 The most insane week of my life. Less you know about the film early and the less upset you will be. Settle tea, thy name is not Nathan Darger. It was more like, wait, huh? I didn't read quite as much in September because I've been very, very extremely busy with creating content, if you haven't noticed, which is gonna be true in October as well. So my October TBR being what it is, is insane. This first week of October is the most insane week of my life. I'm so busy with things that are not reading related. It's insane. I'm so stressed. I'd be stressed if I didn't have a 25 book TBR and I do have a 25 book TBR. What am I doing to myself? I officially read nine books this month. I did read some things that were for vlog projects, but those vlog projects have not been completed by me, like in video form. So they are not included in this wrap up. And I did start. Well, I guess I'll tell you about that first. So let me put this dog down. I did start the month by reading or starting to read the Silmarillion because I thought it would be kind of fun to read the Silmarillion before watching Rings of Power to be able to compare and contrast. And I very quickly realized that the less you know about the Silmarillion, the less upset you will be by Rings of Power. So I tabled the Silmarillion for later because I think I was like, they're just gonna make me mad. And like the reason that I like bumped it up in priority was like, oh, I should read it for Rings of Power. But then I was like, I should not read it before Rings of Power if I want to retain my sanity. I do want to finish the Silmarillion, but I was like, okay, maybe not, maybe not now. So the first book that I actually read and finished in the month of September was A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie, the podcast, the chapter three podcast. The episode for that is up. I'll leave that link down below if you missed it. This was my fourth time reading it. It was a ton of fun seeing Bethany's first time reactions. This was her first time reading it. This is the first book in the Age of Madness trilogy if you're unaware. If you're on my channel and unaware of that, I feel like you haven't been watching my videos. So good, still so good, always so good. And there's always the crazy thing about this is that this is the weakest one in the trilogy. And it's amazing. Next up I read Dragon Keeper. This is the first book in the Rainwell Chronicles which is the fourth series in the series of series in the realm of the Elderlings. Mara and I are on to Rainwell Chronicles. In October, we're reading the second one. The first one was good, especially because of how people kind of poo poo, Rainwell Chronicles are like, oh, you can scoop it or it's not that good or that's the weakest one. You're like, hmm, it's all great except Rainwell Chronicles. I had very low expectations going into this, but I thought it was really good. I mean, I do think it is less, I don't know, wow than some other Robin Hob books. Starting the Live Shed Trader series, I felt more like, oh my God, this is so good, this is amazing. But reading this, like this is mild and way better than most books out there. It's still fantastic and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the new characters. I enjoyed the new setting. I enjoyed learning more about the dragons. And I look forward to reading. It is interesting to me that this series, the one that people like the least is the one that has the most books in it. But that said, in page count, it might not be longer than the others because these are shorter books. Like the Fitz books are massive. So anyway, I very much enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to reading. I have actually started the next one already. And as I've mentioned several times, Mara and I will be chatting about all four of these come January. And next up, I read Small Angels by Lauren Owen, which has been the case most of the year. I love you forgot I read. These Book of the Month will books are so forgettable. But what I do remember is being extremely underwhelmed and not impressed with this. And I feel like it's not well written. It's not atmospheric. The plot is not interesting. The characterization is terrible and it's not a very good book. It's not spooky. It's not intriguing. It's not mysterious. It's just one of the most boring and forgettable things I've ever read. I think it's quite badly done, frankly. I feel like it may be worst of all, the book feels very try hard, if you know what I mean. So if you have this on your radar, I would say go ahead and give it a miss. Next up is a book that was not on my TBR. I just kind of had a hankering to read it. And it was pretty early in the month. So I thought I was like, I don't have time to just read whatever. I very much did not have time as the month went on. But anyway, that was in the inheritance games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. I had heard it compared to the Westing game, which is a book that I read a whole bunch of times when I was a kid. Mainly drew my attention to it and got my interest. What I felt reading it, what it remote surrounded me of was Knives Out. The plot is quite different from Knives Out, which is sort of like the vibe. And that's one of the main things I like about Knives Out. The plot's pretty good. But it's like the feeling of being in this like mysterious old house filled with historic knickknacks and like the richness and the family that's up to things and the sort of like core female protagonist navigating all that. I mean, it had all the gimmicks of like, you know, cliffhangers at the end of every chapter, dun dun dun moments. The chapters are really short. It has just, you know, a lot of these dramatic moments and dramatic reveals and tricksy mysteries and McGuffin's galore. And I mean, it totally hooked me and I just kind of devoured it and I had a great time. So I don't think it's like great literature, but I had a great time reading this. I'm very much looking forward to reading the next two books in the series, which I've heard are not as good, but I'm still looking forward to it. Next up is a book that was going to be on my October TBR with my hold for the audio came in early. And I was like, I'll just do it now. And that is Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney. This book, when you start reading, it feels very reminiscent of when then there were none. And then the book actually goes and tells you that it's like in the text, not in the authors. Now it tells you that it's basically an homage to when then there were none. And I was like, okay, subtlety, thy name is