I finished Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier which I ADORED. What a rollercoaster ride! Loved the idea of not giving the protagonist a name as Rebecca is THE Mrs De Winter. I read it in a day.

I started Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury - wasn't sure about the language when I first started it but it's growing on me now. Super creepy.

Finished Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

• I absolutely loved it. The book follows two fourteen year old boys named Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade (great name) and their encounter with a mysterious carnival coming into town in autumn. It's beautifully written and full of wonder. Should definitely be read in September/October. Get on it!

I'm working on a reread of Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury. It's a little more abstract than I remember. Trying to figure out what's going on is slippery, I feel like I have a grasp on what something was and then something else happens to completely change my understanding. It's fun. Very Halloween.

I'm a few hours in to the audiobook for The Shining Girls, by Lauren Beukes. It's the story of a time traveling serial killer and a survivor-gone-investigative-journalist. I didn't like how quickly the killer came to grips with time travel, but I'm enjoying the story otherwise. We'll see how the characters develop. They're fairly one-dimensional at the moment.

Finished The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie. Another popular Christie which I thought I'd read but I hadn't. I wasn't surprised by the ending, though I have a vague suspicion I was spoiled about an aspect of the plot in some Reddit thread.

Finished The Player of Games, by Iain M. Banks. I actually haven't explored the Space Opera genre at all, despite enjoying Star Trek. I started Consider Phlebus but found that difficult to get through. Player of Games was much easier to get into and quite enjoyable! I'm looking forward to reading more of the Culture series.

Finished My Best Friend's Exorcism, by Grady Hendrix for this month's bookclub. I have to say I was quite underwhelmed. It reminded me of why I don't enjoy YA stuff - I find most teenage protagonists difficult and frustrating. The setting, which would probably be nostalgic for some people, only made that distance harder to bridge for me. The climax underwhelmed me. Despite this, it wasn't bad technically, and had some very interesting elements.

Finished Authority, by Jeff Vandermeer. I thought I'd give the trilogy another chance despite not being impressed by Annihilation. The less said about this book, the better. Nothing happens except in the last fifty or so pages. People walk around, talk, have mundane conflicts. The lead character navel-gazes. He navel-gazes again. Something something mysterious mystery. Meh.

Started Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury. It's too early to have any thoughts on the book yet.

Finished Vicious, by VE Schwab. I've commented before about how much I love her after reading the Darker Shades series. My love is still just as strong. She has created some of my favorite characters, ever.

I will be finishing A Walk In The Woods, by Bill Bryson this week via audio book. I haven't listened to an audio book before but I really loved listening to this while painting my living room.

I'm currently reading Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury as part of my "spooky" October and part of r/bookclub's monthly read. I'm also reading Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, by Irin Carmon.

Completed:

• The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, by Marilyn Manson, Neil Strauss - This was a fantastic treck through depravity. I was a fan of his earlier music and I was happy to see this book cover the behind the scenes antics during Spooky Kids, Portrait of an American Family, Smells like Children and Antichrist Superstar.

• The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth #1), by N.K. Jemisin - Very good start to the series, great world building. Looking forward to The Obelisk Gate.

• Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries #4), by Martha Wells - My second favorite book in the series thus far. Excited for the full length novel in 2020. I highly recommend this series for any sci-fi fan and actually purchased a few copies for friends.

• Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury - This is my favorite Bradbury yet (The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451). I love the idea of a dark carnival coming to town! Bradbury is able to maintain an incredible atmosphere throughout the novel, its dusk and everything is DEAD quiet as a lightning storm approaches.

Starting

• Secret Prey (Lucas Davenport #9), by John Sandford
• The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
• The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy #2), by Douglas Adams
• The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth #2), by N.K. Jemisin
• Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse #1), by James S.A. Corey

Deadhouse Gates, by Steven Ericson

After finding the first Malazan book disappointingly devoid of pathos, I'm glad to say this one delivered. Here the mythic, in it's terror and beauty, mixes well with the gritty day-to-day.

I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson

A small masterpiece. The father or the zombie apocalypse, except here the flesh eaters are thinking, communicating people, something that actually makes the theme of isolation even greater. Brilliant in it's themes. (What was that shitty Will Smith movie even trying to? LOL).

Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

1/3 in to it so far, and so far I see no good qualities in it. It's full of dreamlike romanticizing about childhood, what being a man is like, what being a woman is like... all nonsense, quite sexist, and the dreamlike driftiness just works against the horror elements.

