Friday, December 6, 2013

November Reading Recap

Eleven months down, one more to go.

I finished four books in November that checked in at 1,505 pages. That brings the total to 68 books and 24,270 (give or take a few pages since some are Kindle books with no page info). I'm kind of impressed with those totals if I do say so myself.

So what'd I read? Take a look:

The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks
Just One Year by Gayle Forman
Faithful Place by Tana French
Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

I'll let you in on a little secret. There wasn't a lot of amazing reading last month. Just kind of so-so.

And now for the brief reviews, complete with number of stars given out on GoodReads. Follow me here if you’d like a more timely update on what I’m reading, what I think and what’s been added to my to-read list.

The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks  ****
This is your typical Nicholas Sparks novel. Boy and girl meet. They fall in love. They run into a problem and (most of the time) they overcome the problem and live happily ever after. That being said, I like Nicholas Sparks's stuff.

Just One Year by Gayle Forman  ****
The companion to Just One Day. This is told from the viewpoint of Willem, the boy in the story. It was decent.

Faithful Place by Tana French  ****
This was probably my favorite book this month. Tana French is an author I discovered this year from a friend's recommendation and she's quickly become one of my favorites. It's another crime novel with a little bit of drama thrown in. Good stuff.

Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight  ***
This one got a lot of hype and I actually put it on my to read list because I saw it on some "best of 2013" list. Well, it fell short. Really didn't live up to the hype and the story seemed to drag.

So that brings us to December. One month left in 2013 and if you paid attention at the beginning of this post, you'd know I need to read seven books in December to hit my 75 book goal. That might be tough given all of the craziness that usually comes with the holidays and December. But darn it, I'm sure going to try. And I'm lucky I have a ton of options sitting in a pile, just waiting for me to read.

What are you reading this month? Are you like me, scrambling to hit a reading goal for the year?