Reading Challenge Series: October

It has been nearly a whole month since I started the reading challenge in September. After seeing the numerous book challenges on social media, I had decided to start one of my own, which consisted of choosing a book, or suggesting a particular theme or genre, then using the entire month to read the book in question. The idea was to have everyone join in and complete the reading challenge series alongside me. This month, I will be updating everyone on the progress I have made so far, as well as choosing the next book that we are all reading in October.

If you want to go back and read the first and previous post of this reading challenge series, then click here, and do not worry if you were not able to join in last time; you can always start now with our next book for the month.

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Having decided to pick up an old favourite of mine was the best decision ever, as I could not bring myself to put the book down every time I started reading, even if it is my fifth time reading it! Glass Houses is a young adult urban fantasy filled with so much sarcasm and dead-pan humour, that I sometimes end up re-reading certain sentences or paragraphs just to appreciate the humour a little more.

The relationship between the four tenants of the Glass House is my absolute favourite development of most fictional novels that I have read. Not only do they all have the same sense of humour, as mentioned, they are all able to grow to understand each other and their differences, rather than all have similar personalities and interests, which becomes unrealistic.

The drama, the arguments, and the troubles that Claire, Shane, Eve and Michael come across is what makes the story more real, even if they are dealing with vampire trouble and not any other ‘normal’ problem. Although, sometimes we do see that humans of the town Morganville can also cause as many issues as vampires can, which demonstrates the fact that there is no good or bad between humans and vampires, there is a mixture of both within both communities.

If you decided to read Glass Houses along with me, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did. If you decided to go with last month’s theme of urban fantasy, then again, I hope it was well enjoyed and that you found something new to add to your bookshelf!

For next month, I have selected the book How to Stop Time by Matt Haig, which is a historical fantasy novel originally published in 2017, and re-published in 2019 by Penguin Books. The plot is as follows:

Tom Hazard is a high school history teacher who has just moved back to London. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but due to a rare condition, he has been alive for centuries. Tom was born in 1581 in France and has lived history alongside famous historical characters such as Shakespeare, Captain Cook, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life. As the story unfolds, Tom has to decide whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present, while constantly being under the supervision of the Albatross Society, the secretive group which claims to protect people like him.

If you would like to pick your own book instead, then the genre for you to look out for this October is historical fiction. Just as last month, find the book you would like to read and spend the rest of October trying to finish it with me. Try something new, or stick to your comfort zone, but either way enjoy the book and maybe even write your own short review of it once you are done!