Just started a reread of Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury with my book club. It's still my favorite October book. Perfect atmosphere, sense of mild danger, otherworldly mystique, good ol' fun, and flowing, descriptive writing style

Nearing the end of the audiobook for Space Opera, by Catherynne M. Valente. Premise: peace reigns throughout the galaxy after a brutal war over which species are actually sentient, but now whenever a new borderline sentient species is discovered they must compete in a singing competition. If they place second to last or better, they are allowed to join the galactic stage, if they get last, they're exterminated. Humans have just been discovered and are clearly borderline sentient. The hilarity and exploration of human nature is perfect. The aliens are diverse and ridiculous. The narrative style is amazing. The characters are great. It's just all great. What impresses me the most though is how different in style this is to her other book I've read (Radiance). Valente executes both beautifully and I find it so impressive that she's able to create two completely unique galaxies and deliver each to us with distinct literary styles.

Finished The Red Threads of Fortune, by J.Y. Yang. I liked it a lot more than The Black Tides of Heaven, being a more cohesive, focused story. Undecided if I'll continue with the Tensorate series, but I'll add the next one to the TBR pile and maybe it'll get picked up some day.

Finished Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury. Fantastic story.

Finished A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. While I can appreciate a lot about this book, the story, message, characters, even the writing itself, something just didn't click for me. Don't know if it was the short nature of it but it felt more like a summary rather than a fully fleshed out story. Every now and then I felt like it was threatening to lose my interest. I didn't dislike it by any means and do plan to read at least the next two books eventually.

Currently reading Kingshold, by D.P. Woolliscroft. Has been a slow burn, reading a chapter or two here and there around the other books for a little while now, about 35% in. Finally becoming my primary so hope to finish it in the next week-ish. Liking it so far.

Currently listening to Amberlough, by Lara Elena Donnelly. Just ok so far. A few shallow gripes (did we really need 3 sex scenes in the first 5 chapters?), still waiting to see where it's going with the first 20% so far being so focused on setting the characters and stage.

The Halloween Tree, by Ray Bradbury I didn't know it would be middle grade but it was okay.

The Uninvited, by Cat Winters I quite enjoyed this one. Minor spookiness and a decent twist.

I'm currently reading All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders and Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury. SWTWC is cute, I didn't know that Ray Bradbury wrote so much stuff for kids. I enjoy some spooky YA

Just started Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury. Only a few chapters in and pretty intrigued.

Last week I finished:

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I liked this! The synopsis says “humanity’s worst nightmare” but it’s not really about that, it’s about two different, desperate societies who both want the same planet and how they change over thousands of years. This was an audiobook for my commute/errands/painting and it was easy to follow.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Not my thing. It was okay, and the first chapter or so was deliciously Halloweeny, but it was super philosophical to the point where I just lost my patience with Will’s dad’s monologues, and the rules for the magic were never said, he just seemed to make them up as he went along. It’s definitely for some people, but not for me.

Short things:

• “Pillar of Salt” by Shirley Jackson (The Lottery)
• “Bounty” by George Saunders (Civil War Land in Bad Decline) (this was weird even for him)
• “Three Quarters of the Way to Hell” by TC Boyle (Wild Child)
• “Do Not Save the Ferocious, Save the Tender” by Ramona Ausubel (Awayland)
• “For What Purpose?” by Karen E. Bender (Refund)
• “Wild Child” by TC Boyle (Wild Child)

Working on:

• White Teeth by Zadie Smith
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
• Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser
• Blindsight by Peter Watts

Finished Boy's Life, by Robert R. McCammon and The Traitor Baru Cormorant, by Seth Dickinson. Started and finished The Freeze-Frame Revolution, by Peter Watts.

Currently reading Kingshold, by D.P. Wolliscroft and Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury.

​

Boy's Life was one of my favorite books of the past couple years. Follows the life of a young boy in a small Alabama town in the 1960s. The overall plot arch follows trying to figure out a murder mystery but along the way there are 20 other small trials and events that the boy, his friends or family, or the town have to deal with. Whether it's more mundane school or bully issues, or a flood and a river monster, to dealing with loss, the rise of a convenience store, rock & roll, racism/the KKK, and ways life in a small town were changing in that time period. A few elements of magic and monsters but they're more so as seen through the filter of a boy's imagination. There were laughs, there were tears, there were tense moments. Just an amazing job of story telling and transporting you into a world.

Traitor Baru Cormorant was a good story and the twists and turns were surprising at times. But between knowing just enough hints to be suspicious of what might happen and not getting very attached to Baru or the other characters, it kind of blunted the twists and turns and the bigger shocks.

The Freeze-Frame Revolution was a good, hard sci-fi novella involving the challenges of mutiny on AI-controlled ship when the human crew is in hibernation for most of the trip, sleeping for hundreds or thousands of years at a time, only being woken in shifts for days at a time when needed to assist with tasks. It was a solid concept, my biggest gripe is just that with the short nature of the story, it left a lot of questions. Will have to check out some of the other short stories in this universe and see if more pieces come together.

Finished:

Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury -- I liked it even though the atmosphere took priority over storytelling. It was great as a mood-setting read if not much else.

Reading:

The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss -- only 150 pages in (still at University)