Books Read in November 2021!

Posted On November 30, 2021

Hi Readers! I cannot do small talk this time, because guess how many books I read this month? THIRTEEN BOOKS! To be fair, 3 books were below 200 pages & only 1 book was above 500 pages. But, it was such a thrill! I came very close to beating my record of 15 books in a month, but regardless, I am super happy about achieving this!

For this month, as I already mentioned in an earlier post, I participated in Nonfiction November, which is why I read 6 nonfiction books, half of them were entirely brilliant, empowering & perfection. Instead of mentioning it randomly here, let’s dig into the lot!

~~THE BEST~~

~~The Alice Network by Kate Quinn~~

The Alice Network was the first book I read of Kate Quinn, and I absolutely loved it. It was wartime historical fiction, with strong, thoughtful & badass female characters as protagonists with two parallel story lines in WWI & post WWII! Before I started it, I knew I would love it. There were a few ups & downs in my reading journey, but ultimately it was a solid book with barely any faults. This is a definite book recommendation from me, especially if you love to read historical fiction. I have rated The Alice Network by Kate Quinn at 5/5 stars!

You can check out the review here!

~~Piranesi by Susanna Clark~~

I wanted to read all the winners of book awards of 2021. Piranesi by Susanna Clark won the Women’s Prize for Fiction. The book’s blurb as well as the reviews were bizarre & I had no idea what to expect. Halfway into the book, I was as confused as ever, but when everything started to fall into place, I was wonderfully surprised. I will forever love the author’s brain for coming up with this book & her writing for executing it so miraculously. I have rated Piranesi by Susanna Clark at 5/5 stars!

~~Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller~~

This book was the turning point for me finally loving nonfiction books. Whenever I will hear the mention of this book, it will always remind me of the immaculate reading experience I had & also how I transformed my hate for nonfiction into love! This is a memoir by Lulu Miller which talks about a lot of things which I couldn’t possibly mention here because it will somehow make it feel smaller. I have rated Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller at 5/5 stars!

You can check out the review here!

~~When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi~~

This was another nonfiction which I truly loved. This is another memoir written by Dr. Paul Kalanithi after his cancer diagnosis. The fact that he wrote this book during the last few months of his life, makes the book a whole lot more meaningful & it almost feels like reading something out of the ordinary. I have rated When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi at 5/5 stars!

~~No One is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg~~

This book was the shortest one of the lot at only 112 pages. This book essentially is a collection of inspiring speeches which Greta Thunberg has given at a few places. I care deeply about the climate crises & am always looking at how I can make a difference, no matter how small. Listening to talks & speeches by scientists & climate activists is also something I do. So, I loved reading this small book which was of course not too small to make a difference. I have rated it 5/5 stars!

~~The Promise by Damon Galgut~~

This is another book award winner. I am sure you must have heard of this one as it won the Booker Prize for 2021! This was the first time I read Damon Galgut’s work & I really loved his writing style. The two-time Booker award nominee deserved to win the award for The Promise. Be it the brilliant simplicity of transition from first person to third person, or the stream of consciousness, or just the fact that this could’ve been a story of 10 sentences but was written so well that it was worth reading. Yes, it was predictable. Yes, it was difficult to get into the writing style with no quotations for dialogues. Yes, it was a bit straightforward. But, put together it was truly a masterpiece. I have rated The Promise by Damon Galgut at 4/5 stars!

~~THE MEDIOCRE~~

~~When the World Didn’t End: Poems by Caroline Kaufman~~

When I read poems, I read modern poems written by poets who are still alive. In this sense, the content is easy to understand but also has a lot of layers to it. It is not directly relatable, but you can imagine how it would just might be. I had poured all my love over Caroline Kaufman’s first book of poetry ‘When Light Filters In’. But I didn’t see that same standard for ‘When the World Didn’t End’. It could be because this one was more about healing rather than hurt. And I don’t know why, but sad poems always hit different. I rated When the World Didn’t End by Caroline Kaufman aka thepoeticpoison at 3.5/5 stars!

~~Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot~~

I have been wanting to read Heart Berries ever since it was a book picked by Emma Watson’s reading club Our Shared Shelf. But somehow I couldn’t read it earlier. It could simply be because of my prejudice against nonfiction. I am glad I picked it up this time. Even though I did not really enjoy reading it, I found it to be powerful & poetic. But, something just didn’t click for me with this one. I have rated Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot at 3/5 stars!

~~Hunger by Roxane Gay~~

All of Roxane Gay’s books have been on my TBR since a long time. I finally got to reading Hunger because of Nonfiction November. The writing was powerful, the story was painful to read & it had a lot of wisdom. But, there was also a repetitive tone in it because of which I couldn’t read it with the ultimate focus. I have rated Hunger by Roxane Gay at 3/5 stars!

~~All about Love: New Visions by bell hooks~~

This was the last of the nonfiction books which I read this month. Even though I was liking reading nonfiction, but the 6^th book, my patience had sort of withered out. It took me a lot longer to complete this book. It had a lot of worthy selling points, but also a lot of quotes by other authors and such, which took my interest away a little bit. I have rated All about Love by bell hooks at 2.5/5 stars!

~~THE WORST~~

~~The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary~~

Earlier this year, I read Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare. Despite my wariness towards the romance genre, I ended up enjoying & loving that book. This was the reason that I picked up another book by the same author. But, this time, there was no magic, no love & I wasn’t enjoying it one bit. This is why I did not finish the book. In other words, I DNFd it. I have rated The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary at 1/5 stars!

~~When She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell~~

I finished this book just yesterday. I really enjoyed reading Lisa Jewell’s ‘The Family Upstairs’. Ever since I read it, I wanted to read more books by her. When She Was Gone is the highest rated & most read book of hers which led me to a disappointment. The story was unimaginative & felt forced. The plot was predictable in standard ways. The characters were unlikeable. And even though, it had one shocking factor to it, it wasn’t written or explored well enough. I have rated When She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell at 2/5 stars!

~~Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin~~

This is another book award winner, but for the life of me I have no idea how or why. This book won the National Book Award 2021 for Translated Fiction. I felt that there were a lot of themes just mused about throughout the story, but it never really went deeper than that. I really hate it when there is a strong premise and potential in a story but when it’s never realised. I have rated Winter in Sockcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin at 2/5 stars!

So, there you have it – THIRTEEN BOOKS; 6 Great, 4 Average & 3 Poor! It has been an amazing month. Please tell me if we have any mutual liked or disliked books in common from this list!

Until next time,