Aaand I’m back after my long hiatus!  Thank you for your patience.

First things first; confession time,  I reached exactly 0 words total on my NaNoWriMo project.  Sigh. My first challenge was that I was too engrossed in In the Afterlight the last in Alexandra Bracken’s Darkest Minds trilogy.  This was released just a day or so before NaNoWriMo, which was just mean!  I really couldn’t put the thing down.  I found this last instalment in Ruby and co’s story to be engrossing and wonderfully satisfying.  I probably won’t do a full review on it as it’s been a little while since I read it, but it got a five star rating from me on GoodReads.

Then in November things became unexpectedly crazy at work and I spent all day every day working my butt off to keep our support queue under some kind of control.  After that the last thing I felt like doing was coming home and writing.  It was much easier to delve into someone else’s world than to work on creating my own.  These are all, excuses, I  know, and I’m not proud of myself.  Maybe next year I’ll do better.

Other non-reading events in my November included starting the plans for the big trip I am taking with my husband next year.  As new Canadian citizens we get a one off 50% reduction in train travel with the Canadian rail company ViaRail through the Cultural Access Pass.  We are taking this fantastic opportunity to make the cross continental train trip from Vancouver in British Columbia back to our home in Montreal.  This is something we have talked about for many years, and this opportunity is too good to pass up. It promises to be an awesome trip.

On a less pleasant note, this month my hearing loss was confirmed and I am being fitted with hearing aids.  Yes, hearing loss sucks, but at least I live in a time and place where tech can help.  I’m blogging my hearing aid journey at thehearingaiddiaries.wordpress.com.  Check it out if you’re interested.  Fortunately my ability to enjoy audiobooks is not impacted and will only be enhanced by the hearing aids.

Other books I read in November included Tribulare by Anne Robillard which is the the seventh in her supernatural fantasy series A.N.G.E.  I must admit I found this particular volume a little depressing.  We’re clearly in the low point of the apocalyptic drama and it seems only bad stuff happened.  Our protagonists are also too caught up in their own personal dramas to be able to operate effectively.  Guys.  Come on.  If the end of the world is approaching and Satan is poised to take over, now is not really the time to indulge in your personal angst.

At the beginning of the month I was in a bit of a reading slump.  I tried my usual trick of browsing the first chapter of several books in my TBR list to see if any caught my attention.  It took quite a few attempts before I finally picked up Grave Mercy, the first in Robin LaFevers’ His Fair Assassin trilogy.  I was immediately hooked.  Within a few pages LaFevers had transported me to 15th Century Brittany with a kick ass protagonist.  I am now in the process of marathoning all three books in the series and will do a full series review when I’m done.

That’s all I have for you today.  Have a good weekend reading or whatever you’re doing and I’ll be back with more reviews soon.