After taking most of November off from reading it‘s time to ramp up for #WinterGames2021, December #BookSpinBingo, #WinterCosy readathon, #AVeryMerry readathon, #AVeryMerryBingo, and #LittenListen audiothon! Thanks to all the hosts who will be tagged below (assuming I don‘t botch things up a bit!😜).

#TeamGameSleighers #WinterGames

This was an addictive audiobook detailing William Queen‘s undercover assignment to infiltrate the Mongols MC. I especially appreciated how Queen acknowledged having developed mixed feelings towards the end of the assignment as he had become close to a number of the members who would be prosecuted. It‘s impossible to know if the work is 100% accurate (Queen makes his involvement sounds a bit squeaky clean), but this made for an exciting ride!

I already miss the excuse of “but honey, I‘m part of a team” to nab a bit more time here and there for reading or as a reason to watch scary movies and TV shows! 😂

703 points for the final week

3628 total points for the competition. Most importantly, it was fun!!

#scarathlon2021 #teamhendrix

I loved this book. I‘ve been struggling to read at times, but this book pulled me in. It was the right mix of fun ridiculousness with some truly freaky situations!

#scarathlon2021. #teamhendrix. #screamathon #spookoween #wickedathon #bookspinbingo #littensdreasedinblood

I enjoyed listening to this memoir, especially with how Ms. Peterson got her start in show business and her continued struggles both personally and professionally after finding her breakthrough role of Elvira. I enjoy memoirs of working actors much more as they struggle and have to take whatever jobs they can to pay the bills versus A-listers who score multimillion paydays that allow them to take months or years off.

As I‘m a bit of a nerd, this was a fun book of random facts about the holiday. I was the only one in the household who seemed really entranced by it, as everyone has been ignoring me the last few days when I would open the book up and read several pages of festive facts

#scarathlon2021 #teamhendrix #littensdressedinblood #wickedathon #screamathon #spookoween

Week 3 Scarathlon Totals:
Total for the week: 623 points
Grand total: 2,925 points

I seem to be cratering thanks to work and the fact that we‘ve run out of children‘s books for the season! 😂 The highlight of the week was watching Muppetd Haunted Mansion!

#scarathlon2021 #teamhendrix

This was a short, light-hearted read for the season. It was fun for a change of pace from the more serious and gruesome stuff I‘ve been reading. However, I don‘t think I‘ll revisit this the way that I will Pumpkin Heads. 3/5

#scarathlon2021 #teamhendrix #bookspinbingo #spookoween #wickedathon #screamathon #littensdressedinblood

I finished the audiobook this weekend and found this to be a creative take on the werewolf genre. It kept me entertained throughout but didn‘t reach the point of creeping me out or scaring me in any way. It was a fun book though and a good place to start for someone new to SGJ‘s work.
#scarathlon2021 #teamhendrix #screamathon #bookspinbingo #wickedathon #littensdressedinblood

It took me some time to get into this, but eventually I was hooked. This is a dark, engrossing take on the Jack the Ripper murders. I can‘t say I loved it but it was unique and interesting!
#scarathlon #teamhendrix #bookspinbingo #spookoween #screamathon #wickedathon #littensdressedinblood

Hey everyone! My total for week 2 is 948 points.

My overall total is 2,302 points.

#scarathlon #teamhendrix

The was an absolute hoot! It was quirky and one of the more unique things I‘ve read (or listened to). This is the first time I‘ve read anything by Dahl and I‘ll be sure to read more of his novels in the future!

#scarathlon #teamhendrix #bookspinbingo #spookoween #screamathon wickedathon #littensdressedinblood

I‘ll probably read spookier things this month, but I‘d be shocked if any other book sticks with me as long as Season with the Witch does. Ocker takes a fair and balanced look at the tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials and the way that an entire cheesy tourist industry and local economy was built on the Witch City billing. Ocker would prefer the city make a more somber acknowledgment of what occurred there; he also embraces the ridiculousness…

This book was a pleasant surprise. I was leery through about 95% of it due to odd occurrences and potential plot holes, but the ending really tied it all together in a pretty satisfying way! The narrator honestly killed it with his performance on the audiobook. How many people could nail the characters of a middle aged man, a young girl, and a cat? I heavily recommend this title for those into slowly building thrillers!

Here‘s my point total for the week!
#scarathlon
#teamhendrix

Chiming in with my picks for the today‘s prompt of “witches.” I‘m currently working my way through A Season with the Witch; it‘s a nonfiction book that explores how Salem has built a tourist industry based on the witch trials and what it‘s like to spend an October there. I also hope to read Dahl‘s The Witches at some point before the month is over!

#littensdressedinblood

I typically don‘t enjoy poetry, but this collection hit the spot. The subject matter certainly didn‘t hurt. Meyer explores monsters, things that go bump in the night, and other dark subject matter. I didn‘t love them all, but they were consistently solid!