not Daisy Darker. This wasn't, you know, a page turner. You know, it's a isolated, classical mystery on an island. So it definitely, you know, it has some atmosphere and some spook. It kept my interest and I thought it was pretty decent at first, but the ending, no spoilers, but the ending is extremely stupid in my opinion. So it definitely retroactively kind of diminished my enjoyment because the lead up to it, I was like, I mean, this isn't like mind blowing, but you know, it's interesting. I'm interested to see kind of like what's behind all this and who did the doing of the done it. And then the answer to that and what's been going on is just so incredibly stupid in my opinion again. So I was thinking it was like a three, maybe if the ending is really awesome, maybe four stars. And then I got to the ending I was like, oh, this is two stars. This is dumb as hell. So I don't recommend. Next up is the book that my patrons chose for me to read and vlog for them. And I did. And that was Kindred by Octavia Butler. And this book was so, so good. Again, the ending, I shouldn't say again because like this is an amazing book. Daisy Darker is not, but the ending slightly let me down, partly because of like something that I expected to happen, which is just kind of like a prediction that I had. And I was very wrong about that. So I can't really hold the book accountable for not meeting a prediction that I came up with. But I do feel like there was just something lacking about the ending. It's still an amazing and powerful book. I gave it 4.5 stars, rounding up to five. Just something about the ending wasn't quite fully satisfying. If it, not just because it didn't do what I predicted but it didn't do something sort of instead either. You just kind of ended. I don't know if that makes sense. I still think it's brilliant. I really enjoyed reading it. I was pleased to be able to vlog a book for my patrons where I had tons and tons of things to say that were positive instead of tons and tons of things to read about. The next book I read was Chainfire by Terry Goodkind. This is the, for the sort of truth read along. And I do need to issue a brief correction in my TVR video. I said that for October I would be reading Confessor but in fact the next book in sort of truth read along is Phantom, not Confessor. So never fear, I will read the correct book. But yeah, Chainfire was the first book in the sort of truth series that for this read along I had not yet read. Everything else was a reread up to this point. So it was interesting to me to finally read a new book and this was definitely, definitely better than Naked Empire. Naked Empire was such a garbage. Oh, so this is definitely better than that. It does feel a little bit at this point in the series like the 10th season of a TV show that should have ended after three. They were kind of like looking for reasons to have a plot, if that makes sense. But I did enjoy it and it did have an intriguing new concept and intriguing new thing introduced in this book that while I think the book could be cut down by legitimately like half, I did skim a lot because it does a lot of recapping. It did introduce some new things that were interesting I did have a good time with. So anyway, the live show where me and Bethany chatted about this was on Bethany's channel. So if you missed it and wanna check it out, I will leave that link to down below. The next book I read, I got from the library. So I don't have a physical copy of it and that was The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware. I read a couple of Ruth Ware books last year and I really liked them. I liked one more than the other. I read last year one by one and I read Turn of the Key. One by one was like fine, but Turn of the Key, I really, really liked. I really, really liked that. So I wanted to try some more of Ruth Ware. So I got, I remember the death of Mrs. Westaway intriguing me at the time and me thinking I would wanna read that soon. So I did now because it wasn't soon but I did read it now and it wasn't very good. It was better than Daisy Darker. I'll say that. And the ending and the answer for what was going on was better than Daisy Darker. But it did quite have the atmosphere that I think Turn of the Key definitely does and that this was kind of going for but I just don't think it really achieved it the way that Turn of the Key did. And then the ending, the answer to what's been going on, I frankly found it a little confusing not because it's like really, really complicated although I guess it is a bit more just like, I don't know, the way it was told, I was like, hang on, wait, does that mean then this or wait, no, is that, what, what? Does that make, I don't think that makes sense. Doesn't make sense. That was kind of our reaction at the end as opposed to being like, what? It was more like, wait, huh? So that's not a great sign for your thriller if the audience's reaction is, huh? What do you find that was going on? So I mean, it kept my interest and it was entertaining enough. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great. And the last book I read, it took me all months to read it and I was really dragging my heels and finally on the last day of October, I'm sorry, the last day of September I finally, finally finished it because I was like, I need to finish this. It's the last day of September. And that's Babel by RF Kwong. And I will be posting a full review for this. It's kind of why I was dragging my heels because I was like, when I finish it, I have to do the review for it and people are gonna hate me because I don't like this book very, very much and do not like this book. And the more I read it, the less I liked it. And I have a lot of notes, both on my phone and in my head, things that I hated about this book. So I will do a full review for it that's coming. Not super soon because I have all this House of the Dragon and Brings Power content to do. So as soon as I can, I will do a review for this. I will, I promise I will, but yeah. This wasn't just like, oh, I'm disappointed. It's not for me. Like I pretty aggressively dislike this. You shall shortly know the reasons for my disdain. And those are all the books that I read in September. Well, all the books that I can tell you about. I did read a couple others, like I said. But anyway, let me know in the comments down below your thoughts and feelings about my thoughts and feelings, whatever you wanna let me know. I post videos on Saturdays. Other reading terms available on Saturdays. So like and subscribe. Join my Patreon if you feel so inclined. And I'll see you when I see you. Bye.