 It is a time for another monthly wrap up so we're gonna be discussing all of the books I read in October and I actually had I would say a very very good reading month in October. So we're gonna go through all my reading statistics of course and then talk a little bit about each of the books that I read but before we actually get into it I want to show you guys something that is so exciting like one of the most exciting things that has happened to me having this channel and I want to go show you something that I have very kindly been gifted so let's go. Okay guys the super exciting thing that I've got to show you is this. So this is my new standing desk it is the YoYoDesk Pro 1 from sitstand.com. I have literally always wanted a standing desk because before I had this I was literally just sitting at my old desk for hours up to like 10 hours a day sometimes when I was working my hips have gotten really tight, my back has gotten really bad, my posture has gotten really bad so I have always wanted a standing desk and you guys look at it it's amazing! I have been testing this out for about the past week and a half just to see what it's like before I talked to you guys about it and it's actually just been so so amazing you can adjust the height as much as you want to whatever height you want it's so cool to be able to work standing up now I feel like my back is stinking me and it came packaged amazingly everything was in these little bags like sectioned out to what you needed it wasn't like all the parts were kind of jumbled together everything was in neat little bags it was really clear to set up I also have hang on let me grab it I also have this standing pad which I stand on and this is super important as it encourages like your leg muscles to carry on moving so that it doesn't damage your legs or knees at all it's like a plush mat and I have a lot of fun standing on it and moving about on it like this it has honestly been a game change for me I have loved working so much more in like the week and a half that I have had this and something that is actually super amazing is I have a 50 pound coupon code for you guys to the user which is in the description so I'll leave their website link down below they have honestly been amazing and I love this desk so much and just every step of the way has been so amazing for this desk so I cannot recommend this enough if you've ever thought about getting a standing desk especially since so many of us are like working from home now or working remotely I think it's such a beneficial thing to have so go check out the website down below and make sure you use the code for 50 pounds off 50 pounds is a lot of money my life is revolution it's from now on now that I have a standing desk I actually can't believe it isn't it crazy I'm so happy okay so let's talk about all the reading statistics for this month so I read a total of 12 books this month which is pretty high I usually read I think between like now that I'm not a uni between 11 and 13 books a month so pretty much average for me I read a total of 4,072 pages which is my highest page total count which I'm so happy with oh my god Jesus Christ that is an average of 131 pages per day and 339 pages per book my average rating was 3.625 which is kind of like on the lower end of my average ratings I've had like some books I really really enjoyed like some five stars this month that I feel like are some of my favorite five stars of the year but also some not so good books and some very disappointing books and some books that I don't want to talk about she's not gonna go there okay more in depth on the ratings I had three five stars two four stars three three point five stars two three stars and two two stars so that's why it's a little bit on the lower end in terms of genre I read one classic one fantasy one historical three horror four mystery one poetry and one romance so a good mix of genres but I love mystery see primacy I just love to see it I just love to see it in terms of age range I read eight adult and four YA in terms of where I acquired the books one was from a book of the month five were books had been gifted to me five were books I previously owned and one was sent to me by the publisher in terms of series seven were part of a series and five or not that's series I just didn't want to talk about series anymore series just need to get out like series I'm done I'm done at this point I'm done I'm not talking about series anymore I'm done in terms of author race three were black authors one was an indigenous author seven were white authors and one authors race was unknown so I didn't want to like I never want to prescribe or guess someone's race and then in terms of author status five were debuts three were authors I read before and four were new to me so a lot more debuts this month okay so that is all of my reading statistics now these videos are usually too long every fucking month every fucking month every fucking month without fail I say oh I'm gonna keep this bit quick because you've heard me speak about all these books before I'm really gonna try and do it sure Jan I say it every month I say every month I'm really gonna try and do it I'm gonna do it the first book I read this month was a song of race and ruin by Roseanne a brown I gave this four stars and this was in my book to rewind video where I read books that have been popular a year ago and I didn't really enjoy this it's a great kind of african inspired fantasy we've got two characters who have kind of got like a romance going on throughout the book or like a will they weren't they kind of situation but they also both want to kill each other not because they don't like each other but they both want to use each other to achieve something that's very important to them and they have to kill the other one to do that I cannot remember a lot of what I thought about this book gonna be quite honest but I enjoyed the writing it's a fun fantasy do you know what I mean it's just like a well paced YA fantasy I feel like I've had a lot of trouble with YA fantasy we haven't been on the best terms I don't know her but this one I really really enjoyed and I'm very excited to read the second in the geology at some point because I think it's just coming out then I reread one of my favorite books of all time if not the favorite book of all time well the strange case of the alchemist order by Theodor August I say well because I often say the second in this series is my favorite in the series so this can't be my favorite book of all time but hey ho I reread this with my patrons for our Patreon book club usually they vote on around a tbr clue