My favorite month. Which is a little different during a pandemic. But I have still enjoyed the decorations, crafts, movies, gifts, and especially my spooky reads.
My mom and I exchanged haunted house advent calendars. We bought two from Michael's and we each took one home and painted it. Then we filled the little drawers with goodies and mailed them to each other. It has been a cute and fun way to celebrate the month! Here is the one I sent to her:
I also had several little gifts for Kevin and he was sweet enough to give me several Halloween gifts, too! He also got into some of the decorations, so we both enjoyed the month together. On Halloween, we took a gingerbread Christmas village and made it a gingerbread Halloween village. And I got to FaceTime with my mom to see her in costume as well as my brother, his daughter, and his girlfriend in their super cute jellyfish costumes! And I got to chat with four of my best friends virtually and just hang out.
Work continues to be killer. I've lost a decent amount of weight due to working in the B3 so much. I've been trying to gain it back by eating Halloween candy ;) Despite that, and how hard it can be, and how much it makes my back and sometimes my legs hurt, I actually enjoy working in the B3. It is something that I always wanted to do and I'm still glad that I get to do that and get to work with infectious diseases, which is my scientific passion. So even though some days/weeks are hard, I do feel like I get a lot out of it.
I had a list of books that was rather ambitious. I knew I wouldn't complete them all, but I did read some great ones this month! Here are some short reviews. (Maybe consider some of them for your spooky reads next year.)
Title: The Sundial
Author: Shirley Jackson
Synopsis: Following the funeral of one of the Halloran family members, Aunt Fanny has a vision foretelling the end of the world. But everyone in the Halloran mansion will be saved. The Halloran family and their guests figure out what it will mean to be the only ones left on earth.
Thoughts: This was a book club read. We always have two books to choose from (and some people read both) and I picked this one because it is Shirley Jackson and because the book club meet was at the beginning of October. I enjoyed We Have Always Lived in the Castle, but hadn't read anything else by her. This book was... strange. I read it very quickly and thought about it in between. I'm glad I read it as part of a book club because we had some good laughs discussing it. Even though I found it odd and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it, it was definitely interesting and I enjoyed it over all.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Title: The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein
Author: Kiersten White
Narrator: Katharine Lee McEwan
Synopsis: Elizabeth Lavenza becomes companion, best friend, and confidante to Victor Frankenstein. To be saved from her abusive caretaker and secure her future with the Frankensteins, she has to become exactly who they need and want her to be. Behind the facade, she is calculating, smart, and quick. But who is she really?
Thoughts: I loved this book. It was so weird and creative. I loved the mashup of the classic story with Mary Shelley herself. It was clever and I really enjoyed it. If you like Frankenstein (or even if you didn't like it), this book is still enjoyable. I only read Frankenstein once, years ago, and didn't much care for it and I don't remember enough of it. But I was always interested in Mary Shelley and how she came to write Frankenstein. Despite not loving the book, I do admire Mary Shelley. And this was just a great new perspective on the whole story.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Title: Horrid
Author: Katrina Leno
Synopsis: An author letter came with this book that I am going to copy here: "Have you ever seen a flower so beautiful you wanted to taste it? Read a book so perfect you wanted to rip a page out and eat it? Loved something so much you wanted to consume it, to let it live inside you forever? This is a story about those obsessions, and about spooky autumn nights, and about old family secrets. This is a story about a girl with a little curl of hair right in the middle of her forehead. This is a story about what it means to be consumed--with love, with beauty, with fear. Maybe read it with the lights on..."
Thoughts: This was the September Owlcrate book (and this box has been one of my favorite Owlcrates, too). I don't like horror, despite my love of Halloween, so I was skeptical, but it sounded really good. Plus, I have always loved the poem about the girl with a curl in the middle of her forehead: "And when she was good, she was very very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid." And it is young adult, so I figured it would be more "horror-lite." But I did not get the ending and the redemptions and wrap ups that I was wanting. But that was oddly OK with me for this book. It was creepy and weird, but I must have enjoyed it because I ate this book up! (Not literally.) It was strange. Not my normal read, but I liked it and I am glad I stepped out of my comfort zone a bit.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Title: Strange Practice, Dreadful Company, and Grave Importance.
Author: Vivian Shaw
Narrator: Susanna Hampton
Synopsis: Greta Helsing is a doctor, but her clientele are a bit different: vampires, ghouls, mummies. She treats the undead (or "differently alive," as she says in the second book) and provides them much needed medical care. But a cult of violent monks, crazy vampires, and creatures from alternate universes are causing mayhem and going after the very creatures that Greta cares for. She and her supernatural friends might be the world's only hope.
Thoughts: These were re-reads because these books are fun. I enjoy them and I like the references to other classic horror stories. I own the books and decided to listen to them this time around. It was nice to hear how some of the names are pronounced (or can be pronounced, I suppose). This series has gotten me to read other classics like the Vampyre and Varney the Vampire. I recommend this series for sure.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Title: Eventide
Author: Sarah Goodman
Synopsis: Following the death of their mother and the subsequent madness of their father, Verity and her younger sister, Lilah, are sent to a small town in Arkansas. But once they arrive in the small farm town, they are separated as Lilah is adopted by the local school teacher and her uncle, and Verity is sent to work on a farm until she turns 18 in a few months. But there are strange things happening in the town. And the general suspicion the local people have for the woods is just weird. Until Verity starts to uncover old secrets, including old secrets about her own family.
Thoughts: This came in a book box I tried in October (Unplugged Book Box). It sounded like a good book for October, so I picked it up. Parts of it seemed historically inaccurate. It was an alright story, but not my favorite. I still liked it enough to finish it, but thought it was just OK overall.
Rating: 2 1/2 to 3 stars out of 5
I worked on reading more of Varney the Vampire, but the whole collection is soooo long and old-fashioned. It is going to take me several Octobers to actually finish it. I also started A Wicked Magic, but didn't get very far, so I will pick it up again next year. I started Jackaby, also, but I am far enough in that I will finish it in November.
Favorite book read this month: Probably the Greta Helsing trilogy
Least favorite book read this month: Eventide
I have now read 79 books towards my goal of 80 for the year. I will consider raising my goal a little.
For the alphabet challenge, I completed letter E, started letter J, and I will probably count V for Varney the Vampire, even though I didn't finish it.
That's all for October. I hope everyone else had a good spooky month!
