It's Monday 11/3! What Are You Reading?

Huh? What? November?? How'd that happen? I feel like Rip Van Winkle. I spent much of my favorite fall season sick, so I feel like I missed it. But the sun is out today, those wild winds from the weekend have died down, and it's supposed to be back in the 60's by tomorrow.

No matter what the season or the weather, we love our books! Here's what we read last week:

• I finished The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown, the selection for last week's neighborhood book group discussion. In a rare agreement, everyone in our group loved the nonfiction book!
• Now I am reading another nonfiction book (a lot for me!), Bill Bryson's One Summer: America, 1927, for another book group meeting this week! It's interesting so far, though I wish I had time to read a novel in between the two nonfiction books. I will never finish it in time for the discussion Thursday, but I'm enjoying it so far.
• I finished the audio, On a Clear Day by Walter Dean Myers, a teen/YA dystopian novel. It definitely has some flaws, but I enjoyed it - just wish it had been a little longer so that it might have felt more complete.
• I started and finished another audio, the middle-grade novel The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm, a fun story about a twelve-year old girl who suddenly finds herself hanging out with her fourteen-year old grandfather, when he succeeds in his search for a cure for old age. It's a combination of science, real-life preteen and teen scenarios, science fiction, and a nice dose of humor. I really liked it.
• My husband, Ken, finished The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, about a time-traveling serial killer, that I read last month. He enjoyed it.
• Now he's reading his birthday gift from me, Personal by Lee Child, part of his favorite series.
• Craig, 16, is reading The Crucible by Arthur Miller for his American Lit class. I'd like to read it when he's finished - that's one I missed in school.

 My blog posts last week:

More Spooky Halloween Reads - some great gift ideas for the holidays in these lists, even though the spooky season is over.

Review of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, a classic that was far more thoughtful than I expected.

Review of Nightmares! by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller, a middle-grade novel that was great on audio.

Saturday Snapshot, with a few photos from our Halloween celebrations.

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.   

Saturday Snapshot 11/1

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

Halloween is over now, but here are a few photos of our Halloween fun (sadly, our sons have outgrown trick-or-treating):

My sons, me, and my father-in-law at the pumpkin farm

Gorgeous fall day for a drive to the pumpkin farm

Our finished jack-o-lanterns

Our front door: ready for trick-or-treaters!

Hope you had a fun Halloween!

Middle-Grade Review: Nightmares!

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I don’t usually read books by celebrity authors, especially since it’s become “the thing to do” for celebrities to publish kids’ books. But I was looking for a good spooky audio book for October, and I’d heard Jason Segel talking about his new middle-grade novel on the Today show. It sounded perfect for the season, so I gave it a try. Nightmares! By Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller surprised me. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this spooky middle-grade novel and thought the authors did a great job of portraying kids and getting into their heads (and their dreams).

Charlie Laird is twelve years old, and he and his little brother, Jack, have lived in Cypress Creek their whole lives. Their mom died three years ago, and Charlie is having an especially hard time adjusting to life without her. His father recently remarried Charlotte and moved the whole family into the giant, purple mansion that has been in Charlotte’s family for generations. It’s the creepiest place in town, and ever since they moved in three months ago, Charlie’s had such terrible nightmares that he’s hardly slept at all.

In fact, Charlie’s nightmares don’t even feel like dreams; they seem real to Charlie. To make matters worse, he is starting to suspect that his new stepmother might be a witch. Charlie’s best friends – athletic Rocco, brainy Alfie, and dainty Paige – can see that Charlie’s not doing well, and they’re worried about him. But Charlie would feel silly admitting what’s really going on – that his bad dreams feel real and he might be living with a witch. When Charlie’s nightmares begin to take over his life and become more real, he needs all the help he can get from his friends to save not only his own life but also the whole town.

I loved the imagination in this novel, as well as its perfect depiction of the lives and anxieties of typical middle-school age kids. Segel and Miller have absolutely nailed the real-life aspects of being a kid (no surprise since Segel also recently wrote and starred in a Muppet movie!). Just as Segel explained on the Today show, the book is just the right amount of scary for readers this age – creepy and spooky without being too frightening. As is appropriate for this age, the kids are victorious in the end and overcome their fears.

