November CalendarCAT

Time to think about reading selections for November already, with only a short time to go until we welcome 2025! There are many November holidays all around the world. Here are some links that will give you lots of ideas to choose from!

https://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/november.htm
https://www.countryliving.com/life/a62456158/november-holidays-observances-full-...


Birthstone: Topaz and Citrine
Flower: Chrysanthemum
Zodiac: Scorpio

Post your suggestions as you will!

Remember to update the wiki https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2024_CalendarCAT

November is a big birthday month in our family. Both my husband and I have November birthdays as do my oldest nephew and his oldest daughter. I will probably read a book I get or have gotten for my birthday.

November is Native American Heritage Month and I am going to read Two Old Women by Velma Wallis.

I'm picking someone from this list of writers born in November.

Jacques Barzun collaborated with Wendell Hertig Taylor to write A Catalogue of Crime, so I might pick a crime classic that Jacques reviewed and recommended. There are 3475 entries, many of them covering more than one book, so there's plenty of choice. My battered 1971 copy is from the University of Detroit library.

I was going to read The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice for October (her birthday) but I may postpone it till November since the titular feast is on 1 November - or I may make it a bridge book for October/November.

Remembrance Day here in Canada, and I usually pick out a war book (try to do something from the perspective of soldiers). Haven't checked yet what I have on my tbr, but hopefully there will be something there.

I have set up the 2025 Category Challenge group here: https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/24518/2025-Category-Challenge. Feel free to stop by anytime, start suggesting CATs and KITs, and post your threads for the 2025 challenge!

(I'm posting this notification to a bunch of threads, so sorry if you see it multiple times!)

Since November is Veteran's Day in the US, I want to read Switchboard Soldiers by Jennifer Chiaverini about women serving in France in WWI.

If you haven't yet visited the 2025 Category Challenge group, come on over! CAT and KIT discussion is in progress, and we're going to start voting on Wednesday, November 6. So if you'd like to suggest a CAT or KIT for next year, check out the discussion and make your proposals here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/365087.

I'm posting this several places in the 2024 group, so my apologies if you see it a bunch of times!

I read Help, Thanks, Wow by Anne Lamott that fits with Thanksgiving this month

Remembrance Day

Thank You for Your Service / David Finkel
3 stars

The author is a journalist who followed soldiers as they returned home from wars in Iraq or Afghanistan to try to fit back into their previous lives with their families, but so many of them brought back psychological trauma, whether a traumatic brain injury (TBI) or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Some have become abusive and/or want to kill themselves. Some of them try to get treatment to varying degrees of success. The wives/girlfriends are also interviewed, and their husbands’/boyfriends’ issues take a toll on them, as well.

This is sad. It does jump around, sometimes without “warning” (that I noticed, anyway), which sometimes made it a bit harder to follow and to figure out who was who. Of course, the people the author focused the most on were easier to remember. It was tough to see how, not only are the soldiers, themselves, affected, but how their issues affect their families, as well.

The Darkest Evening by Ann Cleeves
Learning more about Vera and her estranged family makes this a terrific story for fans of Cleeves and her loveable sleuth, DI Vera Stanhope. I loved the people of Northumberland as well as the wintry atmospheric locale.

Although the Winter Solstice was mentioned at one point, the weather was very November-ish.

Another one for November CalendarCAT, this time for Remembrance Day, November 11.
The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan
I’ve read other books about the difficult history of Malaya (now Malaysia). Chan’s fictional story describes the tragic reality when the Japanese ousted the British after WWII. By trying to get on the good side of the new Japanese leader and the dream of Asia for Asians, Chan’s characters inadvertently helped make a bad situation worse. Warning: there is a lot of physical and sexual violence. A difficult story to read but one that should be told.

Today (Sunday, November 10) is the last day for voting on the 2025 CATs, so if you haven't voted yet, you can do so here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/365087. See message #73 and following. Again, cross-posting in many places, so sorry if you see this message multiple times.

wrongly placed post, never mind

I have finished The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, plus a few other short stories, by RL Stevenson who was born on 13 November.

I've just posted December's CalendarCAT here:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/365696

Starting Finished Business by David Wishart, which opens in November.

I have finished Das Dorf. Suchodol, which contains two of Ivan Bunin’s best-known stories. He died on 8 November 1953.

I read Inspector Queen's Own Case: November Song by Ellery Queen, which despite the title takes place mostly during summer and early fall.

I've read We Solve Murders by Richard Osman whose birthday is in November.

COMPLETED Finished Business by David Wishart, most of which takes place in November.

I just finished the beautifully written but emotionally harrowing The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden. It's set during World War I so is a good fit for Remembrance Day (November 11).

I have read three books from Jacque Barzun's A Catalogue of Crime, a reference book. Barzun was born in November.

I read Longshadow by Olivia Atwater, featuring Death and ghosts, for Dia de los Muertos.

I read We Will Be Jaguars by Nemento Nenquimo for Native American Month

I read The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman who was born in November.

I have completed my read of Two Old Women by Velma Wallis.

I learned from the November State of the Thing that November is National Picture Book Month, so I read Pooh's Snowy Day on the last day of the month and fulfilled this CAT just in time. This month was very different from what I had planned, so I did not read my initial choices.