Halloweekend Readathon

 Hello Interwebs!

So Halloweekend is a readathon that takes place every weekend in the month of October. It runs from September 29th to October 31st and is focused on the weekends (although I will be reading during the week as well to count for it). There are five book prompts, five activity prompts, five photo prompts and then five bonus book prompts. We'll discuss the activity and photo prompts and then go for the book prompts as well as what books on my TBR count for these prompts. 

Activity Prompts

1. Do your favorite fall activity or one you've been wanting to try
2. Watch your favorite horror movie/Halloween episode of a TV show
3. Halloween costume/makeup/outfit
4. Attend reading sprints
5. Eat a Halloween treat

Photo Prompts

1. Post a photo with your Halloween look and a matching book
2. Post a Halloween color book stack
3. Post some of your favorite horror and thriller
4. Post a photo of your Halloween treat with the book you are currently reading
5. Post a photo of the books you completed for this readathon

And finally the book prompts (and the bonus book prompts) along with what books from my TBR I can fit into these prompts. For the host favorite option each of the five hosts gave five options for books to fit into this.  

1. Read a Host Favorite
1. Goddess of Filth by V Castro
2. Cirque Berserk by Jessica Guess
2. Read a book with a Halloween related word in the title
1. Shiver by Junji Ito ("shiver")
2. Halloween Fiend by C.V. Hunt ("Halloween")
3. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury ("Halloween")
4. Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw ("Pumpkin")
5. The Last Final Girl by Stephen Graham Jones ("Final Girl")
6. Man Made Monsters by Andrea Rogers ("Monsters")
7. Tastes Like Candy by Ivy Tholen ("Candy")
8. Zombie Sharks with Metal Teeth by Stephen Graham Jones ("Zombie")
3. Read a book in your favorite horror/thriller subgenre
1. Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives by Adam Cesare (slasher)
2. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (gothic)
3. The Last Final Girl by Stephen Graham Jones (slasher) 
4. Tastes Like Candy by Ivy Tholen (slasher) 
4. Read a book that is set around Halloween or gives Halloween vibes
1. Halloween Fiend by C.V. Hunt
2. Dead Leaves by Kealan Patrick Burke
3. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
4. Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw 
5. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
5. Read a horror/thriller genre blend
1. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer (horror/sci-fi)
6. Read a Novella (bonus)
1. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (146 pages) 
2. Halloween Fiend by C.V. Hunt (112 pages) 
3. Dead Leaves by Kealan Patrick Burke (92 pages) 
4. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury (145 pages) 
5. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (108 pages) 
6. Below by Laurel Hightower (124 pages) 
7. Blanky by  Kealan Patrick Burke (73 pages)
8. Men, Women, and Chainsaws by Stephen Graham Jones (37 pages)
9. Attack of the 50 Foot Indian by Stephen Graham Jones (48 pages) 
7. Read a book by an author you love (bonus) 
1. Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives by Adam Cesare 
2. Shiver by Junji Ito
3. Dead Leaves by Kealan Patrick Burke
4. Blanky by Kealan Patrick Burke
5. The Last Final Girl by Stephen Graham Jones
6. Men, Women, and Chainsaws by Stephen Graham Jones
7. Zombie Sharks with Metal Teeth by Stephen Graham Jones
8. Attack of the 50 Foot Indian by Stephen Graham Jones
8. Read a book with Halloween colors on the cover (bonus)
1. Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives by Adam Cesare
   
   
   
2. Dead Leaves by Kealan Patrick Burke
   
   
   
3. Gone to See the River Man by Kristopher Triana
   
   
   
4. Halloween Fiend by C.V. Hunt
   
   
   
9. Read a book with a new to you author (bonus) 
1. Goddess of Filth by V Castro
2. Cirque Berserk by Jessica Guess
3. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
4. Halloween Fiend by C.V. Hunt
5. Below by Laurel Hightower
6. Gone to See the River Man by Kristopher Triana
7. Man Made Monsters by Andrea Rogers
8. Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca
9. Tastes Like Candy by Ivy Tholen
10. Read a book with a cover you love (bonus) 
1. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
   
   
   
2. Below by Laurel Hightower
   
   
   
3. Dead Leaves by Kealan Patrick Burke
   
   
   
4. Halloween Fiend by C.V. Hunt
   
   
   
5. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
   
   
   
6. Zombie Sharks with Metal Teeth by Stephen Graham Jones
   
   
   

So that's where everything can fit in with my reading for this readathon. I have a lot of good options that I'm excited about and want to read as many as possible. 

