wrap up
Bookish other,  Wrap-ups and TBRs

October 2021 wrap up

Hello bookworms!! It’s time for the October 2021 wrap up. WOOT!!

October was a time. I was so ready to post all of the things… and then… my blog broke. It BROKE. I was staring at an <error 500> message for a whole day thinking “what does this even mean?!”. Then I contacted my blog’s server host and they couldn’t fix it. Then I had to contact a web developer, and they kind of fixed it, but they turned JetPack off to do it. So then when I turned JetPack back on it broke AGAIN. Which meant then they had to properly fix it. In total, the blog was down for TWO WEEKS, which honestly was the saddest thing ever because then when I posted my favourite post I’ve done this year, no one saw it. *CRIES* So, I’m adding it right here, instead of below.

In October, I had the absolute privilege of interviewing Lyndall Clipstone, debut author of Lakesedge. So, PLEASE go have a look at that one, because it is genuinely one of the best posts I’ve done this year. Also, I am super hoping to make this a THING. And I have one more author interview happening later this year, so if it goes well, then maybe we will?!?!

Also, please keep your fingers crossed that my blog doesn’t break (again). And with that in mind, let’s look at what I did in October!!

October 2021 wrap up

what i read

So, after being 9 books behind on my Goodreads goal (100 books) at the end of September, I am SUPER PLEASED to say that as at the end of October, I was only 1 book behind. Yes, I read THIRTEEN books in October, because I (apparently) am now a book reading demon. I did have one DNF (my first of the year), which I am so annoyed about because I really wanted to love this book. But alas, I did not.

SYMBOLS
Symbol
Key
Symbol
Key
Symbol
Key
โš”๏ธ fantasy โ›ฑ contemporary ๐Ÿš€ sci-fi
๐Ÿฐ historical fiction โค๏ธ romance ๐Ÿ” crime / mystery
๐Ÿคก thriller ๐ŸŽ€ classic ๐ŸŽ“ dark academia
๐Ÿบ paranormal ๐Ÿ„ urban fantasy ๐Ÿ† smut
๐Ÿชด non-fiction ๐Ÿฅธ humour ๐ŸŽ™ biography / memoir
๐Ÿ–ค BIPOC author ๐Ÿ—ฃ own voices ๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆ queer rep
๐Ÿง  mental health rep โ™ฟ๏ธ disability rep ๐Ÿž body positivity
๐ŸŒ‘ dark themes ๐ŸŽฎ nerd references ๐Ÿˆ sports references
๐Ÿงธ middle grade ๐Ÿง˜โ€โ™€๏ธ young adult ๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿฆณ new adult / adult
๐Ÿ“” hardcover ๐Ÿ—’ paperback ๐Ÿ“ฑ ebook
๐Ÿ’ฅ graphic novel ๐ŸŽง audiobook ๐ŸŽ gift
๐Ÿ“š backlist title โฐ ARC / review copy ๐Ÿจ Aussie author / #loveozya
๐Ÿ–‹ signed / personalised copy ๐Ÿช† multiple copy โœ… read
๐Ÿ‘ฏโ€โ™€๏ธ buddy read ๐ŸŒ€ reread ๐Ÿšซ DNF

Emoji table for reference

the books

Book
Author
Series
Year of publication / Symbols
Rating
Cover
Out of Character Annabeth Albert True Colours #2

2021

โ›ฑ โค๏ธ
๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆ ๐Ÿง  ๐ŸŽฎ
๐Ÿง˜โ€โ™€๏ธ ๐Ÿ—’

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ Out of Character by Annabeth Albert
A Veiled and Hallowed Eve Hailey Turner Soulbound #7

2021

โš”๏ธ ๐Ÿบ ๐Ÿ„
๐Ÿ† ๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆ ๐ŸŒ‘
๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿฆณ ๐Ÿ“ฑ

๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸ A Veiled and Hallowed Eve by Hailey Turner
Cameron Wants to be a Hero Anyta Sunday Love, Austen #2

2021

โ›ฑ โค๏ธ ๐Ÿ† ๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆ
๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿฆณ ๐Ÿ“ฑ

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ Cameron Wants to be a Hero by Anyta Sunday
Bennet, Pride Before the Fall Anyta Sunday Love, Austen #3

2021

โ›ฑ โค๏ธ ๐Ÿ† ๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆ
๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿฆณ ๐Ÿ“ฑ

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ Bennet, Pride Before the Fall by Anyta Sunday
Finley Embraces Heart and Home Anyta Sunday Love, Austen #4

2021

โ›ฑ โค๏ธ ๐Ÿ† ๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆ
๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿฆณ ๐Ÿ“ฑ

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ Finley Embraces Heart and Home by Anyta Sunday
Elliot, Song of the Soulmate Anyta Sunday Love, Austen #5

2021

โ›ฑ โค๏ธ ๐Ÿ† ๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆ
๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿฆณ ๐Ÿ“ฑ

