Hello friends, happy Monday, and happy Halloween! 🎃 I hope you’re all doing well. It’s been another long month, but let’s get into some of the good things that happened this month!

Currently Reading:

Danse Macabre by: Stephen King. I’m just shy of the half-way mark on this and it’s been slow going for me. I don’t know how much I like King writing non-fiction; he rambles a lot and goes on tangents that sort of lose the purpose of his original thought, but he does do a good job talking about himself and how he got into the horror genre – I found that to be really interesting.

The Alice Network by: Kate Quinn. I’m a good chunk in and I’m intrigued by the two main characters because they are these strong women who don’t want what society says they should want. I’m curious how one character’s past has to do with the present.

What I’ve Read:

Geekerella by: Ashley Poston. For the most part, I enjoyed this, but there were things that bugged me that stopped me from rating it higher. I want to read more from this trilogy because I did like the story… the characters were just really frustrating at times and I can’t stand when adults act like children… to children/teens.

Daughter of the Burning City by: Amanda Foody. First off, this cover is 5 stars for me, it’s so gorgeous! The book inside was just as gorgeous; the beginning was a little hard for me to get into, that’s why 4 stars, but damn this story was a good blend of fantasy and mystery.

The Girl in the Tower by: Katherine Arden. This is the second novel in this trilogy, and wow… I didn’t think this trilogy could get better… but it did. Now I’m not ready for the third book!

Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by: Rivka Galchen. This was my last Canada Reads book for this year… and I ended on a bummer. I just couldn’t connect or find purpose with this. There were parts I did like, but the majority of the book I was bored and confused who the narrator was.

Words on Bathroom Walls by: Julia Walton. Don’t get me wrong, this was a good read, but for some reason I thought this would be more than this? I feel like I was let down because it wasn’t as heartfelt or moving as I thought it would be. I still like the way it talked about mental illnesses.

What to Say Next by: Julie Buxbaum. Again, this book was lacklustre for me. I liked it, but it didn’t do anything for me. The beginning was really good, but as we moved through this and the ‘twist’ (if you can call it that) was just not great. I did like the autism rep though.

The Princess and the Fangirl by: Ashley Poston. This is the second book in the Geekerlla fairy tale trilogy. I liked this one a little more than the first, the plots were more believable and the characters acted appropriately, but I still had a hard time connecting with it. I will definitely be reading the final book.

Redemptor by: Jordan Ifueko. I took this book out from the library… and, like I thought I would, ended up liking it more than the first book, which I bought. The world building was better, the character growth was amazing; I had a good time reading this.

Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977 – 2003 by: David Sedaris. I had no idea what this was about going in, and I’ve never read anything by this author but if you have you might enjoy this more than me. I didn’t care for the content of this – it was literally his diary entries during these years, but I thought this was such an ingenious idea for a book.

The Winter of the Witch by: Katherine Arden. This was the final novel in this trilogy and it was such journey. So much was going on, but I really liked the way this ended. I loved Vasya’s journey; it was so beautiful. One of my new favourite trilogies.

Links to my my blog posts this past month:

Links to posts I enjoyed around the blogosphere:

The Orangutan Librarian took us on their trip to Dubrovnik and Split

Holly @Nut Free Nerd talked about reading seasonly

Nyx @Drizzle and Hurricane Books posted a list of 10 sex positive YA books

This month has draaaaaged on and as much as I love the fall and its beautiful colours and spices and weather… I’m happy to be saying bye-bye to October.

Highlights of the month:

✨ Baked a pumpkin loaf… a loaf I make every year and it came out perfectly… the best it has ever? 😄

✨ Baked pumpkin chocolate chip muffins… again these came out so good, yum!

✨ Celebrated Thanksgiving with family with yummy turkey, mashed potatoes… and pumpkin pie… I am a pumpkin this year 🎃

✨ Went to dinner a few times with friends, one for sushi and another for Italian – yum!

