Hi friends, today I’ll be wrapping up my October! Another month in this crazy year done. I know that 2021 won’t magically mean the pandemic is over, but I hope for better days ahead.

If you missed September’s wrap up, catch it here!

Currently Reading:

I’m continuing with Stephen King’s short story collection from 1971-1978, Night Shift. So far, I’ve read 6 short stories; I find one week I like the short story, the next I don’t – it’s become a pattern. I’m hoping by the time I get halfway (only 35% through) I’ll like the stories more.

I’m continuing my re-read of The Fellowship of the Ring. There’s something about this story that I’m finding really comforting. I don’t know if it’s the slow pace of it, the feeling of adventure (that I’m currently lacking in life – thanks COVID), or the friendship between the hobbits but I’m really enjoying re-reading this. Plus, I can’t wait to watch the movie as I’ve never seen it before!

Lastly, I’m reading The Lost Book of the White and it’s been sloooow going for me. Normally I fly through a book that is 1) 360 pages and 2) is written by Cassandra Clare, but I’m struggling with this book. I didn’t really care for the first book in this series and this one is proving to be no different. 

What I read this month:

I read a total of 7 books this month; that’s so little compared to the 11 I read last month! But alas, I’m not complaining, I got some good books in. Plus, my Instagram game has been pretty good!

The Notebook (The Notebook #1) by: Nicholas Sparks (re-read)
So You Want to Talk About Race by: Ijeoma Oluo
The Wedding (The Notebook #2) by: Nicholas Sparks
Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns #4) by: Kendare Blake
Still Life with Tornado by: A.S. King
Origin (Robert Langdon #5) by: Dan Brown
A Blade so Black (Nightmare Verse #1) by: L.L. McKinney

Book Reviews this month:

A Sorrow Fierce and Falling (Kingdom on Fire #3) by: Jessica Cluess
How To Be an Antiracist by: Ibram X. Kendi
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before #1) by: Jenny Han
When You Were My Everything by: Ashley Woodfolk
With the Fire on High by: Elizabeth Acevedo 
The Golden Tower (Magisterium #5) by: Cassandra Clare & Holly Black
The Girl Who Lived Twice (Millennium #6) by: David Lagercrantz

Currently Watching:

I’m continuing my re-watch of Gilmore Girls with season 3 and of course enjoying it. I can’t wait to see Jess and Rory finally get together, but I have to say the build up is THE best!

I’m back on the ER train! I’m so happy to be back in this world! I’ve wanted to go back for a while now (I watched season 12 in Feb/March) and then with the library being closing and then I couldn’t find the DVDs at the library, I’ve made the decision to watch season 13 online. This season is starting out really good and I’m curious where the rest of the season is going to go. 

Lastly, TV shows are starting to come back on the air. This Is Us came back for season 5 (I had to Google what season we’re on because I couldn’t believe it’s already 5 in!) last Tuesday for 2 hours. I don’t know how I feel about the show incorporating COVID into the plot; the reason we watch TV is to escape reality so I’m not totally into this very real reality in my fiction.  

What I Watched this month:

I spent some time watching the first, and only season, of Goosebumps that Netflix had to offer. I really enjoyed this and I wish I had access to all four seasons but this one was spooky and just a lot of fun to watch.

Once I finished Goosebumps, I moved on to The Haunting Hour which was in the same vein as Goosebumps. This series ran from 2010-2014, but Netflix only had the first 2 seasons and it was just as spooky and fun to watch. 

I finished the first and second season of Dear White People and I’m enjoying this show. There are so many topical issues that are being addressed and there is still the drama you expect from college students. I honestly think this is a great show. I’ll have more of a break down in my wrap-ups that I plan to have go up next month/ish. 

I finally got around to watching To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. GAH, was this ever the cutest? This, to me, was just as good as the book. I think I liked Peter a little more after seeing him in the movie 😅

I finished up season 2 of Gilmore Girls on Halloween (lolz for watching spooky things). There was a lot I didn’t remember happening so early on, like Jess trying to get with Rory, yet Rory is still with Dean (I honestly thought Dean was gone by season 2 but oh, how wrong I am) and the whole Lorelai and Christopher debacle. 

I’m back to watching a lot of movies. This month I took the time to watch as many spooky/horror/creepy/thrilling movies. 

