Hello friends, and hello November! I am just getting home from a trip to the library, and I snatched up some discounted Halloween candy along the way so I’m feeling excited to catch you up with some things including what I’m reading this month.

I didn’t do an “official” Reading Challenge for October, because by the time my Summer Reading Challenge was over, I had started a new job! Well, another job. I am now a Freelance Proofreader, which excites me so much I could type those two words a thousand times. But I won’t, because, monotony. Anyway, I have been getting myself into the groove of getting home from my day job and going straight back to work, so I haven’t had enough steam to power through thoughtful blog posts afterwards. But the beginning of a new month and that trip to the library has given me a boost of motivation.

First, I can’t wait to discuss The Fireman. I finished it on Sunday and declare it a must read! I don’t particularly grab apocalyptic, frightening stories, but this novel was worth it. It’s like a more aggressive, complicated Station Eleven; just wonderful.

Second, I have a plethora of new-to-me books I acquired from a recent book sale at the library in my home town (check out my Instagram to see a visual). I was initially going to select a couple of those for my November Reading Challenge, but this current trip to the library that I keep bringing up led me astray. Inside the great establishment, I made up my mind to not check anything out, when I walked past a display with a theme of “darkness.” Since it is getting dark earlier and earlier (Daylight Saving Time is this weekend, after all), the wonderful librarians put together a group of books that all deal with some type of darkness. So I grabbed two.

The first is a novel by Haruki Murakami. After Dark is a novel that “moves from mesmerizing drama to metaphysical speculation, interweaving time and space as well as memory and perspective into a seamless exploration of human agency.”

The second, Amanda Coe’s debut novel What They Do In The Dark, is “about the pain, joy, and occasional beauty of childhood…” Book summaries are always thrilling to read – I hope they do their subjects justice. I am setting out to read them simultaneously, but depending on how deep each dig into darkness, I may end up reading them one after the other. I am also reading To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, but as I’m finding it difficult to start I don’t want to make it part of my “official” Challenge.

What are you reading this month? This week? Tonight? Oh, I can’t believe I almost forgot this: Happy NaNoWriMo everyone! Are you participating? Talk to me in the comments, on Twitter, or contact me here. Happy reading and writing!