October has been a regular good October again. I have also read a lot! Mostly library books though. I had a few reservations that all came in together, and on top of that added some more when I went to pick them up. You know how it goes!
I’ve completed a few items from the IGGPPC Geeky Readathon, two from the Bookworms club and have completed my Goodreads goal of reading 70 books in 2020, WITH TWO MORE MONTHS TO GO! See, I told you, it was a good month. I also decided to DNF a book that has been haunting me for a while and am glad to finally be rid of it.
So let’s get to it! What did I read this October?
63 John Dies at the End by David Wong (3/5 blue star)
One hell of a trip! I wondered a lot what reading this while high would be like, or how some scenes would look like as a movie or television series. The intro to the story was good, then a meager middle followed which lots of “crazy talk” of which I got bored and still don’t think it fits right. After that the story got back on track again and the action gave it a nice pace too. I’m not sure if I will recommend it or read the next one in this series…
64 100% volkoren by Emily Ezekiel (1/5 green star)
I must admit I was a bit disappointed. This book promised me knowledge about whole grains, but didn’t deliver. The information was plain and shallow, some of the examples given didn’t even return in the cooking tables. Most of the recipes didn’t look like things people would actually make. I hope other people will enjoy this cookbook more than I have.
65 The Graveyard Apartmentby Mariko Koike (3/5 green star)
I tried reading this slow, just one or two chapters at a time, because I was reading it for our IGGPPC book club. But it was very hard to do that. This book is SO GOOD! It was prescribed as a classic 80’s horror mansion story and it really is, except that it’s not a mansion but an apartment building. It does leave you with many questions though. Who are in the shadows? What is the backstory of the road? Will we ever know? Is there a sequel to this explaining how it all started? There also is NO happy ending, which I though was very fitting and makes it all the more realistic.
After thinking about it some more I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!! Seriously, I liked it while reading it, but there are some loose ends, and some stuff I would definitely have done differently and there is also some stuff in the story that doesn’t seem to fit which was made all important when I read it and turned out didn’t mean anything. So I’m a bit confused. It’s creepy, that’s for sure! And I really did enjoy it while reading! But there should be a sequel or a prequel or something, to finish the mystery parts.
66 Transcription by Kate Atkinson (3/5 green star)
A rather pleasant read about a young woman working for MI5 during the war. The main character is naive but also very dreamlike with a big imagination and we follow her through her everyday life back and forth between her war life and after-war life in which she learns that when you are working with spies you will never know the truth of things and can’t trust anyone. After finishing the story I don’t really know either, who is who and on who’s side. It’s a lot of snippets of a lot of things, but even so it had a good rhythm to it.
67 The haunting of hill house by Shirley Jackson (4/5 green star)
This was selected as October read for the IGGPPC Bookworms but didn’t make it. I remember watching this movie a lot during the 90s, but haven’t read the book until now. It’s feels a bit “fancy British” but once you get through that it is a delighted story. Yes, it’s a horror about a haunted house, but reading all of Eleanor’s thought who is finally starting to live and enjoy herself has made it a very pleasant read. It doesn’t feel at all like the movie, it s far better than that. The only thing I would think to make it better is if the mystery of the house was solved. But Shirley Jackson must have thought it was far more creepy to not know and she was probably right about that!
68 I travel alone by Samuel Bjørk (5/5 green star)
This was a very good hunt on a psychopathic serial killer, recommended to me by someone who recently came back into my life. I kept looking for time and ways to keep on reading and truly devoured the story. The character building is good and the story doesn’t give itself away too soon. It was just the right amount of pages. I’m curious to read more of this series!
69 Penumbra’s 24-hour bookstore by by Robin Sloan (4/5 green star)
Yay for secret bookish societies! This was a very entertaining read and I luckily had time to read it in one day. It’s light and it made me laugh out loud multiple times. I love how it brings old and new technology together and the mystery was a nice hunt.
70 Annabel Lee by Mike Nappa (3/5 green star)
This was a good thriller. It read like I was watching an action-movie combined with a detective story. The main characters are strong and so are the female leads, which is always nice. The only thing that felt random were the bits about Christianity. It didn’t really fit in, it was just dangling around a bit. I’m not sure why it was part of the story.
71 Hellfire by Karin Fossum (3/5 green star)
It’s a good in-between read. Even when you know real soon who will be the killer and how he murdered his victims, you still keep on reading because you want to know why. Sejers investigation lines up beautifully with the tragic stories of the perpetrators, their victims and their families.
72 Decorative papercutting Instructions and Patterns for 150 Intricate Cutouts
by Akiko Murooka (3/5 green star)
This looks like fun! The book has some basic instructions about how to fold the paper and which thickness of paper to use for which folds. After that many images of designs followed by the cutting patterns. I haven’t made anything yet, but will soon! There are some perfect ones I could use for my Christmas postcards.
13 Online marketing expert in one week by Jeroen Bertrams (1/5 purple star)
I finally decided to DNF this one. It’s been laying around forever now, and I just don’t enjoy reading it. I have read some new information and there is probably more, but… it’s all very shallow. It’s not even showing me the tip of the iceberg, just that there is an iceberg. So, I’m taking it off my pile and returning it to the owner and stop getting haunted by it.
And that was it! These were my October 2020 reads. A bit less as usual, but also not bad right? Have you read any of these too? What did you think about them? Do you have a recommendation for something similar? Or is there anything you would like to know? Ask me in the comments!