October 2024 - Reading Recap

Happy Halloween!

October is my favorite month of the year! Great things take place this month; my husband’s birthday, which is great fun to celebrate, and my favorite holiday, Halloween. It’s been a busy month with an author event, two book club meetings, a new signed book, an adventure to Ohio, and awesome spooky reads. Of course, I have been devouring as much pumpkin spice as I can.

The Back Room - Chilling Suspense

I participated in my second author event at The Back Room: Cocktails and Conversations with Your Favorite Authors, hosted by Hank Phillippi Ryan and Karen Dionne. I loved my first event a couple of weeks ago, so I immediately signed up for a few more this fall season. This week’s line-up included authors Lauren Ling Brown, Julia Dahl, Mindy Mejia, and Beatriz Williams.

Silent Book Club

I made it to another Silent Book Club event hosted by my local indie bookseller, Joseph-Beth! It was a chilly fall evening, so sitting by the fireplace with my book was heavenly. There were only five of us in attendance this month; a blend of some repeat participants and some new attendees. I find the fluidity of participants each month interesting. For me, having a smaller group made it easier for us to connect and talk about the books we were reading. I was reading Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, and quickly got a lot of feedback from my fellow readers. Due to its popularity, some had read the book, and some had seen the movie. 

Joseph-Beth Booksellers

Book Mail!

It’s always a pleasure to receive signed copies of John Grisham’s new books from Square Books. Grisham just released his latest nonfiction book that he coauthored with Jim McCloskey, Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions. I preordered my copy, signed by both authors, from Square Books, an independent bookseller in Oxford, Mississippi. I expect this will be a good read!

Dayton and Yellow Springs, Ohio

We love celebrating my husband’s October birthday in Dayton and Yellow Springs, Ohio. Dayton is a really cool city known as the birthplace of the Wright Brothers and is home to the The National Museum of the US Air Force. This area also offers some of our favorite bookstores and shops with products that suit our interests perfectly. There are also popular chain restaurants we like to patron. This adventure provided a lot of book shopping, hiking, eating, and relaxing.

Constant Reader Bookclub

My husband recently saw a post on Reddit about The Constant Reader book club being held in Lexington. This book club meets monthly and they only read books by Stephen King. I signed up for their newsletter in time to learn about their October meeting. The book club was reading King’s Salem’s Lot.

I’m still very much a newbie when it comes to participating in book clubs, so I decided to attend this meeting as a sort of recon effort. I read Salem’s Lot several years ago and saw the original movie many ages ago. I didn’t have time to re-read the book, so I wasn’t sure how much I would be able to contribute to the discussion. I was most interested to experience this group firsthand.

The Constant Reader book club met at a branch of the Lexington Public Library. The library itself is very nice and appears to be relatively new. Once I found the group, we were welcomed warmly and the hosts were very friendly. Approximately 20 people were present and clearly have developed a rapport with each other. The discussion had some structure provided by the hosts, but mostly participants were free to discuss anything. The group spent about 30% of the 90 minutes talking about Salem’s Lot, 60% of the time discussing King’s other books, and 10% sharing personal information. It was an entertaining group of King fans…my kind of people.

For future participation, it will definitely be in my best interest to re-read the selected book of the month. It will help me follow the conversation and be an active participant. It will also be nice to bond with these folks who share a love of Stephen King. I’m already looking forward to re-reading next month’s book, Night Shift.

Lexington Public Library

Greenhouse Update…

Adjusting to the retirement lifestyle has been wonderful! For anyone interested in the progress of our greenhouse, I’ll provide a brief update. We finished the greenhouse landscaping! We added an unplanned seating area and fire pit, and we have already enjoyed some time relaxing by the fire, roasting hot dogs, and making s'mores. It’s a peaceful place and provides us another way to spend time in the greenhouse area. It’s also a great place to read! 

My October Reads — Spooky Reading Season!

Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I intentionally tried to read as many spooky books as possible. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll read spooky stories anytime of the year, but in October, it’s a priority when selecting from my TBR pile! Fall and Halloween are perfect for enjoying warm days and chilly nights. Spooky reads ideally pair with cozy blankets, warm mugs of tea, and a fire. And don’t forget the pumpkin spice! 

In October, I read nine books in total: seven audiobooks, one e-book, and one physical book. I started the spooky reading season off right with One By One by Freida McFadden. I’m becoming an obsessed fan of hers and feel the urge to read all of her books! In fact, I was able to start The Housemaid series with the first installment, The Housemaid. It was even better than I hoped! The Manor House by Gilly Macmillan was an outstanding, suspenseful novel that exceeded my expectations. One of my favorite authors, Joe Hill, published a new short story that was perfect for Halloween reading. I discovered a new-to-me author, Kimi Cunningham Grant. Her novel, These Silent Woods, is excellent literary fiction. There is nothing spooky about this one; it is just a good, heart-wrenching story. I intend to read her back list and everything new she publishes. My library hold came in this month for The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne. It’s an interesting family memoir that I recommend. 

I recently purchased the collection of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle from Audible. It’s six books in total, with a listening time of 72 hours, so my plan is to read a book at a time between my other audiobooks. It might be awhile before you see my review of this book! In closing, I hope you enjoy browsing the books I read and that you had a great month of reading too! 

Reaching for my next book,
-Natalie 📚