I just looked at the paper book online (see the Amazon link below), and it looks great, with lots of fun illustrations, but I absolutely loved listening to this one on audio. Jason Segel reads it himself and, as a professional actor, does a spectacular job with all the voices, kids and villains alike. Overall, it’s a thoroughly entertaining, spooky novel perfect for middle-grade readers and would be great to listen to on a family trip…and especially this time of year!

368 pages, Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Listening Library

Fiction review: Frankenstein

I read the classic novel Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley for the first time this month, to celebrate Halloween. The novel is quite different from the many movies that have been adapted from it – far more thoughtful, for one thing – and I enjoyed it very much. I’m sure you know the basic story – mad scientist creates monster that then wreaks havoc on the world – but in fact, there is a lot more to it than that, and the story is more about human nature than about monsters.

Victor Frankenstein is a young student at the University of Ingolstadt when he becomes obsessed with discovering the nature of life itself, as he describes here:

“It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.”

So, he was not exactly the mad scientist depicted in the movies but a young student of science who got carried away trying to uncover the secrets of life. You already know the result of his obsession – he succeeds in creating life, building a super-human creature from spare parts (and by the way, the scientist is named Frankenstein, not the creature!). When the creature comes to life, Victor snaps out of his obsessive haze and realizes he’s done something terrible, so he hides and the creature runs away.

His creative process encompasses just a small portion of the book – the rest deals with his background, and the experiences of both himself and his creation afterward. He had an idyllic childhood, growing up with loving parents and an adopted and much-loved sister, Elizabeth. Much of his childhood was spent in beautiful Switzerland with his best friend, Henry Clerval. His happy life falls apart after his obsessive creation, though. Even before he encounters it again, he is torn apart emotionally by thoughts of what he has unleashed upon the world and worried about what his creation might be doing.

The creature’s experiences are even more interesting, as he later recounts to Frankenstein all that has happened to him since he escaped the laboratory. I won’t ruin the story by going into detail here, but the basic premise is that when he encounters kind, loving people, he learns to be kind and gentle. And when he (more frequently) encounters fear and loathing, due to his gruesome appearance, he becomes angry and vengeful.

And that is really the heart of this novel – that the creature begins as a blank slate and learns his behaviors from the other people he encounters and how they treat him. It is both fascinating and heart breaking to see his goodness ruined by mistreatment.  The author makes a clear argument for the power of nurture and experience to mold the soul, as Frankenstein explains here:

“We rest; a dream has power to poison sleep. We rise; One wand’ring thought pollutes the day. We feel, conceive, or reason; laugh or weep, Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away; It is the same: for, be it joy or sorrow, The path of its departure still is free. Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow; Nought may endure but mutability!”

Comparing the movie adaptations to the original novel, I found that the book is far less action-oriented (though there is some action) and far more thoughtful and thought provoking. Although the subject is Frankenstein’s creation (never referred to as a monster in the book), clearly, it is a story about human nature: both the creation’s evolution from kind and gentle to violent and destructive due to its being mistreated and also the way that Frankenstein’s own guilt eats away at him and prevents his own happiness. Oh, and the creation is never described as green.

It is a fascinating story that stirs plenty of thought about the nature of humanity and how our experiences shape us and affect how we treat others. There is also plenty of action and adventure as Frankenstein and his creation follow each other across Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, and even up to the frozen Arctic. It’s a sad story, a tragedy really, that will make you think. And no, the creation doesn’t wear a tux, dance on stage, and sing, “Putting on the Ritz”(one of my favorite movie scenes ever!).

166 pages, Dover Publications (though I read it in my Kindle)

 

More Spooky Halloween Reads!

Throughout this month, I've been posting ideas for spooky books to read for Halloween, as I've been enjoying my annual Creep Fest!

Here's my earlier post to kick off several October events, including lots of ideas and links.

And here are three more links to some great lists of books perfect for the season:

Publisher's Weekly's 10 Best Ghost Stories of all time - some great ones on this list!

BookPage's The Year's Best Mysteries for Halloween Reading - need to try some of these!