Happy Reading!

Richelle

October Preview

 Hello Interwebs!

So fall is officially upon us: Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes are in stores, leaves are falling off the trees, my house is decorated for fall, and spooky season is upon us. And with all that in mind October is going to be a very, very busy month for me. 

First off I'm getting married! On October 15th, which is two weeks from tomorrow (cue internal screaming). So that week looks like therapy appointment on the 10th, kiddo doctor appointment on the 12th, rehearsal on the 13th, family dinner on the 14th, wedding on the 15th, and then we're out of here on the 16th for about a week. So that's already crazy. 

So with a crazy month going on what do I decide to do? I decide to participate in all the spooky season readathons! Like four of them, I wish I was kidding. But to be fair I am reading a variety of short books that give me some overlap. I'll tell you what the readathons are and give you my full TBR for the month and then we'll do separate posts for each readathon in separate blog posts which each one comes up. 

Halloweekend

This readathon takes place every weekend in October from September 29th to October 31st and has four hosts: Erin Megan (who I follow on YouTube), Lexie, Michelle, Katrina, and Sav. It has 5 book prompts, 5 activity prompts, and 5 photo prompts with 5 alternate book prompts. 

Stabathon 

This is also a readathon that is being done by Erin Megan and is Scream themed. It goes from October 3rd to the 9th and has both book and photo prompts. 

Happy Haileyween

This is hosted by Hailey Hughes on YouTube and goes from October 13th-16th and has some really fun prompts. My plan for this is to use the prompts but not really to go for the four days of the actual readathon since this is in the thick of my wedding week. 

Weekendween: The Monster Mash

This is the Halloween weekend readathon hosted by GabbyReads and OliviaReadsaLatte on YouTube and goes from October 28th to the 31st and has reading prompts. 

So next my main TBR. There's a lot of short stories and novellas and such on here and my plan is to get through as many of them as possible during this month. 

• Goddess of Filth by V Castro
• Cirque Berserk by Jessica Guess
• Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives by Adam Cesare
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
• Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
• Shiver by Junji Ito
• Halloween Fiend by C.V. Hunt
• Dead Leaves by Kealan Patrick Burke
• The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
• Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
• Below by Laurel Hightower
• Blanky by Kealan Patrick Burke
• Gone to See the River Man by Kristopher Triana
• The Last Final Girl by Stephen Graham Jones
• Men, Women, and Chainsaws by Stephen Graham Jones
• Zombie Sharks and Metal Teeth by Stephen Graham Jones
• Attack of the 50 Foot Indian by Stephen Graham Jones
• Man Made Monsters by Andrea Rogers
• Taste Like Candy by Ivy Tholen
• Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca
• The Promised Neverland Volumes 1-3 by Kaiu Shirai

So that's my TBR and my insane reading plans for an already crazy month. Keep an eye out for readathon specific posts for the full TBRs for each one as well as the prompts. 

Happy Reading!

Richelle

September Preview

 Hello Interwebs!

So despite last month going completely off the rails in terms of my TBR plans, I have a September TBR anyway! First off I went through my 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge and picked some books that will fit some of my missing prompts. There's also some new releases coming out in the next month or so that I need to finish up the previous ones to read. So there's quite an eclectic mix for my TBR for September. First up I have my book club books. 

• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings  by Maya Angelou: this is a memoir and it's my Literati book club pick which is Brynn Elliott's The Art of Philosophy group. This is a classic and I haven't ever read it which is rather shameful so I'm going to read it this month. 
  
  
  
• The IT Girl by Ruth Ware: this is the book club pick for both The Book Troop and the Literally Dead Book Club. This is a new thriller by Ruth Ware who I've found pretty up and down with the books. This follows a girl whose friend from Oxford, April (the titular IT girl), is murdered by the end of their second term there. A decade later the man who was convicted of her murder is killed in prison and new evidence comes out that he might not be guilty after all. Not gonna lie I kinda love this dark academia vibes for September and I've had this book since it came out in July and have just been waiting to read it. 
  
  
  

Then there's the other thirteen books I've put on my TBR for the month. Two have been started, one physical and one audio, and a bunch of other books I am wanting to work on this month. 

