Reading Round-Up: November 2020

Hey everyone! I'm back. I've been working on new posts, new content, and all kinds of things. 

In November I was working on a lot of projects, so my reading took a little bit of a hit. I also chose to read a few larger collections. This month is going to look a bit smaller than usual, but I definitely still enjoyed all the books I read. 

Here is what I read in November:

The List: 

• Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol. 1
• Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #1: The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan
• The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour: The Frontier Stories, Volume One
• The Enigma of the Owl: An Illustrated Natural History by Mike Unwin & David Tipling
• The Trials of Apollo #5: The Tower of Nero by Rick Riordan

Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol. 1 is a collection of short stories written by one of the greatest writers in the genre of science fiction. It's a very large volume. The Kindle edition is listed at around 951 pages. Isaac Asimov is best known for his Robot Series and his Foundation Series, neither of which I have had the chance to read yet, though I definitely want to. 

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #1: The Sword of Summer is the first book in a trilogy that revolves around a Norse demigod. This is written by the same author as the Percy Jackson books and it takes place in the same world as those books...kind of. These books focus on Magnus Chase, a teenage boy who is homeless due to some crazy circumstances, who ends up finding out that the Norse gods are actually real. It's a very humorous adventure story. 

The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour: The Frontier Stories, Volume One is exactly what it says it is. It's a collection of short stories and one novella by the great western writer, Louis L'Amour. I have seen my grandpa reading his books many times, or seen a book by him lying around my grandparents' house, so I've always wanted to read some of his work for myself. This is a good volume, with some diverse conflicts and beautifully written scenery. This is another decently large volume at around 450 pages. The edition I read was Large Print, from my local library, so there were even more pages to flip. 

The Enigma of the Owl: An Illustrated Natural History is a non-fiction book centered on owls. It presents various species of owls from around the globe. The book is divided into chapters labeled by geographic locations. Each chapter presents information about the owls that live in those areas. It has information about diet, hunting, mating seasons, offspring parenting, and dangers faced by each species. It's a very informative book with gorgeous photographs. It's also rather large in terms of height, so it would make a lovely coffee table book.

The Trials of Apollo #5: The Tower of Nero by Rick Riordan is the final book in the Trials of Apollo series. As you all know, I was counting down to this one for a long time. I re-read the entire Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series, just to eventually lead up to the release of this book. It concludes the story of the Greek god, Apollo, in the mortal form of Lester Papadopoulos, as he tries to save his Oracles and regain his godly form. My local library ended up getting this one only as an audiobook initially, so....I listened to it. It was strange to do, but overall enjoyable. Naturally, a few weeks after I had already finished listening to it, they bought an e-book version....go figure. 

This concludes November's Reading Round-Up. I know it's a little small compared to previous months this year, but I really liked each and every book I read. I also know that I'm posting this up a little later than normal, but again, I've been very hard at work here behind-the-scenes! I'll catch you at the end of December, with another Round-Up...and maybe a year end favorites list? 

Until then, happy reading everyone!