2014 Murder, Monsters & Mayhem And Other October Fun!

Inspired by Tanya at Girlxoxo a couple of years ago, I adopted her tradition of reading spooky, creepy books during October to celebrate the Halloween season! I've been searching for some challenges, memes, or readathons to join along these lines and found a few that are just what I was looking for:

I discovered (again, thanks to Girlxoxo) that Jenn's Bookshelves hosts Murder, Monsters & Mayhem during October, so consider this my sign-up post!

I have already started my spooky reading month:

• I finished The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, a novel about a time-traveling serial killer - a bit gruesome and seriously gripping!
• I also finished The Other Side of Dark by Sarah Smith, a teen/YA novel about a modern-day girl who sees ghosts, with a strong historical flavor. Fascinating and spooky!
• I am currently listening to Nightmares! by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller on audio, a recent middle-grade release about a boy whose nightmares come to life. It's been excellent so far, especially since it's read by Jason, an actor.
• And I recently started Frankenstein, the monster classic by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, on my Kindle. It's great to finally read the original after seeing so many movie adaptations.

And, hopefully, there will be more creepy reads this month, too!

Two other ghostly novels that I read in September would be perfect for this month:

• The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo, a novel about the Chinese afterlife
• The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson, a teen/YA novel about serial murders that is partly narrated by a ghostly entity.

For more ideas on what to read this month, check out these older posts:

•  Top Ten Books for Halloween (2010 post)
• 13 Creepy Books for October, a list from BookPage 2013
• Top Ten Books for Kids & Teens/YA for Halloween (2010)

And there are two other fun October events I plan to participate in:

My Shelf Confessions is hosting Wonderfully Wicked Read-A-Thon from October 17 - 27. I have NEVER participated in a read-a-thon before, so I am looking forward to this one! Head over to the blog to sign up and join me.

Finally, Girlxoxo has come up with a Bingo for Spook'Tober game that looks like a lot of fun! I enjoyed Books on the Nightstand's Summer Bingo game, so I'm sure I will like this October version, too. Head over to Girlxoxo to print out your Horror Reading Card (aka Bingo card). No signing up for this one, just join in the fun!

What do you plan to read to celebrate this spooky month?