Scary Fall Doings! #SomethingWickedFall #RIPXIV #FrightFall

It's that time of year again! I'm so ready for fall...the weather, the scary reading, Halloween! As usual, there are tons of fun events and challenges for those of us who love the scary, and I'm hosting two of them. 🎃

Readers Imbibing Peril XIV (RIP) is here! I look forward to this every year. It coincides well with my other scary events too.

Bonfires.

Gourds.

Sweaters and seasonal socks and candles.

Welcome to the FOURTEENTH year of Readers Imbibing Peril, or RIP, as it is affectionately called. For these many years, we here at RIP headquarters have embraced the spookiness of the seasons’ change.

The purpose of the R.I.P. Challenge is to enjoy books that could be classified as:

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.

The emphasis is never on the word challenge, instead it is about coming together as a community and embracing the autumnal mood, whether the weather is cooperative where you live or not.

The goals are simple.

1. Have fun reading.

2. Share that fun with others.

Sign up here.

I'm doing...

Peril the First:

Read four books, any length, that you feel fit (our very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature.
This is my for sure list of books. I'm sure there will be more.

Doctor Sleep, Stephen King

The Vampire Armand, Anne Rice

The Fall, Bethany Griffin

The Siren and the Specter, Jonathan Janz

Peril of the Short Story:

I'll be reading Poe, of course. Also, short stories by Algernon Blackwood, Nathaniel Hawthorne, M.R. James, Ralph Adams Cram, Ronald Malfi...and maybe more.

Peril on the Screen:

I'm a horror movie lover ALL the time so it's not like this will be any different, but of course, kicking things off with IT next week. We're also going to have some movie watch-alongs during Something Wicked Fall (see below). Probably The Shining to go along with our Doctor Sleep read-along, and possibly Midsommar (a rewatch for me...I absolutely loved it). 

and possibly even...

Peril of the Review:
Submit a short review of any book you read and you may see it here on the blog! 

I'm not terribly great at posting reviews of late, but I will try. 

Something Wicked Fall is an event I created last year at Castle Macabre (my horror blog)...an all encompassing event featuring a read-along, horror movie watch-alongs, Gothic and horror reads, and the penultimate FrightFall Readathon in October.

Get all the details at Castle Macabre here. I hope you will join us!

FrightFall Readathon runs all of October. Sign ups coming very soon at Seasons of Reading. Stay tuned!

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A Reading Life (53) What I read in April, what I'm #reading in May

I had a very successful reading month in April. I read/finished six five books (I thought it was six, but I was including Good Omens which I'm just about finished listening to on audio. Oops). I completed a four month reading challenge. I would also call it a successful participation in my Spring into Horror Readathon at Seasons of Reading. It has been a long time since I've read that many books in a month's time. Color me proud!

What I read:
Necroscope, Brian Lumley  Review
The Scapegoat, Daphne Du Maurier  Review
The King of Bones and Ashes, J.D. Horn  Review
The Twelve Caesars, Suetonius  Review
The Giver, Lois Lowry  Review 

I completed the four month challenge, Book Challenge by Erin 10.0. The next one is July through October (11.0) and I think I'll participate again. Looking forward to the new categories being announced on June 1st. Here's my completed list:

• 5 points: Freebie – Read a book that is at least 200 pages - Orphan Train by Christina Baker Cline
• 10 points: Read a book that was made into a movie - The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier
• 10 points: Read a book that is set in Europe - The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
• 15 points: Read a book that was a Newberry Award winner (medal winner or honor book): The Giver by Lois Lowry (Winner, 1994)
• 20 points: Read a book that is a friend or family member’s favourite...or the favourite book by another participant in this challenge - Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith (one of my mom’s favorites)
• 20 points: Read a book originally published over 100 years ago - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• 25 points: Read a book with six words (and only six words) in the title - The King of Bones and Ashes by J.D. Horn
• 30 points: Read a book with a compass or cardinal direction in the title - Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
• 30 points: Read a book that was originally published in a different language than your own - The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, Robert Graves (Translation)
• 35 points: Read a book that begins with the letter “N” - Necroscope by Brian Lumley

Currently Reading

The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury (my Classics Spin book)
In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great, Michael Wood
NOS4A2, Joe Hill
Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (audio-almost finished)

My continued May reading plans

Florence & Giles, John Harding
Dear Jane, Allie Cresswell (for review)