• The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell (The Family Upstairs #1): this is a reread/relisten since the sequel came out last month and I have the Book of the Month edition of it. I got the audiobook on Libro FM and I started it on August 25th. This book is about a young woman who inherits her biological parents' house on her 25th birthday and finds out that her parents were related to a small cult with two families, three of the adults ending up dead while the four children/teens disappeared save for the baby in her crib, the baby who is now 25. You follow 3 perspectives: Lucy a grown woman with two children living rough in France who comes back to England after she receives a message that the baby is 25; Libby who is the 25 year old woman who finds out she's the baby from the mystery at the house, and Henry in the past whose family owned the house before the other family moved in, the ones who began the cult. I really liked this the first time I read it and the audio book is fun because there's a different narrator for each character's chapter which helps the listening quality. I'm about 75% of the way done with it now and enjoying it just as much as the first time. 
  
  
  
• The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray: this is a mystery featuring characters from Jane Austen novels who have come together for a house party that is crashed by the dastardly Mr. Wickham from Pride and Prejudice who then turns up dead and someone's a killer. The two youngest in the party Jonathan Darcy (the eldest son of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice) and Juliet Tilney (the daughter of Henry and Catherine Tilney from Northanger Abbey) have to solve the case. I'm three chapters into this and I love it a lot. 
  
  
  

So those are what I'm currently reading and then I have a whole list of things I want to read apart from these. I'm heading to the valley for the weekend next weekend for Comic Con so I'll try to get at least something on audio for the weekend to listen to while driving but I'm not sure if it'll be something off this list or something I already have or something else entirely. 

• The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell (The Family Upstairs #2): this is the sequel to The Family Upstairs and I literally know nothing about that and I'm totally okay with it. 
  
  
  
• A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance #1): this is also a reread and is a dark academia book about a magic school, the Scholomance, where most of the attendees end up dying in the ultra dangerous school. Loved this the first time around and I am reading the first two books  in the trilogy before the thrid and final book is released at the end of September. 
  
  
  
• The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance #2): this is the second book in the Scholomance trilogy and I am going to read this in preparation for the final book's release in September. 
  
  
  
• Gerald's Game by Stephen King: this is one of the Stephen King books I've gotten from Pango recently. This follows a woman whose husband dies in the middle of a sex game with her handcuffed to a bed in their secluded cabin and then shit starts happening. I've heard this story is brutal and I am in the mood for brutal. Plus this fulfills the prompt for a book with "game" in the title for my 52 Books 52 Weeks. 
  
  
  
• Suspicious Minds by Gwenda Bond (Stranger Things #1): this is one of the prequel novels for Stranger Things and follows the group of scientists in the 60s doing the experiments at Hawkins Lab which leads to the events of the first season. I am all Stranger Things all the time right now and books should be no different. 
  
  
  
• My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix: this is another horror novel by Grady Hendrix and is about a girl who thinks her best friend is possessed and stages an exorcism. This is supposed to be a movie soon so I want to read this one especially since I've really enjoyed other books from him I want to get to this one. 
  
  
  
• Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives by Adam Cesare (Clown in a Cornfield #2): this is a sequel to Clown in a Cornfield which I read in July for Summerween. This is one of my favorite horror books of all time and probably my favorite book of the year so far. I am very very excited for this. 
  
  
  
• Carrie by Stephen King: this is King's first novel and I absolutely adore the movie so I'm excited to read this. Plus I feel like it's a good back to school season horror. It's about a girl Carrie White who is tormented by her super religious mother and classmates but is telekinetic and gets her revenge at prom. 
  
  
  
• Smashed by Junji Ito: this is another short story horror manga collection which I picked at random from my unread Junji Ito. I love his stuff and am going to try and finish the rest of his books in the next couple months. 
  
  
  
• Follow Me to Ground by Sue Rainsford: this is a horror novella and one I thought about during August when I was having some problems with reading in general. Plus the book is beautiful and I'm looking forward to it. 
  
  
  

So that's it, everything I'm hoping to read in August and I am ready to go!

Happy Reading!

Richelle

August Wrap-Up

 Hello Interwebs!

I have no idea how August got so off the rails but I read very very little that was on my TBR for August and instead everything went way off the rails in a spiral of little to no motivation to read or finish anything and a flurry of DNFs. That being said I did end up reading 7 books in the month of August and I enjoyed pretty much everything I did read. 