I’ve never seen Ghostbusters before so I decided this was a time to watch it. I liked it, I probably wouldn’t watch it again but it was enjoyable. Then I found there was a Ghostbusters 2 so I thought, well why not. Not as great as the first one (not really a shocker) but I still found it entertaining.

I watched Jigsaw which I didn’t realize was part of the Saw series until about halfway through, so I’ll have to go back and watch the Saw movies because I think I would have appreciated this movie more if I had some backstory. Otherwise this was still good to watch by itself. 

Then I watched In the Tall Grass which I found out after watching it, it’s a Stephen King movie and it all made sense to me. King movies, I’m sorry, aren’t that great and this one I was SO confused through most of the movie. It wasn’t scary – to me, and I just had so many questions. The cinematography was really well done though.

From there I decided to take it old school and watch Jaws, Jaws 2 and Jaws 3. I have to say, the first was so exposition heavy, for a shark attack movie, why was there so much dialogue? The second wasn’t as long and dialogue heavy, but I kept going. The third was supposed to be “3D” and oh my goodness the special effects were so bad! I have to say that these movies drove me crazy because these shark attacks were so fake in the way sharks behave that it made me annoyed… yet I kept watching.  

I watched Scary Movie for the sake of saying I’ve watched it because I’ve never seen it. There was nothing special about it, it makes fun of your typical scary movies but I didn’t find it that funny. 

I really enjoyed Coraline I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before so it was really cute and the animation was so good!  

I watched a movie called The Mangler which is based off a Stephen King short story by the same name. It was alright, I didn’t care too much for the weird character they added in the movie. 

I’m not a big fan of mockumentaries, but I watched Blair Witch which was an alright movie. I can see its scare appeal, but I just kept thinking how dumb some of the character’s moves were.

I watched Bram Stoker’s Dracula and I have to say I enjoyed that way more than I thought I would. I didn’t care for the book; it was dense and I found boring, but the movie was not that. Even though it was 2 hours I was invested the whole time.

It took me two nights to watch The Nun and it wasn’t the greatest.

By chance I found Scream on Amazon Prime and so I was able to watch Scream and Scream 2. I actually really enjoyed those movies. I’ll need to find time to watch the other two movies in this series. 

TV Tuesday Posts:

Let’s Talk About… Heroes Season One
Let’s Talk About… Heroes Season Two

Posts from the Month

WWW Wednesday #40🕷
WWW Wednesday #41 🕸
WWW Wednesday #42 👻
WWW Wednesday #43 🎃

The Sunshine Blogger Award XI
Outstanding Blogger Award
Mystery Blogger Award X

October came in like a hurricane. I honestly don’t know how else to describe it. One day things were calm and as soon as October started everything just hit the fan at work and it was just really stressful.  

I’m glad to say that work took a break after the first two days of the month. I’m still working at home (no surprise there) we were told in a meeting that, the whole moving into Phase 2 after Thanksgiving and even thinking about going back to the office are pretty much out the window. I’m telling you, 2021!

That aside, this month has been pretty good. I was asked by a friend to beta read her novel and I was so excited to do so, I’ve never beta read a book before. I loved the story so I hope that her book makes it out into the world because I was sitting, holding my head going “WHAT?!” at her plot twist in the end. 

Canadian Thanksgiving was this month and obviously we couldn’t do any big get-togethers so it was a small family gathering with just my immediate family. I made pumpkin pie for the first time in two years… it came out great… aside from my salty crust (oops!)

I also had a friendsgiving with my two best friends who are in my social bubble. We ordered The Cheesecake Factory (why is there menu SO long and everything look SO good?) I had Bang Bang Chicken and Shrimp, yum! I had the Adam’s Fudge Reese’s Pieces cheesecake, OMG! 😍 It was a nice evening, and since I paid for dinner, my friends paid me back in books, it was lovely! 

The following weekend, since I had pumpkin purée left over from the pie, I found a recipe that calls for what I had left, a pumpkin chocolate cake. This came out really well.

The weekend after that, one of my best friend’s, who I haven’t seen since pre-COVID, came over for a few hours. We ordered waffles (yum!😍) and Starbucks drinks and watched movies. It was so good to see her again and of course, as my life revolves around books 😅 she dropped off 3 books that she no longer wanted! 

Lastly, Halloween! 🎃 I hope you all had a spooky Halloween. I carved a pumpkin, Frankenstein inspired. Then I hung out with my two bubble friends to make cookies and watch spooky movies!

I hope you had a great October!