Hey ya'll,
Hope you had a good October. I'm coming at ya a bit late given it's halfway through November, but better late than never. Stay tuned for Novembers recap at beginning of December, I'm 11 books in so far and it's the best reading month of my entire life. Stoked to talk about it when the time comes.
Here we go... books completed in October...
(These aren't in depth reviews, those will be on Substack when I get around to that... here we have more of an informal vibe)
Eavesdropper - Elliot Wolf
(2/5)
Not a ton to say here. Not bad, but not great. I also don't really remember it very well because it blurred together with the next one - another Audible Original.
The Commuter - James Patterson
(3/5)
This is one of those Audible Original thriller "audio experiences". I enjoyed it. Does what it says: thrills ya. Nothing mind-blowing. Felt like a great B-movie.
I can attest that almost any Audible original is solid. They are all world-class production, and at WORST a 3/5 in my opinion. I also loved TEMPORAL which is another Audible original I listened to in Q4 2024. That one is 4.5/5 - SO fun and amazing. Go listen to that one ASAP.
Mobius - Brandon Morris
(1.5/5)
The first third was decent, but then it got so ridiculous. I remember hearing the dialogue thinking it was the most absurd things people could possibly say. Not "childish", just dumb. Factually. The concept is interesting, I guess... the protag is a professor which I dig... but that's it?
Not enough for me.
For We Are Many - Dennis Taylor - Bobiverse Book 2
4.75/5
The Bobiverse series is a 5/5 series for me, and it is something I discovered this year so I've been tearing through the audiobooks. I also bought the first book in hardcover for Christmas gifts this year, for some family members who like Sci-Fi.
It's giving "what a project manager with unlimited resources would do if he was working at a galactic scale in space". It feels so much like that, and I can't express enough how enjoyable it is to read that.
The third one's recap will come in November recap, and the third one was a 5/5 (along with the first one).
If you're one of the few people who haven't started the Bobiverse books, do me a personal favor and go start it right now...
A Novel Proposal - Denise Hunter
3.9/5
(I thought the author was Emily Henry up until the day we finished the book... 😂)
Anyway, this was my first ever contemporary romance book, and it was a Buddy Read with my wife. We did it on Audible in the car anytime we had to drive somewhere. It took us a few months to finish because how busy our schedules are and how rarely we are in the same car... but I legit loved this thing. I enjoyed it so much.
I also got a big download on "why people love romance books". It makes sense now. There's this idealization we get, and an aspect of "what would this person say if he was the most socially intelligent person in the room", which is therapeutic tbh.
I dug it, and I'm already scouring Kindle Unlimited for my next Denise Hunter book.
Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
4.5/5
I started this on Audible about 3 months ago, and about half way through I paused it. Not sure why, it just wasn't clicking for me - there's some slow down in the middle - maybe that's why. But in October I forced myself to finish it, and I'm SO glad I did. The ending was beyond great. Yes, I did in fact tear up hearing how he gets to perform his passion for teaching... again... in a *cough* unique way (no spoilers).
God I love this book. HE WENT BACK TO SAVE HIM (no spoilers), but I was like yelling at my phone for him to go back... I'm so glad he did. Ugh. My heart still is happy about this.
I get why it has so much hype.
The Mist - Stephen King
2/5
I listened to this in a single day on Libby, and I didn't really like it. It was okay, just not great.
I'm new to Stephen King, this may be the first book I've ever done of his... but I'm not letting this taint my view of him. I'm currently reading 11/22/63 and LOVING the f**k out of it. So I get why people love him.
The Final Empire - Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn Book 1
5/5
My entire life I felt like "I should be into fantasy", but I've never really gotten into it.
I decided I needed to change that in October. I researched for ~10 hours on the perfect "first fantasy book" for me and my personality. I kept getting Mistborn as the answer (among MANY other reccs which are on my TBR: Jade City, Farseer Trilogy, Red Rising, Will of the Many, etc etc)..
So anyway, I took the dive, and I was blown away... I became obsessed. It took a few hours of reading for it to "hit" me, but when it did I told myself "I'm a fantasy reader now".
The thing is, NOBODY EVER TOLD ME that Fantasy has these fight scenes that rival any movie ever made. Like, what? How TF did nobody tell me that, bc I'm a huge action movie guy. So, this just hit me in all the right ways. Book 2 I did last week for November recap, and I already started book 3.
Also, if you buy these books do yourself a favor and buy the White UK covers, thank me later.
This is a must read. Like seriously. Go get it, right now.
Run - Blake Crouch
3.5/5
I'm a huge fan of Crouch. Recursion, Dark Matter, Upgrade, and the others are just INSTANT classics in the techno-thriller genre. Because of that I'm trying to read all of his books. This one was more horror, but I loved it. It was extremely fast paced, to the point it is underselling it to say it's "fast paced". This thing like explodes off the start line, and never really slows down. I loved and visualized most of it and asked "what would I do in this situation?" a ton.
That's it. Not a ton... had a busy month. November is already surpassing October and I'm stoked to recap it.
