Manic Monday: November

Manic Monday is a monthly wrap-up post at Doodle's Book Reviews that hilights the past month's book haul(s), books I read, and any big bookish events that took place. Feel free to leave a comment!

November was a nice, slow month in the Doodle's Book Reviews world. Other than those Holiday Happiness blitzes, I didn't have a lot going on. You would think this would mean that I could get a lot more reading done, but no. Between ACT prep classes (wHY SO MUCH MATH?), reviews, and Christmas shopping (I'm completely done, ayy) I read like... not much. 

But I did get to meet one of my internet friends, so I feel no remorse for my lack of reading. None at all. Not even a tiny bit. Even if I did have a total of 26 hours in the car to read. I was too excited to concentrate! But the meeting totally happened. I have proof. See below.

You know what it's like if you've ever met one of your close internet friends. If you haven't, then I truly hope you get that chance. I'll spare you the details, because those are for us to cherish, but it's safe to assume that the 12 hours we had together were crazy fun.

Okay, okay. Back to business.

Book Hauls

So, definitely not as ginormous as October's haul, but here it is. ACE OF CAKES, and DUFF BAKES-- books from Food Network's "Ace of Cakes" Executive Chef Duff Goldman, a tv personality and show I've been watching for a solid ten years--, as well as THE CHRONICLES OF HARRIS BURDICK, JUMANJI, and POLAR EXPRESS by Mr. Chris Van Allsburg. THE MITTEN by Jan Brett (a childhood favorite), and WILDFLOWER by Drew Barrymore. FORGET TOMORROW was given to me by Entangled Teen when I won one of their contests, and then the ARCS of HALO, HEAVEN, and PHOENIX were acquired via twitter in a #booksfortrade like scenario. And then there's the Penguin Classics edition of THE OUTSIDERS, my all time favorite novel and one of the only books I collect editions of.

Books I Read

I do not actually have a picture of all of these together, due to having given three of the four books back to their owner, but I'll still tell you what they were. The LEGEND trilogy by Marie Lu were the ones I gave back, and the other one that I read was ILLUMINAE (*Screams*).

Events

In November, I only had two bookish events, and they were as follows...

Duff Goldman, aforementioned Executive Chef of Charm City Cakes, true to form in a hockey jersey at his signing for his new cookbook, DUFF BAKES.

Mr. Chris Van Allsburg at the 30th Anniversary Edition signing of THE POLAR EXPRESS. Books of his that I also got signed include JUMANJI and THE CHRONICLES OF HARRIS BURDICK. They were sold out of my personal favorite, ZATHURA, by the time we got there, which is always a good thing for Mr. Van Allsburg.

That pretty much brings this November wrap-up to, well, a wrap. 

How were your Thanksgivings? I hope you ate until you fell asleep, and then woke up and ate some more.

Happily,

Stephanie