November 2023 Wrap Up

Guys, where did November go? I guess it’s time for my November 2023 wrap up.

Letter to My Daughter

Synopsis:

Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter transcends genres and categories: guidebook, memoir, poetry, and pure delight. Here in short spellbinding essays are glimpses of the tumultuous life that led Angelou to an exalted place in American letters and taught her lessons in compassion and fortitude: how she was brought up by her indomitable grandmother in segregated Arkansas, taken in at thirteen by her more worldly and less religious mother, and grew to be an awkward, six-foot-tall teenager whose first experience of loveless sex paradoxically left her with her greatest gift, a son.

Whether she is recalling such lost friends as Coretta Scott King and Ossie Davis, extolling honesty, decrying vulgarity, explaining why becoming a Christian is a “lifelong endeavor,” or simply singing the praises of a meal of red rice-Maya Angelou writes from the heart to millions of women she considers her extended family. Like the rest of her remarkable work, Letter to My Daughter entertains and teaches; it is a book to cherish, savor, re-read, and share.

My Rating: 5/5

My Full Thoughts: This was a great way to start out a new month. I absolutely love Maya Angelou’s writing and this book was one of the best I’ve read from her. She just packed it full of wisdom.

All Hallows

Synopsis:

It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unraveling. Up and down the street, horrifying secrets are being revealed, and all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. They seem terrified, and beg the neighborhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man. There’s a small clearing in the woods now that was never there before, and a blackthorn tree that doesn’t belong at all. These odd children claim that The Cunning Man is coming for them…and they want the local kids to protect them. But with families falling apart and the neighborhood splintered by bitterness, who will save the children of Parmenter Road?

My Rating: 3/5

My Full Review: https://wildwoodreads.com/2023/11/08/all-hallows-review/

Hallelujah! The Welcome Table

Synopsis:

 Angelou tells us about the time she was expelled from school for being afraid to speak–and her mother baked a delicious maple cake to brighten her spirits. She gives us her recipe for short ribs along with a story about a job she had as a cook at a Creole restaurant (never mind that she didn’t know how to cook and had no idea what Creole food might entail). There was the time in London when she attended a wretched dinner party full of wretched people; but all wasn’t lost–she did experience her initial taste of a savory onion tart.

She recounts her very first night in her new home in Sonoma, California, when she invited M. F. K. Fisher over for cassoulet, and the evening Deca Mitford roasted a chicken when she was beyond tipsy–and created Chicken Drunkard Style. And then there was the hearty brunch Angelou made for a homesick Southerner, a meal that earned her both a job offer and a prophetic compliment: “If you can write half as good as you can cook, you are going to be famous.”

My Rating: 5/5

My Full Review: This book combines Maya Angelou’s wit and writing with her love of food. I absolutely loved listening to this on audiobook, but I’d love to get my hands on a physical copy to see all of the recipes.

100 Days to Brave

Synopsis:

You were always meant to be brave. Whether you’re coping with loss, making a major decision, or facing a fear, 100 Days to Brave will give you courage and confidence to move forward. With honesty and relatable humor, New York Times bestselling author Annie F. Downs invites you to embrace the path and plan God has for you. Stop allowing your fears to hold you back. Face them head on with 100 Days to Brave as your devotional guide to walking the road to your most courageous self.

My Rating: 5/5

My Full Review: Like I mentioned in one of my 2023 End of the Year Goals, I’m writing a devotional. So, to write the best devotional that I can I’ve been consuming an unusual amount of them. This is the best yet. It’s rooted in the scripture and the important thing is that it is totally relatable. I really enjoyed my time with this one.

The Red Sea Rules

Synopsis:

Life is hard, especially for Christians. It is certain that we will face difficulties and that God will allow them. But just as certain is the fact that the same God who led us in will lead us out. As The Red Sea Rules makes comfortingly clear, He is in control.

Using the Israelites’ story in Exodus 14 as an example, Robert Morgan offers ten sound strategies for moving from fear to faith. Just as Moses and the Israelites became trapped between Pharaoh’s rushing armies and the uncrossable Red Sea, so are we sometimes overwhelmed by life’s problems.

