Top Ten Tuesday....

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's theme is a HALLOWEEN FREEBIE.

I decided to look back over my last ten years of October posts and revisit some of my favorite &  scariest October reads. I've also included a link to my original reviews. Happy reading! 

October 2013:  The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

October 2014:  Mary: The Summoning by Hillary Monahan

October 2015:  Dracula by Bram Stoker

October 2016:  Shiver by Alex Nye

October 2017:  Ghost Song by Sarah Rayne

October 2018:  Dust and Shadow by Lyndsay Faye

October 2019:  Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Seek by Anthony O'Neill

October 2020:  In the Barren Ground by Loreth Anne White

October 2021:  The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

October 2022:  Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead

October 2023:  The Nightmare Man by J.H. Markert

Happy Reading!

Haiku Reviews...

 

The Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh

Getting hit by a

car has Kelsey rethinking 

her entire life.

Fiction .... 370 pages .... 4.5/5 stars.

(A charming novel about friendship, second chances, journeys, hope, romance, and not letting fear keep you from choosing life.)

Grim and Bear It by Juliette Cross

Aura witch invites

Grim necromancer to join

romance book club ... love follows.

Paranormal romance .... 382 pages .... 3.5/5 stars.

(Clara and Henry were a very cute couple, but there's lots of language and several steamy sex scenes, so beware if that's not your thing.)

The Teacher by Freida McFadden

A troubled student.

Married tachers. Obsession,

love, hate, sex, and death.

Thriller.... 379 pages .... 3/5 stars.

(Fast-paced, with lots of unexpected twists and turns. But very unlikable characters.)

My Vampire Plus-One by Jenna Levine

Amelia knows taxes, but

vampires? Fake dating Reggie is one

surprise after another.

Romance .... 389 pages .... 4/5 stars.

(So cute & funny! I especially loved Reggie's bullet journal excerpts.)

Happy Reading!

A little bookish fun...

 

Isn't this a cute tee shirt? I bought it for my sister for her birthday because she loves booooooks, too. I also liked this sweatshirt, although I didn't buy it. But it made me smile. 

Happy Reading!

Middle of the Night by Riley Sager

 

From the blurb:

"The worst thing to ever happen on Hemlock Circle occurred in Ethan Marsh’s backyard. One July night, ten-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent set up on a manicured lawn in a quiet, quaint New Jersey cul de sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again.

Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Plagued by bad dreams and insomnia, he begins to notice strange things happening in the middle of the night. Someone seems to be roaming the cul de sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle?

The mysterious occurrences prompt Ethan to investigate what really happened that night, a quest that reunites him with former friends and neighbors and leads him into the woods that surround Hemlock Circle. Woods where Billy claimed monsters roamed and where a mysterious institute does clandestine research on a crumbling estate.

The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place—be it quiet forest or suburban street—is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present."

My thoughts:  I've read six other books by Riley Sager: I really liked three of them, disliked two, and thought the sixth landed somewhere in the middle. So I didn't know what to expect with this one. But I'm happy to report that I ended up really liking it. Ethan's guilt and grief felt so real, as did his desire to figure out what happened to his friend that long ago night. And Sager does an excellent job of interweaving the past with the present through the different characters' POVs. The way he lets the story unfold builds good suspense and made me want to keep reading. I also really liked the touch of supernatural in it. All in all, this is a fun mystery!

My rating:  4.5/5 stars.

Happy Reading!

The other three Riley Sager novels I really liked:

Home Before Dark

The Last Time I Lied

Lock Every Door

I did post reviews of the other three Sager books that I've read, so you can find them on my blog if you're interested in knowing what I didn't like about them.

Two quick recommendations...

 

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

She's a Vampyre; he's a Were.  They're supposed to be enemies.

She's grown up without love or family. He's never found his mate.

Their arranged marriage is a political alliance. 

They're not supposed to fall in love. 

But then their worlds collide and everything changes. 

This paranormal romance is such a fun read! Misery Lark is a sympathetic and spunky character. And I loved her swoony relationship with Lowe Moreland. There's also great banter and humor.   4.5/5 stars.

Midnight Movie by J.L. Bryan

Ellie Jordan is a ghost trapper. She and her partner, Stacey, are investigating the strange paranormal phenomena happening at a local Drive-In movie theater that's being renovated. Is it being haunted by the ghost of the previous owner? A murdered actress from the old movies that they used to show there? Or something more sinister? This is another fun ghostly mystery with humor, atmosphere and a suspenseful ending. Though it's not as scary as some of his other Ellie Jordan books. Ellie and Stacey and their boyfriends, Jacob and Michael, are great characters. I really like them....and this series.    4/5 stars.

Happy Reading!

Top Ten Tuesday...

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's theme:  BOOKS I WAS ASSIGNED TO READ IN SCHOOL. Here are ten books I had to read in high school, and a brief thought about each one.

1. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.   I liked Hawthorne's writing; and while I thought Pearl was strange, I admired Hester Prynne's quiet strength.

2. A Separate Peace by John Knowles.   So sad! But I've never forgotten Phineas or Gene. 

3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.   My favorite of the bunch...mostly because of Scout and Boo Radley.

4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.   This was my introduction to Fitzgerald, whose books I still really like. 

5. The Diary of Anne Frank.   I appreciate this book more now as an adult than I ever did at thirteen. Back then I thought it was a little boring.

6. The Princess Bride by William Goldman.   I got to read this one in my ninth grade English class and totally loved it. Such a fun book! All classics should be this fun.

7.  Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury.   Another favorite. This book epitomizes summer. (I also really liked reading Something Wicked This Way Comes.)

8. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway.   Ugh. I did not like anything about this one.

