The Books I Read in October 2026

Happy November, my loves!

October was a slow month in books. While I managed to finish three books on my long-haul flights to and from Seoul, I lagged behind for the remaining weeks because work and real-life has me booked and busy. And, really, I’m okay with that. I’m accomplishing great things in my day job, I get to spend plenty of quality time with my family and friends, and then I get to squeeze in countless side quests as well. This month, the theme was ‘strange fiction’, I think. All the books I read felt like mini experiments in their genre, be it Fallow and its queries of womanhood and purpose, or John of John and its slow, meandering, graceful prose. It feels as though 2026 has been quite a middling year for books, for me at least, so I’m hoping once more that I find some next-level reads in November.

Let’s be bookish friends! Find me on Goodreads, The StoryGraph or Pagebound to see what I’m reading and reviewing in real-time.

October reads

Fallow by Sarah Anderson (ARC)
It’s Okay Not to Get Along with Everyone by Dancing Snail
John of John by Douglas Stuart
Girl Dinner by Olivie Blake
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

November hopefuls

Where the Dead Brides Gather by Nuzo Onoh
A Perfect Execution by Tim Binding
May We Feed The King by Rebecca Perry
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

In review

Fallow by Sarah Anderson (ARC)

Thanks Vintage Books and NetGalley for my advanced reader copy!

Rating: 3 stars

Sarah Anderson’s debut novel is a satirical take on the tradwife genre. In fact, it’s defiantly tradwife. Natalie has no skills or ambitions or dental insurance, just a call centre job that she hates and a crippling jaw ache. She is passive about life, not knowing what she wants, only want she doesn’t want. When a mysterious job offer leads her to The Company, Natalie ends up the perfect candidate for their new in-house surrogacy programme. All she has to do is deliver seven healthy babies in ten years. Her every need is met by The Company, and then she can enjoy breaks (or her ‘fallow period’) when she can indulge in whatever she wants.

I found the first half of this book to be incredibly gripping and interesting. I loved the subject matter and the frank, funny way that Anderson explored it. Natalie is a great protagonist and I loved her passiveness, especially against the backdrop of pregnancy, which is anything but. With books like these, I often find myself anxious and impatient for the twist, but I enjoyed wandering through Natalie’s pregnancies with her and exploring a different type of end-stage capitalism fiction. However, the final twist at the end didn’t quite work for me, and ended up erasing a lot of the good work that Anderson had built up.

It’s Okay Not to Get Along with Everyone by Dancing Snail

Rating: 3 stars

This illustrated non-fiction was a short but sweet read, that I appreciated during this quiet autumn. It’s written in short-form chapters with adorable illustrations throughout – I definitely should’ve gotten a paperback and not the Kindle copy! – and is filled with heartfelt advice for fellow introverts and people-pleasers. My only niggle was that I wanted just a little more depth from the topics explored.

John of John by Douglas Stuart

Rating: 4 stars

Quiet stories that don’t move far but are full of tender prose is my jam. And this book was my jam. Out of money and out of options, John-Calum Macleod moves home to the small island of Harris to find that not much in his hometown has changed. Only him.

From family life to the weight of societal expectations, decades-long secrets to paternal love, John of John is a tender, layered peek into life on a reserved Scottish island. I completely loved the characters, the slow pace, and the slower setting.

Girl Dinner by Olivie Blake

Rating: 2.5 stars

I really wish I’d DNF’d this book early on, but then I reached the twist at sixty-something percent, and felt like I had to soldier on. I think it’s time to admit that Olivie Blake and I do not get along. Girl Dinner starts as a disjointed campus novel. We meet Sloane, a new mother and professor who is returning to work after maternity leave. She’s questioning everything about her life: her non-present husband, the importance of her job, how her clothes fit postpartum. At the same time, Nina is vying for a spot in The House, the most exclusive sorority on campus. When Sloane is invited to join The House as an advisor, she drinks in the exclusivity and perceived perfection.

This book had all the makings of a Good Novel, but it fell short for me. Neither of the main topics (female empowerment, and trad wives) were fleshed out enough, leaving me feeling frustrated at the plot, before it then took an absurd turn that was also unevenly told. Sloane’s character had potential to explore motherhood and feminism in a nuanced way, but it was whittled down to a repetitive and complacent stream of consciousness. The twist felt necessary, but the build-up was a whole load of nothingness, which meant that the pivotal moment felt lacklustre and random. Sloane and Nina felt like two characters that could never be part of one story, and I really struggled to get into either of their storylines.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Rating: 4 stars

Even though I didn’t get ‘round to my Halloween TBR, I am glad for finally reading Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey for the first time. Austen was truly That Girl, wasn’t she? This satirical parody of gothic novels really hits, and I’m surprised that it’s Austen’s least-loved novel. Between Catherine’s curious character and the omnipresent narrator, Northanger Abbey is a raucous read. Our heroine Catherine is obsessed with gothic novels, reading as many of them as she can get her hands on. It’s a stark difference from her sheltered English countryside life. But, soon, Catherine’s neighbours take her to Bath where she meets Henry and Eleanor Tilney, the former of which becomes her love interest. Not only is this a funny read, it’s an insightful one too. I love how this parody provides a glimpse into the Victorian writers’ era. The narration is hilarious, and really helps to move the story along.