My October in Review

My month in review The It’s Monday What Are You Reading meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. I’ve started compiling my lists monthly instead of weekly. This month I decided to do the #15in31 Challenge. How did I do? I succeeded! Yes, I did read a handful of short books. I did two audios and one YA. It was a little bit of a struggle but it was also fun! Now, I am so far ahead of my goal of 100 books to read this year that I think I'll do a couple of rereads.

Books completed this month: 
How to Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz
What Is Visible by Kimberly Elkins
Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox (audio, abridged)
I Can't Complain: (All Too) Personal Essays by Elinor Lipman
Siegfried's Murder by Anonymous, A.T. Hatto (Translator)
The Natural History of a Yard by Leonard Dubkin
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary by David Sedaris
Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks (audio)
Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, a Virginia Town, a Civil Rights Battle by Kristen Green
Three Story House by Courtney Miller Santo
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Pobby and Dingan by Ben Rice
The Bees by Laline Paull
On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss

Books I am currently reading/listening to:
I finished my latest book last night so I am technically between books.
I had a depressing realization. According to Goodreads, I only have 9 books left this year. Yes, sure, I can go over my 100 book goal, but if I do read just 9, 6 of those that will be for my last Reading Challenge, 2 for book clubs, and that leaves 1 book that I'll get to pick on my own this year. And I did kind of promise a publisher a review (I really try not to do that) so that means I will not be able to choose any more books this year. They are all preselected. For two months, I don't get to pick my own books. I am pretty bummed by this. Boy, I hope these 9 books are pretty good. (One of the categories for the challenge is a book I started but never finished. I am seriously considering tackling And Ladies of the Club by Helen Hooven Santmyer again. I left off on page 408 in April 2014. It is 1433 pages. If I do manage this, it will mean that even reading 9 more books this year will be a stretch.)

What I acquired this month:
Once again, I acquired way more books than I normally do. This is partly just the nature of fall with lots of book events. I should get back to normal (or better yet, acquiring zero books!) next month. Meanwhile, here's what happened in October:

I went to the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville. While there, I stopped into Bookman/Bookwoman, a used bookstore, and I bought two books:
Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall
A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins (for my bookclub)

And I went to the amazing Parnassus Books and I tried to only buy two books, but the person I was meeting ran late, so I ended up buying four:
The Work: My Search for a Life That Matters by Wes Moore
The Tilted World: A Novel by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly (wow is the paperback cover different from the hardcover!)
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott

At Southern Festival itself, I bought two more books from the Parnassus booth:
The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks
The Wonder Garden by Lauren Acampora

And at the Coffee With Authors event, hosted by the Women's National Book Association-Nashville, in celebration of National Reading Group Month, I got a gift bag with these three books:
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
Find a Way by Diana Nyad
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan

When I got home, the Charlotte chapter of the WNBA was hosting their NRGM event, Bibliofeast. At that event we had 8 authors who circulated around to all the tables while we enjoyed a lovely Italian meal at Maggiano's. Each table ended up with 5 of the authors. These are the books I came home with, plus the picture shows a few that my husband bought:
Fresh Water from Old Wells by Cindy Henry McMahon
Off the Books: On Literature and Culture by J Peder Zane
Gossip of the Starlings by Nina de Gramont
The Lower Quarter: A Novel by Elise Blackwell
The Last September by Nina de Gramont
Mister Owita's Guide to Gardening: How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and an Open Heart by Carol Wall (Ms. Wall died earlier this year so her husband is touring in her honor)