✨ Bought a new purse, I’m really excited about it – it’s so cute!

✨ Made pudding from scratch… not sure it came out the greatest 😅

✨ Went to Niagara Falls on a girls trip, crossed the US boarder to go shopping and to eat – such a great weekend 😊

✨ Baked loads of cookies!

✨ Had a mini Halloween get-together with my friends

What I’ve watched:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer; season 3. I have to say, I’m happy to have made it through this season because I didn’t exactly like it. It felt so chaotic. There’s a new slayer in town, Faith and she had NO redeeming qualities; I truly tried to like her and give her a chance, but time and again she proved an awful person so I wasn’t sad to see her go. There’s also a new watcher in town… I honestly can’t even remember his name because he’s such a wanker, like ugh. Plus he has the dumbest crush on Cordelia… which speaking of I hated the weird Xander/Willow plot where they got together for some unknown reason, for drama maybe? It was dumb. So that leaves Cordelia and Xander breaking up but I’m so glad to see Willow and Oz stay together because they are SO cute. Then there’s Buffy and Angel… the will they won’t they dance they play… I’m pretty sure it’s over now because I think Angel is leaving Sunnydale. I will miss him. Curious to see where they take the college years.

Superstore; season 6. You know, when I started this season… I couldn’t wait for it to be over… and now that I’ve finished it… I’m sad? That final episode really did get to me; the speech that Garett makes was so sweet and I like that they made him, of all the characters say it. He’s one of my favourites, he was sweet under his tough exterior. I loved when Dina asked Garett to be her boyfriend after everything they had been through. And then we had Amy and Jonah… I have to say I was really surprised by their ending – I didn’t see that coming. In the end, this was a great sitcom that took place in a department store.

Star Trek: The Next Generation; season 3. This is the season that I finally felt like I was getting into this series. This is the first series that I haven’t fallen in love with it immediately, but that’s ok because I’m now finding my groove. There have been slow episodes as well as more interesting ones but I like that we’re really starting to get to know each of the main characters. I like that we’ve seen more of their families and backstories. I think Data making his own child is my fave episode so far. Then, that last episode was such a cliff hanger, I truly thought Picard was a goner and Riker would become captain, which would be logical… but the girl they brought in to be Riker’s number 1 annoyed me. I look forward to see where the next season goes.

The Midnight Club; season 1. It seems every year, Mike Flanagan comes out with a new anthology and this is the latest one. I talk more in depth in my write up, but I liked the vibes of this one, it was slow, and the ending left me with more questions than I had answers and I don’t like that. I felt like they didn’t focus enough on this cult-like group enough; it was the base of this story and it felt like it fell flat. What I did like though, was the way they talked of life and death and the moments that each of these characters had were so beautiful and real, nothing was sugarcoated and I liked that a lot.

I re-watched The Sixth Sense when I went to visit my aunt and uncle at Thanksgiving. I saw it years ago… but I didn’t remember the how we got to the end, I knew the ending, just couldn’t figure how it came together. It’s a slow movie, but comes together so well.

