Wrap Up: November 2021

The weather has changed and winter is fully here in New York City. It’s COLD OUT and I’m not ready for it! As usual, November went far too quickly between me traveling to Charleston for YALLFest, then working AnimeNYC convention, and Thanksgiving – this month flew by!

I wrote a November TBR post – how did I do? I read 3 books on my TBR – which may not seem like a lot, but once again my TBR was short and I only read 6 books total this month so hey, I read 50% of the books on my TBR!

In November, I read 5 books total and DNF-ed 1 book. To be fair, I also read 60% of Empire of the Vampire – thats over 400 pages. The audiobook was due back to the library and I became busy so I put it aside but plan to pick it up again in December. I also read 75% through The Grimrose Girls but just couldn’t finish it before the end of November, so while this wasn’t my best month, I think I read more than I expected due to how busy I was.

1. Evil Thing: A Villains Graphic Novel– Graphic Novel – 3.5/5 ★★★☆☆

This is more intense than I expected – in a good way! Even when we all know how Cruella’s story is going to end, I always have such high hopes at the beginning of such origin stories. She’s just a young girl who is lonely and trying to make her mama proud of her. Maybe she’ll make different choices and the outcome will be different!

But alas, it never is. This is such a heartbreaking story, but such a well told origin story of Cruella. This one was longer than expected and took me longer to read, but that just shows how in-depth this is.

I really enjoyed this one and the artwork is fantastic! Loved the art and the coloring.

2. Poison Ivy: Thorns – Graphic Novel – 4/5 ★★★★☆ I can’t say I know a ton about Poison Ivy, but I really enjoyed this origin story! It’s short and bittersweet. The artwork was nice and easy to follow, as was the story. I read this one pretty quickly, as it doesn’t go too in-depth but its a nice starting point.

This is f/f because Ivy don’t need no man controlling her, she’s done with that!

I love Ivy, this is a great story to read.

Audiobook Review: ‘Maybe in Another Life’

3. Maybe in Another Life – Audiobook – 2.5/5 ★★★☆☆

I really loved the concept of this novel – how would your life change if you made one decision differently? Its a simply yet complex concept – maybe things would change, or maybe they wouldn’t.

It’s interesting to read the story from two different possibilities – that isn’t something I’ve seen before in a book. It took me a minute to catch onto to that’s what was happening, as I was listening to the audiobook and it wasn’t as obvious at the beginning. The story mainly follows Hannah, but you see the side stories with Gabby and Ethan’s lives play out too, to an extent.

Unfortunately this book just didn’t do it for me. It was fun in the moment, but ultimately forgettable – and thats how I felt about the other TJR contemporary I read, One True Loves. I can’t even begin to explain how happy I am I started my Taylor Jenkins Reid journey with Daisy Jones & The Six and the went to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Malibu Rising. Her historical fiction writing is top notch!

Audiobook Review: ‘Iron Widow’

4. Iron Widow – Audiobook – 4/5 ★★★★☆

If you grew up watching giant mecha robot fighting anime like I did, this book is meant for you! And if you didn’t, that’s ok too and this book is still meant for you! Everyone said this book was good and you know what? Everyone was right.

Besides the battle scenes, the thing I love most about this book is Zetian – she is morally gray and not afraid to die for her beliefs, but shes too valuable of an asset for the army to just kill her off – they need her strength. Gender is a social construct and this book heavily discusses that.

On top of that, this is both an enemies-to-lovers and childhood-friends-to-lovers story because its polyamorous! There is a triangle, but nobody has to pick a side – as mentioned in this book, the strongest shape is a triangle so why restrict yourself when it comes to love?

Audiobook Review: ‘Heard It in a Love Song’

5. Heard It in a Love Song – Audiobook – DNF @ 47%

Layla was in a popular band before she met her now ex-husband, Liam. She met him at a performance but once they got together and married, he stole her passion for music and she stopped performing. They are divorced when this story takes place and Layla is trying to reclaim her life.

This book is….fine. There is nothing wrong with it, but there was also no spark that made me really excited to read more or care about these characters. I generally tend to read young adult, but I’ve been venturing more into the adult genre, but this one just didn’t do it for me. It was very slow and, for lack of better word, boring.