First of all this month I finished Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix which I actually listened to on audio. This is a classic haunted house story that takes place in an IKEA knockoff called Orsk. You follow a young woman who works there as well as her manager and three of her coworkers as they spend the night in the store trying to decide who is sabotaging the store after hours. Then weird shit starts happening and it seems as if Orsk is real and truly haunted and they might not all make it out alive. I really enjoyed this one and I've found that I'm a big fan of Grady Hendrix's mix of horror and humor and this was really fun. I listened to it between July 27th and August 5th and gave it a solid 4 star rating. 

Second, I finished another audiobook which was Bird Box by Josh Malerman. This was surprisingly my first Malerman book and I really really enjoyed it. This is about a woman living in a post apocalyptic world where some strange unknown creatures have completely decimated humanity. Anyone who looks at them goes mad and ends up committing suicide. So we follow Malorie and two children as they get in a boat and head blindfolded down river to where they hope is a safe haven. I listened to this from the 9th to the 12th of August and gave it a 4.25 star rating. 

Then I read The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda which is not only my first Megan Miranda thriller but also her newest release. This follows a woman working at an inn in an isolated town at the edge of the Appalachian trail where a number of tourists have disappeared. She gets brought into the mystery and how everything might be connected when the brother of the most recent disappearance comes to town and they begin making connections between the disappearances and the people in town. I really liked this book. It was very isolationist and mysterious and no one particularly annoyed me in it for once. Plus I didn't see the twists coming which I love. I read this on ebook from August 2nd to 13th and gave it 4.25 stars. 

Next I read my Literati book club book, also mostly on audio which was Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell. This is about a woman whose husband disappears during the heat wave in Great Britain during the 1970s and her three grown children coming to help her find their father and what happened. To be honest this book was fine. The whole heatwave thing was really just a gimmicky title and had nothing to do with the plot aside from placing the book during a particular summer. I really didn't like any of the characters and when the discovery of where the father was and the secrets he and the mother had was just fine. Nothing spectacular but also nothing I really hated. Just...fine. I read/listened to this from August 12-18th and gave it a 3 star rating.

 

Next I couldn't get into any other books so I piddled around with some ideas while I was trying out other books and finally decided to read a couple novellas starting with Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones. This is a story about a teenaged boy who sleepwalks and is seeing his dead father dressed in his native regalia. While he's seeing his father things are happening around him: his brother has seizures and the neighbor's dogs are ripped apart while trying to get at him under the house and he shoots and kills the neighbor thinking its his dad. It ends on the unresolved mysterious note that so many of his stories end on and I remain a pretty solid fan of his writing and storytelling style. I read it from the 19th to the 20th and gave it a solid 4 star rating. 

Then I finally listened to The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse which is the first  book in her Detective Elin Warner series. This book follows British Detective Elin Warner who while on leave from her job goes with her boyfriend to a resort in the Alps which used to be a Tuberculosis Sanatorium to celebrate her brother Isaac's engagement. Then his fiancée disappears and just before an avalance traps the remaining staff and guests a body is found linked to a mystery from the days of the old sanatorium and the dark things that happened there. This was a really interesting book, very twisty and I love things that relate to this kind of dark history and especially dark medical history. Plus this is also very isolationist and I love that trope in both my horror and my thrillers. I listened to this from August 18th to the 24th and gave it a 4.25 star rating. 

Finally I read Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw. I've had the ebook copy of this since it was released and I recently received a hardcover copy of it, which is the copy I ended up reading. I was hesitant to read this because of the poor reviews it had been receiving but to my surprise I actually really enjoyed it but I can  see why other people wouldn't. This follows a group of friends at a crumbling Japanese mansion rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a bride buried alive on what would've been her wedding day still waiting for her groom. Two are getting married and are planning on doing it in this manor and then the bride's ghost takes over and shit goes down. This people are all terrible but it worked for me. I read this from the 22nd to the 29th and gave it 3.5 stars. This is not the best book I've ever read but still enjoyable. Also, this remains one of my very favorite horror covers ever. 

So that's it, everything I read in the month of August. If I had to pick a favorite I think it was probably The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse and my least favorite was definitely Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell. Onward to September!

Happy Reading!

Richelle