#bookspinbingo #scarathlon #teamhendrix #screamathon #wickedathon #spookoweenreadathon #spookoween #littensdressedinblood

The book had such a creepy, promising start. What followed was a long, rambling story that failed to justify the huge time investment. It had some interesting characters and ideas, but needed to be trimmed down by 150 pages or so.
#scarathlon #teamhendrix #screamathon #spookoween #spookoweenreadathon #bookspinbingo #littensdressedinblood #wickedathon

Most of my books for my October TBR are of the Kindle or audiobook format, but here‘s my humble little pile of physical books that I‘ll hopefully read at least a few of this month!

#littensdressedinblood

1) Hell yes! I‘ve been looking forward to it for a couple of months now! It‘s always fun to see what people are reading, watching, and how they‘re celebrating the season!

2) I‘ve been anxiously waiting for almost a whole year to read Alan Moore‘s From Hell…it looks wonderfully creepy!

Thanks for the tag @DarkMina

#two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

This was on my #Bookspinbingo list for the month, but when I went to read it, it turns out I never got around to buying it. Fortunately, Hoopla bailed me out with an audio recording of a play production! The play is as solid as I remember it! The cast is great and I love the tension between the characters as they debate a man‘s guilt or innocence!

Just finished reading this to the girlfriend‘s daughter tonight….I absolutely love this book! It sometimes even held the attention of a 5 year-old, so that‘s something!

This book did not live up to its promise of telling interesting ghost stories about legendary writers and/or ghost stories about the places they used to hang out. The stories are mostly bland; it felt like the author ran out of material by the time he reached Henry James. Baltrusis added tons of filler material through stories about his ghost hunts and profiles on other paranormal experts. I‘m glad I got this out of the way before Oct!

Here‘s my TBR list for October! Who the hell knows how much I‘ll actually get around to reading and/or end up sticking to the list! #bookspinbingo #scarathlontbr #screamathon #teamhendrix #SpookoweenReadathon #SpookOWeen

I really wanted to like this; heck, I enjoyed the first half of it. It has a gentleness in both the story telling and the characters that I enjoyed for a while. I have a hard time warming up to a character like Hungry Paul. He‘s a middle-aged man who can‘t be bothered to work more than one day/week and who undeniably mooches off his parents. Yes, there‘s a lot of love in the familial relationships, but they‘re also enablers.
#bookspinbingo

3.5/5 - I loved the fact that this was shorter with a more direct style of writing than most of what I‘ve read by King. I enjoyed the story but I think the surprise twist at the end missed the mark to the point of almost ruining the book for me. Also, King still overuses foreshadowing to a ridiculous degree. Overall, it was pretty fun up until the end though!

#bookspinbingo

This was a beautiful collection of essays exploring the connections and conflicts between science and religion. It was different than anything I‘ve read or listened to in a very long time. I‘ll definitely listen to it again at some point in the future.
#bookspinbingo

#LittensDressedinBlood

Today‘s prompt of “Come Little Children” made me think of Bradbury‘s The Halloween Tree. A group of friends excitedly meet up for trick-or-treating, only to have one of their crew snatched away. The rest of them take a journey through time and the history of Halloween in hopes of finding and saving their pal.

3.5/5 - This is a pretty good collection of ghost stories from West Virginia, one of the states I briefly lived in as a kid. This basically reads like a textbook about ghosts and haunted places, which is common for these types of books, but not scary in the least. I‘d prefer more narrative accounts of hauntings to introduce a locale or at least each of the different regions. Then the author could have provided all of the history and details.

This was a great audiobook! I loved that the author read her own work. The book outlines how women are often ignored and left out when policy changes are made by governments and companies and in medical trials. This book will leave you dumbfounded in regards to how much women are overlooked in many realms of life. I respected how calm the author‘s writing remained as she could have easily engaged in some deserved male bashing!
#doublespin

-tagged
-🍍
-Oh hell, just one? For October, I‘m excited to read A Season with the Witch: The Magic and Mayhem of Halloween in Salem Massachusetts.
-My girlfriend. She‘s amazing and I‘m happy we‘re together and made it through some tough times and ugly curve balls life threw at us!

#wondrouswednesday

Thanks for the tag @DarkMina

1. I think they‘re just as good but the market is so fragmented. There are so many genres and sub-genres. So whatever you‘re looking for, it‘s out there. There‘s some really great stuff being published by small companies and independently by authors….I think it just takes longer to find the hidden gems (but that‘s where Litsy and GR can help!)

2. Nope. I try to avoid guessing too much and let a book‘s plot lead me wherever it‘s going to go.

This book takes a unique approach to introducing the events of 9/11 to young readers. It tells the story of Deja, as she starts attending a new school. She makes friends and starts to build a better understanding of what it means to be part of a family and community. She also gradually learns about what happened on 9/11, her father‘s connection to that day, and why he‘s been so secretive about it.

#bookspinbingo

Todays‘s #littensdressedinblood prompt of “Monster Mash” reminded me of some of Stephen Graham Jones‘s work….Specifically the short story Wait for Night and his novel The Only Good Indians. They‘re among my favorite of his work that I‘ve read to this point.

