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Welcome to the start of spooky month. I have finished another story in the Complete Stories of Oz compilation - only 4 to go. I have started X-Rated Bloodsuckers - the second in the Felix Gomez series, a humorous (and somewhat naughty) series about a vampire PI.

Hello.
I finished the last book I mentioned in the group.
Today I'm reading No.6 by Atsuko Asano.
I'm halfway with the 7 volume.

I just wrote it in the September thread but since I technically just started it on Oct 1 I'll put it here too. Currently reading the 80s/90s style teen slasher Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives by Adam Cesare to celebrate spooky season.

Yes! I'm all ready to start the spooky month. Now I read Pride and Prejudice back in January. Now I'll read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith. I believe this is the novel that started the trend of twisting original classics. Kind of curious how well it gets integrated.

Just started As Old as Time

I’m reading “words of radiance�� and “the frugal wizards handbook for surviving medieval England��. Starting October with Brandon Sanderson x 2!

Joanna wrote: "I’m reading “words of radiance�� and “the frugal wizards handbook for surviving medieval England��. Starting October with Brandon Sanderson x 2!"

Yesssss!

How to Sell a Haunted House is my first spooktober read!

I have finished Superman Archives, Vol. 1, which collects the first 4 issues of the Superman comic from 1939-40. This presents a very different Superman than people would be used to today - significantly less powerful, and with a very different moral code - he is not opposed to killing his enemies, although he doesn't do it often. A fascinating look at the beginnings of superhero culture.

I finished Aurora Rising - which I had mentioned here under its former title. "The Prefect" when I was going to start reading it. Generally I like Alastair Reynolds, and I enjoyed this book a lot. I am now starting the next book in that series, Elysium Fire.

Started on the Simon Teen free read The Voice Upstairs by Laura E. Weymouth

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is amusing me. While I don't think its something I'll ever read again, I'm enjoying how zombie references get slipped into the text while still being practically word for word like the original. And you know how they constantly go about trying to determine the worth of a person based on their breeding, bearing and money, well now it also includes their skill with the "deadly arts". Of course a lot is utter nonsense, like Elizabeth proving she has great finger dexterity by spending an entire evening wandering around the room on her fingertips.

I finished Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives really fast. It was an easy one to speed through and I read it in about a day. It was even better than the first and I really enjoyed it.

I've now moved on to my 3rd book of spooktober, The Carrow Haunt So far it's not quite what I was hoping for with it's cartoonish dialogue, but I'm hoping it'll get spookier later on. I really enjoyed her other book Haunting of Ashburn House when I read it a few years ago.

Started Shadow and Bone and then got the The Ballad of Never After

Andrea wrote: "Started on the Simon Teen free read The Voice Upstairs by Laura E. Weymouth

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is amusing me. While I don't think its something I'll ..."

I'm not an Austen fan, but I did enjoy Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and it was successful enough to spawn a few similar novels, although it hasn't lasted. I know there were half-a-dozen of so - Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is one I remember, and there may have been one based on Northanger Abbey. I have in my TBR pile Android Karenina.

It also led to books such as Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter - which I enjoyed (both book and movie) - and Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter, also in my TBR pile.

I've read Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, that was pretty decent.

For the other twists on classics, I'll have to read the classic first, though I've seen so many Sense and Sensibility movies I could probably skip the book.

Small Spaces -- a spooky MG book
Finished up Michael Vey 4

After Moses by Michael F. Kane

I finished The Carrow Haunt and it was alright. The concepts had a lot of potential and a couple starts to creepy moments, but it felt a little too - what I'd describe as - Disney horror for what I was in the mood for. Ending was also just all over the place.

I'm now reading The Haunted which was a blind purchase while I was at a bookstore in September. The horror is the opposite of Carrow Haunt in many ways. Keeps you turning pages and am curious to see how it end.

Audrey wrote: "Small Spaces -- a spooky MG book
Finished up Michael Vey 4"

I really enjoyed the Small Spaces series and the different "seasons" of horror!

Audrey wrote: "Small Spaces -- a spooky MG book
Finished up Michael Vey 4"

I agree: Small Spaces was good and spooky.

I'm currently reading book 2 of the Pendergast series, Reliquary. I can't believe I'm starting such a long series, but these are perfect for me!

I have finished X-Rated Bloodsuckers, which was ok, but not as humorous as I recall the first one being - although it's been about 15 years since I read it.

Finished Pride & Prejudice & Zombies...the little reading guide at the end (you know the questions to discuss in bookclubs and such) was cute. Overall it was well integrated, but it was highly unbelievable, even if you accept zombies existed, there were just some ridiculously absurd scenes (just 'cause you know how to fight doesn't mean a swift kick to the face becomes how you reject a marriage proposal...)

