October felt like a pretty good reading month! I got stuck on a couple of books that felt like they took a while but I also felt super accomplished! It probably also helped that we had two weeks of A Fortnight of Fright so I had toooons of time to complete future posts! 😉
- Number of Books Read: 11! Wow, that’s a great number for this month!!
- Popular Search Terms: “books similar to divergent” and “books like divergent” // “book gift guide” (coming back, bigger and better, in November!!) // “otsp secret sister” // “lunar chronicles characters”
- More Amusing Search Terms: “how to tell someone they have been chosen as secret sister” // “goodreads books about witches and mortal husbands” // “cool names for book addicts” // “what fandom should you join if you love harry potter”
- Most Referrals (non-social media): The Perpetual Page Turner, So Obsessed With, GReads!
- Where My Blog Most Often Leads You (non-internal/social media): Fandlemonium, Tripping Over Books, Don’t Take My Books Away
- Some “If You Liked” recommendation posts continued to pop up with Divergent, Harry Potter, and Anna and the French Kiss
- As usual, my guide to crossover books is still in the tops!
- Still ridiculously going strong is the Best Friend Turned Boyfriend post
Reviews Posted
- I posted a “non-review” of REBEL by Amy Tintera… I read it at the totally wrong time and wanted to share but thought it was too unfair to officially review!
- QUEEN OF SHADOWS was totally and completely amazing. I absolutely love this series!
- I re-read THE DREAM THIEVES on audio and naturally, it was amazing!
- UNDERNEATH EVERYTHING was a bit terrifying in a realistic sort of way BUT I had also hoped for a bit more.
- I was so excited for WE’LL NEVER BE APART but it really felt like every other psych thriller for me.
- I “reviewed” THE VAMPIRE COMBAT FIELD GUIDE — an adult coloring book perfect for Halloween!
- A MADNESS SO DISCREET was a great historical fiction/gothic horror book!
Goodreads Reading Progress
Featured on Book and a Beverage
- 10/1/15: Gabi from BooksABlog
- 10/8/15: Author Becky Wallace
- 10/15/15: Kate from ExLibris
- 10/22/15: Gabriela from Great Exhortations
Fortnight of Fright Posts
- Short and Spooky Classics (Sabrina from Steakuccino)
- Halloween Movies for Scaredy Cats (Katrina from Bookish Things and More)
- Halloween Book Recommendations (Chelsea from Books for Thought)
- Apple Bundt Cake Recipe (Lena from I Love Books Club)
- Book Review: Welcome to the Dark House (Meri Kate from Hydrangeas and Sass)
- 5 Underappreciated Paranormal Types (Cristina from Girl in the Pages)
- Book Review: The Dark Carnival (Abi from The Rambling Writer)
- A Novel Halloween (Christy & Erica from Novel Ink)
- Book Review: The Fall by Bethany Griffin (Angela from Angela’s Library)
Other Features & Discussions
- I created a book tag based totally off of The Lunar Chronicles!
- I was on the blog tour for A MADNESS SO DISCREET and I got to interview author Mindy McGinnis!
- This month’s Pub Date was about Halloween and horror!
- Top Ten Tuesday on 10/13 had my sharing my hopeful author collaborations!
- I participated in a blogger collaboration which had us sharing our “Seasons Readings“!
- I was a part of Penguin Teen’s Wicked Reads campaign, featuring NIGHTFALL and other Wicked Reads
Events
ANDERSON’S BOOKSHOP YA LIT CONFERENCE (10/10 – 10/11): I first attended Anderson’s YA Literature conference two years ago (but didn’t come for the Fandom Frenzy day on Sunday) and being able to attend any YA literature conference so conveniently close, I knew I had to go again! (I couldn’t last year with all of the wedding planning and my wedding right around the corner!) This year I attended both days — the conference on Saturday and the Fandom Frenzy event on Sunday.
The conference was fairly similar to two years ago but it also felt more friendly to the public/non-educators. The conference, I’d say, is mostly geared toward teachers and librarians so I felt kind of out of place and under-qualified to be there when I went two years ago. Although that’s still more of the main focus, I felt like the keynote speeches and important info from Anderson’s appealed to an audience of readers as well. Of course, as a reader I feel rather strongly (just as strongly?) about putting this books into the hands of readers. Since this was geared more towards educators, it was more about getting these books into the hands of teens whereas I just want to put them in anyone’s hands who might enjoy them (since I personally don’t know many teens and can’t really say much about their education except for the fact that so many people no matter what age can benefit from these amazing books).
There were various panels where the authors answered questions from a moderator as well as from attendees so those were a lot of fun as well! Especially when I’m not able to attend panels at events like BEA because it’s just so incredibly busy, it was a nice change of pace from the more hectic conference feel!
The Fandom Frenzy day… Whooooo boy, they’re not kidding when they call it a FRENZY. It was a jam-packed day from start to finish! There were lots of fun things from trivia to games to “speed dating” with the authors. It was a lot of fun but I really wish the program had actually slowed down a LOT so we could all spend more time with the authors during the “speed date” thing instead of trying to throw as many fun activities in there as we could. I’d be willing to sacrifice some game time to chat with an author for more than a minute and thirty seconds. And those poor authors were so exhausted with that too! It was also super loud in there so it was so hard to hear some of the more quiet authors and we just didn’t have time to talk with anyone.
All in all, it was a ton of fun and I’ll definintely do it again but wow, what a whirlwind that Fandom Frenzy day was! I did get a bunch of books signed and met some amazing authors (some for the umpteenth time, some for the first) and as always, Leigh Bardugo was so gracious to sign all of my Grisha collection! She’s a queen.
October’s Top Instagrams
What’s in store for November?
- WINTER IS COMING!!! I cannot wait for Winter’s release. And I’ll be finishing up the #TLCReadAlong with anyone else who wants to join in for the very last leg!
- Lots and lots of reviews! With a Fortnight of Fright taking up two (glorious) weeks, I have a lot of reviews backed up and ready to go.
- My first video review! EEEEEP. I had tried before and it totally did not work but coming in November, you can see my video review of THINGS I CAN’T EXPLAIN.
5 thoughts on “October 2015: Recap & Wrap-Up!”
Looks like you have a pretty awesome month!
Looks like you had a great month. I am SO EXCITED for Winter!! i have the Kindle version on preorder and I cannot wait.
I love your photography! That’s one thing I definitely want to get better at. I agree that I’d give up some of the games at the Fandom Frenzy for more time to talk to the authors. One and a half minutes was not enough!
Fandom Frenzy sounds like it’s crazy intense, but also a lot of fun! I’m glad you were able to go this year 🙂
I think everyone is looking forward to Winter. I am having a hard time waiting and we now have just a week and a half left!
It sounds like you had a great October. Thanks for sharing it will us! 🙂
Amanda