to pick what book we're gonna read but the first month just because timing couldn't do that so I got to vote on one of my favorites which are my favorites we should reread and this was chosen and I cannot tell you what an amazing reading experience this was like I just had the best time I loved rereading this I fell in love with it even more I was so worried because I feel like sometimes with rereading your favorite book it's risky that's a fucking risky game it's why I don't do it that often because you could hate it or not hate it but it could not have that magic that you fell in love with in the first time and this still did the way that this mystery is plotted but even more so that the relationship between these girls I'm not even gonna give you a plot breakdown of this book because you don't need it like if you're here watching this video surely you've heard me speak about this about 20 times this bitch here she go again but yeah these girls this girl gang falling in love with each other in the most familial wonderful way the mystery with Sherlock Watson the way it's just like the best book ever written Theodore Goss I need 10 more I just need more books these girls I'm very worried we're never gonna get it and listen let it be known I'll say it again Theodore Goss said she'd be up for it we just need someone to buy it I need to win the lottery make my own publishing house and all I'm gonna all I'm gonna commission is Theodore Goss to write more of this series okay so then I did a reading vlog where I read like Buffy the Vampire say I speaky queen for a week I read books that she has read first I read Death of the Salesman by Arthur Miller I cannot remember a fucking nugget of information about this play I just can't I gave it two stars it's about this guy who like is depressed and he was a salesman like driving around everywhere to sell stuff it's about his relationship with his sons ladies if you don't have to read this book don't then I read if I can grab it um Hunting for Instructure by Kariot Maniskalko this was fun they're in this series we follow Audrey Rose and Thomas Cresswell as they solve these mysteries together and basically have a romance together and this should be my favorite thing right I love Victoria Victoria Queen Victoria herself I love no I love Victorian times in books I love historical fiction I love you know we get pictures throughout the book I have anything a bit mixed media we get pictures to like show us what's being spoken about me and the series should be together we should be dating but we're not because there's something about the writing I just don't vibe with being in Audrey Rose's head I find a bit too much she's too much she's too much and I just don't know if it's particularly well written oh my god tea central over here like this was a quick fun read like the plotting was good I thought that the characters were very interesting we had a much more interesting like wider cast of characters that Audrey got to know I thought that was really a step up from the first book so I think I gave the first one three stars and I gave this one 3.5 there's just something about the writing that I don't vibe with and I've said it a thousand times writing for me is the first port of call like if I don't vibe with the writing I find it very hard to get into the book but then I decided to read a romance as Buffy is a hopeless romantic and I read the Love High Brothers by Ellie Hazelwood and this for me was the biggest surprise of the month I gave this five stars it is by far my favorite romance I've ever read so listen here's the stitch I know I'm not known as a romance gal but I can be if you serve me up something of this quality this is the kind of quality I need to be wowed and wooed and amazed by a romance we're following these two characters as they fake date to kind of both get something out of it you know for their career they both work in science and STEM in labs uh language dumb dumb and yeah they fake date to kind of particularly help her out but he is also getting some like career benefits out of it but of course these aren't offering each other and it's grump and sunshine perfection the way uh I can't I can't he is a he's a man he is a man it is just excellent so well written you just fly through it I cried I fucking cried at a romance I cried tears streaming down my face it's amazing if you like romance at all even slightly from a dip your toe this is where you need to start it was so good I'm so good I picked this up because I so could have easily not because I'm not a big romance reader but I am so good I picked it up one of my favorite books of these days so far I just thought it was amazing then I read Egghead by Bo Burnham I cannot find this my room and my books are in a bit of disarray so I don't know where it's gone and I don't have many thoughts I think I give it three stars I love Bo Burnham Bo Burnham is my favorite comedian ever and I loved this poetry book when I was younger but I just don't think it aged particularly well you know I thought this was like God's gift sent to the earth when I was younger but reading it now I just felt differently I've got a whole in-depth one video review for this book so that's I'm gonna send you over there because I can't remember everything well enough and I have all my thoughts in that video for that book so we did not need to discuss it here because I've already discussed it to death then I read horror for a week since it was spooky season I read some horror books for a week and this one I don't want to fucking I don't want to talk about it either I don't want to talk about it don't want to talk about it I read White Smoke by Tiffany D Jackson one of if not the like most anticipated release of this year so far I just loved the premise we have this family move into this new house and it's haunted and it's scary and crazy and I was just so excited it didn't do it for me it didn't do it for me I think in terms of my enjoyment this was a 2.5 but I gave it a 3 because part of me just wasn't I don't think actually in the mood for horror when I was reading these horror books so I tried to you know reflect on that so yeah in this marigold our main character and her family have moved into this house and spooky ship unexplainable shit starts happening in her house there's a lot of interesting discussions in here on weed and the policing of weed and how that affects whole communities on policing in general on anxiety on gentrification there was a lot of important conversations to be had in this book I thought it did that well but I was just a bit bored I was just bored and also the ending was