New audio book title - to be determined

On a final note, and speaking of the Classics Club, I decided to revise my list and restart my goal date. The reason? In my current living situation, many of my books are difficult to access so there were many books on the list I could not get my hands on. I decided to replace those titles mostly with classic writing books (some of them which I consider classics) and a couple of novels. One notable title, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson which I recently acquired on Kindle. Here's my new list (also found in the Classics Club tab in the menu):

Maya Angelou
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid's Tale Read in March 2017
Negotiating with the Dead

Jane Austen 

Emma
Mansfield Park
Northanger Abbey Read in March 2019

Elizabeth Berg
Escaping into the open

Ray Bradbury
Something Wicked This Way Comes Read October 2018
The Martian Chronicles

Zen and the Art of Writing

Dorothea Brande
Becoming a Writer

Anne Bronte

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 

Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre
Villette

Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights

Julia Cameron

The Vein of Gold

Truman Capote

In Cold Blood

Colette
Cheri (with The Last of Cheri)

Wilkie Collins

The Woman in White

Daniel Defoe

Roxana

Charles Dickens

David Copperfield
Great Expectations
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
Little Dorritt
A Tale of Two Cities 

Annie Dillard

The Writing Life

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Brothers Karamazov

Daphne du Maurier

My Cousin Rachel Read in April 2017

George Eliot 

The Mill on the Floss
Silas Marner

T.S. Eliot

Murder in the Cathedral

Mary Hanford Ford

The Legends of Parsifal

John Fowles

The Collector
The French Lieutenant's Woman

Anne Frank
The Diary of Anne Frank
(Changed from Updike's Rabbit, Run which was a DNF)

Bonnie Friedman

Writing Past Dark

Elizabeth Gaskell

Cranford
North and South

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
The Sylph

John Gardner

The Art of Fiction
On Becoming a Novelist
On Writers and Writing

Natalie Goldberg

Thunder and Lightning
Writing Down the Bones

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Marble Faun

Victor Hugo
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Les Miserables

Shirley Jackson
We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Henry James

The Portrait of a Lady
The Golden Bowl
The Turn of the Screw
Roderick Hudson

Ralph Keyes
The Courage to Write

Madame de Lafayette
The Princess of Cleves Read in February 2019

Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird Read in July 2018

Sheridan Le Fanu

Uncle Silas

Gaston Leroux

The Phantom of the Opera

Ursula K. Le Guin

Steering the Craft

Betsy Lerner

The Forest for the Trees

Thomas Mann

Buddenbrooks

W. Somerset Maugham

The Painted Veil

Joyce Carol Oates

The Faith of a Writer

Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar

Steven Pressfield

The War of Art

Ann Radcliffe

The Mysteries of Udolpho 

Sir Walter Scott

Rob Roy

Mary Shelley

Frankenstein Read in February 2019

Twyla Tharp

The Creative Habit

Brenda Ueland

If You Want to Write

Lew Wallace

Ben-Hur

Evelyn Waugh

Brideshead Revisited

Edith Wharton

The Age of Innocence
Ethan Frome
The House of Mirth
The Writing of Fiction

Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray
Lady Windermere's Fan
A Woman of No Importance
An Ideal Husband

Virginia Woolf

Orlando
The Virginia Woolf reader

Jane Yolen

Take Joy

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Thoughts on Lois Lowry's The Giver #Review

Warning: Potential spoilers

This is the book that will make you very thankful for everything you experience, for everything you have, in life. The pleasure, the happiness, along with the pain and suffering.

What would life be like if everyone and everything were the same? The "sameness" in The Giver means there are none of the things I love...books, pets, holidays (Christmas), individuality, solitude, and the one thing which made me sob amidst the pages...family. Yes, there are "family units," but the parents are no longer involved in the lives of their children once they are grown. So, no grandparents being able to share the love of grandchildren. I can't even fathom it. I can't imagine my parents not being present in my whole life.

The Giver makes you think about what we sacrifice for sameness. Do we want to live in a society with no color, no individual freedoms? A society free of hunger, war, pain, yes...but at what cost? Never knowing joy, or true feelings of love for a child, or a significant other. This is a Dystopian society which seems not so bad, perhaps even ideal, on the surface, but the implications are far more concerning.

Once again, I saw the film (several years back) before reading this, and once again, the book is better. In Lowry's introduction, she mentioned receiving letters/emails from people stating the book was life changing. It is that. This is a book which needs to be picked up every so often to remind us of how precious our freedoms, and the lives we lead, really are, and to hold on to them at all cost.

