Next Up - November Reading Is Shaping Up Already

 I've already managed to put a pretty good dent in my planned reading for October, and now November is starting to shape up. Some of the November books were not even on my radar just a couple of weeks ago, but I'm really starting to look forward to them:

I picked up this 450-page whopper just this morning at my library after wading through a long line of early-voters who were waiting to get inside. This is, of course, the second book in the DS. Alex Cupidi series, and it follows The Birdwatcher book that I reviewed a couple of days back. I especially like the cover of this one because it captures the Kentish setting so well - and I assume that's Cupidi in the foreground. This one is long, but the pages don't have that dense look to them, so it should go rather quickly. 

I've managed to get my hands on another review copy of the Akashic Books series of dark crime stories, and I'm impressed by the way it's organized. The stories were published between 1935 and 2006, so some of them are obviously more "classic" than others. The earliest of the stories are written by authors like Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Damon Runyon, Zora Neale Hurston, and they range from 4 to 38 pages in length. There are 19 stories in all. 

I'm not familiar with author Chris Whitaker, but this, his third novel, is already getting a lot of attention and it won't even be published until March 2021. One of the blurbs I saw about it (and I don't trust blurbs for lots of reasons) was so over the top that it called We Begin at the End "a West Coast Where the Crawdads Sing." Well, we'll see about that. I've actually read about 20 pages of this one already, and I found the writing to be a little bit "clunky." Looking forward, though, to getting deeper into it. I think this cover is a real eye-catcher - and that's exactly how I first spotted it.

I'm not at all sure what to think about this one. First, it is a fake book, and V.M. Straka, who is shown as the author, is actually a fictional character in the story. The book is made to look like it's a stolen library book, including all the library markings and card-pouches that libraries used to use. It is being used as a way of communication by two people who are simultaneously reading or re-reading the book and adding margin notes throughout, so it's like reading two novels at the same time. It even includes a special packet of "clues" to what's going on: postcards, newspaper clippings, photos, etc. that add to the whole illusion they are going for. I have a feeling that this is either going to be very, very good or very, very bad. At least I hope so, because I don't want to finish it with a shrug. I'd much rather love it - or abandon it early on. 

So there you have it. These are four I'm already looking forward to, and I expect there will be at least four others coming along shortly - including an audiobook version of Louise Penny's fourth Inspector Gamache novel, A Rule Against Murder (2008).