Novellas: “all killer, no filler”
~Joe Hill
For the second year in a row, Cathy of 746 Books and I are co-hosting Novellas in November as a month-long challenge with four weekly prompts.
New this year: each week we will take it in turns to host a “buddy read” of a featured book we hope you will join in reading. We’re announcing the challenge early to give you plenty of time to get your stack ready.
(We suggest 150–200 pages as the upper limit for a novella, and post-1980 as a definition of “contemporary.”)
1–7 November: Contemporary fiction (Cathy)
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson – including a giveaway of a signed copy!
8–14 November: Short nonfiction (Rebecca)
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller (free to download here from Project Gutenberg. Note: only the first 85 pages constitute her memoir; the rest is letters and supplementary material.)
15–21 November: Literature in translation (Cathy)
Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima
22–28 November: Short classics (Rebecca)
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (free to download here from Project Gutenberg)
We’re looking forward to having you join us! Keep in touch via Twitter (@bookishbeck / @cathy746books) and Instagram (@bookishbeck / @cathy_746books) and feel free to use the terrific feature images Cathy has made and the hashtag #NovNov.
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
Great choices – pleased to say I’ve read all of them and loved them!
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Good on you! I’ve read the Nelson and Wharton, but I’ll be rereading the latter; Keller is new for me. I haven’t managed to find a copy of the Tsushima yet. I hope people enjoy reading along with our selections.
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Looking forward to this!
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Great to have you on board again!
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Love a good novella so will do my best to join in with something!
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Terrific! There’s also good opportunities to double up on challenges what with German Literature Month, Australia Reading Month, and Margaret Atwood Reading Month!
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I have a permanent novella stack with about 20 in it at the moment (excluding Maigrets of which I have another stack) – so I’m ready already! Territory of Light was so brilliant – I reviewed it for Shiny.
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Excellent! I’ve had fun compiling my novellas stacks in recent weeks. It’s such a good way of building up reading and reviewing momentum towards the end of a year.
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Looking forward to this. I actually have a little pile of novellas I’m planning to read in November…
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Wonderful! Show us a photo on Twitter when you get a chance 🙂
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Okay. Just gone through my spreadsheet. I have at least 25 to choose from, so no excuses!
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Fantastic! I am impressed by your organization. My preparation involved rummaging through shelves and ransacking the library. I have way too many options…
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Too many options is a delightful problem to have! 🙂 Lately it feels like all the books I’ve been adding to my library list are loooooong books. But maybe that’s just because it feels like an abundant season of this reading year. I do have a copy of a Nnedi Okorafor novella in my stack, which I would love an excuse to read…but there’s no duedate on that one, so you know how that goes.
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The only super-long book in my stack is the new Ruth Ozeki, which is 545 pages. I’m happy with sticking to mostly sub-300pp. stuff for the rest of the year!
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Ahhh, I’m really looking forward to that one too. And it’s been so long that I will be glad she has a lot to say. LOL
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Tempted to join in at least for one. I’ll have to go through my TBR list.
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A lot of classics or translated works are under 200 pages, so that would be a good way of meeting multiple goals 🙂
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I’ve read the Wharton and, although it was good, I found it so intense that I’m not desperate to read it again. The Keller I don’t know: though of course I know about her my memories are based on what I recall reading from my mother’s Reader’s Digest account more than half a century ago. Anyway, having enjoyed NovNovast year I’m sure I have other titles that would be just this apt for this year!
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It’s high tragedy for sure, but I find it cathartic to read super-depressing books every once in a while. It’s a reread for me, having read it once in c. 2008.
That’s true — we all think we know Keller’s story, but I don’t know many who have actually read it in her own words.
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I am stunned to learn that Ethan Frome is a novella–I read it very early in high school with a terrible teacher and hated it, and it has loomed SO large in my memory ever since. Anyway this is exciting, I will certainly try to participate!
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My copy has 181 pages of pretty large type. It’s funny how books can seem longer or shorter than their page count based on our experience!
It will be great to have you join in 🙂
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I’m excited and have at least White Fragility and a novel by a friend, I’m pretty sure one more hiding on that naughty back row of the TBR. I’ll be combining it slightly with Nonfiction November …
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Yes, combining challenges is encouraged! My nonfiction novella (though we’re not using that term this year because it was too confusing) stack is the largest of all.
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[…] glad to see that Cathy of 746 Books and Rebecca of BookishBeck are once again co-hosting Novellas in November as a month-long challenge with four weekly prompts. Each week they will take it in turns to host a […]
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I’m glad you’re doing this again this year. I loved Ethan Frome and am happy to re-read it. I have several novellas on my TBR shelves, so I’ll be getting those out too.
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Terrific! Thanks for helping to spread the news with your post, and I’m glad some of the buddy reads appeal.
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As commented on Cathy’s, I am thinking that I might try and do one a day…
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That’s mad! I think a total of 16 is my record thus far, but then again, I’m an extreme multi-reader (20-30 books at once), whereas if you just sat down with one short book per day it would seem doable. I feel sure there’s a blogger who runs ‘A novella a day in May’, but it’s not someone I’m in touch with.
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Love the buddy read idea! Can’t wait!
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Thanks! It’ll be great to have you on board 🙂
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I’ll be joining in and have already pulled out the most interesting titles from my shelves., some of which will indeed double up for Australia reading month. November seems to be the busiest month of the year for reading events – there’s also German lit month and non fiction November
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Terrific! We do encourage people to combine challenges where possible, e.g. nonfiction for the second week; Australian or German novellas; even short books by Margaret Atwood for MARM.
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[…] November will be a busy month bookwise as Nonfiction November is happening again this year, as well as Novellas in November! […]
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[…] never hosted, just participated enthusiastically. Which I hope to do again. Capable hosts Bookish Beck and Cathy of 746 Books have not only created weekly themes, but will host read-alongs for each […]
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[…] in November is run by 746 Books and Bookish Beck and encourages people to focus on books (fiction or nonfiction, hooray!) that are under 200 pages. […]
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[…] As well as #NonfictionNovember, I’m participating in Novellas in November (#NovNov) this year with Cathy @ 746 Books and Rebecca @ Bookish Beck. […]
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[…] I participated in Novellas in November (#NovNov) this year with Cathy @ 746 Books and Rebecca @ Bookish Beck. Here are the results of my novella […]
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[…] (2021), by Nicole Seifert. Also in November, we had Novellas in November, hosted by Cathy and Rebecca, and I read Madame De, by Louise de Vilmorin (2006, tr. Duff Cooper. Original: Madame De, […]
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