10 Dark, Creepy Children's Books Every Kid Should Read - great list!

So, there's no excuse not to join in the fun - pick one of these spooky reads to get in the mood for Halloween! And these aren't just applicable this month but any time of year for people who enjoy the creepy stuff. I've added a few from the Best Mysteries list to my Christmas list for my dad and husband.

What are your favorite spooky books?

It's Monday 10/27! What Are You Reading?

Ah, the quiet solitude of a Monday morning. We had a busy, tiring but fun weekend. We got together with some of our oldest friends Saturday night and laughed and reminisced about our days in New Orleans together in the 80's. Yesterday, our college son came home for the day, and my father-in-law joined us. We drove through the gorgeous fall colors to our favorite fall stop, Northbrook Orchard, where we picked out our pumpkins and ate their amazing fresh apple cider donuts - still hot and covered with cinnamon sugar. After dinner at home, we carved our pumpkins. Like I said, tiring but lots of fun!

We continued our spooky Halloween reading last week:

• I finished Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn and absolutely loved it.  It has some truly nasty, sick characters (like Gone Girl which she also wrote) but a sympathetic main character and lots of suspense. I liked it better than Gone Girl and stayed up way too late several nights in a row reading it!
• I also finished Ghostopolis, a middle-grade graphic novel by Doug TenNapel that was perfect for the season, about a boy who gets stuck in an afterlife populated by ghosts and other creepy creatures.
• I had to depart from my spooky October reading to start The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown, the selection for this week's neighborhood book group discussion. I guess I waited too long to start it because I'm only about 40% done (on my Kindle) and the book group meeting is Wednesday! But it's very good so far - compelling and more interesting than I thought it would be.
• I also started a new audio, On a Clear Day by Walter Dean Myers, a teen/YA dystopian novel. It's different than I expected and different than any other dystopian novel I have read before. It takes place in the near future, in 2035, and is more thoughtful than action-oriented. It was a bit slow to start, but I'm enjoying it so far.
• My husband, Ken, is reading The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, about a time-traveling serial killer, that I read earlier this month. He seems to be enjoying it.
• I have no idea what Jamie, 20, is reading now! 

I wrote two new reviews last week, both books perfect for the season, in case you are looking for some good spooky reads for this week (I enjoyed both of these very much):

Review of The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, about a time-traveling serial killer

Review of The Other Side of Dark by Sarah Smith, a teen/YA novel that combines a supernatural ghost story with a real historical backdrop

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.   

My family and I with our finished jack-o-lanterns.

 

Teen/YA Review: The Other Side of Dark

When I started The Other Side of Dark by Sarah Smith as one of my creepy October reads, I expected a spooky ghost story, but this unique novel is so much more, with a strong historical backdrop.

Her classmates think she’s gone crazy since her mother’s death, but the truth is that Katie sees – and talks to – ghosts.  She’s sees them everywhere and feels compelled to draw their deaths, which are often violent and gruesome. There are positives, though, like getting to talk to her father, who died when Katie was a young girl. One ghost in particular grabs Katie’s attention: George, a mentally challenged boy who hangs out in the park near the ruins of the old Perkins mansion, Pinebank. Katie’s mom worked with Down Syndrome kids, so seeing and talking to George brings back memories of her mom.

Katie’s classmate, Law, has had a crush on her since 7^th grade, though his father would never let him date a white girl from the poor side of town. Law’s mom is white, and his dad is black, and his dad is world-renowned as a black historian who is very outspoken on the topic of reparations for slavery. He expects Law to follow in his footsteps, but Law is far more interested in architecture, his mother’s field, and landscape architecture, especially historical architecture and restoration.

When Katie and Law begin getting to know each other, Law convinces Katie to share her secret with him…and he believes her. Together, they begin to uncover the mysteries behind Pinebank, which Law’s mother is working to save and Law’s dad wants torn down since its original owner made his money in the slave trade. Ghost George tells Katie he can’t leave because he is guarding a treasure, and that only adds to the intrigue. As Katie and Law dig deeper, they discover some startling secrets about the Perkins’ family and Pinebank, but the more they learn, the more dangerous their quest becomes.

