November Spotlight

 

I really liked In The Garden of Spite and I just recently picked up The Witch in the Well. So I'm beyond excited that we're getting another book by Camilla Bruce this year! On top of that, it's a re-telling of the serial killer family I grew up learning about. I lived not far from where the Bender Family cabin once stood. It's one of the True Crime cases I've always devoured anything written about it. Probably because it's a terrible thing that pretty much happened in my hometown. There's something macabre about it.

A sinister novel based on the real Bloody Benders, a family of serial killers in the old Westbound by butchery and obscured by the shadows of American history.

The winds shift nervously on the Kansas plain whispering of travelers lost and buried, whispering of witches. Something dark and twisted has taken root at the Bender Inn.

At first, the townspeople of Cherryvale welcome the rising medium Kate Bender and her family. Kate's messages from the Beyond give their tedious dreams hope and her mother's potions cure their little ills—for a price. No one knows about their other business, the shortcut to a better life. And why shouldn’t their family prosper? They’re careful. It’s only from those who are marked, those who travel alone and can easily disappear, that the Benders demand their pound of flesh.

But even a gifted seer like Kate can make a misstep. Now as the secrets festering beneath the soil of the family orchard threaten to bring them all to ruin, the Benders must sharpen their craft—or vanish themselves.

HAPPY READING!!

October Wrap Up

Goodbye October, and hello to the Gloomy Months. While it's no longer Spooky Season for a lot of people, it's always Spooky Season in my reading corner. Even if most of the Halloween lights and mugs are back in storage. Now it's time to gear up for a small trip to see the family for what I think will be our small Holiday get-together. After work will be in full Holiday swing and I'll have to start my gift shopping. How are we in the last two months of the year though? I can already see the start of 2023. I'm not ready to start what will be my 35th year on this planet...

Books Read: 8
BINGO Books: 0

Pages Read: 1534 

Currently Reading: So many, many, things! 

 

Somehow I managed to only buy one book this month. Don't ask me how I did this because I do not know, but it was totally worth it! Because I loved the Vintage Halloween Party & Cookbook. Both my roommate, some friends, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I have so many opinions about crepe paper dresses.

On top of that book, I received two others from Quirk Books, Hanging with Vampires (you can see my review here) and Toil and Trouble (which I haven't picked up yet). So a great month on books even if it was a smaller haul. Something I think my poor bookshelves appreciated. 

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous at Breaking the Spine.

Fall is bursting out all over Vermont, and while the rest of the Congress enjoys its recess, Senator Bernie Sanders has returned to his beloved home state for a weekend of events in Eagle Creek, “America’s #1 Leaf Peeping Destination.” It’s up to intern and Eagle Creek native Crash Robertson to keep the senator on schedule—and out of trouble.

Crash’s hopes for a quiet homecoming are dashed, however, when the lifeless body of a community banker with ties to “Big Maple” is found in Lake Champlain. While the sheriff’s department closes the case as an accident, a leaked autopsy indicates foul play…with a trail of syrup leading directly to one of the senator’s oldest friends. Bernie, taking a page from the cozy mysteries he’s addicted to, enlists Crash in a quest to uncover the killer’s true identity.

If Crash allows the senator to go too far off-script, it will be the end of her yet-to-begin political career. But as the suspect list grows to include a tech bro set on “disrupting” the maple syrup industry, struggling small-business owners, and even Crash’s own family, she realizes there’s more on the line than her own future. If the unlikely duo can’t solve the mystery of the Maple Murderer before they strike again, Bernie’s life-long fight for justice may come to an unplanned end.

Why I'm Waiting: Andrew Shaffer is one of my favorite authors. So I'm excited about his next book. In fact, I pre-ordered it the day I got the email that pre-orders were open!

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

 

When a girl disappears, who do you suspect?

When 17-year-old Hunter Gifford wakes in the hospital on the night of homecoming, he's shocked to learn he and his girlfriend, Chloe Summers, have been in a terrible car accident. Hunter has no memory of the crash, and his shock turns to horror when he is told Chloe's blood has been found in the car―but she has disappeared.

Back at school, his fellow students taunt him, and his former best friend starts making a true-crime documentary about the case―one that points the finger directly at Hunter. And just when things can't get any worse, Chloe's mother stands in front of the entire town at a candlelight vigil and accuses Hunter of murder.

Under mounting pressure from the police, Hunter takes matters into his own hands by questioning anyone who might know the truth and posting videos to prove his innocence. When Hunter learns he and Chloe were seen arguing loudly outside the dance, he faces a sickening possibility. Was he angry enough to kill the person he loved?

HAPPY READING!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

It's the spookiest day of all! Going to start today off with some spooky reads and then move on to spooky movies, and probably eat way too many snacks. Just the usual setup for my Halloween! Personally, I think it's a pretty solid plan. There will probably be pizza involved because that's the perfect movie food in my opinion. As for snacks I plan on eating my weight in sour patch kids. So many sour patch kids.

