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Hi everyone

Been a long week, glad it's getting close to over! Have a big halloween party/concert two night event this weekend, first time since *gesturing at everything*.

This week I finished:

These Violent Delights - this was alright. it was nominally a Romeo and Juliet retelling, but I think the author was trying too hard to shove in references to R +J to sell that she was still trying to keep on that track while deviating wildly. You can still have star crossed lovers and NOT name them derivatives of Romeo and Juliet and try to put in awkward references to the text every so often to make sure it's clear what you're referencing. Also while i'm fine with series and duologies and stuff, i don't like it when it feels like something should have been a longer book but the author decided to just stop in the middle with a to be continued. I'm kind of on the fence whether to look for the second. I'm annoyed I didn't finish the story, but I also am not super invested where i really feel like working for it.

Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants - I liked this pretty well, although it got pretty preachy in parts.

A Head Full of Ghosts - this was my books & brews book club pick. Had some mixed feelings about it. I don't super love mixing mental illness with horror, it leads to a lot of misunderstanding about mental illness. The way things ended was somewhat inconclusive, which I get. It wasn't as bad as I was worried it could have been, and I did enjoy reading it alright.

Currently reading:

Audio book for Where'd You Go, Bernadette- Needed a book to movie adaption book for my library's genre genius challenge. I love Cate Blanchette so I'd been kind of eyeing this movie. Figured I'd check the book out first.

I just finished the head full of ghosts, haven't decided what to start next.

QOTW: I'll borrow from popsugar: Do you like to do seasonal reading?

I don't make a point of it, but sometimes it's nice. I do generally try to read The Night Circus in the fall, it just feels like a good start of autumn book, get the kind of spooky magic vibes going. And I have been kind of gravitating towards some more witchy type stuff. Towards holiday time I tend to like to do series reading, cozy stuff, stuff I don't have to think too hard about. But I also do a lot of library stuff, so holds often dictate what i read, even if it's not necessarily what i am most in the mood for.

Happy Thursday!

Finished:
Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire - continuing my catch-up (re)read of this series.

Comics & manga:
The Apothecary Diaries 09
Akane-banashi, Vol. 2
Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, Vol. 14 (Volume 14)
Horimiya, Vol. 2

Currently reading:
The Undetectables by Courtney Smyth - I just started this but it's funny so far. Disability rep for fibromyalgia, which I haven't seen very often.

Upcoming/Planned:
Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire

QOTW:
I don't usually read anything special for autumn. I read Starling House as my creepy book for October, I guess, but then I don't really read a lot of horror. Sometimes I read a holiday book or a summer beach read at the appropriate time, but I usually just read things whenever I'm in the mood for it.

My big Halloween party was last weekend. I went as the Bride of Frankenstein, which is relevant to the below.

Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley - This is a 500-pager but it was pretty readable. It alternates chapters for the two subjects, presenting them at reasonably equivalent life stages (though not ages), which I thought worked well. I didn't really know anything about Wollstonecraft, so those parts were interesting but did not convince me that I need to seek out her work. The other half is full of Romantic Poets Behaving Badly; Percy Shelley doesn't get the worst, since his first marriage is kind of offstage from the second wife's perspective, but Byron is involved and is... Byron.

The Vampyre: A Tale - This is the other book that came out of the famous spooky story contest that produced Frankenstein, based on Byron's contribution but expanded and written well after the fact by Byron's doctor friend who was there. (Apparently it was originally published under Byron's name, to the dismay of both people.) It's not very long or very compelling, but I was interested to see what was in the vampire literature pre-Dracula.

I will also note that the costume choice was precipitated by my having read Elsa Lanchester, Herself a few years ago, and will once again mention that it is wild.

QOTW: Uh, see above? Although I guess I mostly do books related to holidays or events rather than the actual seasons of the year.

We went to a repertory theater tonight for a narration/seance performance of two Edgar Allen Poe stories (Tell Tale Heart and Cask of Amontillado and then reading The Raven. It was only about an hour long with a single actor and was a lovely evening.

All new books for me this week after finishing a bunch last week. Had my neighborhood book club this week and they picked *another* memoir. (The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight) Sigh. Not my favorite genre by a long shot and I'll have to strongly suggest some fiction next time.

For my audiobook I am listening to The Last Devil to Die. The 4th Thursday Murder Club book came out in Sept and I'm loving them just as much as the other three. I'm not into mysteries and just love all of these.

The fluff book I'm reading is one from my sister, The Blue Bistro. So far it is just fine as a filler book.

