Read Around the World Challenge: Europe - October Update

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Today, I'm sharing my tenth and final update and mini reviews for my European portion of the Read Around the World Challenge.  As of my September Update, I still had 7 books remaining to complete this section of the challenge after a updating my original tbr (which I thought I had completed).  In October I managed to officially complete the continent of Europe for this worldwide challenge.  I definitely plan on continuing this challenge by focusing on other continents (North and South America will probably be next up for me) coming up in the future.  Also here's my progress list for the challenge.  Keep reading to see my thoughts on my last Europe books:

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I was not expecting The Siege by Ismail Kadare  to mainly be about the siege itself. We spent time with both sides of the warfare, but I didn't particularly care about any of the characters. I also was not fond of how the women were written about either.

My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.

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I don't really have a lot to say about Always Remember Your Name: The Children of Auschwitz by Andra and Tatiana Bucci.  This was absolutely brutal, but it is a must read. We can't forget this part of history. 

My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.

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I really liked the characters in Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle, but was less hooked by the storyline itself. I'm glad I decided to listen to the audiobook, though.  The narrator has the perfect voice for it!

My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.

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The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke was a good choice to read in October. It's very atmospheric and a little spooky.  In a way, it reminds me of books from Sarah Penner.  While this wasn't a favorite I think I'll look into more from Cooke in the future.

My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.

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Kidnapped (David Balfour #1) by Robert Louis Stevenson is an adventure classic that just wasn't on my radar until this challenge.  I really liked the first half of this story more than anything.  I also appreciated the narrator's performance.  Plus, I didn't realize so many Ebenezer's were bad guys before this. 

My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.

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The Apostles: The Origin of the Church and Their Co-Workers by Pope Benedict XVI contains transcripts of some of Pope Benedict XVI's homilies. I know I wouldn't have picked this up if it weren't for the Read Around the World Challenge. This one fulfilled the task of reading a book for the Vatican City. I thought I had already completed it with the book I read by Pope Francis, but that was switched to an Argentina book within the challenge.  My only real comment on this was that it just seems odd to me to refer to those presented here as "co-workers".

My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.

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The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More by Roald Dahl is a great collection of short stories.  It's been on my radar since I watched the Wes Anderson adaptation for Netflix which adapts two stories from this collection including the title story and The Swan.  My favorite stories were easily the title story as well as The Boy Who Talked With Animals.  I also appreciated that Lucky Break is more of an essay all about how Dahl got into writing in the first place.  Finally, I listened to this on audiobook and I think Andrew Scott has an excellent voice for it!  I'm going to have to check to see if he's done more audiobooks.

My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.

Have you read any of these books?  Are you participating in this challenge?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!