Whatever the rest of ya'll do today. I hope you have fun, stay safe, and maybe get the crap scared of you just a little bit!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Cover Runway Sunday

 

They say don't judge a book by its cover, but we all know we do it. Sometimes it's the cover that originally catches our eye, drawing us to give a book a closer look. It's the first thing we see, our first impression. Every Sunday I'm going to post some of my favorite covers of books coming soon!

Who knew fighting for a living wage could be so deadly? Bernie Sanders and his Gen Z intern are drawn into a murder investigation in a small Vermont town in this hilarious spin on cozy mysteries from the New York Times bestselling author of Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery

Fall is bursting out all over Vermont, and while the rest of the Congress enjoys its recess, Senator Bernie Sanders has returned to his beloved home state for a weekend of events in Eagle Creek, “America’s #1 Leaf Peeping Destination.” It’s up to intern and Eagle Creek native Crash Robertson to keep the senator on schedule—and out of trouble.

Crash’s hopes for a quiet homecoming are dashed, however, when the lifeless body of a community banker with ties to “Big Maple” is found in Lake Champlain. While the sheriff’s department closes the case as an accident, a leaked autopsy indicates foul play…with a trail of syrup leading directly to one of the senator’s oldest friends. Bernie, taking a page from the cozy mysteries he’s addicted to, enlists Crash in a quest to uncover the killer’s true identity.

If Crash allows the senator to go too far off-script, it will be the end of her yet-to-begin political career. But as the suspect list grows to include a tech bro set on “disrupting” the maple syrup industry, struggling small-business owners, and even Crash’s own family, she realizes there’s more on the line than her own future. If the unlikely duo can’t solve the mystery of the Maple Murderer before they strike again, Bernie’s life-long fight for justice may come to an unplanned end.

HAPPY READING!!

What Moves the Dead - Review

Author: T. Kingfisher

Genre: Novella / Horror

Format: Hardback

Pages: 176

Well, know that's a new fear unlocked. I already have a weird allergy to mushrooms. Now that combined with this book is like a whole new fear I didn't know that I had. And, I don't if it's the mushroom part that freaks me out, or the side effect, or like the talking thing. You know what, it's all of the above. Then entire combination of everything in this book just absolutely now, and now my dreams have been weird. And, I want to be upset but this is why I read this book. To have an actual reaction to the sorry, and once again one of Kingfisher's books messed me up. Just like I knew it was going to.

For the record, I've started Twisted Ones twice, and just the alien creature vibes screw with my soul so much I've never been able to finish it. I have many, many reasons for this, and if you want to hear about them. Drop me a line in the comment section. But now, onto the review.

Despite everything said above, I loved this book. Literal decades have passed since I read Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe. I was in high school, and all I remember is the bare bones of the story. I also remember there being some weird creepy vibe between the siblings so huge thanks for that subtext not happening in this story. But! That being said, I really didn't need to remember more than the bare bones because Kingfisher took that story and made it her own.

Easton as the narrator was amazing because instantly I liked kan. There are few things better than when the narrator whose telling the story has no idea what was going on. But, you have to give it to Easton, kan never stopped trying to help, trying to solve the mystery of what was happening to the Ushers. Seeing the story through Easton's eyes is what gets your heart rate up as read. Once the story picks up the pace and everything starts to fall apart. That's when this story gets hard to put down. Because Easton has a theory, you as the reader have a similar theory, and now you have to know. 

How is the house going to burn?

Now if you've made it this far in the review, you'll notice that the last chapter was a little different. That's because the use of pronouns in What Moves the Dead is a little different from the world that Kingfisher created. Ka and kan are used in place of they and them, and Kingfisher even goes into a bit of a fictional history lesson about more pronouns from Easton's homeland. I thought it was really cool how that little bit of fan fact from Easton later tied into the creepiness of the book. But, it was a solid and interesting way of weaving nonbinary language into the storyline. And, hopefully, I did them justice above.

The other thing I need to mention, and I love this about books, is I put this book down when I got hyper-focused on another book I was reading. When I came back to What Moves the Dead I was able to pick the story back up like I hadn't put it down at all. That's how well this story flows because I about a week had passed since I last picked it up. And, for context I"d finished two books and worked an almost fifty-hour week between readings. So that's a huge plus for me.

I need to pick up more books by T. Kingfisher. Maybe even try to give The Twisted Ones another go and just accept the fact I'll sleep with the lamp on for a few nights.

HAPPY READING!!

National Frankenstein Friday

Okay, so I don't think is an official holiday, and I know that there is another Frankenstein day on August 30th for Mary Shelley's birthday. But, I love the idea of the last Friday of October being another day to celebrate the book, Frankenstein. My first time reading this book was back in elementary school. The library I spent my summers in had these abridged versions of the old classics. It's where I found my love for classics, but Frankenstein has always been one of my favorites. Probably because I've always had a love for the mad scientist sub-genre of science fiction. 