I'm also paging through a book my daughter got for my birthday. It is a cookbook and history from my favorite YouTube channel. I highly recommend that channel. Tasting History: Explore the Past through 4,000 Years of Recipes. The history parts are very interesting. I've made a few things in there before the book came out, but many have unusual ingredients. Anyway, I'm about halfway through it.

QOTW:
While I don't generally seek out seasonal reading, if I have a seasonal book I will wait for the season to read it. For instance one of the books from my sister is Christmas related so that will be a later fluff read.

I had to chime in here after reading Rebecca's update.... I have no idea where you live or where else this version is performed, but the Cleveland Playhouse currently has a production of Frankenstein that is framed as the story contest and it is AMAZING. - if it ever is staged near you, I think it would be right up your alley!

My book clubs like to pick a few seasonal things every year - most often around Halloween and Christmas, but sometimes around members' travel, events we're going to, etc. It's kind of fun when thing line up like that, but I'm never that coordinated with my individual reading.

That said, I'm currently reading Ghost Shadow for IRL Book Club #2, which is shaping up to be just the kind of dumpster fire I enjoy. I'm only a couple chapters in, but there's already an unexplained pirate ghost advisor to the main character and a murder in a wax museum. It was perfect to start on Halloween - the great debate is always whether to schedule the discussion of books in the seasonal month or the following month so you're actually reading the book during the holiday/event/season in question. But I'm fine with the way this one worked out - everyone is always so focused on the classy literary stuff this time of year, so it's the best time to ponder whether a karaoke host can revive the haunted wax museum with the help of the guy whose fiance was killed there.

I'm also listening to The Long and Short of It, having listened to the entire primary series over the past few months (pretty sure this is where I first heard about it, so thank you!). Going back and hearing these stories from earlier in the series really makes it obvious how much all of the characters developed and grew up over the course of fourteen books. I'm sure there will be more tales of the next generation (and there's always the Time Police series), but The Good, the Bad and the History was such a perfect conclusion to Max's primary arc that it seemed appropriate to go back and remember some of her highlights right after finishing it.

Thank you for keeping the great recommendations coming, and I will check back in before another six months go by! :)

I finally got out of a reading slump. I only read two books in most of October, but then knocked off 4 during a travel weekend.

I loved Killers of a Certain Age, which I think someone recommended here. Four women who are retired assassins. Very fun, with flashbacks to how they started. I have really enjoyed Deanna Raybourn's Veronica Speedwell series and happy to see her in a modern setting as well.

I listened to Third Eye while driving. I usually struggle to pay attention to audio books, but this one had a full cast and was also very fun. Mocks many fantasy tropes in a loving manner.

The last great read of my weekend was A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher who just won the 2023 Hugo for Nettle & Bone which I also really enjoyed. This was a "southern gothic" which I usually not a fan of. But I fell in love with the main character by page 5 so wanted to keep hanging out with her despite the spookiness. Plus it was weekend before Halloween so I figured a ghost or two in my reading was good.

QOTW: I usually don't aim for seasonal reading, but one of my goto authors Donna Andrews frequently has a Christmas-themed book so I try to read them around the holiday.

I've had a crazy last few weeks with very little time and energy to read (spouse out of town for work and then he came home with COVID, so I was essentially solo parenting for two weeks, never mind work) so I've just got one finish and one re-read:

The Innocent Sleep, the latest October Daye book from Seanan McGuire. This one tells the events of Sleep No More but from Tybalt's point of view. It was fun to learn about what was happening elsewhere with Toby off the stage, but it didn't have quite the same zing that these books normally do when Toby is the narrator. Still, it was a good comfort read during a stressful time.

The re-read was A Night in the Lonesome October, which I pull out every few years to read around Halloween. I feel like I catch new references/notice new things every time I read it (I've probably read it 5 or 6 times at this point).

QOTW: I usually don't time my reading to go with the season - Lonesome October is an exception, and I sometimes pull out Hogfather around Christmastime, but both of those are re-reads and most of the time I just read what I'm in the mood for.

Hello all. I've been a reading fiend lately. My goal for the year was 110 books, and I'm currently at 122. Sadly my cross stitch has been neglected. I read and reread a lot of cheesy romance novels, with some adventure/fantasy thrown in.

Over the weekend I finished a trilogy by Irene Davis. The first book is called Sugar and Snow, and it's a continuation of the Nutcracker Story. I loved the story very much. The second book was a lot of set up for the third book. I still have some unanswered questions or thoughts about events, but overall I liked how it concluded.

QOTW: I do some seasonal reading. There were a few mystery romances I read during October, and a few Winter themed ones I'm looking forward to reading in my massive TBR pile.