I also decided to watch the Saw movies since I saw (haha) that they came to Netflix Oct. 1. This is not a movie franchise you can watch while doing other things… too much happens and when you miss something, it’s usually something crucial. I love how psychological these are, but it also makes me not want to know anyone because I wouldn’t want to find myself in this jigsaw game because I knew someone jigsaw had vendetta against.
Saw – a good starting point; there was a lot to put together and the way this flashed all the pieces together was overwhelming and I still feel slightly confused about the why they chose the doctor.
Saw II – they do bring some of the elements from the first back; I found this one to be more gory and I figured out the first why pretty quickly but I’m still curious about the second why; why they targeted the cop.
Saw III – I didn’t like this one as much, the revenge plots were a little too much, I mean I know the whole point to these movies are revenge, but I feel like it went too far. This is also the one where I realized these are all weirdly connected in some way… but we don’t know how yet.
Saw IV – I honestly didn’t think the main guy was going to be dead; I thought it was all some sort of ruse…but I guess not… the game will continue after he’s dead. I still want to know how it’s all connected.
Saw V – this one got interesting because we learned that Jigsaw had a guy on the inside… a cop (but not the same one who was captured, he ruthlessly died in the previous movie) and now another cop is onto him (played by the guy who was Luke on Gilmore Girls and that was all I could see 😂)
Saw VI – this one was a continuation of the last… we’re still on the hunt to prove this cop is playing out Jigsaw’s game out for him… but we also learn he’s got his own agenda too. This was just so twisty and I had a hard time following along. With each passing movie it felt like more was added to the plot, with less answers.
Saw: The Final Chapter – I don’t like the way this ended because EXCUSE ME?! The doctor comes back… and he was part of it all the whole time but there was never ANY reference that he was he just shows up and then at the end we get flashes that he was behind, helping with so much… I also knew the wife wasn’t as innocent as she claimed to be.

What I’m watching:

The Good Doctor; season 6. I feel really impartial to this show, like I don’t hate it but nor do I like it, but I find myself watching it every week. The epiosdes aren’t anything special and it seems this season we’re going to focus on Dr. Murphy and how his one decision changed Dr. Lim’s whole life. I don’t know… does this need to be as big of a story arc as they’re making it? I guess if I keep watching, I’ll find out.

Station 19; season 6. I’m really not liking this season… everyone is just mad at everyone with no resolutions in sight. All the characters are just going around claiming they don’t need help and that they’re working on their issues in their own (unhealthy) ways. I’ll keep watching, really hoping it’ll get better. I do like seeing Montgomery run for mayor… those are my favourite parts.

Grey’s Anatomy; season 19. Again, not hating nor loving this season but I enjoy watching it. I mean, I’ve been invested in the show for a while now that most of the characters feel like home, which is nice. I thought Teddy and Owen were off the show… now they’re back, they hate each other and we’ve seen waaay too much of them for my liking. I like the Link/Joe plot forming, Link is so cute; I wouldn’t be mad if they officially got together. I also am enjoying the new interns.

Star Trek: The Next Generation; season 4. Continuing on my Trek journey. This season picked up right where the last season left off. I should have known better than to think that Picard was going to become some sort of cyborg and everything went back to the way it was. Now I’m curious if this cast are the same until the end of the show… which is still a good 3 seasons! That aside, I’ve been liking this season; I thought we got a lot of family last season, well we’re getting even more of it this season and I’m living for it. Like Worf has a son?!? That episode was great – I can’t wait to continue on.

Rings of Power; season 1. I’m going to leave this here just because since last month, I’ve only seen another episode, so yes I’m only on episode 4. I’m not a fan of watching things with my brother because we can never get through anything in a timely manor. I can only hope that I’ll get further next month.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer; season 4. I’m liking that we’re in college, this is a fun setting but there isn’t really any structure to this season. Buffy now patrols on campus (do the vampires just follow where she goes?) and why is Giles jobless? I would assume after the school was ruined, he’d find another librarian job? It’s just kinda weird. I also hate that Oz and Willow parted, SO sad about that. I hope he comes back. Spike is now a regular, which is fun, I miss Angel (nice we saw him for an episode so far) and Riley! My first thought was he’s cute in a boy-next-door kind way… but then he’s part of some secret operative mission to detain vampires?!?! Huh? I need more on this, interested to see where that goes, especially if he tries to get with Buffy. I also like the friendship he and Willow have formed.

Nailed It!; season 4. I’ve been lagging on watching this show – I forgot how much I love it. I started this show with my brother, but again it fell by the wayside. They are up to season 7 now and I’ve decided to finally catch up on it and it’s become my new after work show. It’s honestly the best show to watch after a long day because I always find myself laughing way too hard that I’m crying!

Instagram & YouTube videos from the month:

How was your October? Read, watch, do anything interesting? Let me know!