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ Elliot, Song of the Soulmate by Anyta Sunday
Ilahara: The Last Myrassar C. M. Karys Ilahara #1

2021

โš”๏ธ ๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆ ๐ŸŒ‘
๐Ÿง˜โ€โ™€๏ธ ๐Ÿ“ฑ โฐ

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ Ilahara: The Last Myrassar by C. M. Karys
Kingdom of the Wicked Kerri Maniscalco Kingdom of the Wicked #1

2020

โš”๏ธ ๐Ÿฐ ๐Ÿบ ๐Ÿ„
๐Ÿ† ๐ŸŒ‘
๐Ÿง˜โ€โ™€๏ธ ๐Ÿ“” ๐Ÿ“š ๐Ÿ‘ฏโ€โ™€๏ธ

๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸ Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco
Kingdom of the Cursed Kerri Maniscalco Kingdom of the Wicked #2

2021

โš”๏ธ ๐Ÿฐ ๐Ÿบ ๐Ÿ„
๐Ÿ† ๐ŸŒ‘
๐Ÿง˜โ€โ™€๏ธ ๐Ÿ“” ๐Ÿ‘ฏโ€โ™€๏ธ

๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸ๐ŸŒŸ Kingdom of the Cursed by Kerri Maniscalco
Kingdom of Sea and Stone Mara Rutherford Crown of Coral and Pearl #2

2020

โš”๏ธ
๐Ÿง  โ™ฟ๏ธ ๐ŸŒ‘
๐Ÿง˜โ€โ™€๏ธ ๐Ÿ—’ โฐ ๐Ÿ“š

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ Kingdom of Sea and Stone by Mara Rutherford
Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake Alexis Hall Winner Bakes All #1

2021

โ›ฑ โค๏ธ ๐Ÿ†
๐Ÿ—ฃ ๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆ ๐Ÿง 
๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿฆณ ๐Ÿ—’

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall
Silenced Crystal North Santa Catalina University #1

2021

โค๏ธ ๐Ÿบ ๐Ÿ„
๐Ÿง  โ™ฟ๏ธ
๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿฆณ ๐Ÿ“ฑ

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ Silenced by Crystal North
A Study in Brimstone G.S. Denning Warlock Holmes #1

2016

๐Ÿฐ ๐Ÿบ ๐Ÿ„
๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿฆณ ๐Ÿ—’ ๐Ÿ“š

๐Ÿšซ A Study in Brimstone by G.S. Denning

the faves

Once again, this was a great reading month. I had 3 x 5 stars reads, and a few others that were borderline between 4’s and 5’s. (If only I still did 4.5 stars… ๐Ÿค”)

But this month’s faves have to go to Kerri Maniscalco’s Kingdom of the Wicked series. Which, hilariously, I didn’t even have any inclination to read until one of my best friends, @BooksAboutEm told me I needed to read them. And then the Bookish Collision discord server were organising a buddy read. Which, I didn’t stick to at all… (Sorry team!) And now I’m absolutely dying because I need the third book, and it doesn’t even have a title yet!!

what i did

We were in lockdown for most of October, but between 22 and 29 October we got some freedoms back. And I absolutely used that last weekend of October (which… was last weekend) to get my hair done (so much love on Insta from that), go book shopping, AND we went to the movies!! All the things!! HUZZAH!!

This also meant that we could FINALLY get our new flooring put in, which is so good!! For those who don’t know, we moved back to Canberra in 2019 and bought a 4 bedroom apartment. Previously it had been used as a rental which meant that some of the tiles in the kitchen we all smashed and broken โ€” I cut my feet a bunch of times just walking around โ€” and the carpet was dingy, stained and generally not nice. The carpet was beige in colour, which is a lovely shade to show every stain imaginable, but also, we have three BLACK cats. I could vacuum at 9am, then one of them would lie down for five minutes, get up, and it would look like I hadn’t vacuumed by 9:15am. It drove me insane.

gaming

Surprising absolutely no one, I played a chunk of The Sims 4 in October. However, I also started playing two new games on the Switch in October, which I very rarely do. So TWO new games was huge for me, and I am addicted to them. So, they are:

  • Cozy Grove, which was recommended to me by my friend @BooksAboutEm. It’s very cute, and if you like Animal Crossing I would recommend it. Essnetially you’re a (spirit) scout who ends up on a deserted island full of spirits that are bear-like in appearance, but all slightly different. And it’s your job to help the bears. So you run around and do quests and collect things and the more you do, the larger the island gets. It can get a bit repetitive, but no more so than ACNH, but what I like most is that I thought you had to check in every day because it’s got that real time feel to it. But if you skip a couple of days, when you log in next, it’s the next consecutive day. Which means you don’t miss anything! It’s really cute too!!
  • Spiritfarer, which I would recommend just for the art alone. The aim of the game is that you’re taking over from Charon (Greek mythology farer of spirits to the underworld), and your job is to pick up spirits on your boat and take them to the Everdoor. Of course there are quests and you have to complete to do this, but there isn’t any combat (so far), which I quite like. And you can upgrade your boat and farm and have sheep, chickens and cows. So it’s kind of like Stardew Valley, but with a purpose.