The supernatural side of this novel is creepy, as a good ghost story should be, but I was even more fascinated by the historical side. I was surprised to find out in the acknowledgements at the end of the novel that Thomas Handasyd Perkins (the original owner) and Pinebank were all real, and the book is a combination of fiction and real-life facts. That made it all the more interesting.

I enjoyed Katie and Law’s story…and their discovery of the truth behind the Perkins’ story, too. This novel pulls together such disparate threads – real-life history and supernatural ghosts – but it’s done in a way that feels very real and is completely engrossing. I was captivated from the first page to the last.

309 pages, Atheneum

 

Fiction Review: The Shining Girls

In choosing my first book to read in October, when I like to read spooky, creepy books, I immediately thought of The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, a 2013 thriller that I’d downloaded onto my Kindle last year and never found time for. Although I don’t read many thrillers anyway – especially ones like this about a serial killer – The Shining Girls had an element I couldn’t resist: the serial killer was a time-traveler. It stood up to its well-earned reputation and kept me captivated from the very first page.

Harper Curtis is a typical psychopathic serial killer who targets young women of a certain age, but he has some very atypical characteristics. For starters, the women he targets are those he describes as “shining girls,” who have some indescribable special quality that he alone can see, women who are destined to break ground in male-dominated fields or somehow have the potential to change the world. Curtis can pick these shining girls out when they are still just young children, and he bides his time until they reach the right age.

He doesn’t have to wait for long, though, because his other special ability is to travel through time, with the help of a run-down house in Chicago that he enters during the Depression and quickly discovers that it opens onto other times. Curtis spots these young girls, relies on the house to send him to the right time when they are of the right age, and murders them grotesquely. He thinks it’s the perfect crime because he immediately returns to the house and back to his own time so that any clues the police may be following lead to nothing.

Curtis doesn’t count on Kirby, one of the shining girls he first visits in the 1970’s and returns to in modern times to murder. Unbeknownst to Curtis, who had immediately fled back to the past, Kirby didn’t die, and now she is determined to find her would-be killer. She joins the Chicago Sun-Times and manages to team up with Dan Velasquez, the ex-homicide reporter who originally covered her attack.

I love any story that involves time-travel, with its twisty-turny plot and thought-provoking elements, and this one is no different. A time-traveling serial killer! That’s just brilliant, and Beukes carries it out perfectly. The only downside is that this book is really gruesome at times (one of the main reasons I don’t read many thrillers any more) because Curtis is seriously deranged and delights in torturing and killing his victims in horrifying ways, but the time travel element – and the character of Kirby – kept me captivated. The Shining Girls is a wholly unique, gripping story, fast-paced and filled with suspense that kept me reading late into the night.

400 pages, Mulholland Books

 

It's Monday 10/20! What Are You Reading?

Last week was a good one. I finally recovered from my recent infections and was feeling good again, and the weather was perfect for fall! It was such a joy to be outdoors and moving again.

It was a good reading week, too, with lots of October spookiness, as my month of Murder, Monsters & Mayhem continues!:

• I finished Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley on my Kindle. It was different than I expected, fascinating and thoughtful, more about human nature than monsters. I really enjoyed it.
• Now I'm reading Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, which has been on my shelf for over a year, recommended by both my husband and my mother. It's excellent - really compelling - and I'm enjoying it much more than Gone Girl (by the same author) which had an interesting plot but really unlikable characters.
• I also started Ghostopolis, a middle-grade graphic novel by Doug TenNapel. I've been meaning to read it for years, and it caught my eye at the used bookstore last week, so I grabbed it. Good Halloween-y reading!
• I finished listening to Nightmares! by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller, a new release middle-grade audio perfect for the season, where a young boy suspects his new step-mother of being a witch, as his nightmares turn real. It far exceeded my expectations.
• I started - and finished - another audio book, Falling In Place by Amy Zhang, a teen/YA novel about a young girl who tries to commit suicide and ends up in the hospital barely clinging to life after her car accident. There are a lot of flashbacks to the events and years leading up to her suicide attempt, and a mysterious narrator adds an element of supernatural-seeming mystery. It covered some serious topics but was also a good story and kept me listening.
• My husband, Ken, finished reading The Demon Plagues by David VanDyke, book 2 (though really, book 4) in the Plague Wars series. He'se enjoying this post-apocalyptic thriller series, though he said this week's Ebola news made it all seem a little too real!
• Now, Ken is reading The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, about a time-traveling serial killer that I read earlier this month. I think he'll like it.
• Jamie, 20, is still reading The Drowning City by Amanda Downum, Necromancer Chronicles Book 1.

