Happy Halloween, everyone! I had an excellent reading month this October. Rather than stick to mostly fantasy, I read more outside of my preferred genre and had a lovely time doing so. I even felt like I enjoyed my selection more than usual, if my average StoryGraph rating has anything to say about that this month! Anyway, I present my October 2025 book blog wrap-up, which contains links to the reviews I posted this month as well as a summary of my reading and other life tidbits.

Book Reviews

I posted four book reviews in October. From earliest to latest they are:

• Get It Out by Andrea Becker
• A Fae In Finance by Juliet Brooks
• Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
• The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill by Rowenna Miller

Blog Statistics

Every month I share some statistics from Google Analytics because I think it helps put expectations into perspective for other micro-bloggers like me who are out there. These statistics are from Google Analytics 4.

My top five posts for total page views are (as of the evening of October 30):

1. October 2025 Book Releases: 1,685 views
2. Arthurian Retellings Reading List: 555 views
3. Book Review: Gild by Raven Kennedy: 271 views
4. STEMinist Romance Books: 261 views
5. Book Review: Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer Armentrout: 212 views

This month’s views (~8,200) are higher than those of September. Honestly, if it hadn’t been for my October 2025 book releases post doing so well, October and September would’ve had more equal views. That posted boosted my views by basically 1,600 views. I also gained four more blog followers and now sit at 264. Welcome, newcomers!

#BeattheBacklog

I finished 9 books that I had on my TBR prior to 2025. The list is essentially most of what I read this month!! Those books are THE ASSASSIN’S BLADE by Sarah J. Maas, THE VEGETARIAN by Han Kang, THE FAIRY BARGAINS OF PROSPECT HILL by Rowenna Miller, HOW HIGH WE GO IN THE DARK by Sequoia Nagamatsu, THE ROMMATE RISK by Talia Hibbert, SHARK HEART by Emily Habeck, THE THORNS REMAIN by JJA Harwood, EVEN THOUGH I KNEW THE END by C.L. Polk, and THE LAND OF THE LIVING AND THE DEAD by Shauna Lawless.

Other Bookish Items

I finished 11 books in October:

• THE ASSASSIN’S BLADE by Sarah J. Maas
• THE VEGETARIAN by Han Kang (audiobook)
• THE FAIRY BARGAINS OF PROSPECT HILL by Rowenna Miller (ARC)
• HOW HIGH WE GO IN THE DARK by Sequoia Nagamatsu
• THE ROOMMATE RISK by Talia Hibbert
• SHARK HEART by Emily Habeck
• THE THORNS REMAIN by J.J.A. Harwood
• POETS SQUARE by Courtney Gustafson
• EVEN THOUGH I KNEW THE END by C.L. Polk (audiobook)
• MARCH FORWARD, GIRL: FROM YOUNG WARRIOR TO LITTLE ROCK NINE by Melba Patillo Beals (audiobook)
• FEMALE FANTASY by Iman Hariri-Kia

I’m super happy with how much I read in October. I was basically able to read this much because we went to South Korea for 2.5 weeks. And during that time the first half of the trip was pretty rainy, so I got some good reading in. I’ve also been trying to focus on books over 300 pages and I did pretty well on that front, too.

While in South Korea I only popped into one bookshop just to see what it looked like. I didn’t really go out of my way to find bookstores simply because I am illiterate there. And the chance there’d be an English section was understandably super slim. (Frankly, I was surprised to find an all-English bookstore in Paris called Shakespeare & Company.) The airport was a different story, though, and I purchased one book there (THE RAINFALL MARKET by You Yeong-Gwang).

I sold about a dozen books to my local used bookstore. I listed them on Pangobooks, but they hadn’t moved in months. Or there were dozens of listings for the same book, so the chance my copy would sell was slim.

Other Media Wrap-Up

Despite the long plane rides to and from South Korea, I only watched three movies.

Flow: This movie was great! Honestly, as a cat and animal lover it stressed me out a little. But it all worked out in the end. I can see why this movie did so well and won an Academy Award.

Little Women: I watched Greta Gerwig’s movie adaptation of this book. I was confused about the order of events until I realized it’s from Jo’s present-day POV with flashbacks to the past. It was fine. But I like the 1990s adaptation better. It felt like it had more heart. However, I did like that Gerwig’s version voiced why marriage was so important to women back then (ie, they have to rely on their husbands for all financial worth and can’t work, etc.).

Practical Magic: I fully admit I’d never seen this movie before. Now I recognize that one of its theme songs is frequently used in Instagram reels. Anyway, I liked this movie. It had glaring unanswered plot points at the end. But I liked how it highlighted the bonds between sisters and women.

Non-Bookish Items

As I mentioned earlier, we went to South Korea for 2.5 weeks in October. It was fun, but by the end I was ready to come home. We visited Seoul, Sokcho (to go to Seoraksan National Park), Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongju. It was super rainy for the first half of our trip, which was unusual weather at that time of year. So we didn’t do the viewpoint hikes we wanted to do in the park because we couldn’t see anything. We did valley hikes instead, with umbrellas. The silver lining is the rivers were full and the waterfalls that we could see were flowing really well.

While we were away basically none of the root vegetable seeds I planted germinated. So I resowed them last weekend; I hope they’ll pop up this late in the growing season. The napa cabbage I germinated are doing well, at least. Hopefully they’ll make it to a full size cabbage before a hard freeze, but I’m not holding my breath since cruciferous vegetables are not ones I grow well. Tomatoes and peppers are still going, albeit much slower since it’s barely getting above 60F here these days.

I also planted 30 more daffodil bulbs (3 different varietals) in our side garden. I can see that side plot from our kitchen window and it’s always so nice and cheery to see the spring bulbs pop up over there from where I stand inside. Our saffron crocus greens popped up while we were away, so I can’t tell if they’ve already bloomed (and we missed picking the saffron) or not.

And that’s it for my October 2025 book blog wrap-up. How did your reading go in October?