In The Red Sea Rules, readers will learn strategies to:

• Realize that God means for you to be where you are
• Acknowledge your enemy, but keep your eyes on the Lord
• Stay calm and confident, and give God time to work
• View your current crisis as a faith builder for the future

The Red Sea Rules reveals that even in the midst of seemingly impossible situations, God promises to make a way for us. His loving guidance will protect us through danger, illness, marital strife, financial problems, or whatever challenges Satan places in our path.

My Rating: 4/5

My Full Review: I remember enjoying this when I read it. Obviously, I did because I rated it a four out of five on Goodreads. But right now, I couldn’t tell you what it was about. I don’t really think that was the book’s fault so take that with a grain of salt.

What I Talk about When I Talk About Running

Synopsis:

While training for the New York City Marathon, Haruki Murakami decided to keep a journal of his progress. The result is a memoir about his intertwined obsessions with running and writing, full of vivid recollections and insights, including the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer. By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, here is a rich and revelatory work that elevates the human need for motion to an art form.

My Rating: 3/5

My Full Thoughts: I liked this. It was fun to listen to, but it wasn’t Earth shaking by any means.

Get Out of Your Own Way

Synopsis:

My Rating: 5/5

My Full Thoughts: As a self-growth genre newbie/skeptic this was perfect for me.

I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor

Synopsis:

70 years later, the bombing of Pearl Harbor comes to life for a new generation of readers History’s most terrifying moments are brought vividly to life in the action-packed fictional I SURVIVED series Do you have what it takes to survive … the bombing of Pearl Harbor?Eleven-year-old Danny Crane is alone on his favorite beach in Hawaii when the world is torn apart and World War II officially hits the United States. Does he have what it takes to find his way home in the midst of the bombs, the smoke, and the destruction of the day that will live in infamy?

My Rating: 4/5

My Full Review: This was still good, but it didn’t go into as much detail as some of the other ones in the I Survived series. But it was still enjoyable.

Ghost

Synopsis:

Ghost. Lu. Patina. Sunny. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team–a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics if they can get their acts together. They all have a lot to lose, but they also have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves.

Running. That’s all Ghost (real name Castle Cranshaw) has ever known. But Ghost has been running for the wrong reasons–it all started with running away from his father, who, when Ghost was a very little boy, chased him and his mother through their apartment, then down the street, with a loaded gun, aiming to kill. Since then, Ghost has been the one causing problems–and running away from them–until he meets Coach, an ex-Olympic Medalist who sees something in Ghost: crazy natural talent. If Ghost can stay on track, literally and figuratively, he could be the best sprinter in the city. Can Ghost harness his raw talent for speed, or will his past finally catch up to him?

My Rating: 5/5

My Full Review: This was excellent. It packed a lot of really good life lessons into such a fun story. I can’t wait to read more from Jason Reynolds. I know they’re young adult books, but they will stop you in your tracks and make you think about life.

Warbreaker

Synopsis:

In the world of Warbreaker, each person is born endowed with the power of one Breath–which can be sold and collected by others, then used to Awaken objects and even corpses to do their bidding. A few individuals who die in glory return as gods, with the power of thousands of Breath, but no memory of their mortal lives–and are enthroned in the Court of Gods in Hallandren’s capital. To Vivenna and Siri, princesses of Idris, the abuse of Breath and the claim of the Returned to be gods are repugnant blasphemy.

But with one princess wed to the God King of their nation’s enemies in a bid for peace, the other finds she must rely on Breath-using mercenaries to try to rescue her sister from her monstrous husband. Lightsong the Bold, a lesser god who doubts his own religion, starts investigating mysterious murders in the Court of Gods and uncovers haunting clues to his own forgotten past. He is one of four gods who controls the army of Awakened Lifeless soldiers, and one faction is inciting an invasion of Idris despite the marriage treaty. Vasher–wielder of the sapient sword Nightblood–works behind the scenes against the declaration of war, but Lightsong’s visions of bloodshed prophesy its inevitability. Can the new queen, unaware of her sister’s imminent rescue attempt, persuade Lightsong and also somehow get through to the aloof God King–who she has been forbidden to speak to or even look in the eyes–before her homeland is destroyed?

My Rating: 4/5

My Full Review: Coming Soon

So that’s my November 2023 wrap up. What did you read this month? Any new favorites?

Get $5.00 off your first Pangobooks order with code WILDWOODREADS

2nd & Charles: Get an extra 15% of any purchase of $35 or more only at 2ndandcharles.com