 I wrote a few blog posts last week, though I need to catch up on reviews:

Review of Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer, a teen/YA novel with a supernatural twist

Summary of Books Read in September

Saturday Snapshot, featuring Delaware's fall colors from last week

 And, I just realized on Sunday that the Wonderfully Wicked Read-A-Thon hosted by My Shelf Confessions that I signed up for actually began on Friday (it runs from October 17 - 27)! Oops - so I got off to a slow start, but the guidelines say you can participate for any portion of the week...so there is still plenty of time to sign up!

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.     

Saturday Snapshot 10/18

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

I was finally feeling better this week after a nasty bout of bronchitis and pneumonia and able to get outside again. I thoroughly enjoyed a couple of walks in the autumn sunshine and among the gorgeous fall colors! I was feeling like I was missing my favorite season until this week. Here are a few highlights of fall color in Delaware:

Fall color in our neighborhood this week

The view from our back deck

Our own house - still lots of green but with spots of color

The wind brought a lot of leaves down this week!

Sunlight filtering through the bright yellow leaves

Colorful trees at a local park

A bright splash of red among the green

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend!

Books Read in September

Hmmm...October 17...not quite as late as my August summary was - I think I'm catching up...maybe.


I read a lot of books in September, after devoting my summer mostly to Big Books. Banned Books Week was also in September, which influenced my reading choices. Here's what I read last month:

• The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo, fantasy/historical fiction (Malaysia)
• The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson, teen/YA audio (Wisconsin)
• The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata, middle-grade fiction (Texas) 

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, classic fiction (New York)
• The Agony of Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, middle-grade fiction (Maryland)
• Dangerously Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, teen/YA fiction (Maryland)

 

• The Things You Kiss Goodbye by Leslie Connor, teen/YA audio 
• Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer, teen/YA audio (Vermont) 

So, that's eight books in total - a lot for one month for me! Four of those were teen/YA novels, two were middle-grade novels, and just two were adult novels - all fiction. I listened to three audio books last month - I am really tearing through audios quickly now that I listen on my iPod and finally have a new stereo in my '92 VW with an iPod dock (how modern!). It's always hard to choose a favorite. How about a favorite for each age category? That would be The Thing About Luck for middle-grade, Belzhar for teen/YA, and The Catcher in the Rye for adult fiction. As you can see from the missing links, I am still behind on my reviews (but catching up) - I covered both Alice books in one review.

Update on 2014 Reading Challenges:

I added three new states to my Where Are You Reading Challenge 2014 this month and one new country. I read just 2 more books from my TBR shelves for my 2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge in September which brings me to only 8 for the whole year - no wonder they just keep piling up! I listened to three more audio books for my 2014 Audio Book Challenge - I am rocking that one. No nonfiction last month, but I added one book for The Classics Reading Challenge. And for my new Travel the World in Books Challenge, just started in September, I read two books so far.

What was your favorite book(s) read in September? 

Teen/YA Review: Belzhar

For years, I have heard rave reviews of each of Meg Wolitzer’s novels. This summer, I finally had a chance to read one, The Interestings, and I really enjoyed its spot-on portrayal of real lives in intimate detail. I was excited when her first YA novel had been published, and I recently listened to Belzhar on audio. Her talents definitely translate to YA fiction, with a touch of the supernatural thrown into the real-life character mix.

Jam (short for Jamaica) is not happy to be at The Wooden Barn, a unique boarding school in rural Vermont for “emotionally fragile and highly intelligent” teens, but she understands that her parents were out of options. It’s been months since the loss of her beloved boyfriend, Reeve, but Jam is still not coping with normal life. She meets her new roommate, who seems nice but a little weird, and expects to stay in bed mourning, like she’s been doing at home.