It wasn't until high school that I read the full version of Mary Shelley's famous book or learned anything about its author. A history that made me fall in love with the stories even more. I don't know how many times I've read the book, but as odd as it may sound, it's one of my comfort books. In fact, a friend of mine of the current copy I have after I trashed another paperback a few years ago, and I'm so in love with the cover and the binding. It's absolutely gorgeous. 

Flash forward to college and I finally got introduced to Boris Karloff's movie version of Frankenstein, and it's still my favorite adaptation of the book. However, however, the stage version with Benedict Cumberbatch and the other Sherlock Holmes was really good. And, of course, Frankenweenie can not go without a mention. That is a Spooky Season must-watch in my house.

So yeah, I've watched a lot of the good, and the very bad, adaptations of Frankenstein, and I'll continue to do so because honestly, all the classic monsters stories are my favorite. But there is something about watching Adam come to life and Shelley's writing that I've always loved. 

Also, as I'm writing this I realize I haven't read this book for a couple of years. I should probably do a re-read soon! But, drop me a comment and tell me your favorite Frankenstein movie, re-telling, or TV show!!

HAPPY READING!!

Cryptid Creatures: A Field Guide - Review

 

Author: Kelly Milner Halls

Genre: Nonfiction

Format: Paperback

Pages: 240

This was one of those books where it popped on my Amazon as something their algorithm thought I'd enjoy. And, it wasn't wrong. I've loved cryptid stories for a long time. Whether it's something completely out there that probably doesn't actually exist to those that have actually been proven as real at some point. So this sat on my Wishlist for a bit, until I finally added it to a purchase because I always end up doing that.

Since then it's done what so many books have done, sat on my shelf. But, I read the United States of Cryptids earlier this year. Followed by a book about the Mothman, and now during Spooky Season I figured, there wasn't a better time.

It actually proved a great idea. This was absolutely adorable, and the perfect way to unwind after two long work weeks. Cryptid Creatures covers the whole globe with stories of monsters and creatures alike. Each new creature (or monster) gets a factoid and a small story about sighting, discoveries, and how it was brought into the public light.

What I loved the most about this book was the mix of creatures that definitely don't exist, but have a fantastic story behind them, to have creatures science has proven to do, or did at one point, exist. So, there is that nice mix of fantasy with my science. And, fear because I have a healthy fear of the ocean. It is big, mostly unexplored, and full of things that could, and probably would eat me.

Anyway, not only is this book jammed packed with fun information about all these creatures but it's illustrated as well. I'm not just talking that each creature gets an illustration because they do. But we get a look at their skull, occasionally the teeth they could eat me with, but also what a baby one would like. A couple was absolutely terrifying both big and small.

But, baby Mothman was adorable! Like kind of want to make it into a tattoo, adorable! 

That kind of ties into my next positive about this book. It's a book for all ages. I don't think there was anything too scary, but it would be easy to skip some of the creatures your young reader wasn't ready for. But also learn about some news from other parts of the world.

I thought it was cute and an enjoyable read. I read it over the course of a week after work before bed. Which was a great way to unwind from my day. Though I'd love to thank this author for unlocking a new fear for me. Could have gone my whole life without knowing the phrase Drop Bear...

Thanks for that.

HAPPY READING!!

Waiting on Wednesday

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they are books that have yet to be released but don't have to be. It is based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous at Breaking the Spine.

Welcome to the reality game show that'll scare you to death! Have you got what it takes to last the night?

On the reality show It's Behind You!, five contestants competing for prize money must survive the night in the dark and dangerous Umber Gorge caves, rumored to be haunted by the Puckered Maiden, a ghost who eats the hearts of her victims. But is it the malevolent spirit they should fear, or each other?

As the production crew ramps up the frights, tensions rise and the secrets of the cast member start coming to light. Each of these teenagers has hidden motives for taking part in the show. But could one of them be murder?

Why I'm Waiting: Cause this sounds like it might freak me right out!

HAPPY READING!!

New Release Tuesday

This celebration of forgotten magical women, from Salem to WitchTok, is a fascinating and empowering read for anyone interested in occultism or feminist history.

Meet the mystical women and nonbinary people from US history who found strength through the supernatural—and those who are still forging the way today. From the celebrity spirit mediums of the nineteenth century to contemporary activist witches hexing the patriarchy, women have long used magic and mysticism to seize the power they’re so often denied.

Organized around different approaches women have taken to the occult over the decades—using the supernatural for political gain, seeking fame and fortune as spiritual practitioners, embracing their witchy identities, and more—this book shines a light on underappreciated magical pioneers, including:

• Dion Fortune, who tried to marshal a magical army against Hitler
• Bri Luna, the Hoodwitch, social media star and serious magical practitioner
• Joan Quigley, personal psychic to Nancy Reagan
• Marie Laveau, voodoo queen of New Orleans
• Elvira, queer goth sex symbol who defied the Satanic Panic
• And many more!

HAPPY READING!!