Month in Review for November... Christmastime Already???

It seems like yesterday I had my jack-o-lantern attacked by savage neighborhood squirrels, but apparently a month has already gone by since then. As you can see, I've already put up my tree and am sprinkling Christmas throughout the house. Christmas season also means I'll be occupied with baking things most people can't pronounce: krumkake, hopefully some lefse, and maybe some finska kakor, if I'm lucky. The easier to pronounce favorites include: Christmas Thumbprints, Norwegian Kringle, and Chocolate Pinwheels, in addition to the classic cutout cookies. I have food fully on my mind this time of the year, having been raised in an environment where it isn't Christmas without a tableful of Norwegian-ish specialties packed with butter, eggs, cardamom, almond extract, and lots of sugar.

Statistics:
 Total Posts: 18
  Total Critiques: 10
  Genres:
    Dystopia: 1
    Fairy Tale Retellings: 1
    Fantasy: 2
    Historical: 2
    Out of Orbit: 1
    Paranormal Romance: 1
    Sci-Fi: 1
    Urban Fantasy: 2

Most Popular Posts of November:
SFF: The 5 Books You're Most Grateful For (2014)
"The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield
Feelin' Crafty: the-pile TBR Jar Project
"The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1)" by Suzanne Collins
"Trinity (The Koldun Code #1)" by Sophie Masson
Confessions: Staying Safe on the Wild Wild Web

Pageviews for the Month: 630
Comments: 6

Blog Schedule and Features: Critiques on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. On Sundays, I rotate between the Sunday Fun Five, and Confessions of an Insomniac Book Devourer (or Not Quite a Confession).

The TBR Lottery for December

Since I didn't manage to read either book I drew last time (although I'm halfway through Legacy, and both I drew were 500+ pages), I'm only going to draw one book in hopes I'll catch up. This month, I did a blind draw (not picking any specific genre based on color), and picked out:

Possibly the smallest print ever. This will take me forever to read.

Nonfiction/History
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson (447 pages, 3.97 star average on Goodreads)
Basic Plot (From Goodreads): 'Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that 'The Devil in the White City' is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor.'

I find it highly ironic that I manage to draw some of the bigger books in my pile first, but then again, I have always loved larger books and therefore acquired them ceaselessly for my pile.

Upcoming Reviews

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
I've been reading short and sweet classics lately, to up my numbers in Goodreads's 2014 Reading Challenge. I was kind of impressed at how easily readable this one was, as contrasted with my attempts to read Wells's The War of the Worlds (which I never finished).
Genres: Classics, Action/Adventure, Sci-fi, Horror, Historical

The Inheritance by Louisa May Alcott
This is an interesting book, because it was written when Alcott (author of the famed Little Women) was only 17. It was never intended to be published, but eventually was posthumously, Considering those facts, I found it pretty good, if a little melodramatic.
Genres: Classics, Historical, Romance

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
I read this as a teen because of its pretty cover. One of my first dystopias, How I Live Now details the adventures of a fifteen year old girl who lives in the countryside in England when war breaks out and power systems fail.
Genres: Dystopia, Sci-fi, Action/Adventure, Young Adult, Romance