disappointing for me if this had had an amazing ending where I was like whoa where I was like shirk and like in a good way this could have you know bumped itself up to like a 3.5 like it generally could have done but the ending was so disappointing and so like girl is that it it's not for main park I feel terribly ill all of a sudden and then I read The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones being slightly removed from this book I I don't feel qualified to talk about it because it felt like a fever dream this book is like slasher intense strange horror and like even being a couple weeks removed from reading it I'm like I am gonna fuck up talking about this because it just in my head so much is jumbled and the things I want to talk about but this book got always spoilers so like we are following these four guys who killed a group of elk years and years ago and now nature is coming back to punish them essentially I think this book did a wonderful job of incorporating indigenous culture into it it's so steeped in indigenous culture and as someone who has never really read a book like this before I feel like I learned so much while also being fucking scared there's some perspective in this the okay not spoiling anything but there's some perspective on this that killed me like that were my favorite part of reading this I gave us a 3.5 because I had if you watch the vlog I had like a very up and down reading experience with it we went through we went through it we went through it together but um yeah I would really really recommend it and quickly I read three murder mystery books for weeks murder mystery is my favorite genre so every time around this year I have a week where I just read murder mysteries because otherwise I find it hard to read them and to fit them into reading vlogs so we're just going through this really quick because again there's a whole vlog in it I read dead dead girls by Nikesia afia I gave this four stars I thought this was such a fun debut we're following this young girl who has to work with the police to solve these murders that are happening in Harlem where young black girls are going missing and then being murdered and she has to help the police try and figure out what's going on I thought this was so well written I thought it was so vividly the 1920s New York like I felt like that image was conjured up so so well I loved her main character I thought she was like so headstrong I was like bitch fucking get it whenever anything happened like I just loved her and I feel like you really connected to her as a main character and I would really really recommend it I thought it was such a strong debut I am so excited to read more in the series I would say the it lost me a little bit at the end the ending pacing was off like it dragged out dragged out and then fucking everything happened in two seconds so that was the one thing that kept me from like rating it at five stars but I did really enjoy it then one of my favorite facts this year so far I've read was the Thursday murder club by Richard Osmond this was so good it's about four friends who have a Thursday murder club at their retirement home where they go through cold cases and try and solve these murders but then a murder happens on their doorstep and it was so good it was so funny it was so well plotted like they were oh my god there was so many twists and turns in this mystery I was owing I was on I was wincing I was LOLing quite heartily like I love it when a mystery really up into the last moment purposely makes me think something makes me think something and I'm and it's something I don't want to happen I see they go no come on no no no no like you think you've solved it but you don't want that to be the case and then it switches on your bitch it switches on yeah I loved this it was so funny it was so amazing to read about elderly characters solving these murder mysteries and just having the most fun and I would just so highly recommend this it was one of the best books I've read so far this year the writing was incredible it was just one of the most enjoyable reads ever like I read it all in one evening I was just so engrossed with it I cannot wait to read the second one you guys this was so fucking good if you have any like slight interest in reading this book go read it 5th vlog and this is the last book I'm going to talk about because I did read another book in this month but I don't want to talk about it yet I don't want to spoil anything um so I will speak about that next month but I also read marion lane in the midnight murder one of my most and again a fucking get a fucking again again a fucking game one of my most anticipated releases of this year I actually can't open my eyes it was two stars it was too it wasn't good this is like a locked room murder mystery it's set in 1950s London where there's this kind of like detective agency underground but it's also magical and a locked room mystery takes place and that's what I'm gonna say she tries to solve it the mystery was not interesting the pacing was off it didn't feel like there's a lot of depth to the story that wasn't a lot actually happening I didn't feel like it was 1950s like the only thing that made it for like 1950s was that she was her grandma was determined to marry her off and there was a lot of discussion about how women had to be married that was the only 1950s kind of vibe everything else felt modern I didn't enjoy the writing personally personally personally didn't enjoy the writing he was just so sad I had to force myself through this book I should have probably just DNF'd it but I loved this cover so much that I just kept holding out hope I just kept fucking hoping that something was gonna happen and then nothing did so there we have it that is all of the books that I read this month I think I had a pretty good reading month like the love hypothesis and the thursday murder club I would say are some of my favorite books I have read so far this year and so I feel like they were like top top five stars which is really great I just really enjoyed my reading this month although we had a few ups and downs I feel like I had a good reading month let me know what some of the books you read in october were some of your favorite some of your least favorites you read in october I would love to know if you've gone to the end of this video comment a clock emoji comment a clock emoji if you've gone to the end of this video don't forget to go check out the link to sit stand down below don't forget to go check out the coupon code down below I would highly recommend that and I'll see you all soon in another video bye