Instead, Jam must attend classes, including the mysterious Special Topics in English about which her roommate is very jealous. Only five students are asked to join the class each semester, and all later report that it was transformative. The class’s unconventional teacher announces the first day that the class will focus on just one author, Sylvia Plath, for the whole semester and that each student will be required to write in a journal. She hands out red leather journals that look like antiques.

Even though Jam only knew Reeve for 41 days, she is inconsolable at his loss, but she reluctantly goes to class and is gradually pulled into Special Topics in English. Her four classmates are all strangers to her, but it is clear that each has suffered some sort of loss or emotional damage. They are all suffering privately, as they begin to study Plath and write in their journals. However, the journals have a secret power to transport the writer back to the comforting past where all was still well and whole (pronounce Belzhar out loud and think of Plath and you’ll understand the odd moniker the students came up with).

Very gradually, the five students begin to interact with each other because of the secret they share and slowly, they each begin to heal. Wolitzer covers a lot of ground with this novel, addressing serious topics like loss, life-changing injury, and depression and clearly showing that teens feel just as deeply (maybe more so) as adults, though the novel itself isn’t depressing; it’s ultimately uplifting and about recovery. The novel also focuses on the healing powers of reading and writing, which any book lover can appreciate. And, oh yeah, it’s a compelling, suspenseful story, too.

I was captivated by this audio book, which was well read, and both its real-world and supernatural elements. Besides showcasing Wolitzer’s talent for in-depth characters (which carries over perfectly into YA fiction), this novel is also very clever, interweaving details about Sylvia Plath with the modern-day students studying her, and the mysterious world they each visit after dark. And there are even some surprises along the way, as details of each student’s loss only gradually emerge. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and can’t wait to read more YA fiction from Wolitzer.

Listening Library

Note: Although I’ve never read any Sylvia Plath, I recently watched a movie about her life, Sylvia, starring Gweneth Paltrow, which very good.

To listen to an audio excerpt, click on the Amazon link below:



 

It's Monday 10/13! What Are You Reading?

Ah...quiet Monday morning. I meant to jump right into productive mode and make my to-do list for the week, but instead I just wasted a half hour browsing my friends' and family members' posts on Facebook! I think it's the dark, gloomy weather outside making me want to just hibernate.

I had another busy, sick week. My Dad and his wife visited for 3 days - he will probably start cancer treatment this week, so we tried to make the most of this visit, even though I was sick. On top of my chronic illness and the bronchitis I had last week, the doctor though I might be at the beginning of pneumonia last week, so she put me on a super-strong antibiotic. I tried to rest as much as possible the second half of the week. I think I am finally coming out of this, starting to feel a bit better - hopefully, getting back to my own version of normal this week!

Here's what we read last week:

• I finished The Other Side of Dark by Sarah Smith, a teen/YA novel about a modern girl who sees ghosts and gets mired in historical wrongs that must be righted. It was very good and perfect for October!
• Now I am reading a creepy classic, Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, on my Kindle. I'm a little more than halfway through and am enjoying reading the original story after seeing so many movie adaptations.
• My husband and I finally finished listening to Uncaged, a teen/YA thriller by adult thriller writer John Sandford and co-author Michelle Cook, book one of a new series called The Singular Menace. We started it this summer but don't have a lot of time in the car alone together! It was good suspense with a unique plot.
• I realized that a couple of weeks ago, I completely forgot to include another audio that I finished very quickly, Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer, her first foray into teen/YA fiction. This is another great one for October, about a teen girl who is grieving a loss at a special school for kids with psychological problems. It includes supernatural elements and some unexpected twists, and I loved it!
• On my own, I am still listening to Nightmares! by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller, a new release middle-grade audio perfect for the season, where a young boy suspects his new step-mother of being a witch, as his nightmares turn real. It's been great so far!
• My husband, Ken, finished reading The Demon Plagues by David VanDyke, book 2 (though really, book 4) in the Plague Wars series. He seems to be enjoying the post-apocalyptic thriller series.
• I think that Jamie, 20, is still reading The Drowning City by Amanda Downum, Necromancer Chronicles Book 1.