Book One in The Giver Quartet

Life in the community where Jonas lives is idyllic. Designated birthmothers produce new children, who is assigned to appropriate family units; one male, one female, to each. Citizens are assigned their partners and their jobs. No one thinks to ask questions. Everyone obeys. Then community is a precisely choreographed world without conflict, inequality, divorce, unemployment, injustice.. or choice.

Everyone is the same.
Except Jonas.

At the Ceremony of Twelve, the community's twelve-year-olds eagerly accept their predetermined Life Assignments. But Jonas is chosen for something special. He begins instruction in his life's work with a mysterious old man known only as The Giver. Gradually Jonas learns that power lies in feelings. But when his own power is put to the test - when he must try to save someone he loves - he may not be ready. Is it too soon? Or too late?

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A Reading Life (52) - April #reading plans, #readathons and short #reviews

April already and it's readathon time! My Spring into Horror Readathon (at Seasons of Reading) is in full swing, going on the whole month of April, and today it's time for Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon. Last time I participated in October, I didn't have any plans on Saturday so I was able to do the whole 24 hours (well, I stayed home anyway...I didn't manage to read for 24 hours). This time is a different story because I'm going to see Pet Sematary. So excited! I still should be able to get some good reading time in though.

Before I get to my readathon reading plans, let me share what I read in March. I managed to read three full books! Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (audio), and The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. I'm still working on Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake.

My brief thoughts on my March reads...

Joy in the Morning

My mom told me many years ago I needed to read this. Can't believe I waited so long. Wonderful book. Annie was such a great character. A lot of her traits reminded me of myself. The way her mind worked; her sense of optimism, and she was a book lover and writer. This book was just a comfort to read, and though it wasn't a "can't put down" thriller type of book, I still found myself wanting to keep reading each time I picked it up.

Challenges read for:

Book Challenge by Erin 10.0

Northanger Abbey

Not my favorite Austen, but definitely worth a read for any Austen fan. Austen had a knack for writing duplicitous characters. Isabella Thorpe, I'm looking at you. I loved all the references to the Gothic novels of the time.

Challenges read for:

Book Challenge by Erin 10.0

The Classics Club

The Miniaturist

If you're a reader who often finds yourself unable to read the book before the movie (or series) is released, take my advice. Never ever let yourself be satisfied with just watching the movie (or series), as excellent as it may be. There's a chance you will miss out if you do. I'm sure many already know this, but it bears repeating. The BBC limited series based on this book was indeed excellent. Yet the book was so much more. The writing brought vividly to mind the scenes, and the characters had so much depth. Based on the real Petronella Oortman (Brandt), the story was fictional, but the large cabinet/doll's house portrayed in the story was one the real Petronella possessed, and one she lavished much money and attention upon. The dollhouse has been on display in the Rijksmuseum Museum in Amsterdam since 1875 (image below). This will always be a memorable historical fiction read for me.

Challenges Read for:

Book Challenge by Erin 10.0

April Reading/Readathon Plans

The #Bookjar and Random Reading Projects are again on hold this month because I'm in the final stretch of  Book Challenge by Erin 10.0 which ends on April 30. I have five books to read to complete the challenge. With the readathons going on, I think I can do it. I hope!

Horror/scary reads for Spring into Horror

Necroscope by Brian Lumley

Florence and Giles by John Harding

The King of Bones and Ashes by J.D. Horn (currently reading)

Good Omens by Gaiman/Pratchett (audio - currently listening)

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

Non-scary

The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier (April selection for True Book Talk)

The Twelve Caesars (continue on with)

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (continue on with) 

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A Reading Life (51) - March #reading plans and February's short #reviews

Wow! It's March. It's Spring Break this week so we have some fun planned. Looking forward to it because we're going to the Frist Art Museum. Might be the last time we visit before we move back to Michigan next year. We're also going to see Captain Marvel tomorrow. I've been hearing great things about it. Reece and I are excited!

In February, I read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and The Princess of Cleves by Madame de La Fayatte (True Book Talk February Selection). I'm still working on Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars. It's a bit dry so I decided to take a bit longer to read it, and to read it in doses.

My thoughts on February's reads...

Frankenstein

I can't believe I waited so long to read this book. I've read Dracula three times. I recently watched the film, Mary Shelley. I immediately picked this up to read. While somewhat more wordy than Dracula, in my opinion (I enjoy Dracula's epistolary format), I liked its insight and observations on mankind. How we so often have difficulty looking beyond the physical appearance to what the person is like inside. How we judge and underestimate on appearances alone. I would even go so far to say that Shelley's "monster" was symbolic of women and how they were treated in her time. Judged by gender/outward appearance; believed not capable of anything beyond typical womanly tasks. Certainly not capable of writing a novel such as Frankenstein!

