What I Read ♥ October 2024

Another month, another 3 books were read. I think I’ve come to accept that reading 3 books within a month is my limit when I’m busy living life. This was my goal at the beginning of the year, 3 books per month to accomplish my 36-book reading challenge so I can’t complain. haha

As much as I enjoy reading there are so many other forms of entertainment that I try to juggle like listening to music and podcasts, video games, and watching things whether it be a film, series, or YouTube! There is so much media to consume nowadays so I have to be selective on the media I choose as I have yet to find a balance where I get to enjoy a bit of everything without ignoring the other. If anybody has any advice on how you balance your media intake let me know.

With it being October, I only had one goal and it was to read The October Country by Ray Bradbury. This was a book I couldn’t finish last October so I’ve been saving this read for a full year! I also read a spooky psychological thriller and autumn-themed novel that revolves around witches!

Make sure to follow me on Goodreads to be updated on what I’m reading and on StoryGraph if you’re curious about my book statistics.

My star reading scale
★★★★★/5 – Loved it! Would reread and recommend it to others.
★★★★/5 – Kept me entertained. I would reread.
★★★/5 – Didn’t love or hate but would recommend to others.
★★/5 – Did not enjoy it and probably skimmed through most of it.
★/5 – I hated it and regret wasting my time with this book.
DNF – Did not finish. This will probably be rare because I like to finish every book I start.

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Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough ★★★★/5
Emma Averell loves her life—her high-powered legal career, her two beautiful children, and her wonderful stay-at-home husband—but it wasn’t always so perfect. When she was just five years old, Emma and her older sister went into foster care because of a horrific incident with their mother. Her sister can remember a time when their mother was loving and “normal,” but Emma can only remember her as one thing—a monster. And that monster emerged right around their mother’s fortieth birthday, the same age Emma is approaching now.

Emma desperately wants to keep her successful life separate from her past, so she has always hidden her childhood trauma. But then she’s unable to sleep, and now losing time during the day, also one of the first symptoms her mother showed. Is the madness in her blood, just as her mother predicted? Could she end up hurting her family in her foggy, frenetic state? Or is she truly beginning to lose her mind?

This centers around a woman who is on the verge of turning 40 but as her birthday approaches she starts to exhibit some strange behavior, she can’t seem to fall asleep and has to deal with some family issues that she’s been avoiding. I loved this! It was perfectly paced and the chapters were so short that I kept reading more than I usually would, I was actually shocked when I reached the end! I took away a star because like most books the ending felt rushed and a bit unsatisfying.

You can purchase Insomnia here


The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin ★★★★/5
For centuries, witches have maintained the climate, their power from the sun peaking in the season of their birth. But now their control is faltering as the atmosphere becomes more erratic. All hope lies with Clara, an Everwitch whose rare magic is tied to every season.

The Nature of Witches gave me Harry Potter meets Avatar: The Last Airbender but with witches! I’ve never read Harry Potter (nor do I plan to) but this does involve a mystical boarding school where witches are grouped into one of the four seasons with special magical powers revolving around said season, every witch can only be in one faction. The main character is an Everwitch which is a witch that can practice all four seasons. I deducted one star because I thought certain parts of the story were slow and I thought this was a pretty safe book, it was a cute read but I wanted more.

At the beginning of each chapter, there is a quote from a book that isn’t real which I found confusing. However, you eventually find out at the end of the novel what this is all about and the way they reveal this was clever!

You can purchase The Nature of Witches here


The October Country by Ray Bradbury ★★★/5
Ray Bradbury’s second short story collection is back in print, its chilling encounters with funhouse mirrors, parasitic accident-watchers, and strange poker chips intact. Both sides of Bradbury’s vaunted childhood nostalgia are also on display, in the celebratory “Uncle Einar,” and haunting “The Lake,” the latter a fine elegy to childhood loss. This edition features a new introduction by Bradbury, an invaluable essay on writing, wherein the author tells of his “Theater of Morning Voices,” and, by inference, encourages you to listen to the same murmurings in yourself. And has any writer anywhere ever made such good use of exclamation marks!? (Illustrated by Joe Mugnaini.)

Last year, I believe I only read 2-to-4 chapters of The October Country before I decided to put it down and it evidently reached my physical TBR pile. This is an anthology with 19 horror-themed short stories. After a year, was this book worth it? Meh. Like every short collection, there were some hits and some misses. My favorite stories include Skeleton, The Small Assassin, The Scythe, The Jar, and The Man Upstairs.

You can purchase The October Country here

Have you read any of these books? What did you read in October?