This was a nice change of pace….it‘s a quick and fun read about a wacky scavenger hunt in a library. The intended audience is middle graders and the focus is on having fun and working as a team.

#bookspinbingo

This was a powerful play that takes place solely in a dugout in the trenches during WWI. It‘s dark, intelligent, and emotional in just the right measure. This is probably the best WWI-era work that I‘ve read outside of Erich Maria Remarque‘s work.

#bookspinbingo

This had some of the best short stories that I‘ve read. Standouts include the story used for the collection‘s title, Hell is the Absence of God, and the Tower of Babylon. The only story I could have happily skipped was Seventy-Two Letters. I would recommend this to sci-if and short story fans. I‘m in awe of Chiang‘s intelligence and creativity!
#bookspinbingo

This is an absolutely beautiful volume of anatomical illustrations from the 17th through 19th centuries. This book is prefect for lovers of the medical oddities and specimens that can be found at places like the Mutter Museum or for those that enjoy the Body Worlds exhibit. It was interesting to see the heavy infusion of theology in the earliest drawings and the progression to more accurate art over time! 5/5

#bookspinbingo

Here‘s my list for September!

#bookspinbingo #bookspin

3.5/5: I found this memoir to be just informative and entertaining enough to rate as a “pick.” If you‘ve watched any documentaries or read articles or books on dancers/sex workers, then there‘s not much new ground in regards to those professions. I was most entertained by learning about the struggles librarians suffer through just to find a decent job… sadly there goes that pipe dream for a second career! Kudos to the author for sharing her story

This was an interesting read/listen. A lot of the general Stoic views of life and death gel with my own. They‘re also similar to Buddhism, which I was entertained that the both the author and myself are failed Buddhists (I always fall asleep at meditation time!😂😴). I think more there‘s a lot from this ancient school of thought that can be adapted for modern living, even if they‘re smaller tidbits based on common sense.
#bookspinbingo

This is the first book I‘ve read by Pollan and I only learned of it by mistake while checking out cooking shows on Netflix. This book makes an excellent case for doing more for yourself to include cooking, baking, and fermenting. The benefits appear to be numerous for both one‘s physical and mental health. This could end up being a huge game changer if it results in any lifestyle changes…only time will tell. 4/5
#bookspin #bookspinbingo

I remembered seeing the Jesse Eisenberg movie years ago and really enjoying that, so I thought this would be great…instead, it was just okay. The protagonist is so meek and awkward that it‘s hard to like him. I just found myself irritated much of the time. The ending was probably a shocker when this was published, but it doesn‘t have as much of an impact today. I recommend the movie as they did a great job of modernizing the material. 2.5/5

I found this engaging even if it didn‘t live up to its title. The focus was almost solely on the competition in the 2004 season and some of the behind the scenes happenings in the PBR. That was enough for me especially with the theme being a wily old veteran vs a pack of upstarts. The book didn‘t delve much into the subculture around the sport in terms of quirky fans, groupies, or questionable food. Respect to the riders who are tough as hell!

This is a must read for all EPL fans! This book details how the EPL came into existence and its massive success and expansion. It‘s kind of amazing how successful it is when looking at its humble beginnings and lack of planning. It‘s filled with interesting tidbits and wonderfully quirky side stories as the authors unpack the history of the league. The performance by Shaun Grindell in the audiobook edition adds to the experience!

#bookspinbingo

I have mixed feelings about this book. I think my negativity stems from the fact that this was assigned as prep-work for someone starting kindergarten in a few weeks. I‘ve been reading a chapter of this to her almost every night and feel I barely survived the ordeal! 🤣 The story was cute, I guess, and it‘s nice to have a young, capable female lead. From what I‘ve read, this would be more on par for 2nd graders, so maybe we‘ll try again then!

I recently learned about the Heol Fanog haunting in an episode of Real Horror on Shudder. It turns out, there was an abundance of stories that could not be crammed into a single episode of a TV doc series. Although a bit redundant, the book captures some really creepy stuff and the family is portrayed in a more sympathetic light compared to the TV show. 3.5/5
#bookspinbingo

This sci-fi “classic” exceeded my expectations! The only thing I‘ve known about the book or film all involve HAL 9000. There‘s is so much more to the story than a computer going rogue on a space mission. I absolutely loved the beginning and end. Everything in between kept me pretty engaged too. I think the story is interesting enough that this would appeal to most readers, even those who typically don‘t typically read sci-if. 4/5
#bookspinbingo

1. I can‘t think of any as an adult, but I loved The Neverending Story as a kid.

2. I think Brian Evenson‘s Last Days would make for a delightfully creepy movie adaptation!

Thanks for the tag @bthegood

Feel free to join in on the fun @Horvendile88

This fantastic work focuses on five survivors of the Nagasaki bombing. This is a painful read, mostly due to learning about the struggles and loss survivors endured. It‘s also painful to read about the lies and actions of the US. The author was thorough and I appreciated that she spent time on Japanese politics and events leading up to WWII and the bombings. Although heartbreaking, this was also inspiring thanks to these amazing individuals! 5/5