Book Reviews! New Kittens! I missed the party again.....

I am hanging my head in shame.  *hangs head down*  I cannot believe a whole month has gone by in Carl's challenge and I haven't reviewed a single book, even though I have been very busy reading!  C'mon girl, wake up!  *shakes self*

I am most especially embarrassed because I seem to have missed my third anniversary as a book blogger!  No cake for me!  I could excuse myself, and say we have been extraordinarily busy:  school started, there were two weddings, three colds (two of us are still getting over them), and two new kittens to play with, but really, I am sorry.  I like cake!  And I do love my blog and talking books with all of you, and getting to know you all, and I LOVE reading. 

The New Kitties: 
 Sam

And Rose

The new kittens came into our home in mid-September.  They are wonderful kittens, playing all night, eating everything that falls, knocking things over, and dragging my tasseled bookmarks out of books to chew on.  They also purr and cuddle and are adored already.

 Books I Have Read:

I have been busy reading.  And I see by some of your reviews that some bloggers have been busy reading the same books I am.  So I've linked some reviews already below, and please send me a link if you have reviewed a book I've just read here:

Carl's RIP V Challenge

I have been reading to my heart's content this fall all the ghost, spooky, and downright horror books I could want.  Here is the list, along with a short review - I'm afraid that if I wait to do a long post some other day, it won't get done. 

 The Darkest Room - Johan Theorin -  Amazing mystery/suspense/ghost story.  Set in Oland, the island off Sweden's coast as his first one Echoes From The Dead, the landscape once again plays a role in creating isolation, loneliness, and it plays a real part in the outcome of the mystery.  In The Darkest Room, blizzards, the coming of winter, the loss of light, increase the melancholy that overhangs the recent death of one of the characters in teh beginning of the book.  But this is more than just the story of the Westins, it's also the story of all the people who have lived at the home since it was built in the 1700's.  So many ghosts.....I loved this book.  The characters, the setting, the return to Oland, which was so evocative in Echoes From the Dead, and the languid melancholy, and the presence of unseen from the corner of the eye, plus the menace from real every day threats - this is a very good novel. Highly recommended.


Soulless - Gail Carrigher - This is a fun supernatural novel, mixing Victorian England, manners, with vampires, werewolves, and the Queen of England. it is the first novel in the Alexia Tarabotti series. She is a spinster, almost past marrying age so this gives her a delightful sarcastic edge as she fights to retain some dignity in her role as spinster.  She also happens to be born without a soul, which is very handy when it means that anything supernatural loses its ability around her.  She is also very opinionated, and the dialogue and her observations are hilarious.  This is also a romance, as well as a mystery, charming, and delightful.  The vampires and werewolves are interesting, the idea of having a soul - or not- is believable and what it means makes for a very entertaining read.
Other reviews:
Kailana at The Written World

Greywalker - Kat Richardson.  The first in the Greywalker series featuring Harper Blaine, a PI who dies for three minutes and when she is brought back, discovers she can see into the Grey, an area that spirits can go into after death, before moving on to the light (or Dark).  It's not purgatory, it's a place that overlaps our world, but only the dead and the supernatural can exist there as well as on earth.  Only a Greywalker can see into that world; Harper is even more rare, as she can cross physically into that world after her death experience.  I loved the supernatural aspects, the Grey and how the vampires and ghosts move here and there.  How Harper finds out what is happening to her, and how she begins to attract a different set of clientele, who have special needs that involve the Grey in some way, make for a very good read.  In fact, I enjoyed it so much that at the bookstore tonight, I ended up buying book two in the series, Poltergiest.  Harper herself is also a realistic PI, and I really enjoyed the PI skills put alongside investigating the supernatural. 

The Secret History of Moscow - Ekaterina Sedia.  One day Galina discovers that her sister has turned into a bird, a jackdaw.  Galina goes in search of her and finds a way below Moscow to another world, the secret world of myth, fairytale and legend, Russian style.  Her sister isn't the only one, and in order to stop people from turning into birds, they must discover who is using the old stories - setting them free - on the streets of Moscow.  A beautiful story, with very different fairy tale figures that somehow feel similar at the same time to some characters in the Western fairytale canon. .I enjoyed the unfamiliarity of the fairy tale and myth figures, and what really impressed me was the sense of Moscow that comes through the book.  For the first time, I have a little inkling of how both wonderful historic and horribly scared by this century Moscow is.

Ghost Road Blues - Jonathan Maberry.  Straight up horror, and fun!  I enjoyed the sense of menace, the very visible presence of ghosts, evil, and history in this book.  A tiny town 30 years ago experienced a serial killer, who was brought to justice, but evil is in more than one heart, and another crime is also committed that same night.  It's in the present day, and old evil stirs in the swamp behind the town in Pine Deep, Pennsylvania, and calls out to and draws in greater evil to this little town. The dead will rise, and ghosts walk about the streets of Pine Deep, but no one is prepared for the three killers who make their appearance one night and change the town forever.  Ghost Road Blues is the beginning of a trilogy.  I will most likely seek out the other two books in the series, although I will admit I was disappointed that it was a trilogy, certainly it gives room to explore questions like can evil ever truly die?  what happens when people don't deal with their memories of the past?  There are very likable characters, and the town is fun and it's a very good setting, among the fields of corn, as the murderers strike.  Enjoyable read, some creepy atmosphere, tense killer moments.