Totally coincidentally both games were about looking after spirits. But I thought it was a nice symbology for October / Halloween.

We also played D&D a bunch, and we’re starting (another) new campaign (which will replace the Under-Mountain one) in December. So I’ve been thinking about what sort of character I want to play for it, which has been fun.

tv and movies

So, continuing the MCU (+ other Marvel based movies) rewatch I’ve been doing with my friends, in October we watched… well, not much actually. We started the What If…? series, but I think we only watched about 4 episodes. It’s a rewatch for me anyway, so I’m less fussed, but I have been encouraging the others to watch them.

Other things I watched:

  • Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings (at the cinema!! *cheers*)
  • Free Guy
  • What If…? ep 9
  • Chesapeake Shores (season 5)
  • Lucifer (season 6)
  • The Replacements (rewatch)

Honestly, I was worried that Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings might actually be the first MCU movie that I didn’t get to watch at the movies, but my city hit 90% second dose vaccinations in late October, so we started opening things up. And just in time for all the movies to come out at the end of the year, too!! I am sad that the Dune release date in Australia got pushed to December… but, it just means that I will have more movies to watch then!!

on my blog

Top 5 Tuesday for October was Halloween themed adjacent. Which means I was all “Yeah! Let’s talk about scary things… but also, I don’t read scary books, so how am I going to do this?!” But, we figured it out. Topics were top 5:

And then the miraculous happened!! I wrote my first BOOK REVIEW of 2021!! Which was, of course, Lakesedge by Aussie author, Lyndall Clipstone. Which was then followed by my first author interview in FOREVER. But I had so much fun writing it and talking with Lyndall, so I seriously hope that you all enjoy it as well.

But wait, there’s more. Because I actually posted a recommendations / discussion post, where I talked about Slavic mythology and retellings that are connected to it. Which, apparently you all loved, because it has been shared SO MANY times. Like, I am in AWE. And if that’s the type of content that you want, then I am here for it. (No, seriously, I have so much of this planned for 2022.)

on your blogs

So… After catching up on blog-hopping for September, I then stopped again in October. Honestly, why am I so bad at this?!! So, I will come back and share again for November’s wrap up. I promise to be caught up again then!!

How was your October?

until next time, happy reading! Meeghan xo

9 Comments

  • Kristina

    Omg- what a nightmare it wouldโ€™ve been!! Im guessing whatever layout you had didnโ€™t supported the new jetpack update or something..

    Wow 13 books!! Thatโ€™s awesome- we like when we get ahead, or atleast not too much behind ๐Ÿ‘€

    Hope september has been kind to you so far! Xx

    • meeghan

      Yeah, I have no idea. Iโ€™ve had the same layout for 2 years, and nothing else had ever gone wrong!! ๐Ÿ˜… Anyway, itโ€™s fixed now!! (Thankfully!!)

  • Rukky @ Eternity Books

    Oh no, that’s every blogger’s nightmare, I’m so sorry it happened to you!! But thankfully it’s fixed now and hopefully will stay that way!

    It’s a testament to how far behind I am in keeping track of newer releases/happenings in the bookish community that I didn’t know that Kerri Maniscalco published another series! Two books are out and I knew absolutely nothing about it?? I definitely need to find out what it’s about asap, and it’s reassuring that you’re loving it!

    I hope your November has been going much better ๐Ÿ’–

    p.s. the images in the sidebar are not loading? like your profile picture and the first two dividers aren’t showing, but the “hot off the press” is showing just fine. Maybe it’s something on my end though…

    • meeghan

      ๐Ÿ˜…๐Ÿ™„ Thereโ€™s always something broken!! Iโ€™ll have a look, thanks for letting me know ๐Ÿ˜˜

      Yeah, the Kerri Maniscalco books are about twin sisters who live in Italy, and dark magic, and the seven demons of hell. Itโ€™s really good!! I hope you enjoy it if you decide to read it. ๐Ÿ˜˜

  • dbsguidetothegalaxy

    I need to get to the Love Austen series! Sometime soon ๐Ÿ˜‚

    I understand about the reading slump and everything. Here I was, REALLY hoping I’d read like 10 books in November and there I sped through Kingdom of the Wicked and tried to speed through Kingdom of the Cursed and ended up not being able to read anything for nearly 2 weeks ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ but then I finished kotc!!!! And now I can’t think of anything else.

    My friend and I just watched Shang-Chi and loved it! It was so fun.

    I also watched Dune – my sister in USA uses HboMax (so I have to use a VPN) and Dune is on there for a month alongside the theatre release date and then it disappears and comes back (as I see Space Jam 2 and The Suicide Squad is coming back again) – anyway it was fun! I liked it. My friend and I watched it together and we made fun of Timothee Chalamet the entire time ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚

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