way of putting it was beautiful.

I can’t talk to the subject matter at hand. All I can speak to is what I read and my experiences.

Here comes the hard part, even though I thought it was a good story. I felt it needed to be told. There’s a sense of urgency coming through the pages. It was still difficult for me to really bond with the story.

The side characters are a bit one-sided. The main storyline could’ve done with around 100 to 150 pages less. I felt myself losing focus every now and then while reading. That’s a pity because when I compare it to the much lengthier A Little Life, it simply didn’t do anything for me. That story will stick with me forever and My Dark Vanessa has mainly inspired me to read Lolita .

This is completely subjective. I can understand why people would love this book. It’s told really well. Vanessa is an incredibly well-written and complex character, so is Strane. I might read it again in the future to see what it does to me then.

Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child – Relic (1995)

Horror

This book has all the elements of a book I could really potentially love. However, I didn’t. I don’t know what it was. It could’ve had to do with the fact I couldn’t easily get into the audio version. It could also have to do with the fact that it was quite predictable and the cast of characters was quite unlikeable.

The ending was quite a shocker though, so I enjoyed the final reveal.

Anyways, this story is about a cursed expedition and a unwanted guest at the museum. This guest slaughters the museum’s visitors, just days before a big launch of a new exhibition. The director decides to open the museum regardless.

I like the horror elements, and I enjoy books like these. I just didn’t enjoy this story. I might have to pick up another Pendergast novel another day. Unless people tell me this is the best one, then I think I’ll leave it at this..

Jane Harper – The Survivors (2020)

Horror

I’m so thrilled I read this book before its publication! As per the request of the publisher, I’ll be holding my review until a few weeks before the publication date, but I would put a pre-order in for this book if I were you!

How was your reading month? What books did you read in November?

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