More reviews to follow! Have run out of time, will return tomorrow with more.  It's been fun reading all these horror novels.  I have fully immersed myself in the spooky nature of this time of year, as well as the melancholy as the light slowly fades.  I love autumn, and this year, reading horror and ghost stories is adding more to my pleasure!

I hope you are reading some good books for the Challenge. Do you find that reading ghost stories at this time of year comes naturally for you, or are you finding it is too much with the growing darkness outside? 

I made some chocolate chip cookies yesterday, perhaps you'd like to share in some as I celebrate belatedly my blog's birthday?  Happy birthday, book-blog!

If I went to buy one book and came home with 5 others, would you hold it against me?

Sometimes, that's how I feel, after I've gone to a bookstore for one book, and came home with 5 other ones, partly because the bookstore didn't have the one I was looking for.  I did say to my husband that since Christmas was nearing, I would try to not buy as many books before then, or at least put them aside for my Christmas box.  He smiled at me and sighed.  "So I guess this was to make you feel better?" he said, holding out the new FourFourTwo English Premier League magazine  that I'd also picked up, just for him.  "Well, I did go in for you, you know," I fibbed.  Him and me, more like.

So I won't bother asking if going into a bookstore for one book and coming out with others has happened to you.   I expect this is a common condition we booklovers  suffer from.  What I am curious about is, how often does this happen?  And do you find you go out of your way to avoid bookstores sometimes, just so you won't give in to temptation? I have to confess that as I came out of the bookstore on Friday night,  I did momentarily wonder how I was going to avoid going into Chapters next week.  This particular bookstore is two floors of books, practically irresistible, and it's right there where I cross the street to catch my bus home every night.  Oh yes, I wage a battle almost every day on the way home: do I step across the threshold today, or do I resolutely cross the road instead?

So here are the five books that I couldn't resist in my disappointment that no, the bookstore still wasn't stocking Alexandra Sokoloff's The Unseen:

- A Writer's Book of Days - Judy Reeves (revised edition)

- The Secret History of Moscow - Ekaterina Sedia
- Ghost Road Blues - Jonathan Maberry
- The Keeper - Sarah Langan
- Hell House - Richard Matheson
- The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters

I did get The Little Stranger, which I am very pleased with and looking forward to reading very much, and found Hell House,  which I'd been wanting to read for a while.  Richard Matheson scares me. When I saw The Secret History of Moscow I was delighted, as it is in mass market finally, and I'd been waiting for a very long time it seemed to find it.

So the RIP V list grows!
All of these books (except the writing book) are being added to my RIP V challenge reading list.  Why oh why is this challenge only 2 months long??? So many good scary books to read!  I know I can read scary books any time of year, it's just that as the daylight shortens and nights grow longer, there is something thrilling about opening the pages of a scary novel that is irresistible to me.  This is the time of year for ghost stories, and zombies, and terror.  Books to keep the dark away, indeed.  The dark is right beside you...... The Keeper and Ghost Road Blues were either nominated or won the Bram Stoker Award, and as I am trying to keep up with what's the best in the fields I read, I snapped them up.  Both look very good and very, very scary, especially Ghost Road Blues. 

I've already read two!

Yes, indeed.   The Uninvited by Tim Wynne Jones.  Jones is a Canadian writer, so I fulfull a Canadian Challenge book as well as RIP V!!  And My Soul To Take, by Yrsa Sigurdardottir.

Reviews:
The Uninvited:  This is a YA adult novel, and very well written.  So much so that I cried at the ending.  The characters are really good, especially Cramer and Mimi.  Cramer's relationship with his mother, a failed artist, is the most gripping part of this book.  She is unstable, and how Cramer tries to live with her, and cope with her moods and emotions, make this book about more than just a coming of age teen gothic novel.  There are many gothic elements in this book, right from the family secrets to the interesting variety of families, to Mimi running away from someone only to find the same situation where she ends up.  The sense of being watched is a big thrill element in this book.  There is also a tiny cottage that is like a secret hideaway.  There is also some points made about creativity, and finding one's voice, and hints about artistic responsibility to art and to family, that I thought were interesting.  It was good to see teens interested and pursuing interests, in this book.   I enjoyed this one very much, even though some of the secondary characters were a bit stereotyped. The main drama was well-done, and I liked the characters.

My Soul To Take - Yrsa Sigurdardottir:  the second book in the Thora Gudmundsdottir mystery series, this one has a ghost so I'm counting it and it's gothic atmosphere as another entry in the RIP V challenge.  It was very surprising to me when I burst into tears at the end, but it was so sad:  the book opens with the locking in an underground room of a 4 year old, and all the way through the book I was wondering - who was she? what happened to her?  Her presence hovers over and through this mystery novel, and what finally happened to her - the sense of discovery, of revelation, is why I read mysteries.  A very satisfying mystery, and much darker than it first appears.  This mystery isn't quite as gripping as her first book Last Rituals, but it is haunting and filled with more family secrets, and the ghosts of more than one person.  Very eerie, and very good.  I am anxious to read the next one in the series, Ashes to Dust, when it comes out in softcover.

So how are you doing with reading for Carl's challenge?  Do you find yourself reading more ghost stories or mysteries in autumn?   Have you been tempted by other bloggers' lists to add books to your reading pile, and what books are they? 

Happy reading, everyone!  I hope you are reading a wonderful eerie ghost story during this weekend.