Finished:

Shockaholic, by Carrie Fisher. I've read and enjoyed several of her books, but this one was a real mixed bag. I'd have loved for the whole thing to be about her experience with mental health issues and electroconvulsive therapy, but that was only one section of this book. The second section is about a blind date with Senator Chris Dodd during which Senator Ted Kennedy interrogated her about her sex life and drug use, and the third about fame and her friendship with Michael Jackson (written before the most recent allegations but still). The fourth is a nice exploration of her relationship with her father, which was limited until later in his life. All in all there's some worthwhile content - she was a great writer - but I can't give this one a full recommendation.

A Head Full of Ghosts, by Paul Tremblay. I'm disappointed that I didn't like this one more. I'm easily scared but didn't get any chills. The plot itself was good but I think my reading experience was sullied by a protagonist that didn't ring true and several extended blog posts that, if encountered in real life, I would navigate away from after two sentences.

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, by Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman. Absolutely delightful, what can I say.

How to Be a Bawse, by Lilly Singh. Some good advice here for career and personal success, but some of it only applies to people who want to climb their way to the top of their chosen profession. Obviously it has worked for her (had to look her up, she's a very successful youtuber and such) but I have no desire to hustle 24/7 like she advises.

Started:

The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt, by Kara Cooney. Very readable and interesting history of Egypt's second female pharaoh. The early chapters are light on details, with the bare bones known information filled out with general knowledge of what growing up in the royal family was like, so I'm hoping there's more solid information in future chapters.

Finishing this week A Head Full of Ghosts, by Paul Tremblay

Finished A Head Full of Ghosts, by Paul Tremblay. Started reading Strange Weather, by Joe Hill

Finished:

The Secret of Crickley Hall, by James Herbert

NOS4A2, by Joe Hill

Started:

The Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut

A Head Full of Ghosts, by Paul Tremblay

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Crickley Hall is my first time reading James Herbert. I enjoyed it, and hoping to read more of his work.

This is also my first time reading Paul Tremblay and I really like it so far!

Finished A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

Hoo boy this one was disturbing. Definitely not a standard horror novel. There MAY have been supernatural stuff going on, but the part that got under my skin was the family dynamics and how they treated each other. The ending gave me chills!

Finished East of Eden, by John Steinbeck. Epic story, very ambitious tale of biblical proportions. I can certainly see why it is a reddit favorite. I loved it but rate it just below The Grapes of Wrath in the Steinbeck canon.

Finished A Head Full of Ghosts, by Paul Tremblay. Was underwhelmed by this one. Not sure why it has such an avid following. It was well-written but not scary at all. Slightly creepy in parts but that's the extent of it. Stephen King said "[ ] scared the living hell out of me." I seriously doubt it, Steve. But I will say the ending was great. I felt it redeemed the story somewhat and I'd give an extra star for that.

Finished The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Not really a fan of LOTR. I can see why others enjoy it and it was certainly groundbreaking for the time it was written. But, man, the action was few and far between. It had its moments, but not my favorite by a long shot.

A Head Full of Ghosts, by Paul Tremblay. Finished on Sunday and while I liked it, I definitely didn't love it. It definitely had it's moments but I feel like it didn't reach it's potential.

Skeleton Crew, by Stephen King. - Still working my way through these short stories. Only a couple left now. Overall, they are pretty good. There's a couple of duds, but they're pretty short... And the good ones are pretty damn good. Overall, definitely enjoying it.

Finished:

Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey Excellent ending, can't wait to dive into the third book...in a bit. I love Avasarala and I want her to narrate my whole life and swear at me and then go play Nana because I heart her so very very much.

A Head Full Of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay I did NOT like the ending, not even a little bit. It didn't at all track with the rest of the book. Everything else was very good up until then, but oof that ending. Big whiff. Super pass.

Started and put down:

Abandon by Blake Crouch Awful bad book. I knew it wouldn't be great, considering how much I hated the other book of his I'd bought, but it was already on the shelf so the damage was done. Just really bad. Thumbs down

Started:

Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror by W. Scott Poole So far this book is dryer than the Sahara, but since I love reading about horror almost as much as I love reading it, I'm gonna keep pushing through.

A Head Full of Ghosts: A Novel, by Paul Tremblay

In one sense, I was a little let down when I finished just because I didn't find this scary - like... at all. But I think Merry was such a wonderfully realized character and the ending has really grown on me, so I'd give this a solid 3.5/5

I finished After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, by Nancy Kress. It's a very enjoyable sci-fi/apocalypse novella, the conclusion wasn't quite as satisfying as I would have liked but I still give it high marks.

Also read Lie With Me, by Philippe Besson. There are a lot of similarities to Call Me By Your Name, but it's beautiful and heartbreaking in its own ways. And Molly Ringwald did a wonderful job with the translation.

Now reading A Head Full of Ghosts, by Paul Tremblay and it's just starting to get good.

I just finished A Head Full Of Ghosts, by Paul Tremblay, not quite sure how I feel about it. I think the blog sections did more to hurt the pacing than they did to add to the book, even though I thought actually examining the show was incredibly interesting. I also went into it expecting horror more than anything else, and about halfway through it went from horror to something more like tragedy. I felt worse and worse for the family with each page. Now I'm in a bit of a funk, which I suppose means the book succeeded at eliciting a reaction. Besides the pacing issues, it seemed pretty well written. Considering I had finished Ring, by Koji Suzuki a few days prior, I was in the head space for a much different kind of horror.

I finished A Head Full of Ghosts, by Paul Tremblay and that was incredible. It really stuck with me for days. Or at least the 3 since I've finished it. Then after millions of recommendations, I finally started Dune, by Frank Herbert which i really enjoy so far. About 300 pages in so far.

I finished: A Head Full of Ghosts, by Paul Tremblay

I started and am already almost finished: Frisk, by Dennis Cooper

I really enjoyed A Head Full of Ghosts for the most part. I gave it a 4/5 on Goodreads.

A Head Full of Ghosts, by Paul Tremblay