What I Read in October!

I can’t quite believe it that October is almost over. It has really been one of those blink and you’ll miss it months. I have done an awful lot this month and this include quite a lot of reading! I also turned 22 this month (how did that happen)! Here is what I read in October!Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness

“Who gave Jonathan Van Ness permission to be the radiant human he is today? No one, honey.

The truth is, it hasn’t always been gorgeous for this beacon of positivity and joy.

Before he stole our hearts as the grooming and self-care expert on Netflix’s hit show Queer Eye, Jonathan was growing up in a small Midwestern town that didn’t understand why he was so…over the top. From choreographed carpet figure skating routines to the unavoidable fact that he was Just. So. Gay., Jonathan was an easy target and endured years of judgement, ridicule and trauma—yet none of it crushed his uniquely effervescent spirit.”

I thought I loved JVN a lot before reading this book but I love him even more now. This wonderful human has been through so much and has lived such a life and I admire him a lot. I will be writing a full review of this book very soon because I have so much love for this book.

★★★★★

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Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki

“Laura Dean, the most popular girl in high school, was Frederica Riley’s dream girl: charming, confident, and SO cute. There’s just one problem: Laura Dean is maybe not the greatest girlfriend.

Reeling from her latest break up, Freddy’s best friend, Doodle, introduces her to the Seek-Her, a mysterious medium, who leaves Freddy some cryptic parting words: break up with her. But Laura Dean keeps coming back, and as their relationship spirals further out of her control, Freddy has to wonder if it’s really Laura Dean that’s the problem. Maybe it’s Freddy, who is rapidly losing her friends, including Doodle, who needs her now more than ever. Fortunately for Freddy, there are new friends, and the insight of advice columnists like Anna Vice to help her through being a teenager in love.”

I flew through this graphic novel within a matter of hours and I loved it! I would have loved to have this graphic novel around when I was a teenage but even now it is something I am glad I have read and will be recommending!

★★★★★

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My Brother’s Husband by Gengorah Tagame

“Yaichi is a work-at-home suburban dad in contemporary Tokyo; single parent to his young daughter, Kana. Their lives suddenly change with the arrival at their doorstep of a hulking, affable Canadian named Mike Flanagan, who declares himself the widower of Yaichi’s estranged gay twin, Ryoji. Mike is on a quest to explore Ryoji’s past, and the family reluctantly but dutifully takes him in. “

This is one I have been wanting to read for such a long time and I was so lucky that the library I work at had a copy in. I read this within the space of an hour and ordered the second volume from the library immediately.

★★★★

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The Handmaid’s Tale Graphic Novel by Margaret Atwood and Renée Nault

“”Everything Handmaids wear is red: the colour of blood, which defines us.” Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, where women are prohibited from holding jobs, reading, and forming friendships. She serves in the household of the Commander and his wife, and under the new social order she has only one purpose: once a month, she must lie on her back and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, ecause in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if they are fertile. But Offred remembers the years before Gilead, when she was an independent woman who had a job, a family, and a name of her own. Now, her memories and her will to survive are acts of rebellion.”

There isn’t much for me to say about this one other than I was not a fan. I feel I didn’t get the full premise of the story due to it being a graphic novel and may have to read the full novel in the future, but I wasn’t a fan of this.

★★

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In the Time We Lost by Carrie Hope Fletcher

“Luna Lark used to love her name, but that was before people started saying it differently . I’m so sorry, Luna. Are you alright, Luna? Everything will be okay, Luna. Now Luna is taking back control by starting again in the most remote place she could find: Ondingside, a magical little town with barely a hundred and fifty people in the middle of nowhere important. She’ll finally finish her latest novel, get herself back to normal, maybe even find love (and continue being a hopeless romantic). But on her first night in Ondingside a freak July snow fall freezes the town. Snowed in, the town stands still. Can Luna break out of the monotony and do what she came to do?”

This was such a fun novel that I flew right the way through. It came to me at the time that I really needed it. I will be writing a full review of this very soon.

★★★★

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Looking for Alaska by John Green

“First drink, first prank, first friend, first girl, last words… A poignant and moving crossover novel about making friends and growing up from American author, John Green.

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words – and tired of his safe, boring and rather lonely life at home. He leaves for boarding school filled with cautious optimism, to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.”

This is a reread of one of my favourite novels from being a teenager. I knew I had to reread this after watching the TV series adaption (which I will be reviewing!) It didn’t disappoint and I still love it a lot!

★★★★★Those are all of the books I have read in October! What have you read this month? What are you going to be reading next month? Let me know in the comments!