October Recap 2015

Full steam ahead right? We’re entering the last two months of the year and those are never busy. That last sentence is dripping with sarcasm. Mostly I’m impressed I’m reading anything at all, let alone keeping up with blogging, podcasting and another project that’s in the works. (Not to mention work and friendships and stuff.)

Outside of work it was a busy month full of culture and reading. I’ll talk more about La Bohème and our trip to Wellfleet and Provincetown, MA in the culture corner section. To end the month we went to my friend Caitrin’s house party for Halloween where I dressed as an old fashioned ghost and Tim dressed as Frida Kahlo. Needless to say I’m ready for the cooler weather to stick and to curl up with a book and read, but I don’t know if I’ll have any time to do that this year.

Books and Bookish Things
As I mentioned we went to Provincetown, MA on Cape Cod and while we were there I checked out two book stores, Tim’s Used Books and Provincetown Bookshop, both of which were lovely, and walked by the local library. As hesitant as I was to go, see Culture Corner below, I was excited about the book stores and I can’t wait to go back to see the library!

I some how kept up my reading pace and I’m near to completing my Goodreads goal for the year. It didn’t hurt I read three graphic novels, but I thoroughly enjoyed them and you should keep an eye out for more to come over the next few months. This month I read four ARC/galleys (Aptowicz, Atwood, Iacovelli and King), one library book, Career of Evil, and one book for my Classics Club list!

• Dr. Mütter’s Marvels – Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz
• The Heart Goes Last – Margaret Atwood
• Emma (Marvel Illustrated) – Nancy Butler, Jane Austen and Janet Lee
• Sense & Sensibility (Marvel Illustrated) – Nancy Butler, Jane Austen and Sonny Liew
• Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike #3) – Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)
• Simple Giving – Jennifer Iacovelli
• Emma (Manga Classics) – Stacy King, Jane Austen and Po Tse
• The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath

Recent Acquisitions
Like last month I went a little overboard with galleys/review copies, but I’m staying on top of them so that’s a plus. I did “accidentally” find a few books when I went to donate my old laptop at the local Good Will. It was a Booker Prize winner and a book about a bookshop!

I also picked up a few books in Provincetown at Tim’s Used Books, including new reading copies of Jane Austen. Hopefully I can find the rest of them from that same printing. I was mostly excited for the Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sandition version because my current version doesn’t have those and I have a weird separate version which upsets my delicate book sensibilities. It also doesn’t hurt they’re the orange Penguin spines.

• Hotel du Lac – Anita Brookner
• The Little Book of Neuroses – Michael Thomas Ford
• Simple Giving – Jennifer Iacoveli
• Emma (Manga Classics) – Stacy King, Jane Austen and Po Tse
• Ally Hughes Has Sex Sometimes – Jules Moulin
• The Bookseller of Kabul – Åsne Seierstad

I’m proud of having read the two ARC/galleys I received earlier in the month and cannot wait to read Moulin’s which I just received this past week!

Culture Corner
It was a pretty cultural month this month. It wasn’t as fall oriented as last month, but it was just as great! In the middle of the month I took Tim to the opera for the first time and it was a lot of fun. I’ve been to the Boston Lyric Opera (their site) almost exactly two years ago. We saw La Bohème which was excellent! I think I prefer the Rent adaptation of it, but this one, set during the 1960s Paris student revolution, was great!

That same evening, right after we finished eating delicious Chinese food in Chinatown we randomly decided to see Black Mass which was fascinating. I feel like I thought it was a lot better than it was because I knew so many of the locations. Seriously, a lot of it was filmed where I live now, like down the street. It was weird, but come visit Boston and I’ll give you the locals tour 😀

Then a few weekends later we went to the Wellfleet Oyster Festival and then further down the cape to Provincetown, MA. The oyster festival was really cool, but it was PACKED!

I could not believe how many people they fit into such a tiny place. I did eat one raw oyster and I was not impressed. I loved all the fired oysters and the clam chowder and everything else we had. We spent the night in Provincetown (the two photos on the right below), which was kind of like a right of passage for gay New Englanders.

It was originally an artists colony and I could totally see that with the dozens of shops and the beautiful scenery. Seriously blow up that sunset picture, there is NO filter. I’m not sure I’ll want to go back in the summer when it’s SUPER crowded, but I’m glad I went and I am considering a trip back over the summer when it will be packed. We had an excellent dinner at Ross’ Grill (their site) and will definitely go back.

What’s Next?
I’m hoping to squeeze one last Come Read With Me recording in before the end of the year and that’s exciting, but I have to convince the person to do it. I’m in the middle of the horribly misogynistic Tropic of Capricorn, but it’s one of the oldest books on my shelf, I picked it up at the first Second Boston Book Festival in 2010. Thankfully it will also count towards my Classics Club list, or I would’ve abandoned it by now.

What are you reading? Any exciting plans for November/December? I hope you had a great October and are gearing up for however you celebrate the holidays!