9.  Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.   Another really sad one...but good.

10. The Crucible by Arthur Miller.   Had to read this one then go see the play. Didn't love it, but didn't hate it either.

Happy Reading! 

Hearts of Darkness by Jana Monroe

 

When Jana Monroe was growing up all she wanted to do was right the wrongs of the world. This desire led her to become one of the few female police officers in Long Beach, California. A few years later, she applied for and got accepted into the FBI where she made a mark as one of only a few women in a male-dominated world. She worked cases in New Mexico and Florida before starting training with the FBI's world-renowned Behaviorial Science Unit. With the BSU, she consulted on more than 850 homicide cases, profiling serial killers and helping to catch murderers. She even coached Jodie Foster on her role as Clarice Starling in the movie The Silence of the Lambs.

Her biography, Hearts of Darkness, was my nonfiction read for this month, and it's such a compelling book! Monroe chronicles her time in the FBI with both honesty and humor. And her writing feels very conversational as she relates her most memorable cases and experiences. And she certainly saw the worst of humanity in her job. But she never stopped working to make a difference. Her resilience and intelligence shines through on every page. She's a remarkable woman. And this book is a mix of memoir and true crime that I found very interesting. 4/5 stars.

Happy Reading!

October's Bookish Art...

 

Rose Mead -- Molly Reading, 1920

"...we gravitate toward the stories we need in life. Whatever we are longing for--adventure, excitement, emotion, connection--we turn to stories that help us find it. Whatever questions we're struggling with--sometimes questions so deep, we don't even really know we're asking them--we look for answers in stories."          --Katherine Center, The Rom-Commers

 

Death From a Top Hat by Clayton Rawson

 

When an occultist is found dead in a locked room, and the only suspects are an escape artist, a ventriloquist, a clairvoyant and her husband, and a professional medium, the police call in the Great Merlini, a master magician himself, to help them figure out who the murderer is. Because it takes a magician to catch one. And Merlini is very skilled in magic and misdirection. And they're going to need all his skills of deduction when a second magician is murdered just like the first.

"Of course, Inspector," Merlini said, "the really difficult crimes to solve, as you know, are the ones in which anyone might have popped in and done it. But when, as in this case, it seems that no one could possibly have murdered either man, it means that, once we find out how they were done, we will know who did them. The impossible situation, by its very uniqueness, ultimately limits the possibilities." 

Clayton Rawson, a talented magician himself, wrote this mystery in 1938. And it is so much fun! I loved Merlini and how he and Ross Harte, the writer/journalist narrating the story, banter with the police and discuss all the possible ways a murderer could escape a locked room, quoting from the best detective novels and crime fiction afficianados. Their discussion of classic magic tricks was also fun. And while I didn't figure out whodunnit, the clues were there. And the Great Merlini was more than happy to explain them all at the end. I've read several Golden Age mysteries this year, and this is one of my favorites.

Happy Reading!

The Gathering by C.J. Tudor

 "Black clouds bristled on the horizon. The white snow undulated like a vast frozen sea. A storm was coming, something foul on the air. .... They were back. It was about to begin again."

Plot summary:  When a teen's throat is ripped out in Deadhart, Alaska, Detective Barbara Atkins, a homicide detective and doctor of forensic vampyr anthropology, is called in to investigate his murder. But she's walking into a powder keg. And no one is happy to see her. Because Deadhart is a town full of secrets. The citizens want to cull the nearby vampyr Colony. The vampyrs are fueling for a fight and very ready to defend themselves. The current murder resembles one from 25 years ago. The town's fanatical preacher has her own agenda. The nights are getting colder...and longer. And if the boy's murderer wasn't a vampyr, Barbara just might have a psychopath on her hands.

My thoughts:  The Gathering is a compelling mix of police investigation and psychological thriller with a touch of supernatural horror. And it reads fast. I really like the way Tudor writes, and this book is no exception. It's atmospheric and suspenseful. And Tudor has created an interesting world where vampyrs are a segregated but protected species, although one very much feared and disliked by humans. I did feel like there were A LOT of characters (and even more secrets!) to keep track of, some going far back into Deadhart's past, which made it feel a little convoluted at times. But everything gets wrapped up in a satisfying way at the end, which I appreciated. Though once again I could have done without the epilogue. All in all, I'd give this one 4 stars. 

Happy Reading!

Other books by C.J. Tudor that I've enjoyed:

The Burning Girls

The Chalk Man

Randomness....

Recently finished reading:  Calamity by Constance Fay.

This space opera is an appealing combination of science fiction, adventure & romance.

It reminded me a lot of Jessie Mihalik's Hunt the Stars and Polaris Rising.  4.5 stars.

My library haul for October:

Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates

One by One and The Teacher by Frieda McFadden

Death From a Top Hat by Clayton Rawson

Middle of the Night by Riley Sager

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

The Gathering by C.J. Tudor

Always Practice Safe Hex by Juliette Cross

Hearts of Darkness by Jana Monroe

The Devil Came Down the Mountain by Christopher Bond

And my list of glad things that brought me some joy and happiness last month:

• All the beautiful changing fall leaves; I love the autumn colors and the cooler weather! 
• My work schedule changed--which means I have fewer hours, but I now have Fridays off, something I'm really enjoying. Four day work weeks kind of rock.
• I found a new favorite song:  Surviving by Kaz Hawkins. If you like songs with a bluesy sound check her out!
• My favorite college football team, BYU, is 5-0 so far this season. Nice for them to be on a winning streak; here's hoping they can keep it up.
• And I'm loving ABCs new show High Potential. It's so nice to have something new to watch on TV that is both smart and funny.