I will definitely reread at some point. I bet there is a great audio version available.

Challenges read for:
Book Challenge by Erin 10.0
Classics Club
13 Ways of Looking at the Lifetime Reading Plan
2019 Book to Movie

The Princess of Cleves

A quote from the Madame de La Fayette author page on Goodreads: "... the work is often taken to be the first true French novel and a prototype of the early psychological novel." This was definitely an interesting depiction of the intrigues of the French court, and when I say intrigues, I mean the intrigues of love. Initially, a bit overwhelmed with the multitude of characters described in the novel, I was finally able to keep everyone straight, although with effort. Regarding it being an early psychological novel, I would have to agree. The author was very skillful in depicting the inner workings of the characters' minds, especially those of the Princess of Cleves and the Duc de Nemours.


Challenges read for:
Classics Club

March Reading Plans

I'm not doing the #Bookjar and Random Reading Projects this month because I'm working on Book Challenge by Erin 10.0 which ends on April 30. I need to read three books this month and three next month, plus finish The Twelve Caesars, to complete the challenge (I'm also listening to the Northanger Abbey audio book for this challenge...very close to finishing). Below are the books and Book Challenge prompts I'm reading for this March.

Read a book that is a friend or family member’s favourite...or the favourite book by another participant in this challenge - Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith (one of my mom’s favorites)

Read a book that was made into a movie - The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Read a book that is set in Europe - The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

Also, currently reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, March selection for True Book Talk.

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A Reading Life (50) - #Reading plans, plus a couple of short #reviews

I can't believe my last "A Reading Life" post was way back in September of 2017. Wow! I have truly been slacking. Hoping to do better, although these posts will probably be monthly, or bi-weekly occasionally. I think I can commit to that.

Last month, I shared my #BookJar and Random Reading projects, along with the other few challenges I'm participating in this year. One thing was clear to me from the outset...you're going to need a bigger jar. lol  Alas, my pretty little jar with the green lid (pictured in challenge image above) was not large enough for all the slips of paper. I couldn't get them to mix up so I kept drawing the same books again and again. Pictured also above is the new jar with plenty of room to shake, shake, shake.

Coincidentally, the book I drew from the book jar (after transferring paper slips to the new jar) was The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, which is also one of the books in my Read Your (Book) Shelf challenge stack, and so it's my read for February for that challenge. The Twelve Caesars is also on my list for Book Challenge by Erin 10.0 and my Non-Fiction Adventure challenge list. Also, for Book Challenge by Erin, I'm reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and listening to Austen's Northanger Abbey on audio. This month's True Book Talk (my Goodreads book group) selection is The Princess of Cleves by Madame De Lafayette (translated by Nancy Mitford). Since February is a short month, I'm not going to pick a Random Reading title this month. I'm already going to struggle to finish what I have slated.

I finished my Read your (Book) Shelf book for January, Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. My True Book Talk January selection carried over into this month. I just finished it today, Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Biography by Marion Meade. I also finished today, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (audio book and reread). 

I've become so nervous about writing reviews. I'm not sure why. I guess because anxiety has really entered my life more of late and it extends to all areas. So, most of my reviews are going to be short and sweet. Below, I share my (short) thoughts on the three books mentioned above. 

Orphan Train

Everyone I've talked to loved this book. My mom read it first and she loved it. So did I. I think books like this should be required reading for over privileged kids who think they have it bad. (Hopefully) they will never know a life like the orphans, like Vivian, had in this book. It's difficult to imagine how few rights children had even as recently as the 1920s. This book examines, in a fictional account, the very real phenomenon of the orphan trains which operated from 1854 to 1929, transporting orphans to the Midwest states for adoption, but which usually amounted to indentured servitude. What Vivian experienced was so heartbreaking, never truly finding a family to love her, and where she felt she belonged, even when she did find a family who at least cared for her and took her in as their own. She finally finds true happiness, only to face tragedy again. I really liked how the author tied in the story of a modern day foster child who meets Vivian as an elderly lady and they form a strong bond of friendship through their shared orphan experience. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a poignant historical read, and who loves stories about the triumph of the human spirit. The tears it brought to my eyes several times showed me that this book really touched my soul.

