Somehow the rest of November flew away and all my best-laid plans for reviewing my preposterous stack of novellas fell by the wayside. As usual, I enthusiastically started a dozen when I should have just focused on three or four; it is ever thus. We spent the weekend visiting friends and it was also C’s birthday yesterday, so there wasn’t much time for reading. However, I managed to finish another five novellas by the 30th to review later in the week.
I will keep the link-up open through Saturday the 6th for belated reviews and catch-up posts and on Sunday the 7th I will post final statistics for the year’s challenge.
Here are the novellas I’ve added to my TBR this month:
Before the Leaves Fall by Clare O’Dea, reviewed by both Cathy and Susan – Set in Switzerland, it has an assisted dying theme, which always attracts me. It’s also published by the indie Fairlight Books.
This one is nonfiction:
Middlemarch and the Imperfect Life by Pamela Erens (from the Bookmarked series), spotted by chance on Liz’s wish list. I do love a memoir that responds to another work of literature.
And these two are 2026 releases that are on my radar as review books…
Who Killed Bambi? by Monika Fagerholm (for Foreword Reviews) is about the aftermath of a teen gang rape in Helsinki.
Men I Hate: A Memoir in Essays by Lynette D’Amico (for Shelf Awareness) is a response to her spouse transitioning.
Whew, four isn’t so overwhelming!
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
I’ll be interested to see how you get on with Before the Leaves Fall, Rebecca. I’m glad you liked the sound of it enough to give it a try, and thanks, as ever, for helping to organise #NovNov.
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Thanks for joining us with a few reviews. The Wax Child was our most popular book this year!
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My pleasure! Pleased to hear that. It’s one of my books of the year as is Seascraper.
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I’m joining Susan in having Seascraper and The Wax Child among my Books of the Year.
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Phew! Double posts! When I saw this one first, I thought you might have forgotten Literary Wives, but you didn’t.
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Triple posting today! I was out of town for the last few days of November and forgot to take my laptop with me, so I had to catch up today.
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Wowie zowie!
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Hope you get a chance to read the O’Dea. It’s very well done.
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I’ll put it on my wish list for next year.
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Wow – you have had a good look through my wishlist to spot that one! Glad I could help! I enjoyed NovNov and added one to my wishlist that I now can’t recall. One about two gay men living above a shop …
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I had a look at your wish list just to see if any titles jumped out as ones I’d seen in the Little Free Library stock.
That’ll be A Room Above a Shop by Anthony Shapland!
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I’ve bought A Room Above a Shop as well! Thank you Rebecca for hosting, it’s been a great month!
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I read the Erens book this year, too, because I finally managed my Middlemarch reread (was it one year late or two? I can’t remember!), but do check out IG Publishing’s page for this series if you enjoy it, cuz they’ve got lots of good ones there. (You might even like the Stephen King one now! hee hee) They’re all available in epub I believe.
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That does sound like a series for me. I’m toying with reading a pre-release 2026 book about reading through Stephen King’s archives!
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