Best Books of November

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she reads that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better at doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from November.

A Beginner’s Guide to Dying (Simon Boas): I don’t read a lot of nonfiction, but there was a book that kept popping up on “best of” lists, and when it came in at the library, I decided to check out the short audio book. I liked that this book started by pointing out that every single person on earth is a beginner in their own death. We never get to become an expert on our own dying because we only do it once. That quirky truth is a good example of what you’ll find in this lovely, helpful book: a bit of humour, a bit of profound knowledge, a bit of useful advice. It’s less a book about dying and more a book about living. I am so glad I read it.

The Secret Commonwealth (Philip Pullman): This was my first time reading this book as part of my massive re-read of His Dark Materials before the release of the final book. This is the rare series where each book gets progressively better with each book, and this book, the 9th in the series, is the best one yet.

Other People’s Houses (Clare Mackintosh): Mackintosh is one of my favourite writers, and I always enjoy spending time with Ffion. This was a great thriller, and I liked it as much as I liked the first book in the series. I hope she brings Ffion back for a fourth book (especially after that cliffhanger ending), though really looking forward to a standalone thriller from Mackintosh this spring.

The Queen Who Came in From the Cold (SJ Bennett): As always, SJ Bennett is an absolute treasure, and I hope she writes many many many more of these books. They’re fun, enlightening, clever. I love the note at the end over what was real, what was invented, and what was borrowed and twisted. Clever, clever, clever x 1000.

The Impossible Fortune (Richard Osman): It has gotten to the point where I should just give Osman books five stars from the get-go because they are always five stars. Even the acknowledgments page was five stars. I loved the twists in this book. That’s all I’ll say.

What did you read last month?