Once our guests left last week, I squeezed in a few blog posts while lying on the couch:

 Review of In the End by Demitria Lunetta, teen/YA post-apocalyptic sequel to In the After

Review of The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson, a teen/YA novel about a ghost and a serial killer

2014 Murder, Monsters & Mayhem and Other October Fun! - 3 spooky reading activities/events to join this month

Saturday Snapshot 10/11 - Pics of New Orleans

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.    

Saturday Snapshot 10/11

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

It's been a long time since I've had the time to post for Saturday Snapshot! Some of what kept me busy was celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. Here are a few shots from our trip to New Orleans, where we lived when we first met, dated, and married - we still love it!

Classic NOLA - in front of Jackson Square & St. Louis Cathedral

Bourbon Street at night

Canal Street Streetcar

Entrance to the French Market

Quiet morning in Jackson Square

The quieter, prettier side of the French Quarter

Celebrating 25 years at Bayona, an old favorite restaurant

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

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?

Teen/YA Review: The Vanishing Season

The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson turned out to be different than I expected, a wholly unique story that combines a murder mystery with supernatural elements and a story of teen friendship and romance. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it on audio.

Maggie is not very happy that she and her parents have moved from their home in Chicago to a ramshackle old house they inherited in quiet Door County, Wisconsin. When they arrive in the small town of Gill Creek in the fall of Maggie’s senior year, the town is especially deserted with all of the summer tourists cleared out for the season. Maggie knows they don’t have much choice, due to financial problems, so she tries to make the best of their new life as her parents homeschool her and she waits for the time when she can leave for college.

Gill Creek becomes a little more interesting once Maggie meets her neighbors. Carefree, outgoing Pauline lives right next door and welcomes Maggie with open arms, glad to have a new friend her own age nearby. Through the woods lives quiet Liam who’s been best friends with Pauline since they were little kids. The three teens become inseparable, though their friendship is eventually strained as romance and love divide their happy threesome.

Meanwhile, teen girls in the area keep dying under mysterious circumstances. Police have no clues as to the identity of what now appears to be a serial killer on the loose. Teens and parents alike become more and more frightened by the increasing horror invading their quiet town. Pauline’s parents send her away to stay with a relative, leaving Maggie and Liam in Gill Creek without their friend. Tension builds as more dead bodies are found in the region.

Through all of this friendship, romance, and mystery, there is a mysterious thread running through the novel. Many chapters begin with vague and puzzling statements from what seems to be some sort of supernatural entity, perhaps connected to the rumors Pauline mentioned that Maggie’s house is haunted. Who is this disembodied being and what does it know about the murder spree?

I listened to The Vanishing Season on audio and was pulled right in by the narration by likable Maggie and the mysterious supernatural presence. I noticed that some reviewers on Amazon were disappointed that the novel isn’t a typical mystery or romance. That is true – it doesn’t follow any typical genre lines but instead contains elements of mystery, supernatural, realistic fiction, and romance all rolled into one intriguing story. So, throw away your expectations and immerse yourself in this unusual story that reveals some surprises but doesn’t neatly resolve all of the questions it poses. I recommend the audio that added to the mounting tension and spooky atmosphere of the story – this one is perfect for October!

HarperChildren’s Audio

Click the Amazon link below to listen to an excerpt of the audio production.

 

Teen/YA Review: In the End

I recently listened to the audio book In the End by Demitria Lunetta, the sequel to In the After, a post-apocalyptic and dystopian novel for teens/YA that I listened to last year. In the End continues the action and suspense of book one, while providing a satisfying conclusion to the story. It’s impossible to describe the sequel without giving away some spoilers of the first book, so if you haven’t read In the After yet, click on that review and skip this one for now.

In the End picks up where In the After left off, with Amy on her own after leaving the community of New Hope in Kansas. She is surviving on her own in Texas and avoiding the monsters known as Floraes, with the help of technology from New Hope, when she finally heads to the notorious Fort Black. In the years before They arrived, the complex was a prison, but now it is a community of survivors. The double walls and guarded towers protect its over-crowded residents from the Floraes, but there are new dangers here in Fort Black. Many of the prisoners opted to stay in the safety of the community when it was opened up to the public, so some of its residents are convicted criminals, even murderers.

