My November

I wasn’t expecting it to be, but this month has been very busy! I’ve had the Oxford HAT, practice interviews, history coursework and an overload of homework. But I’ve still had time to read and relax a bit!

A few things I’ve been watching on Netflix recently! I’m halfway through the Queen’s Gambit and I loved the other two shows

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Reading Stats

I read 7 books and 2519 pages! That’s a lot less than most months, but I’m still proud of reading that much with everything going on.

♡ 4 physical books (3 library books) and 3 e-books

♡ average rating of 3.7

♡ 2 historical fiction, 2 non-fiction, 2 classics and 1 sci-fi

♡ 7 adult

I’ve been branching out a bit this month with sci-fi and classics, but sadly no YA or audiobooks. Half the books I read also weren’t on my November TBR at all, thanks to getting side-tracked at the library! I was supposed to read 3 books for the Tome Topple TBR but I only got round to The Goldfinch.

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The Books

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Homegoing: I just finished Homegoing and I can’t stop thinking about it. I loved the two distant but connected storylines, and how each character was developed and explored against the backdrop of history in each short chapter. I can’t recommend this enough!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet: I’ve talked about this one quite a lot already, so check out my review if you want to know my full thoughts on this fun sci-fi! I did rate this one 3.5 stars but I rounded it up for Goodreads so I’ll let it keep its spot here.

Pachinko: This was my first generational story and I loved it! I did think the end of the book was rushed and we didn’t get enough time with the new characters to get attached, but it was such a great insight into the normal life of a Korean family in Japan throughout the 20th century.

Rebecca: Another great read, with a dark atmosphere and quiet mystery. I loved how we didn’t even find out the main character’s name. When I finally realised that (over halfway through the book!), and researched a little bit about Daphne Du Maurier, it made me appreciate the book much more and look deeper than a marriage haunted by a dead wife.

⭐️⭐️

Brideshead Revisited: I thought I was going to like this much more, but it was just so boring and the pace felt disjointed. I liked Charles and Sebastian’s relationship, and if there was more focus on that throughout the book I would have enjoyed it much more, but it moved on to characters and events that I didn’t care about.

Unrated

History – A Very Short Introduction: This was a good introduction to the discipline of history, as the title suggests. I read this as part of preparation for my Oxford history interview and found lots of discussion points.

A Century of Female Revolution: This was an ARC from Netgalley. It took me almost the whole month to read it because I never really felt like picking it up, but it was an insightful view into the campaign for female suffrage when I forced myself to read it.

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Thanks for reading! How was your November?

—ella♥