It's Monday 10/31! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

I love Halloween and our family traditions--it's my favorite holiday! We enjoyed some seasonal fun this weekend, a super big deal because I was able to enjoy some fun. I'm still not fully out of this relapse or back to my usual baseline, but I am doing well enough to get out of the house a bit and move around more.

Friday evening, friends invited us to an outdoor fundraiser dinner for our local Food Bank. It was a beautiful fall evening, held at the Food Bank's farm property. We sat next to a lake and watched the sunset, enjoyed campfires set around the venue, and sampled some delicious food grown on the farm and prepared by their culinary students. I can't remember the last time I went out on a Friday night (luckily for me, this was early!), and we had a great time.

 

Sitting near the lake at a Food Bank event

Saturday, our son and his girlfriend joined us for our traditional visit to a nearby farm market for pumpkins, cider, and fresh, hot apple cider donuts! 

Cider and donuts ... yum!

 

And Sunday, my husband and I carved pumpkins. Our younger son, who lives with us, opted to go out with friends to watch football, but my husband and I kept up the tradition!

My husband and I with our pumpkins

 

 

Our jack-o-lanterns (lightning bolts from me!)

Today, I am SO missing the days when our sons were young and Halloween was one of the biggest highlights of the year! Their friends would come over, and the kids would all be so excited getting ready to go out. Is there anything better for a kid than trick-or-treating? Running around your neighborhood in the dark with your friends, dressed in costumes, and getting free candy! So, for my own nostalgia, here are some of our favorite family costumes from Halloweens past.

The Super Family!

 

Knight, Robin Hood, Little John & Maid Marion

Star Wars family

Rock Stars!

 __________

On the Blog

I only had time for one review last week:

Fiction Review: The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters - classic detective story set in an apocalyptic world.   

I have thoroughly enjoyed every book I read for the R.I.P. Challenge, immersing myself in the dark, suspenseful, and creepy!

Starting tomorrow (or whenever I finish my last spooky book), I will be participating in Nonfiction November, like I do every year. Helen's Book Blog, one of my favorites, has a great post up with all the details and hosts of Nonfiction November. I'll be posting my Nonfiction November video tomorrow, with my "pile of possibilities."

__________

 On Video

I posted two new videos to my YouTube channel last week:

Friday Reads 10-28-22 - Happy Halloween! - my last two books of the R.I.P. Challenge, both about ghosts! 

  End of the Year Book Tag - all about what I plan to read the rest of the year - how is it almost November??

__________

What We're Reading

We're all enjoying the last of the R.I.P. Challenge:  

 

I finished reading a suspense novel with a supernatural twist: A Furnace for Your Foe by Matty Dalrymple. This is book four in her Ann Kinnear series about a woman who can sense and communicate with spirits and often helps solve mysteries by talking to the dead. Here, Ann has traveled back to Mount Desert Island in Maine (one of my favorite places) to record a documentary about her abilities, along with a revered colleague, Garrick Masser. A wealthy man named Leo just died while hiking a trail he knew well, falling to his death from a steep spot. Soon, Shelby, his hiking partner and a colleague at his company, goes missing. Ann begins talking with Leo, as the documentary proceeds and the mysteries build. This was a good one--very twisty and suspenseful. And I love the characters in these books and the way that Matty writes. If you're interested in trying this series, start with book one, The Sense of Death.

Now, I am reading another ghosty novel, The Hotel Neversink by Adam O'Fallon Price. This story is set in the Catskills, at an old hotel set up on a hill overlooking the countryside and the Neversink River. Children keep disappearing from the hotel and the nearby area, and the reader knows from the start there are ghost(s) on the hotel property. This novel is written in an unusual way. Each chapter takes place in a different year and from a different character's perspective, so the story moves gradually from 1950, when the first child disappears, to 2012. The changing characters, mostly staff and guests at the hotel, provide a wide range of perspectives. I'm really enjoying it so far.

 

On audio, I've been listening this week to Denis Ever After by Tony Abbott, a middle-grade ghost story. Denis is a boy who died five years ago when he was seven years old. His body was found on the Georgia monument at Gettysburg after he was kidnapped, and the crime was never solved. Denis is enjoying Port Haven, a sort of interim place for the dead to gradually let go of the living world so that they can move on. Denis has met his great-grandmother, Gigi, there. He left behind a twin brother, Matt, along with his mom and dad, and when Denis checks in on his family, he is upset to see that they are not doing well. They have not been able to let go of the horrible and mysterious circumstances of his death and move on. Denis shows himself to Matt--and endures great pain and repercussions, and the two boys set out to solve Denis's murder to save their family. This immersive, unique novel is wonderful, though as Denis gradually remembers his kidnapping and death, it is quite disturbing. Best for older middle-graders or young teens (or adults--it's excellent!).

 

My husband, Ken, is still reading Into the Water by Paula Hawkins, a novel I found for him in one of our local Little Free Libraries (my LFL tour at the link). We both read and enjoyed Hawkins' The Girl on the Train. This newer novel is about two women who show up dead in a river that runs through town. There are multiple narrators and timelines shifting back and forth, but now that he's well into it, he says he knows who everyone is! It seems to be engrossing.

 

Our son, 28, is enjoying Confessor, book ten in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. He's been plowing through these books and loves this series!

 __________

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.  

What are you and your family reading this week?