Well, the daylight has become more and more scarce once again, and the holidays are just over the horizon. November feels so much like a liminal month for me sometimes, being a void of time between the holidays (at least here in Canada) and feeling more subdued as the weather transitions to darker and colder. Somewhat in keeping with that all that, it has been a considerably low-key month for me as far as book buying goes too, but I did manage to pick a little something up for myself anyway.

On to the books!

New Books

Galatea by Madeline Miller is my only book purchased this month, and considering how it looks, I think it may be the slightest month I’ve ever had since starting these posts. I actually own a digital copy of this story already, as it is only a short story and I assumed that digital would be the only way I’d be reading it (not that I have yet anyway). Once I learned they were publishing an actual book, however, it was an easy decision to go pick one up.

Novel Discoveries

If This Book Exists, You’re in the Wrong Universe by Jason Pargin is a book I added without realizing it is the fourth book in the series that starts with John Dies at the End. I think I knew that it was the same author, but considering I haven’t started these books at all yet, I’m probably not going to read this for a long time. Still, it’s good to be reminded that I have an interest in them and that I should probably get started on reading them.

Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino is the famous director’s first foray into writing a book of nonfiction. I’ve been a fan of his work for most of my life, so the idea of getting a deeper look and his thoughts and experiences with cinema easily captured my interest. This is a book I’ll definitely be trying to pick up sooner rather than later.

Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson & Jay Cooper is a book I learned about from a review on the blog Silver Button Books. I don’t actually read a lot of murder mysteries, but the idea of a book like this presenting in a tongue-in-cheek guide framed around genre conventions and cliches is a really entertaining idea to me. The idea reminds me of The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones.

Catwoman: Lonely City by Cliff Chiang is a book I just learned about this morning. In it, Selina Kyle (Catwoman) has just been released from a 10-year prison sentence. Batman is dead, and Gotham City has become a very different, more dystopian place. When Batman died in her arms, however, he said something cryptic that Selina did not understand. Despite her age making being Catwoman harder than it used to be, she is determined to infiltrate the Bat Cave and uncover the mystery. This sounds like such an engaging, self-contained story that I definitely want to read it. I find books like this often appeal to me more than the ongoing series too.

Closing Thoughts

I hope the weather is getting the better of anybody. It really is weird how much the diminishing daylight has impacted me as I’ve progressed further and further into adulthood. It’s not as if this hasn’t happened around this time literally every year. Why am I suddenly so aware of it and so ruffled by it? Next time this post rolls around, it will be post-Christmas, and I may have a book haul to show for it. I hope everybody enjoys the holidays. I know they usually help to raise my spirits before the dead-cold of January.

Until next time, thank you for reading.