There are too many books in the world to read so I decided to call it quits with this one.

6. Gender Queer – Graphic Novel – 5/5 ★★★★★

Gender Queer is a graphic novel I’ve been meaning to read for ages, and once I picked it up I couldn’t put it down. Maia’s memoir is compelling and intriguing – and difficult to read at times, but e tell’s such an important story about self discovery.

Gender Queer shows from childhood to adulthood in present time in Maia’s life and shows hardships e has went through as well.

The artwork was fun. Its hard for me to say this story was “good” because its a memoir – its Maia’s real life and I’m glad e decided to share with us. I hope others are able to see themselves or learn about other nonbinary and asexual people from this story.

Media:

Movies: I started off the month by seeing Eternals on release night, and I’m so glad I did! I wasn’t spoiled at all and it was an incredible Marvel movie. I love backstories and learning about the characters, I’m not here just for the action, so this was a perfect balance for me and I can’t wait to see these characters again.

I ended the month by seeing House of Gucci. I went into it really not knowing much about it, and I’ve found that seems to work for me these days. I like going in knowing as little as possible. I found it fascinating and now I want to research and learn more about the Gucci family and Patrizia. Lady Gaga was fantastic!! Wow. Just WOW. Really enjoyed this movie, would recommend!

Broadway: This was a slower Broadway month for me compared to last month – I saw 4 shows in November!

I won lottery tickets on November 17th to see Freestyle Love Supreme (again, yes) and as always, this show is incredibly fun! I went with a friend whom I haven’t seen in ages, so that was also lovely! You can see this nights ending performance here.

I won lottery again for Freestyle Love Supreme on November 26th for the 5pm show – Black Friday and a day I had off from work. You can see this nights ending performance here.

After the performance and dinner with a friend, we decided to see if any evening show had rush tickets available and ended up seeing Is This A Room – A true story, still unfolding. June 3, 2017. A 25-year-old former Air Force linguist named Reality Winner is surprised at her home by the FBI, interrogated, and then charged with leaking evidence of Russian interference in U.S elections. Reality remains in jail with a record-breaking sentence. Different from what I usually see but very interesting.

And last but not least – I saw Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in its new single part format! I was so happy to see this show again and experience a new cast and basically a show I knew, but reimagined. I think this version lacks the character development a 2 Part show afforded it, but it’s still magical and a fantastic show.

Concerts: November has been a long month, I almost forgot that I started off the month by seeing Andrew McMahon on November 3rd at Irving Plaza in NYC! I’m a long time Andrew fan and I never miss a chance to see him perform. I had just finished his memoir, Three Pianos, before this concert and asked him to sign my arc copy of the book and he did!

Events:

YALLFest: I’ve always wanted to go to YALLFest, and since the pandemic I haven’t taken a vacation in a while so I figured why the heck not, let me spend a few days sightseeing in Charleston and attending YALLFest! I was in Charleston November 10-15 which gave me plenty of time to see the historic city and attend YALLFest – I had soooo much fun! I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed myself so much.

I met so many amazing authors, got books signed, attended panels, and the Smackdown at the end of it was an event to be remembered. I met some bookish friends in real life for the first time and made some new friends! I don’t know how I made it home with all the books I purchased with just a carry on suitcase and backpack, but I did it. Would highly recommend attending if you get the chance – and the weather was truly perfect.

AnimeNYC: AnimeNYC is an anime convention that takes place annually in New York City – I attended the first year it started but have not gone since, and decided I would work as crew this year! I enjoyed working in the morning and spent the afternoon/evening in cosplay exploring the convention. It takes place at the Javits Center, the same place as New York Comic Con, but AnimeNYC is smaller and uses less of the convention center. Still, it was nice to be familiar with the building!

Side note, I’ve started a cosplay instagram if anyone is interested in that, I’d appreciate any follows! (New page, who dis.) https://www.instagram.com/missykittycosplay/

How was your month? Do anything fun?
Read or watch anything you highly recommend?

Let me know!



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