It’s a rough place – nothing like the clean, controlled environment at New Hope – but Amy is there to look for Kay’s brother, Ken whom they hope might be able them defeat the more evil elements within New Hope and rescue Amy’s adopted sister, Baby. Jacks, a cowboy in a respected position within the community, befriends Amy, but she’s not sure she can trust him. Already, she has suspicions that this new place has its own secrets and dangers, including Tank, the serial rapist/murderer who seems to have his eye on Amy.

Just like In the After, this novel has non-stop action and plenty of suspense, as Amy hopes to not only survive but save her sister and the rest of the remaining population of New Hope and the Texas prison from dangers inside that might be just as bad (or worse) as the dangers lurking outside among the Floraes. Like that first book, this one also sometimes seems a bit too neat and contrived, but if you suspend disbelief and just go along for the ride, it’s a good story. The audio was well done and held my attention, and I finished it in short time, enjoying the satisfying conclusion of this unique series.

HarperChildren’s Audio

(You can listen to a sample of the audio at the Amazon link below)

 

It's Monday 10/6! What Are You Reading?

I missed my Monday post last week because my husband and I were in New Orleans, celebrating our 25th anniversary. We returned home on Tuesday, me with bronchitis, and on Friday, my mom and her husband arrived to help us celebrate my husband's 60th birthday, including a party with friends and family on Saturday. And my Dad and his wife arrive today for a 3-day visit. So, yeah, not a lot of time for writing or blogging lately!

But we still had plenty of reading time, especially while traveling - here's what we've read the past two weeks:

• I finished The Agony of Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor and enjoyed it so much that I went to the library in search of another Alice book, where the main character is older. I read Dangerously Alice and loved that one, too. The entire Alice series was #2 on the list of Most Frequently Banned Books 2000 - 2009, so I read these for Banned Books Week.
• I also finished listening to The Things You Kiss Goodbye by Leslie Connor on audio, a teen/YA novel by the author of Waiting for Normal, which I loved. It was excellent - review to come as soon as I can catch up!
• Next, I got a start on reading some spooky stuff for October, like I did last fall, inspired by Tanya at Girlxoxo and her Dangerous Reads Month. For our trip, I read The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, about a time-traveling serial killer in Chicago. It was a bit gruesome but absolutely gripping. I love time travel plots, so this was right up my alley, with the usual mind-bending aspects!
• Once back home, I switched to teen/YA but stuck with the spooky theme with The Other Side of Dark by Sarah Smith, a creepy ghost story with a large dose of history that I'm enjoying very much so far.
• I started a new audio, Nightmares! by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller, a new release middle-grade novel perfect for the season, where a young boy suspects his new step-mother of being a witch, as his nightmares turn real. I don't usually go for celebrity authors, but this is great so far and very well-written.
• My husband, Ken, started to read Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut for Banned Books Week, but partway through, he realized he'd read it before and decided to switch back to suspense (his favorite genre) for our trip.
• Ken went back to the Plague Wars series by David VanDyke. It's been very confusing because he started with Book 1, Reaper's Run, but then found out there was a Book 0! Then he tried to read Book 2 and discovered there is a book that comes between 1 and 2!  So, I believe he has finished The Eden Plague, Book 0, and is now reading Skull's Shadows, Book 1 1/2.
• Jamie, 20, is reading The Drowning City by Amanda Downum, Necromancer Chronicles Book 1. It must be pretty good because he was home from college yesterday and couldn't set it down!

 Only one post last week, but I managed a few before we left for New Orleans the week before:

Banned Books Week 2014

Review of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, a classic I read for Banned Books Week

Review of The Agony of Alice, a middle-grade novel by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, also read for Banned Books Week (banned for "honesty about the human body"!)

Summary of Books Read in August (better late than never?)

Review of The Ghost Bride, a novel by Yangsze Choo

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.   

Ken and I in New Orleans at Bayona, celebrating our 25th anniversary