Love,
Dain
Hope you had a good October. I'm coming at ya a bit late given it's halfway through November, but better late than never. Stay tuned for Novembers recap at beginning of December, I'm 11 books in so far and it's the best reading month of my entire life. Stoked to talk about it when the time comes.
Here we go... books completed in October...
(These aren't in depth reviews, those will be on Substack when I get around to that... here we have more of an informal vibe)
Eavesdropper - Elliot Wolf
(2/5)
Not a ton to say here. Not bad, but not great. I also don't really remember it very well because it blurred together with the next one - another Audible Original.
The Commuter - James Patterson
(3/5)
This is one of those Audible Original thriller "audio experiences". I enjoyed it. Does what it says: thrills ya. Nothing mind-blowing. Felt like a great B-movie.
I can attest that almost any Audible original is solid. They are all world-class production, and at WORST a 3/5 in my opinion. I also loved TEMPORAL which is another Audible original I listened to in Q4 2024. That one is 4.5/5 - SO fun and amazing. Go listen to that one ASAP.
Mobius - Brandon Morris
(1.5/5)
The first third was decent, but then it got so ridiculous. I remember hearing the dialogue thinking it was the most absurd things people could possibly say. Not "childish", just dumb. Factually. The concept is interesting, I guess... the protag is a professor which I dig... but that's it?
Not enough for me.
For We Are Many - Dennis Taylor - Bobiverse Book 2
4.75/5
The Bobiverse series is a 5/5 series for me, and it is something I discovered this year so I've been tearing through the audiobooks. I also bought the first book in hardcover for Christmas gifts this year, for some family members who like Sci-Fi.
It's giving "what a project manager with unlimited resources would do if he was working at a galactic scale in space". It feels so much like that, and I can't express enough how enjoyable it is to read that.
The third one's recap will come in November recap, and the third one was a 5/5 (along with the first one).
If you're one of the few people who haven't started the Bobiverse books, do me a personal favor and go start it right now...
A Novel Proposal - Denise Hunter
3.9/5
(I thought the author was Emily Henry up until the day we finished the book... 😂)
Anyway, this was my first ever contemporary romance book, and it was a Buddy Read with my wife. We did it on Audible in the car anytime we had to drive somewhere. It took us a few months to finish because how busy our schedules are and how rarely we are in the same car... but I legit loved this thing. I enjoyed it so much.
I also got a big download on "why people love romance books". It makes sense now. There's this idealization we get, and an aspect of "what would this person say if he was the most socially intelligent person in the room", which is therapeutic tbh.
I dug it, and I'm already scouring Kindle Unlimited for my next Denise Hunter book.
Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
4.5/5
I started this on Audible about 3 months ago, and about half way through I paused it. Not sure why, it just wasn't clicking for me - there's some slow down in the middle - maybe that's why. But in October I forced myself to finish it, and I'm SO glad I did. The ending was beyond great. Yes, I did in fact tear up hearing how he gets to perform his passion for teaching... again... in a *cough* unique way (no spoilers).
God I love this book. HE WENT BACK TO SAVE HIM (no spoilers), but I was like yelling at my phone for him to go back... I'm so glad he did. Ugh. My heart still is happy about this.
I get why it has so much hype.
The Mist - Stephen King
2/5
I listened to this in a single day on Libby, and I didn't really like it. It was okay, just not great.
I'm new to Stephen King, this may be the first book I've ever done of his... but I'm not letting this taint my view of him. I'm currently reading 11/22/63 and LOVING the f**k out of it. So I get why people love him.
The Final Empire - Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn Book 1
5/5
My entire life I felt like "I should be into fantasy", but I've never really gotten into it.
I decided I needed to change that in October. I researched for ~10 hours on the perfect "first fantasy book" for me and my personality. I kept getting Mistborn as the answer (among MANY other reccs which are on my TBR: Jade City, Farseer Trilogy, Red Rising, Will of the Many, etc etc)..
So anyway, I took the dive, and I was blown away... I became obsessed. It took a few hours of reading for it to "hit" me, but when it did I told myself "I'm a fantasy reader now".
The thing is, NOBODY EVER TOLD ME that Fantasy has these fight scenes that rival any movie ever made. Like, what? How TF did nobody tell me that, bc I'm a huge action movie guy. So, this just hit me in all the right ways. Book 2 I did last week for November recap, and I already started book 3.
Also, if you buy these books do yourself a favor and buy the White UK covers, thank me later.
This is a must read. Like seriously. Go get it, right now.
Run - Blake Crouch
3.5/5
I'm a huge fan of Crouch. Recursion, Dark Matter, Upgrade, and the others are just INSTANT classics in the techno-thriller genre. Because of that I'm trying to read all of his books. This one was more horror, but I loved it. It was extremely fast paced, to the point it is underselling it to say it's "fast paced". This thing like explodes off the start line, and never really slows down. I loved and visualized most of it and asked "what would I do in this situation?" a ton.
That's it. Not a ton... had a busy month. November is already surpassing October and I'm stoked to recap it.
Love,
Dain