Eleanor of Aquitaine

This was hands down one of the best biographies I have ever read. I have long admired Eleanor, the

woman who was a queen twice, first in France, and the second being the queen to the formidable Henry II of England. Together they sired eight children, two of them becoming future kings of England in their own right. Boy, what she went through and achieved for her children is truly astounding. She was a formidable woman who knew to pick her battles. She most certainly made some mistakes along the way, but for the time period, when women were mostly kept in the background, Eleanor was always in the forefront. She lived to be 82 years old, quite a feat for the time as well. Before I read this book, my only reference for Eleanor was the famous film, "The Lion in Winter." Even then, I fell in love with the woman she was, and have always wanted to learn more about her. This book gave me that and much more. Not only a biography, but a detailed historical account of her life, and those of her husband, Henry II, and her sons. It definitely made me want to read more about the various figures during her lifetime.

A Discovery of Witches
This was a reread (I listened on audio). I wanted to read it again before the series aired (on Sundance or Shudder). I didn't quite get there, but I watched the first eight episodes and will now finish watching the last two. I have to admit, I liked this better when I read the print book the first time. I think it was the voice of the audio book reader. Listening to her read it made it sound more corny to me. Has that ever happened to you? It just seemed more romance-y to me this time. Maybe I'm just more jaded than I was back in 2011. All this being said, I still like the story. I love the history tied up in it, and the idea of witches, vampires and demons existing along side humans. So, I'm looking forward to reading the second book, though I won't be listening on audio. Not sure when I'll pick up, Shadow of Night, but it will definitely be before the next season of the television series (which is pretty good, by the way, although a bit different from the book).

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2019 Reading Challenges - #BookJar Project and Random #Reading

There are TONS of reading challenges on offer every year, as we all know. Heck, I even have a group on Facebook where people post reading challenges. I compiled all the posts into documents, listing each challenge, and a link to the sign up post. There are literally tons! (If you're curious about the group, and aren't already a member, it's Sleep Less, Read More.) For people like me, it's SO tempting to sign up for a lot of them (or all of them. lol). However, every year I sign up and fail miserably. Most of the failure stems from not reading enough, but also, not keeping track and updating my progress. So, though I thought about signing up for a few, on top of the yearly challenges I host myself, and a couple others I committed to, I decided against it.

One of my biggest problems is thinking about the long term and perpetual challenges (many hosted by me) I take part in. I find I'm not making much headway and I started thinking of a solution.

Here is a list of those long term and perpetual challenges:

13 Ways of Looking at the Lifetime Reading Plan
The Classics Club
The Fantasy Project
The Michener Challenge
The Never-Ending Anne Rice Challenge
A Non-Fiction Adventure
The Stephen King Challenge

My other dilemma is my massive home library of over 3000 books. I know I'll never read them all, but I know there is a way to read more of them (I mostly read from my own books, but I'm always buying new ones...I'm sure many can relate).

I had been kicking around the idea of a book jar for years, but then it dawned on me. Why not include in the book jar only the books on my lists for the above long term and perpetual challenges? So that's exactly what I did.

#BookJar Project 

Guidelines

1. Draw one book per month
2. Three draws allowed, in case I'm just not in the mood for that one, or I can't find the book (because I'm living with my mom, the way my library is set up, there are some books I can't get to. lol).
3. That's it! Easy!

To tackle the second part of my dilemma, I came up with Random Reading. This involves my book catalogue which I use to keep track of the books I own. It is arranged by author last name, alphabetically. Each letter has it's own section and I number each book (see image above). What I will do is randomly select a letter of the alphabet (1-26) and then randomly select a number from the section of that letter. So, if the letter 'A' has 115 titles, I would randomly select from 1 - 115. Same guidelines as above...

1. Draw one book per month
2. Three draws allowed, in case I'm just not in the mood for that one, or I can't find the book

Other Challenges

Here is a list of the other challenges I'm participating in. The first three are the ones I host at Gather Together and Read. I've included full info on the 2019 Reading Challenges page (tab in the blog menu above). 

2019 Read Your (Book) Shelf

2019 Book to Movie Reading Challenge

2019 13 Ways of Looking at The Lifetime Reading Plan Yearly Reading Challenge

HFU (Historical Fictionistas University) Challenge 2019

Book Challenge by Erin 10.0

I guess this is kind of my 2019 reading resolutions as well. My reading numbers have been on the mediocre side the past couple of years. Back in 2014 and 2016, I read over 50 books. 2014 was actually almost 60. I want to get back up to that and beyond. My Goodreads goal each year is 75 and I'm going to hit it one of these years. I know it! Then, the sky's the limit!

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