I've still got a couple Maze Runner related books, starting on The Maze Cutter by James Dashner...which is not entirely inappropriate for October since the Cranks are pretty much just zombies.

I don't know if I'll be able to get to the last book, The Godhead Complex since none of the libraries around me has it, not even in electronic form. It's always baffled me when a library gets all the books in a series except maybe the last one or two, like they got bored of it and didn't want to finish off the set :) Its still pretty recent, maybe they'll pick it up eventually.

I'm working my way through The Burning White but man is it a weighty tome, might not be finished until November!

I did listen to The Poppy War, though. Not sure I liked it all that much, to be honest.

So Reliquary was horrifying, especially bc of all the chasing around in the pitch black tunnels under NYC. Then I read a good MG ghost story Deep and Dark and Dangerous.

My review of The Drowning House by Cherie Priest

/review/show...

I read another story in Complete Stories of Oz - only 3 to go. I have started The Chrysalids

Tony wrote: "I read another story in Complete Stories of Oz - only 3 to go. I have started The Chrysalids"

I read the Chrysalid's in school, I don't remember much about it though, might need to read it again some day. And congrats on getting close to finishing the last 3 stories! I have gotten through them all myself but I don't think I did them all in a single year :)

Finished the Maze Cutter...not sure much really happened in this book, just a lot of trekking across the landscape. Dashner really doesn't like explaining things to his readers does he? I still have really no idea what's going on and who everyone is and what they all want. I don't know if I'll get to the next book though since none of the libraries (online or physical) bothered to acquire it.

Now, with the fall leaves changing and the air getting cold, time to get some Halloween vibes with my Ghost Story BINGO slot - A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle I'm not interested in scary ghost horror tales but this seems very much a "ghost story" that's going to be bittersweet.

An excellent choice. A Fine And Private Place is not horror.

Andrea wrote: "I read the Chrysalid's in school, I don't remember much about it though, might need to read it again some day."

Like a lot of Wyndham's novels, it concerns disasters, or the time after a disaster - in this case it's society a few thousand years after a nuclear war - so in that respect it's similar to A Canticle for Liebowitz. He has a very low-key, British style of writing, to me anyway.

Andrea wrote: "And congrats on getting close to finishing the last 3 stories! I have gotten through them all myself but I don't think I did them all in a single year :)"

To be fair, they are all pretty easy reads, as they're aimed at an 8-12 year old audience, and I am only reading the 15 Oz stories by Baum, I'm not reading any of the Ruth Plumly Thompson stories. The biggest hurdle is that while Baum has a good imagination, after the first half-dozen, he's clearly just phoning it in because he doesn't want to write them.

It might be interesting to read some of his other stories, like his Trot and Capt Bill stories, to see if they follow a similar pattern.

I have finished the Kaiju Preservation Society and liked it. I mean, it's light as a feather and reads strangely like a screen play at times but it's clever and fun. If I have a criticism, it would be that the insane amount of exposition required to explain the Kaiju biology and surrounding ecosystem comes close to bogging it down at times. However, it has a lot of forward momentum to carry it through and Scalzi is good, he's really good, really slick and knows ALL the moves, so he carries it off. I recommend this if you want something to brighten you up after a heavy weight read.

OK, so as it is now 'Spooky Season' (its official) I am going to return to the wizarding world of Harry (Dresden, that is) and book three of The Dresden Files, 'Grave Peril.'

I finished The Haunted yesterday. Not a bad book but not particularly good either. It was a page-turner though, which saved it a bit. Wasn't a huge fan of the ending. Not sure I'll ever read more Bentley Little in the future.

I decided to move on to the short story collection I opted for this spooky season, Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories. The stories aren't written by Dahl but compiled by him from among his favourites. I'm enjoying the stories so far and there are a couple authors I want to explore more a little later. My favourite stories so far were Rosemary Timperley's "Harry" and "Christmas Meeting" and L.P. Hartley's "W.S ".


Andrea wrote: "Tony wrote: "I read another story in Complete Stories of Oz - only 3 to go. I have started The Chrysalids"

I read the Chrysalid's in school, I don't remember much ab..."

It's wild to me that Dashner is still writing Maze Runner books!

Finished reading the The Rise of the Automated Aristocrats on my eReader...it only took me 4 months. Not that the story was bad, I just never seem to pick up my ereader, I see the pile of physical books and focus on those instead.

Next on my eReader is Ō�첹���� by Renée Ahdieh, a short story taking place between a duology of books. It's only 19 page so I feel that it might take a little less than 4 months this time.... ;)

Since I actually had to do a commute today, I got through both Okami and Yumi by Renée Ahdieh, one of the way there and one of the way back. They were of course only about 14 pages long each.

