October was a little slow, reading and blogging-wise, but I got bookshelves! This is a big deal. I haven’t had bookshelves in my room for five years. My bedroom finally feels like home. No more #shelfies of shame for me! I’m not quite done arranging everything, but here’s a quick peek at some of my favourites:

And the obligatory duck-faced, overexposed #shelfie:

Book Events:

I met some very cool people this month:

• Meredith Quartermain and Fran Kimmel at Audreys Books on Oct. 9th: This was a reading and a half, the “half” being a great discussion with both authors about writing and memory, with lots of audience participation. I picked up a copy of Fran’s book The Shore Girl, which has since been nominated for the next Canada Reads competition. Fran is also a complete sweetheart AND a Reading in Bed reader!
• Omar Mouhallem and Jana O’Conner at Me Me Me! This opening event for LitFest was a lot of fun! There were readings, an appearance by outgoing Mayor Mandel, and a chance to have your very own one-sentence bio written by a professional writer. Omar and Jana both wrote bios for me, but Jana’s resonated best. I’m guessing it’s a mom thing, as she has a little girl around Ben’s age. Here it is:

• Lawrence Hill, Jessica Kluthe, and Jenna Butler at Writing in Blood Another LitFest event. This panel discussion about memoir was fascinating, and even got heated for a moment as an audience member challenged the panel on the definition of “creative non-fiction.” Who says book events are boring? I was so excited to meet Lawrence Hill. He was very generous and personalized all of our books (Kristilyn had a few!) and has the best smile – he could teach Tyra Banks a few things about “smizing.”
• November preview: Next up is the launch for 40 Below on November 17th and this, which, do I really need to say anything? Okay, how about: it’s Margaret F’ing Atwood! I don’t know what the heck Alanis is doing there but whatever.

 

Blog News:

• The Moonstone Read-Along at Lit Nerd begins! I have my Gutenburg Kobo copy and a $4.99 cheapie paper copy and I’m ready to go.
• Novellas in November at Another Book Blog begins! Intro post soon. I bought a copy of Steibeck’s The Pearl tonight and can’t wait to reread it.
• Middlemarch Read-Along with Too Fond doesn’t begin till December, but I might cheat and start a little early. It’s a brick!

Books Read:
With one-word reviews to hold you over till I get around to reviewing them.

• Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison: WTF (and no, I’m not reviewing this mess.)
• Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb: Heartache
• The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill:  Essential
• Summer by Edith Wharton: Scandalous!
• 40 Below edited by Jason Lee Norman: Cool
• Caught by Lisa Moore: Contender

Books I Want to Read:
Obviously added MANY novellas, but I’ll talk about those in a separate post.

• Malarky by Anakana Schoefield based on this interview with the author.
• Why Here? by Michelle Ferguson: A review book I need to get to, and has interesting similarities with Giller-nominated Caught by Lisa Moore: both are about the drug trade in the Maritimes. As was Ferguson’s first novel, From Away, and D.R. MacDonald’s most recent novel, Anna From Away. Maritime drug novels. So hot right now.
• The Love Monster by Missy Marston: Twitter recommendation from Kerry of Pickle Me This (fantastic blog) as I was lamenting the lack of good birth scenes in contemporary novels. The book sounds really weird, which is perfect.

On the Blog This Month:

Reviews:

• Love Letters of the Angels of Death by Jennifer Quist
• Pilgrimage by Diana Davidson
• Maddaddam by Margaret Atwood (reading soundtrack)
• Stoner by John Williams

Discussions, Read-Alongs, Etc.:

• LitFest Preview
• Dragon Bound Read-Along (intro/1/2/3)

Save a Book, Read a Blog Post:
Some notable blog posts I read this month. Read, share, comment.

• Women of Great Narrative at Write Reads: Go to the comments to see Tania and I bond over Margaret Laurence.
• That Time I Decided I was Over the Giller Prize at Marginalia Editorial Services. Important read, and reminder that there’s more to diversity in publishing than gender.
• Wuthering Heights explained in Gifs at Page Views. ““Wuthering Heights” is why all your relationships and ideas about love are such a mess. Imagine where your life could be if you’d gotten really into “The Red Badge of Courage” or something back then instead. Oh, well, it’s too late for you now.” Yes. This pretty much explains my high school/University life.
• Not a blog post but made me laugh out loud: Icon: Noel Gallagher in GQ. Everything Noel says about novels is wrong, but it’s ok, because he’s Noel Gallagher.

How was your October? Did you read a bunch of scary books? Did you change your Twitter name to a scary name?