Haunting...

How would you like to visit one of these haunted castles?

Don't they look cool?

Burg Frankenstein, Darmstadt, Germany

Bran Castle (Dracula's Castle), Romania

Leap Castle, Ireland

Happy Halloween!

(And be sure to check out My Favorite Halloween Movies!)

Fantastic Fiction...

In The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter, Theodora Goss weaves together a captivating mystery involving Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson and the daughters of several classic mad scientists: Mary Jekyll, Diana Hyde, Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherine Moreau, and Justine Frankenstein. Their fathers were all involved in the Societe des Alchimistes, a society devoted to helping humans and animals evolve through transmutation whose strange and terrible experiments involved their very own daughters! And while these men are all dead now, someone from their society has been killing women in London ... and stealing their body parts. Mary Jekyll is determined to figure out her father's part in the society, who this new murderer is, and what his ultimate goal may be.

There are lots of monsters and adventure in this one, and I enjoyed every page. I think it helps to be a little familiar with the original classics that Goss draws from, but she does a good job of having each character narrate enough of her own story to catch you up of you're not familiar with them or their infamous fathers. Mary Jekyll and Beatrice Rappaccini were by far my favorite of the bunch, but all of these headstrong heroines are well-drawn and memorable. And the mystery is a good one, too. But then any mystery with Sherlock Holmes in it is one I know I'll like. For me, this was just a fun read. It's also my fourth and last book for this year's R.I.P.

Happy Reading! 

So....

I was in a bit of a bookish funk last week. Do you ever get in one of those? For some reason, I just couldn't seem to find a book I wanted to read. I started several different ones that all sounded good:

But in the end, I didn't finish any of them; I just wasn't in the right bookish mood. So, I returned them to the library and grabbed a book off my shelves instead: The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston.

This is a book I've been meaning to read for a couple of years. And you know what? It did the trick! Douglas Preston's captivating writing pulled me into the narrative and I got caught up in the history of this lost city and all the previous jungle expeditions that trekked through the inhospitable and unexplored Honduran rain forest in search of this ancient legend. It was fascinating and fun. And I always love that primeval jungle setting. Best of all, this adventurous nonfiction tale pulled me out of my bookish funk. Gotta love a book good enough to do that!

Happy Reading!

Similar nonfiction read:

October's Bookish Art...

Edward Burne-Jones -- Portrait of Katie Lewis

"One must always be careful of books and what is inside them, 

for words have the power to change us."

--Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel

The Anomaly by Michael Rutger

       "You're that guy ... The You Tuber. That archeologist guy. Unsolved mysteries and stuff."

       This, I should note, seldom happens. My grin in response was charming, and the accompanying shrug could have been used as a Wikipedia illustration of self-deprecation.

       "Guilty as charged," I said. "I am indeed Nolan Moore."

Nolan Moore is a failed screenwriter who is now the face of The Anomaly Files, a small-time YouTube show that seeks to uncover unexplained phenomena and other strange mysteries. This time he and his crew--his producer, Ken, assistant producer, Molly, and cameraman, Pierre, as well as a journalist and one of their new backers--are on the trail of a 1909 explorer who claims to have found a mysterious cavern hidden somewhere high up in the Grand Canyon reportedly full of wonderful things. This time their expedition is backed by the Palinhelm Foundation, and they have a shot at making the move to cable TV if they can actually find this cavern. Despite his immense amount of research on this project, Nolan doesn't really believe it'll be there, so when they do find a cave where he predicted it would be, he's as surprised as everyone else. Eager to enter and explore, none of them stop to question if what's hidden deep inside this lost cavern should be shown to the world...or if there's a reason what's inside should stay hidden forever.

It felt strange to be standing in a place where at some point -- hundreds or thousands of years ago -- there had been an intense fire and great heat. That was gone now, along with any hope of understanding what had caused it. All that remained was an unpleasant olfactory echo. And us, stuck, with no way out.

 The suspense mounts slowly in this one, but I thought it was a fun escapist adventure. But then, I've always liked survival stories that take place in mysterious caves. And you'll never guess what's in this one! Nolan is a fun character who doesn't take himself too seriously but is a surprisingly good person to have around in an emergency. I liked him and his crew (even though I thought Ken used the f-word a little too much.) There are some good twists along the way as they explore the cave, and some tense and suspenseful moments as they try to find a way back out. I liked Rutger's writing, though I did think the ending was a bit fantastic and out-there. Still, The Anomaly is a pretty entertaining read. (And it'd make a great Syfy movie.)

Happy Reading!

Mystery & suspense...

Title & Author:  The Retreat by Mark Edwards

The Setting:  Nyth Bran, a writer's retreat in North Wales

The Main Characters:  
JULIA -- the owner of Nyth Bran who's still grieving the disappearance of her young daughter, Lily.
LUCAS RADCLIFFE -- a horror writer who's working on his next book...or trying to anyway.
MAX, SUZI, and KAREN -- the other writers at the retreat.
ZARA SULLIVAN -- the private  detective Lucas hires to look into Lily's disappearance.

The Mystery:  Three years ago, eight-year-old Lily disappeared along the River Dee. Most assumed she drowned, but her body was never found. Did her disappearance have anything to do with the legend of the Red Widow? Did a stranger take her? Or is she still alive as her mother believes? Her disappearance is not the only mystery at Nyth Bran. Strange things have been happening at night:  a girl's voice singing, an unexplained smell of fear, and a whispered warning, "You're not welcome here!" Are Lucas and the others being haunted by Lily's ghost? Or by something more sinister? And what is watching Lucas and Julia from down in the woods?

My Thoughts:  This is a tangled and twisty, compelling and eerie mystery. I didn't guess where it was headed, but I happily went along for the ride. It's entertaining; and it's a page-turner! Lucas was my favorite character, but maybe that's because I've always been drawn to characters who are writers. I also really liked the way Mark Edwards writes. I'd definitely read him again. The Retreat is a fun R.I.P. read.

Happy Reading!

Randomness....

Got the time?

Here is the perfect clock for all of us bookworms:

(Don't you love it?)

On unwanted blog comments.  Like all of you, I get spam comments from time to time on my blog. All from Anonymous, of course. They're mostly annoying, but sometimes I do get a good laugh out of them. Like these recent ones:

• I used to be able to find good advice from your blog posts.
• With exactly what went via your head: uhh.
• Heart tattoos can encompass lots of senses.
• Generally Ido nnot read article onn b1ogs, but I would like to say that this write-up very forced mee to try and do sso!.
• Hack my singing monsters.
• Plus, solar panels are not transportable either.

So, there you go. Pithy comments from questionable sources that I usually delete as spam, but thought I'd share this time around. Hope you got a laugh from them like I did. (The last one is my favorite.)

Have you seen these Strange Planet cartoons by Nathan W. Pyle? They're all about aliens interpreting life here on earth in ways that always make me smile. Here are two of my favorites... the one with the three-eyed dog, and the one where they're watching a horror movie:

Funny, right?
Pyle has a book of these clever cartoons coming out next month:

And I definitely want it!

Happy Reading!