Tomorrow I'll have another commute so I'll tackle a Kris Longknife novella - Training Daze by Mike Shepherd. This one is 136 pages so my commute will not be long enough for that.

Currently reading through The History of Middle Earth.

I have finished The Chrysalids. Wyndham has always been a bit underrated as an SF author, in my opinion, and this dystopian novel is as dark as 1984 or The Handmaid's Tale.

Natural Selection . Monster stories that strongly resemble the B movies I love seem to be the thing for me to read lately. I loved this one. The author is a well known screenwriter, which might be why the story read like a movie!

Reading Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree. It’s a lot of fun!

Finished A Fine and Private Place...not sure why but this one didn't interest me all that much. While I loved Piranesi and The Night Circus, also books that are arguably short on actual plot but otherwise beautiful, I found myself not being impacted much by the similar style in A Fine and Private Place. It was good but I didn't much feel what the the characters were feeling about the meaning of life, death and love. I still liked it, but I didn't love it.

I also finished the manga Unico, la petite licorne, tome 1 by Osamu Tezuka. This was written in the 30's or thereabouts so was interesting to see how even the manga style art reflected the cartoon style of the age that I associated with American animation movies of the time, and yet still feel very Japanese manga.

Starting on Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Ghosts which I'm going to use for my anthology slot. I always feel using a graphic novel is a bit of a cheat since they are so much shorter than a regular novel but I'm running out of time this year, and this is a collection with different authors & artists so its definitely an anthology and not a collection which someone pointed out was the correct term when its the same author.

And as soon as I finish that Kris Longknife short story on my eReader (indeed I did not have enough commute time to finish, I'll have to force myself tonight) I'll be starting on Kris Longknife's Relief: Grand Admiral Santiago on Alwa Station by Mike Shepherd

Georgann wrote: "Natural Selection . Monster stories that strongly resemble the B movies I love seem to be the thing for me to read lately. I loved this one. The au..."

This looks like a good book. 😊

Having finished Training Daze I'm going to tackle Vikram and the Vampire or Tales of Hindu Devilry by Richard Francis Burton. From what I read its not a vampire in the sense we're familiar with but when I saw it was written by Burton, and having read the entire Burton and Swinburne series, I thought it was fitting that I read something the real Burton wrote (or at least translated)

I finished another book in the Oz collection - only 2 to go. I have started Nightingale's Lament. It's the third book in the series, but they seem to be standalone books. Earlier adventures have been mentioned, but not having read them doesn't seem to be impacting on my understanding of the story. This should also fill the Performer Bingo slot.

I bought A Fine and Private Place at a book signing. I still haven't read it but I better like it.

Started Thornhedge. Very short; a novella, apparently.

I read the first book of the Dragonlance Lost Histories series, The Kagonesti. It was a pleasant surprise, the third of the three related novellas it contains particularly builds well off of the previous 2 and also the established lore of the Krynn D&D setting.

I finished Elysium Fire, which I found good but less so than the first Prefect Dreyfus opus. I will now start the third book in the series, Machine Vendetta.

I listened to Frankenstein: The 1818 Text . What a very sad and depressing story. But the narrator did a super job on the monster!

Georgann wrote: "I listened to Frankenstein: The 1818 Text . What a very sad and depressing story. But the narrator did a super job on the monster!"

Maybe you could read a comedy next!

Good idea! I'm in the middle of Into the Drowning Deep . Think that'll count? haha!

I read Frankenstein for our library's Grim Readers book club this month. It's a new one. And since we listened to this on a trip, my husband is also going to this new book club, and it will be his first one ever! He says he can't remember agreeing to this. Ha! While I love the pun of a name, this book was quite grim!

Finished the Kris Longknife book, and now I get to enjoy some vampires with Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers

Interesting quirk that I didn't know when I picked this book out earlier in the year. I read all the Burton and Swinburne novels, just finishing them recently. Then I started on Vikram and the Vampire on my eReader that was written by the real Burton. And now...I've managed to pick up another book that interacts with a similar set of characters - Christina Rossetti and her artist brother Dante Gabriel show up in both books, and I've got some Swinburne poetry to start the chapters in Power's book. Maybe will run into even more overlapping characters as I go.

Totally unplanned but intriguingly weird!

I got two words for you, people:

Sexy. Ogres.

Yes, I am reading The Irda, next in the Lost Histories of Dragonlance. Wish me luck!

I have finished Nightingale's Lament, which fills the Performer slot in my Bingo. Next up is the second to last of Baum's Oz stories - The Magic of Oz.

Tower of Silence by Larry Correia